FF X KH
by Yurosoku
Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and the Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness. (Spoilers for KH3 and FF XV)
1. Chapter 1

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part One

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and the Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

Leide

'I want to ride my Chocobo all day~', sung the blonde, eyes seeing through the lens of his camera, occasionally snapping the landscape when it was kissed by the sunlight.

'Prompto, there are more lyrics to the song than just the one', Ignis remind coolly, eyes fixed on the road before him.

'Yeah but it's the only one I can remember!'.

'For someone so obsessed with fluffy birds, surprising you didn't memorize the song', Gladiolus remarked, nose deep into his book.

The royal retinue was just finished with a hunt just on the outskirts of the Galdin Quay and were on their way to collect the bounty, which would keep their funds up and provide for their supplies later. The sun was just rising slowly, the hunt was for daemons, so they were eager to find a haven and rest up before they resumed their journey to collecting more of the royal arms.

Noctis was snoozing but he jolted slightly when he felt his phone vibrate in his breast pocket. Grumbling and yawning, the raven-haired prince pulled his phone out and sees Cindy's name across the machine. Curious, the prince answered.

'Hey, what's up?', he asked, holding back another yawn that threatened to escape his throat.

His eyes slowly rose from the drowsiness as he leaned forward in his seat, occasionally humming and asking what Cindy was talking about before he nodded. 'Sure, just give us a few minutes', he said. Ending the call, he looked at his driver. 'Specs change of plans, we're heading to Hammerhead', he said.

Gladiolus raised a brow at the prince while the blond member turned on him with a grin. 'Sweet! Back to the Goddess of Gears!', he declared happily. 'Is there a particular reason, Noct?', inquired the driving, changing direction regardless of the inquiry. 'Yeah, she said there's some kinda daemon herd on the outskirts of the garage', he answered.

'In…the morning?', Gladiolus asked book closed as he turned his attention fully to the conversation. 'Wait, I thought they only come out at night?', Prompto asked, looking at Ignis, 'Or did I miss something?'.

'No, you are quite right, though it is possible there are some daemons that can tolerate the sun even for a little while, they're few and even then, they cannot last more than an hour at most', the chamberlain explained.

'Either way, wouldn't hurt to stock up on supplies and potions', Gladiolus commented.

The drive was relatively quiet, save an occasional joke or two while making notes on the landscape and sights. Prompto had finally ceased his musical practice and was busying himself with just watching the world pass him by, an occasional urge to snap a quick picture would grab him but, in the end, nothing would be worth the film or data on his device.

Then, as he plucked up the camera, his eyes fell onto something bright in the sky. He blinked and sat up a little more to get a better look, narrowing his eyes at the light. He even grabbed his camera and began to look through the lens, adjusting the scope to get a better view. 'What the…?', he muttered to himself.

'Prompto, kindly return to the proper method of sitting in a moving vehicle', Ignis reprehended sternly. 'I'd rather not have you go flying out if I have to suddenly brake the car'.

'Hey guys, is it me…or is that thing coming towards us?', asked the blonde, ignoring Ignis' instructions.

The two back seat passengers turned to the view of the photographer and even Noctis stood up slightly in the back to get a better view. 'It kinda…looks like it…', he said, a touch apprehensively. However, suddenly the light speeded up, charging towards the Regalia. Seeing this, Ignis quickly shouted everyone to "hold on" and quickly slammed his foot onto the pedal. The car spun in a sharp turn just as the thing flew just an inch above them.

Whatever it is, it slammed into the massive rocks and boulders of Leide's desert, a loud crashing and explosives almost deafened the party temporarily, shaking the ground beneath the Regalia. Once the shakes ceased, the party looked to the crash site in shock. 'W-What was that!?', Prompto cried out, eyes alit with terror and his heart was dramatically racing.

Noctis watched as the smoke rose up from the wreckage before he jumped out of the car. 'One way to find out', he said, and with that, he headed towards the wreckage. Gladiolus let out a grunt before he flipped out of the car to follow close to his charge, while Ignis re-parked the car and with Prompto in tow followed.

At the wreckage, most of the large boulders were decimated and broken, smells of burning metal-polluted the air around them as the four searched for any potential survivors. Noctis approached the wreckage and to his surprise, it looked to be a…spaceship?

It certainly looked the part he thought, like one of those cartoony rockets he sees in the old cartoons when he was a kid. From what he could see from the smoke and fire, the model was painted in bright yellow and red with the broken wings white like clouds. The cockpit glass was cracked with several holes in it along with cackles of electricity dancing around it.

'I-Is this from the empire?', Prompto asked.

'Highly unlikely giving the make of this…ship?', Ignis said, even he was lost for words.

'Think anyone's still alive?', Gladiolus questioned.

'HEY! Fellas!'.

A voice called out, an unfamiliar accent. They looked around for it, seeing nothing but debris and destruction.

'Uh, hello!?', Prompto called out. 'Where are you!?'.

'Up here!'.

They all looked up and saw hanging upside down…a dog?

Well, it certainly looked like a dog…if a dog was able to stand on two legs, possessed a set of arms and wore clothes. It may look like a dog, but it was closer to an anthropomorphic dog with black fur and droopy ears. Two buck teeth with three hairs sticking out from its seemingly glued hat.

It wears a green turtleneck sweater with sleeves that bell out slightly and a blue arrow-shaped strap on each cuff. White gloves with a brown band around each wrist. Over its sweater, it wears a sleeveless, black combat vest with grey lining and four pockets of the same color.

The pants were yellow and secured by a thick, black belt. They have rather large pockets and a pouch on each leg with a silver zipper. The legs of his pants have a peculiar style, with the bottom rims (which are dark orange) being pulled upward in the front by a brown strap. Its feet were big, and it has very large shoes which are brown with steel toes on the outside.

The party of four could only stare at the…dog, in pure bewilderment. It was no daemon, but it was not any creature that they had ever seen, not even Ignis could recall seeing such a specimen in all his studies, and usually, he could recall the most obscure creature known to the world. Prompto even felt the urge to grab his camera and snap a quick photo of this.

'Uh…are you an alien?', the blonde asked, uncertainty in every fiber of his being.

'A-Hyuck, no sir, I'm no alien', it responded kindly.

For a being currently hanging upside down with its leg caught between to rocks over a flaming wreckage, it was certainly a cheerful thing.

'Need a hand?', Noctis asked, folding his arms.

'That'd be swelling of ya, but uh, did ya happen to spot my friends along your way?', it asked.

'There's more of them?', Gladiolus whispered to the others subtly.

'Oh no, sorry…by the way, who are you?', the prince asked.

'Name's Goofy! Nice to meet ya'll!', he said.

It took all the prince's mannerisms to not laugh at the name, it somehow fitted the dog man. 'Well, good to meet you, Goofy', he said, 'I'm Noctis, this is Gladiolus, Ignis and the blondes Prompto'.

'Uh, hey', Gladiolus greeted awkwardly.

'Right', Ignis said, clapping his hands together, 'We should start searching for Goofy's friends'.

'Noct, try to get him down while we go looking, alright?'.

Nodding, the prince turned to the hanging dog and summoned his sword. With a quick toss, the prince warped up to a cliffside of the mountain Goofy was currently hanging from while his friends scattered to seek out the other possible anthropomorphic beings. He approached the cliff and knelt to offer his hand to Goofy. With difficulty but persistence, Goofy managed to swing himself up enough for the young man to grab his larger hand and help him up.

'You ok?', Noctis asked, brushing the dust off his pants.

'Gawrsh, I feel dizzy', Goofy said, rubbing his head.

'Hanging upside down will do that'.

He folded his arms and looked at Goofy, questions practically bubbling in his mind. He dug deep into his memories about Goofy and his looks, but nothing came back to him. Maybe Prompto was right. Maybe he is an alien.

'Anyways, thanks for that, Noctis', Goofy said with a toothy smile.

He turned looked to the ship, letting out a deep sigh. 'Aww shucks, Chip and Dale are gonna be so upset when they hear what happened to the Gummi Ship', he lamented, shoulders slumped in defeat.

"Gummy ship? Chip and Dale?", Noctis thought. 'Uh, wait? Gummy? Like the candy? Gummy candy?', he muttered to himself.

Goofy turned to Noctis with a raised brow. 'What's that?'.

Noctis shook his head, waving his hand. 'Nothing, so, where you from?', he asked, hoping to gain some answers at least. And maybe a semblance of normality before this overload his brain.

'Oh, well myself and one my friends are fro-

Suddenly he clapped his mouths with his massive hands as if he was almost about to spoil a surprise for Noctis. The latter gave him a raised brow in confusion before something clicked in the back of his mind. Maybe he was from the same world as Sarah, or maybe the cat lady Y'jhimei, though where they looked somewhat regular folk, Goofy stood out like a sore thumb.

So maybe, Goofy was from ANOTHER place? Or even, a world?

'Well, whatever. Your business', he said with a shrug.

Goofy awkwardly scratched his head, looking away from the prince. 'Shucks, I don't mean to stingy, it's just uh, see…', he began…

Meanwhile…

'Seriously!? He's gotta be an alien!', rambled Prompto, quickly waving his hands to emphases his point. 'I mean! It's a dog that walks and talks like a human! HOW are you guys NOT freaking out from that!?'.

Ignis exhaled from his nose, the blonde admittedly did have a right to have a small panic, but it certainly didn't mean Ignis gave him consent to pester with this train of ramblings. 'Prompto, as much as I would love to continue with the debate on the existence of other life in the stars, might we return to our task at hand?', he said, gesturing the path before them.

The blonde looked like he was about to continue before he slumped and sighed. 'Fine…', he whined. 'But if that doggy kidnaps me for probing, I'm blaming you!', he said.

'Noted', Ignis said flatly.

So far, they walked through a narrow passage that to an open space, a single large pond of water in the centre with bony thin trees and bushes for leaves on its top. Ahead they could see two dualhorns chasing something, but the dust was covering whatever prey they were attempting to hunt down. Ignis folded his arms as he searched the area for whatever companion of Goofy's but from what he could see, he found no one.

Until…

'FIRE!'.

Suddenly from the dust a single ball of blazing fire burst through and just missed the dualhorns by an inch, flying until it dissipated into nothing.

The two guards looked in absolute astonishment to see, wielding the power of magic…is a duck…

Another anthropomorphic being, this time it being a duck with white plumage, a yellow-orange bill, legs of the same color, light blue eyes, and a short tuft of feathers on his head. Another anthropomorphic being, this time it being a duck with white plumage, a yellow-orange bill, legs of the same color, light blue eyes, and a short tuft of feathers on his head.

He appeared to be wearing a blue hat, which resembles a beret, has a belt in place of a normal brim, and sports a zipper that spans the length of the hat. A high-collared jacket that is navy blue with sky blue lining and cuffs. There are three pouches, all of which are blue with yellow lining, along the middle of the jacket; the center pouch is secured by a flap, while the other two use silver zippers.

The middle pouch is framed by two other silver zippers that span the entire length of the jacket, from the top of the collar to the bottom. On its back is a short, blue cape with yellow lining draped over his shoulders, kept in place by a silver strap. It was wearing a thick, gold bangle on each wrist, and does not wear pants.

'Back off! Or I'll roast you!', he threatened, waving a strange shaped staff in its feathered hand.

The dualhorns stomped their heavy feet into the ground, horns at the ready to skewer the duck regardless of its magical abilities. The duck kept darting his eyes between the two as if trying to decide which he should attack first before dashing from cover.

His rescue, however, came quicker than he had hoped.

A single dagger soared through the air with a whistle and stabbed the beast straight into its eye, causing it to roar in pain. Using this chance, the duck turned his staff on the unharmed dualhorn and fired another blazing ball of fire at the beast, striking it directly into its face. The roars were loud and thunderous, feet stomping into the earth as if they were attempting to cause an earthquake. The duck quickly took his chance and made a run from them.

'Over here!', Ignis called out.

The duck spotted the two, and once he sees the second dagger in Ignis' hand, he changed course and ran towards them. Whether he was desperate for aid or they were the first friendly folk he had seen his arrival was unclear, but none complained as once he reached them, the three raced back through passage, too narrow for the dualhorns to pass through and resume their hunt.

Afterward, they all ceased their running once they were a good distance from the beasts. The duck had panted heavily and all but fell on its backside.

'Are you alright?', Ignis inquired, looking at the strange being with curious eyes.

'Y-Yeah, thanks', he replied.

The duck then looked at them, but his eyes fell on Prompto, who was staring at him as if he suddenly had grown two more heads. This…irked the duck.

'What are you looking at?', he said grumpily.

Prompto jumped back with a yelp as if this was the first time, he heard the duck speaking. He sure acted like it…

'My apologies about him, we're not used to anthropomorphic beings such as yourself', Ignis cut in quickly.

The duck blinked. 'Anthro…what?', he asked.

Ignis cleared his throat with a cough and then looked at him. 'We're not used to…you', he said, as nicely as possible.

'OOOOOH', the duck said, though he still glared at Prompto.

'S-So, you're a duck, right?', Prompto asked.

'…What do you think, ya palooka?', the duck said deadpanned.

'Pa…what?', Prompto asked. 'Did he just insult me? I think he did!'.

'At any rate', Ignis said, halting any possible time-wasting, he turned to the duck. 'What do we call you?', he asked.

'Donald Duck, and you guys?', he asked.

'I'm Ignis Scientia, call me Ignis. This is my companion, Prompto', he introduced.

Donald got off the ground and patted the dust off himself with a grumble. 'Well, nice to meet you two, and thanks for the save', he said. 'But I gotta go look for my friends'.

Before he waddled off, Prompto called out. 'Um wait! You wouldn't happen to know, Goofy? Would you?'.

Donald jumped and turned on Prompto with wide eyes. 'WAK!? You know him!? Where is he!?', he demanded.

'Goofy is currently with our friend, though another of us went off to find more of you', Ignis explained. 'By chance, how many of you remain, and what do they look like?'.

Donald folded his arms, eyeing them both with distrust. Ignis rolled his eyes before he gave Donald a look. 'I assure you; we are not your enemies. We have someone of great importance we should be with at this moment, but here we are offering both our time and aid. A bit of courtesy calls for you to trust us'.

'Yeah, I mean we DID save your feathered backside back there', Prompto added with a smirk.

Donald opened his mouth to argue, but his beak hanged open with naught escaping. He looked between the two, eventually, he sighed and slumped down in defeat. 'Okay, Okay. You're right', he said.

'Well, there's just the three of us…me, Goofy and…'.

Elsewhere

Climbing over another debris of rock with a grunt, Gladiolus hopped onto the ground as he navigated through the wrecked area. So far most of the wildlife had steered clear from this section, understandingly since both hunter and prey would evade such a place.

It somewhat increased his chances of finding Goofy's friends in one piece and not on a wildlife's menu. Still, it didn't inspire confidence in the man though, his feelings to Goofy were still on the line of trust and distrust. Part of him felt like chastising himself for leaving Noctis alone with the dog man, but what else could they have done?

He may not like it, but he knew the prince could handle himself.

Gladiolus pushed aside a large metal sheet, grunting with effort as he wedged himself past it and only tossed it aside once he got past. "What kind of ship were these guys using", he thought to themselves, looking at the strange yellowish-red material. Maybe Cindy could give them some answers later if they allowed her to tinker and work with it.

He could imagine how she'd react…

Up ahead in a small clearing, he stood on a hill that overlooked it, he could see more of the ship's pieces scattered all over the place, even spotted the wing being held up by a broken boulder. He grimaced at the sight, maybe Cindy wouldn't be able to patch this thing back up in the state it was in, plus he doubted she had a squad who could even carry half the stuff.

He slid down the hill, hoping to get a better look around the area if he was in the area itself. Walking around, he inspected most of the debris to find nothing but broken junk and rocks, along with an anthill. Running a hand through his hair, the large man was about to climb back up the hill and look elsewhere, until he turned to the right and back at the wing.

He could see from the smoke, a body beneath some sheets of metal. A boy, no older than sixteen. Quickly, he ran to the boy and once there, he got on one knee and though hesitant, he touched his neck. Thankfully he felt a pulse in less than two seconds, granting himself a sigh of relief. 'Just hang kid', he said, looking to the metal holding him down.

Gladiolus grabbed the metal and tossed them aside, surprised by how light it was. Whether it was due to his training or the material itself for the ship, he didn't know but it didn't matter now. He picked the boy up and carried him to a boulder to help him sit up and check him for wounds. He found nothing other than a few scratches and bruises, which was an oddity since he was literally in a crashed ship and possible was thrown out of it.

'Tough kid', he complimented.

His clothes were like Goofy's though, but he was human. A black jacket having grey pockets and a stripe of the same color on each sleeve. The hood, sleeves, and jacket have a red lining and six buttons can be seen on the front. Checking his wounds allowed him to see underneath he wears a black shirt with a V-neck style collar and a white lining. His gloves are replaced with gauntlets that are designed like his jacket except for a grey circle on the backs. The palms of his hands are exposed. A pair of black shorts. Black shoes with yellow.

Hair spiky, unnaturally spiky that seemed to defy gravity, tanned skin which gave the giant the idea he was from a place with hotter temperatures. A necklace in the shape of a crown.

The wounds weren't severe, but the fact he was still unconscious worried the man, and he wasn't certain a potion could cure a possible concussion, but better than letting the cuts get infected. Gladiolus reached into his pocket and yanked out a hi-potion, better safe than sorry, and placed it in the boy's hand. He helped crushing it for the boy, allowing him to be bathed in the healing aura.

'Okay, let me get ya back to the others, maybe Iggy can help ya', Gladiolus said.

Yet, before he even touched the boy, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up, suddenly the air was tense and a certain…darkness swirled around him. Gladiolus turned behind him, and slowly black puddles began to appear in front of him. Slowly, small black creatures began to climb out of them, pure black beasts with bright yellow lights for eyes, long antennas on their heads, skinny limbs.

Ten in total, twitching like bugs as they were fixed on the two.

'Daemons?', Gladiolus asked himself, summoning his great sword immediately at the sight of these new monsters. Looking at them all and then back to the boy, Gladiolus grunted. One of them suddenly leaped at the giant, spinning around in such speed it was nearly a blur. He barely parried the surprise attack, but even despite the lanky form, their strength felt like he was blocking an attack from Noctis.

He's dug his feet into the ground to hold his position, and he pushed the shadow off him. He slammed his sword down and cleaved the creature in two, decimating it. It faded into black smoke, but he had no time to savor his victory for another attacked him. This time he spun as his shield materialized in his hand, bashing the creature aside. Sword on his shoulder as he kept the shield up to protect himself, Gladiolus looked at them and the boy.

Knowing when it was time to cut and run, Gladiolus dismissed his sword and scooped the boy up with his right arm, throwing him over his shoulder and ran. He bashed the creatures in his way and broke into a quick sprint, leaving them in the dust.

However, as he ran, the shadows chased after him with incredible speeds that they caught up to him in seconds, but to add further trouble to the shield, they sunk below the surface into the ground and walls of the passage, like moving murals.

One leaped out of the walls, swiping its claws at Gladiolus. The shield quickly spun around slammed his shield into it with such force it sent the creature back into the wall, destroying it. Almost losing his footing, Gladiolus steadied himself and kept going, swapping from guarding, running and attacking. The relentless creatures never slowed down their attacks, their tenacity was ridiculous, and Gladiolus was running out of steam from this.

'Take a hint! GET LOST!', roared the warrior.

He grabbed one of their necks when it got to closer for his comfort and slammed it into a boulder he was passing, demolishing both the creature and the rock.

'Gladio!'.

The shield looked up to see Noctis and Goofy up on another level of the cavern, waving at him. 'Sora!', hollered Goofy, in a mix of relief and terror.

Noctis summoned his sword and tossed it at the ground. Just as Gladio passed, Noctis appeared right behind him and cleaved the shadow monsters that were closest to him. 'Get him outta here, I'll take care of them!', Noctis ordered.

'Just don't get yourself killed!', shouted Gladiolus, disappearing deeper into the canyon.

Scoffing, Noctis turned his eyes on the shadows, now no longer interested in Sora, as they all gathered themselves around Noctis. The prince flexed his fingers as he counted just how many of these things there were, trying to come up with a quick way to get this fight done and over with. Unfortunately for him, several more of the shadows began to surface, a mixed of the bigger ones, and even smaller fewer intimidating ones.

Sure enough, the entire passage was filled to the brim with these monsters. 'Oh, come on…', Noctis groaned.

Suddenly one of the larger shadows leaped at him but the prince sidestepped it, allowing the beast to leave itself wide open for a taste of Noctis' steel, piercing its head. He turned and cleaved the next one in half.

But Noctis was hit on the back by the smaller one cutting into his back with sharp claws. Growling with pain and frustration, Noctis summoned a single dagger and spun around with a wide swing to slice the small creature into oblivion. He then tossed the dagger at one that leaped at him, hitting it and removing it from the fight.

Two of the large shadows leaped at him, spinning around like wheels. Quickly Noctis summoned his greatsword to block the attack, but the combined might of the two was too much even for him, which knocked him on his back. Grunting, suddenly the prince was then dog-piled by the shadows, weighing him down and rendering him immobile. 'Get off!', he growled, straining himself to move or summon a weapon to fight back.

Just when his vision was starting to get blocked by darkness, the creatures were suddenly thrown off him, a loud "clang" sound was his only hint of his saviour. Free, the prince scrambled to his feet, looking up to see Goofy swinging his shield in an uppercut fashion at the creatures, killing them.

'You ok, Noctis?', he asked, blocking an on-coming attack.

Noctis let out a breath and nodded, summoning his sword again to cut another creature down. 'Where are they all coming from!?', he asked. 'And what the hell are they?'.

'They're the Heartless! They're after Sora', Goofy explained, blocking another attack and crushing another shadow. 'These are called "Shadows", at least that's what we call them', he clarified.

Noctis chuckled lightly as he turned and sees another shadow leap at him. Goofy however intervened and blocked the attack easily. He then threw the heartless up in the air, which Noctis then skewered it with his spear, throwing it right through the heartless and into the wall. Goofy then began to spin around, like a cyclone, he vacuumed up plenty the shadows into his vortex of pain.

Noctis used his greatsword to spin around and slice the heartless within the Goofy Vortex, destroying them all easily like a farmer weeding his garden. After, Goofy then surprised Noctis by throwing his shield on the ground and began to slide all over the place. Instead of questioning how Noctis took in great delight that the heartless were all thrown up in the air for him to pick off with his gun.

Like shooting fish in a barrel, Noctis shot down any heartless in the air, thinning out their numbers and easing the two into the winner's circle, until…

Slowly the shadows all gathered up, emptying the passageway and began to meld and combine into each other, form what appeared to be hundreds of the small shadows into a pillar of them. Their yellow eyes shifted into malevolent red.

They charged all at once towards Noctis, but Goofy jumped in front of him and planted his feet into the ground, shield raised up high to block the attack. Unfortunately, even with his stout form, he and Noctis were easily swept up in the tsunami of heartless, both yelling.

Close by…

'So the ship was hit by one of those Heartless' ships and you went crashing down here?', Prompto asked, following Ignis and Donald as they raced through the area to find the others.

'Yup! Expert flyer my butt!', grumbled Donald, hand on his hat to keep it from flying off.

'Well, that's what happens when you allow a sixteen-year-old fly without practice', Ignis chastised.

'Aww phooey! He's a brat when it comes to flying!', argued the feathered being. 'The sooner I find him, the better!'.

They were currently running along the top of the canyon, hoping a bird's eye view would give them better chances of finding the others, all the while Donald was informing them of their current predicament and why Sora would be the most likely to be in danger. Though Ignis had more questions, he and the duck agreed that finding the people first then resuming the Q/A was a better sense of priorities.

Prompto then stopped running and just stood there in silence. This didn't go unnoticed by the other two, as they turned to the boy in question. 'Prompto?', Donald asked. He looked at Ignis, who gave him a shrug in response. 'Hey, Donald? Do the heartless look like tiny black creatures with antennas and yellow eyes?', he asked. 'Yeah…?', responded the duck, folding his arms.

'Like…that?', he pointed. Following his gaze, the two-spotted the large pillar of heartless sprouting up from canyon, flying all over the place. Ignis and Prompto could only stare in surprise at this, words failing them. That was until Ignis spotted Noctis and Goofy within the heartless. The prince was swinging his sword all over the place while keeping a hand on Goofy's collar to prevent losing him.

'NOCT/GOOFY!', the three cried in horror.

Ignis summoned his daggers and dashed to his charge, practically flying from how fast he was running, leaving the other two behind in the dust.

Ignis jumped from ground to ground, expertly planning his movement and which path was both safest and quickest to reach his prince without coming to a gap far too large for even him to jump across. The heartless swarmed and lunge towards him as he got close, diving into the ground just inches from himself. They fell into a pool of darkness, the pool spreading quickly.

The spectacled man looked up to see Noctis was adamantly persisting against the creatures, but it was a losing battle as he and Goofy got closer and closer to the pool. Quickly, Ignis reached into his pocket and dug out a flask containing ice, and immediately imbued his daggers with it in seconds. With a cry, Ignis slammed both daggers into the pool, near-instantly freezing. The ice quickly spread all over the ground, covering the earth in a thick sheet of ice and the pool of darkness was no exception to his attack.

The heartless pillar broke apart as many of them fell out of it and disappeared into nothingness. Looking up, he sees Noctis and Goofy falling to the canyon, yelling.

'Iggy!', called out Prompto.

He turned in time to see Prompto, rather impressively and humorously carrying Donald on his back, speeding towards him. Once he got close to the canyon, Donald aimed his staff right below Goofy and Noctis and cried: 'AEROGA!'.

A suddenly whirlwind appeared below them, creating a gently if flimsy source of softer landing for the two. They fell onto the winds, but their descent halted as they floated up in the air, for a few minutes anyway.

Both crashed into the ground just as the spell ended, making them both yelp in pain.

The trio breathed out sighs of relief, slumping from the adrenaline disappearing and exhaustion taking its place. Ignis approached the canyon and looked down at his prince. 'Noct, are you ok?', he yelled.

The prince gave the older man a wave, before slumping back onto the ground. 'Great timing guys', he both complimented and ridiculed. Once Prompto and Donald were in view, he raised his brow at the duck. 'Hey, he wouldn't be with you, would he?', he asked.

Goofy looked up and then beamed. 'Donald!'. He jumped back to his feet and waved enthusiastically at his fellow world traveller. Donald all but sighed but smiled none the less at Goofy.

'Ya idiot! Where have you been? Do you have any idea how worried I was!?', Donald shouted, hopping up and down in frustration, waving his arms animatedly. Goofy just laughed at his friend, though it merely further frustrated the wizard.

'Noct, stay right there, we'll find our way down to you', Ignis instructed.

But the prince slowly got up and waved him off. 'Forget it, Gladio's got Sora, he's heading back to the Regalia', he said. 'Let's meet there', he said.

'You sure you two will be fine? What if more heartless show-up?', Prompto asked.

Noctis looked at Goofy, then smirked. 'It's cool, I got a good shield here, we'll be fine', he said, turning to his friends. 'Looks like you got a mage on your side too'.

'I know right!? This duck can shoot fireballs! Freaking fireballs!', Prompto said excitedly.

Regalia

His head felt like a ton of rocks just fell on it one by one, his body had a dull ache to it, and he felt so drained. Sora opened his eyes to see the clear skies of the world, not a cloud in sight and the temperature reminded him of home, just not as pleasant and the lack of a breeze certainly didn't help him.

Reaching one arm to cover his eyes from the sun, he started to take in where he was. But all he could see was a chair, he felt like he was laying on something. Not a bed but it was soft and warm too, plus his feet were laying on something, like a footrest.

He looked to see his feet were resting on a car door with the cover retracted and windows put down. Slowly, he retracted his feet and sat up in the seat, shaking his head to rid himself of the drowsiness in his eyes, stretching out his arms. Once he felt a few pops in his shoulders and neck, let a small grunt of approval.

'Oh, you're awake'.

He turned with a gasp, to see Gladiolus on a small device in his hand, not looking at Sora. 'Who are you?', he asked, sitting back further away from him. Gladiolus raised a hand at him, still not glancing up from his technology.

'Cool your jets, kid, I'm not the bad guy', he assured casually.

Sora pouted at the "kid", why do so many adults still call him a kid?

'That's Sora', he said.

'Oh, I know, heard it awhile back', Gladiolus confirmed, placing the device to his ear. 'Now keep quiet for a bit, gotta make a call', he said.

A call? Wait is that a phone? Sora then plucked out his own, surprisingly good state, phone from one of his pouches. Though the sizes were noticeably different from Gladiolus…and his looked kinda…cooler.

'Hey Cindy, yeah we're on our way…just uh, kinda got…what? Hold on', Gladiolus said, pushing himself off the car and pacing around while listening to whoever was on the phone. Sora wasn't able to hear anything from the person on the other side, but judging from Gladiolus' apprehensive looks, it wasn't good news.

'Yeah, think we know what you're going about', he said. 'Look, tell Dave and the hunters and, hell, EVERYONE, stay away from them until we get there', he instructed. 'Okay, see ya then'. He then hung up and let out a breath. He then looked at Sora. 'So, let's get introductions out of the way, names Gladiolus, call me Gladio', he introduced.

'Nice to meet you', greeted Sora with a friendly smile and casual wave.

'Great, so now let's get down to business', he said. 'Those black creatures that attacked us, what are they, who are they and how do we get rid of them?', he asked rapidly.

'You mean, the heartless?', the boy asked, sitting up.

'Yeah…? That what you call them?'.

Before Sora could answer, he brightened up when he looked behind Gladiolus, waving. Following the boy's gaze, the shield was relieved to see everyone approaching the car, though sluggishly. Noctis and Goofy, in particular, they looked as if they were thrown through a wind tunnel with all kinds of debris hitting them at every turn and moment.

'Everyone alright?', Gladiolus asked, eyeing Noctis.

The prince just waved him off and entered the car, and then slumped into the front seat with a groan. He turned back to Sora, who gave him a small wave with an awkward smile.

'…Noctis, the blondes Prompto and the glasses man is Ignis', he greeted tiredly.

'You ok Sora? You didn't look so good earlier', Goofy asked, worry in his eyes.

The boy hopped out of the car with a casual smile. 'I'm alright, thanks to Gladio over there', Sora said, gesturing Gladio with his thumb.

'Can't say the same for the ship', Donald grumbled, eyeing the boy with a glare.

Sora pouted in response to him, folding his arms defensively. 'Not my fault the shields weren't up!', he argued.

'What the heck gave you the idea the ship's engine could handle a DIRECT hit from heartless missile!?', Donald argued.

Before Sora could defend his piloting skills, Gladiolus intervened. 'Hate to interrupt, but we've got a situation back at Hammerhead', he spoke.

Noctis looked at him from the seat, 'What's up? The daemons?'.

'Probably heartless, Cindy said there's something weird going on at the royal tomb at the Prairie Outpost', he explained. 'Says the hunters are struggling against them and Dave's worried they'll break through soon'.

'Then', Noctis sighed, looking at Sora, 'Looks like we're gonna have to deal with them next'.

'Sure, we'll handle the heartless…just uh, where is it?', he asked.

'We can drive there…', Ignis started, but then remembered there was an edition of three now.

'…Chocobos?', Prompto suggested.

'Chocobos', confirmed Ignis.

With Donald, Goofy and Prompto using the birds, Sora was settled in the back seat with Gladio, the party sped off into the direction of the darkness…

A/N:

…If Square-Enix is willing to a collaboration with Assassin's Creed and Terra wars, why is there no KH event? Someone had to!

Part 2 coming sometime in February thanks for reading, stay awesome but most importantly, stay safe!


	2. Chapter 2

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 2

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

Nearing the Outpost

'So, what exactly are we gonna be dealing with once we get to Prairie?', Gladiolus asked, looking at the spiky-haired boy. 'The shadow heartless or are there more varieties?'.

'Who knows?', Sora said with a shrug. 'The heartless usually look like they belong in a world but so far the only thing we've seen are just the wildlife'.

'And that tower of them?', Prompto asked, his Chocobo trotting along near the boy.

'They…are kinda new to us. I've only seen them once', he said with a smile. 'But nothing we won't be able to handle'.

As Sora conversed with Prompto, Ignis would often share glances with Noctis when Sora would answer a question. So far from what he, or rather Donald would answer, they are apparently "adventurers" that are looking for a group of people. Yet when asked about their homes, while Sora seemed easy going to answer, Donald would often stop him. Muttering something about "order" or some nonsense.

Regarding what they managed to gather, Sora was from a different place compared to Donald and Goofy, if that wasn't obvious enough. He was from an island of sorts, while the two were from a castle in service to a king, and if Iggy was a betting man, that king was another anthropomorphic being. He was impressed by what Noctis told him about Goofy's rather impressive combat prowess, stating that he used nothing but his shield to fend off the heartless, and he's surprisingly strong too.

Ignis couldn't discount Donald's capabilities either, the duck using such powerful magic he had never seen outside of the Kingsglaive or his former majesty. Sora remained a mystery to him though, but from what Donald told him, he was on a whole new level in comparison to him and Goofy.

His thoughts were broken when he heard Donald yelling as a yellow blur rushed past the car. It appeared Donald wasn't as gifted with riding Chocobos as Goofy or Prompto, the bird speeding off despite the duck's insistence in slowing down. He chuckled at the sight, the duck holding the reins with one hand while his other was keeping his hat from flying off, yelling at the bird profusely.

'Donald slow down! It's not a race!', Goofy said, keeping his bird under control.

'How do you stop this thing!?', Donald yelled as the bird leapt into the air.

The bird then halted suddenly, catching the duck off guard and sent him flying over it. Donald bounced on the road before landing face-first into it. He pulled his flattened face from the pavement, shaking his head and then his eyes narrowed at the bird and Ignis, for a moment, was worried he'd incinerate the Chocobo.

'Lousy no good…', he grumbled, picking his hat off the ground and plopping it back on his head. But as he marched towards the group, behind him more black pools appeared. Seeing this, Ignis immediately slammed his foot onto the breaks, catching everyone off guard and even hitting the car in response, Goofy and Prompto just barely halting their birds trots in response.

Donald blinked at the sudden halt of their march, turning around to let out a "wak" as the heartless began to rise from the pools.

There were a handful of shadows and neo-shadows, but now behind them were iron golems. Four in total, they were twice as tall as a small pit stop store, fours arms carrying four swords equally, on their chest was the heartless symbol, helmets looked more like goblins than the usual knight looks.

In the air were flying goblin shaped heartless with bat wings and carrying child's toy-like pistols.

'Heartless!', the duck cried as everyone joined him.

Noctis drew his engine blade as Gladiolus and Ignis took the front, weapons drawn. The golem ran at the trio, but Sora leapt over the three men and brought down his weapon, and with one clean cut, split the heartless in two. Landing behind it, Sora stood up and stared down the other heartless, leaving a bewildered Noctis and even more speechless Ignis and Gladiolus.

Resting on his shoulders was a weapon none had ever seen before, it looked like a key-shaped sword, but one look and Noctis could sense a powerful light within the blade, almost akin to his royal arms in away. But where he'd feel the coldness and draining aftereffects of his arms, this had a softer and even friendlier light.

Spinning the weapon in hand before he readied himself for the upcoming fight, Sora rushed in with Donald and Goofy by his side. 'Well, what are we waiting for, an invitation?', Noctis asked, flinging his sword at the flying goblin.

The sword found its mark, landing right into its stomach. The prince appeared before it and yanked the blade out and swing a devastating blow that destroyed the heartless. Mid-air, he summoned his spear and tossed it at another goblin, piercing it entirely and returning it to the darkness.

Noctis began to fall but his eyes fell to Goofy, who stood below him, shield raised. Getting his idea, Noctis flipped and landed on top of the shield, and with one take of breath, leapt off it like a trampoline and returned to the skies once more.

Gladio cleaved his way through the neo-shadows, having a better understanding of how they function as a threat and how strong they are. He parried the neo-shadows and pulverized the smaller ones with his sword and boot. The little critters were crafty buggers though, they'd gather around him while he dealt with a neo and once he was done, they all spring upon him.

They managed to give him some fresh cuts and scratches, and that would be the last thing they'd ever do. Gladiolus turned at a golem brought its sword down upon the shield's blade, the attack forced him to bend a knee due to the sheer force behind it. Gritting his teeth as sweat ran down his forehead, Gladiolus roared and pushed the giant off him.

The golem was wide open, and Gladiolus grabbed his sword with both hands and swung with all his might and slashed the giant's stomach open, darkness spewing from it like a broken hose. The heartless staggered back before it collapsed and disappeared.

The shield had no time to enjoy his victory for a neo slashed across his exposed back with its cruel claws. Gladiolus let out a roar of pain, being knocked onto his side, sword dropped. He glared at the neo but before it could finish off Gladiolus, it was suddenly encased in a solid block of ice. The block fell and shattered, destroying the heartless in the process.

'Gladiolus!', a scratchy voice cried out.

He sees Donald raising that ridiculous looking staff in the air with green tendrils swirling around it, and then looking at himself, he sees the same greenery surrounding his form. His wounds gone, flesh knitted together again and feeling reinvigorated. To test it, he grabbed his sword and effortlessly swung it upwards to cleave the sneaking neo in half, not even exerting himself. He gave Donald a nod of gratitude before rushing into the fray once more.

Prompto rolled on the ground, evading the flying goblins bullets. He took cover behind a rock and started to take potshots at them, managing to hit one. The blonde hopped over the rock as the goblins began to disperse when he fired back, a golem began to stomp towards the blonde. Prompto spotted it getting close to him, but he dashed towards it.

Prompto then dived and slid right underneath the golem between its legs and managed to skid behind it while keeping himself at a fair distance. 'Donald, some magic!', he shouted.

Donald turned to see the blonde and then the golem before he grinned. With a raise of his staff, he shouted: 'THUNDAGA!'. A golden bolt of lightning rocketed down from nowhere and found a home right on top of the golem, bathing in a shocking bright light that melted most of its metal skin. But when it turned around staggeringly, Prompto aimed at the heartless symbol and smirked. 'Opening, meet bullet!'.

He fired one charged round at the symbol and like he hoped, the bullet tore right through the golem, leaving a large hole in it for a moment before it vanished into nothing. Prompto beamed as Donald joined his side, giving him a quick hi-five before they split and rushed to aid their allies.

Ignis expertly tossed his daggers across the battlefield, the silver blades hitting their marks perfectly. He backflipped from a golem's swing, flipping over the steel and landing on his hands, pushing himself further back. Summoning his lance once his feet touched the ground, he threw it at the golem's head. The spear was plunged into its eye, blinding it for a moment.

Then Sora appeared beside him, looking at the heartless. Remembering Sora's strength and the leap he made earlier, Ignis came up with an idea. 'Do you think you can reach his head?', he asked, plucking out a flash of fire. Sora nodded with a grin and without a word, dashed towards the giant. It swung all the swords in its possession, yet before Ignis could call Sora to return, the boy expertly evaded every attack it threw at him, leaping over and under the swords.

He even leapt on the sword and ran along its upper arm, swinging the keyblade and slashing its metal flesh. Once he reached the shoulder the boy leapt high into the air, just five feet above the skull. Ignis tossed the flash and Sora aimed the keyblade and fired a large ball of fire at the head. Both collided and resulted in a massive fiery explosion that consumed the golem. Sora was sent up higher in the air thanks to the explosion.

Before Ignis could try and think up of a way for the boy to land safely, he, instead, dived forward to a pile of heartless with intense speed. His keyblade stabbed into the earth and let out a blast wave that soaked up all the heartless and vanquished them. He yanked the key out of the ground and gave Ignis a thumbs up before he ran at the last golem.

Bewildered by the display, Ignis turned in time to slice up a neo and rushed back in.

Noctis and Goofy stood before the final golem, joined by Sora and Gladiolus. 'Just one more to go!', Sora announced.

Until more shadows started to appear and surround them all, completely populating the entire area of heartless. The group gathered up, surrounded by the threat before them all, weapons drawn.

'Are we doomed!?', Prompto asked. 'PRETTY SURE we're doomed!'.

Sora looked at Donald and Goofy and then grinned. Quickly Sora aimed the keyblade upwards and as it beamed with light, he cried: 'TEA TIME!'.

Next thing Noctis and his royal company knew they were each in a spinning…teacup.

The prince's world was spinning around as the strange magical cup practically spun around and swirled around the field, destroying the heartless. It didn't make it any easier when he accidentally spun into another cup, for the impact sent him and whoever was unlucky to bump into him blasting off into the other direction.

He could hear Prompto's screams of both horror and joy as he sped through the field, bumping into everyone like a drunk bumper car driver. The blonde looked like he was trying to control it but he appeared to have better control over the weather from the lack of success he was having on his end. Ignis himself fared a tad bit better than the others though, he was mostly focusing on dodging his fellow teacup drivers.

It figures the man was an expert teacup driver…

Gladiolus, however, was seemingly have a blast with this whole ordeal. The man was actively hitting the heartless with his cup, spinning the strange pedestal in his vehicle faster and faster until he was speeding just as fast as Sora.

Speaking of Sora?

The boy, to the amazement of Noctis, was doing tricks on his teacup, hand standing and spinning around his pedestal even faster to the point where he turned into a blur of bright red lights, bashing and bumping into everything and everyone around him.

'I WANT OFF THIS RIDE!', Prompto said, sounding like he was about to throw up.

'Bring it together!', the spiky-haired hero shouted.

In moments the trio of otherworldly heroes brought their cups together and spin in a tri-symbol, sending waves of energy and magic all over the field while Noctis and his four all gather in a corner in a square formation, spinning in such a fast pace they were all blurs, beams of light heading to the trio and if possible, increasing the speed.

Their combined attacks obliterated the heartless in a blinding flash of light, the teacups vanished.

Noctis and company had a difficult time stabilizing themselves and shaking off the dizziness of the event, Prompto all but collapsed on his back. 'So…dizzy…', he whined.

Sora and the other two joined them, looking as if they weren't just in supersonic speeding teacups. 'You guys ok?', he asked, looking at Prompto in particular.

'None the worse for wear, though might be wise to warn us when you summon teacups in future', the tactician commented, pushing his glasses up.

'Heh sorry about that', Sora chuckled, placing his hands behind his head, smiling.

'Why are there three Noctis'?', Prompto asked.

Gladiolus picked the poor blonde up and carried him to the car, while Ignis returned with him, Donald and Goofy. Noctis, however, remained behind with Sora, looking at him. Noticing the prince's stares, Sora looked at him. 'What's up?', he asked.

'What the hell kind of magic are you using? And what kind of sword are you using?', he asked, pointing at the boy.

Curious, Sora summoned the keyblade and showed him the weapon in question. 'This is the keyblade, a weapon made of light', he explained.

Light? Immediately Noctis regarded the keyblade with interest as strange as it sounded, he believed him. Maybe it was because of his connection to the crystal and its light, but when he looked at it he felt a surge of warmth from it.

'Mind if I give it a shot?', he asked.

Sora beamed and handed it to him. In his hands, the weapon was lighter than it looked, but the square ring made it difficult to use efficiently. Then it suddenly vanished into light and then re-appeared in Sora's hands.

'Keyblade users exclusively', Sora said with a cocky smile.

Noctis smirked in response to the boy. 'Show off', he commented. 'But what about the teacup…thing? How'd you do that?', he asked.

Sora, in turn, shrugged and dismissed his weapon. 'I dunno, it just happens when I use my magic. Can't explain it', he said.

At this point, Noctis was going to classify Sora as an oddity just so he didn't have to ask any more questions.

'You two coming or what?', Donald asked, hopping onto the Chocobo with Goofy.

*Out Post*

Reaching the outpost without further roadblocks, the party were almost swamped with people blocking and huddling around the area. Civilians and hunters alike with some of the latter carrying weapons and standing guard at the main entrance of the pathway to the Royal Tomb. Noctis and company made their way past the people, looking for anyone in charge or any familiar faces.

To the prince's surprise, he sees Cor addressing some of the hunters and ordering them, looking haggard. And when Cor the Immortal looked exhausted, that was a clear sign of just how bad things are now.

'Your majesty', he greeted with a curt bow.

His eyes lingered on the other trio for a moment before he returned his gaze to Noctis. 'What's going on over here?', the prince asked.

'Daemons…or at least that's what the locals have been saying', he explained. 'But when we tried to fend them off, they just spawned in some new kind of monsters. For everyone we cut down, two more took their places'.

'Umm, did you see a heart-shaped emblem on any of the "daemons"?', Sora asked, raising his hand. Cor looked at the boy, his eyes narrowing. 'Yes, they did…', he said. 'Then we should go ahead and deal with them', Ignis intervened, stepping ahead.

'We've fought a few of these creatures earlier, and with Sora's group, we can handle them easier and better than any hunter now'.

'Plus, least if we go in you can keep any other hunter here and keep the civilians safe', Gladiolus offered, gesturing the hunters with his thumb. Cor gave each group a look, as if debating which course of action would be best, but in the end, he sighed. 'Very well, if you think you can handle them', he said.

Once that was settled, he allowed the party to move on and continue down the path to the old battleground, where lied one of the Royal Tombs.

'So where exactly as we are going?', Sora asked, looking at Ignis.

'Keycatrich Trench. That is where the Royal Tomb awaits, and where the heartless are gathering apparently', the driver explained.

'But what's in the tomb?'.

'Other than a coffin? Nothing of worth anymore'. Ignis turned to the confused trio. 'Awhile ago, we came here to collect a Royal Arm for Noct, and since then we haven't been back'.

Sora's curiosity peaked at the royal arm part. 'What's that?'. 'It is a weapon used by Noct's ancestors from generations ago. Those from the line of Lucis can wield the old weapons, and their power', he elaborated.

'But there shouldn't be anything there worth the heartless' attention, right?', Gladiolus remarked. 'Hey kid, what exactly draws the heartless anyway?'. Sora bit back a remark regarding "kid" and looked at Gladiolus. 'Well, see the heartless are drawn to the darkness in people's hearts. They're made of complete darkness, and well, they hunt for hearts.

'Sounds like a really weird Valentine's Day superstition', Prompto joked, looking back at Sora. 'But wait, how do you know whose got darkness in their hearts?'.

'Well everybody does', Goofy said. 'Unless you're a princess of-

Donald stood on his foot, stopping him from further blurts of information, making him yelp and focus on the pain of his large feet. Prompto let out a nervous hum, oddly eyeing his wrist band before he turned back at Sora.

'And that key thingy is their enemy or something?', Prompto asked.

'Yup! The keyblade was made to fight the heartless, and I'm not the only one!', Sora said with a grin. Then before Sora could elaborate who, suddenly there was music playing. Sora frantically searched himself before he pulled out his phone. 'Huh? Who's that?', he asked, not recognizing the number. He pressed the green button and the screen showed a familiar face.

'Sora! There you are!', Kairi said, a breath of relief escaping her.

At this, the boy immediately beamed brighter than the sun when he sees her face. 'Kairi! How'd you get my…uh…number…?', he said, slowly as he was still trying to understand the phone entirely. Outside of selfies, of course, he managed to nail that down FAST.

'It wasn't easy, did you know this thing's batteries is pretty quick to die out?', she said, a shy and embarrassed smile appearing on her face. Sora tilted his head, confusion clear. 'This thing needs batteries? Mine never died on me', he commented.

'Huh, maybe mine's out of date…GAH! That's not why I'm calling! Where are you guys?', she said.

'We're…uh…Um, Kairi hate to make things more difficult, but I don't have a clue', he said with a sheepish shrug. Kairi groaned on the other end. 'Well, can you guys at least send that signal…thingy, Chip and Dale added to your ship? Just so we can track you guys down?'.

At this, Sora looked at Donald and Goofy, both giving him awkward looks of "oh crap" on their faces. Shyly and weakly, the boy turned to his friend and scratched his cheek. 'Heh heh…funny story…', he said.

'…You crashed the ship, didn't you?', she said, deadpanned.

'NO! …the heartless shot it and CAUSED it to crash!', argued Sora, pouting at her. Kairi gave him an amused smirk and rolled her eyes. 'What happened to "Expert Gummi Ship pilot"?', she accused teasingly. 'Everyone has bad days!', Sora defended.

'Except this is one of his WORST days!', Donald shouted in the background. 'Like you did any better!'. 'I DIDN'T GET A CHANCE!'.

As all this was going on, the four brothers just looked on in amazement and smirks, absolutely enjoying the situation their new friends were making. There was something about this that just warmed their hearts. Seeing Sora looking like he was ready to drop the phone and run, Noctis decided to put this miserable issue to an end and spare Sora's dignity.

He approached Sora and showed himself to this "Kairi". 'Hey there, friend of Sora's', he said with a casual wave. Kairi blinked at him, before giving him a friendly smile. 'Hi there, umm', she said. 'I'm Noctis, and you're Kairi, right?'.

'That's me', she answered. She then turned to Sora, worry appearing on her face. 'Are you three alright though?', she asked. 'Yeah, thanks to Noctis and his friends. We're helping them deal with the heartless here, so we'll figure out how to get back to you guys soon, ok?', promised Sora. Kairi gave him a nod and a smile that looked reserved for him. If Noctis was right, there was something unique about that smile, and when he glanced at Sora, he too was giving her a unique smile.

'Ok, I'll hold you to it. But I'm gonna contact the others and tell them what's going on, maybe they'll find this world and bring you guys home if you can't fix the ship', she offered. 'Okay, sure'. 'Bye, and be safe!', she said. The call ended with a silent beep, and Sora heaved a sigh. But he looked at Noctis, sporting a smirk. 'Girlfriend?', he asked.

Sora may not have confirmed nor deny that question, but his rosy cheeks strongly implied something. His two space buddies snickered quietly, which did NOTHING to help his blush but that's not important. Noctis patted him on the back, good-naturedly. 'We'll worry about girls later, we've got work to do', he said.

*Entrance of the Tomb*

No sooner had the party arrived at the entrance, each of them felt a chill in the air. Ahead was nothing but a corridor of pure darkness, swirls of blackish violet and a devoid of light before them.

'W-We're gonna, go in that, are we?', Prompto squeaked.

'Gwarsh, I hope not. I don't think we'll come back from it', Goofy concurred.

'Well, maybe whatever heartless is doing all this is causing it?', Sora said. 'And I think I got an idea how to draw them out'.

Sora approached the corridor, summoning his keyblade. He gripped the handle with both hands and lifted the mystical weapon and aimed it at the corridor. Swirls of blue light formed around the tip and then shrunk, firing a singular beam towards the corridor. The beam pierced the corridor, and suddenly the darkness swirled and flew upwards and over the party. Piling behind them, the darkness turned into a vortex, dust and sand blowing wildly.

The darkness slowly faded as a tall dark violet colour armoured figure exited through the shade of the dark. It was human-shaped but as tall as a golem, armour like the Kings of Lucis except corroded in darkness, metal bent and sickly looking, violet mist leaking from it. The helmet was broken, exposing the shadow. But instead of bright yellow eyes, it was dark red like a daemon.

In its hand was a large buster like sword, except one edged with poisonous liquid dripping from the steel. The liquid sizzled loudly when it dripped onto a rock, dissolving it quickly.

Everyone drew their weapons as the heartless raised its weapon high, grabbing the handle with both hands. 'Ok, that? Looks pretty cool!', Prompto said, grinning nervously.

'Flattery won't save you from fighting it, Prompto', Ignis remarked.

'We can take it! And then that'll stop the darkness!', Sora said.

'Right, take it down, got it!', Noctis said.

The prince tossed his engine blade at the monster and managed to strike it in the shoulder, but the sword just bounced off it with a "clink" sound and fell to the ground. They all looked at the fallen weapon, then back at the heartless.

Noctis then patted Gladiolus on the shoulder. 'You first Gladio', he said.

The shield sighed, but regardless, he ran at the heartless with a roar, bringing his sword upwards at the heartless. Unlike his charge, Gladiolus' sword managed to at least warrant a guard from the giant, blocking his attack easily. But while it was busy with protecting itself from Gladiolus' strike, Donald fired a flurry of ice at the head with a yell and Ignis tossed his daggers at the exposed eye.

Both attacks struck it, forcing it to recoil from the attacks, staggering backwards with one hand clutching its head in pain. Prompto took a chance to shoot it, aiming for its head since it was the only part of it exposed. Though most of the bullets bounced off its helmet, he managed to hit its eye, a blast of black mist exploded from the destroyed socket.

The heartless swung its sword upwards, the sheer force behind the attack sent a powerful gust of wind that sent most of the party flying. Only Goofy and Gladiolus were the only ones who could keep their feet on the ground, shields up high stubbornly holding their grounds.

Noctis and Sora though, in mid-air, flipped themselves upright. The prince brought out his greatsword and with one spin, flung his sword at the heartless while Sora projected himself forward, diving towards the heartless.

Both warriors brought their weapons upon the metallic beast, but like Noctis' first attack, their weapons bounced off it and they recoiled harshly. The heartless swung its arm and brushed the two aside like a bunch of flies. Sora and Noctis crashed and bounced on the ground until they both slammed into a wall near the entrance. Both groaned in pain, getting back to their feet and watched their friends attempt to break the armour of that monster.

Ignis and Prompto were keeping their distances with Donald, shooting the heartless with magic, bullets and daggers alike but having more effect than the two warriors. Even Gladiolus and Goofy have been forced to merely taking the punishment and the attacks, blocking it massive sword with little respite or breathing space.

'All we're doing is just annoying it!', Noctis grunted with frustration.

'We need to hit it harder!', Sora announced.

The prince gave the poor a sour look, as if saying "No shit", but Sora then lifted the keyblade upwards and then shouted: 'Let's GO!'. A brilliant flash of light shined, for a moment the keyblade's form changed into an entirely different one, like a mixture of cowboy theme and space themed, but that was the least of things that Noctis witnessed.

Sora's weapon shifted and changed until finally, the weapon manifested into a giant war hammer. Almost cartoonish looking, yet Noctis' jaw flat out slammed to the ground in shock of this shift of weaponry. 'Do you have any heavy weapons like this?', Sora asked, laying his weapon against his shoulder. Noctis indeed have a weapon in the similar form of his new friend, the Sword of the Tall.

He summoned his massive weapon, and gave Sora a nod of encouragement, together they both rushed towards the heartless and then leapt. Together, both heroes of light brought down the massively heavy weapons down upon the heartless' chest, smashing straight into it. The combined might of the super-human strengths of the two and the heaviness of the weapons, shattering the armour entirely.

The attack sent the heartless straight through a pillar and it flew into a wall, destroyed upon impact and thus reducing it to nothing. A beautiful crystal heart fluttered from the rubble and then vanished into the air.

Both prince and master stood together, turning to the entrance to see the path cleared and the darkness vanishing from the air. They gave each other a hi-five and their friends joined in.

'Nice work', Gladiolus praised, smirking at the two while Ignis nodded with approval.

'This calls for victory photo!', Prompto declared, getting his camera ready.

That is until…

'Uh, fellas? I think we're gonna have company', Goofy announced, pointing ahead of them.

In the skies before them, the party could see ships approaching them, a total of six.

The empire had arrived…

A/N:

Well, this got a LOT of favs and follows fast. So thanks for that!

I'll be working on Dawn next and in March I'll post the possible last chapter of this, who knows? As always, thanks for reading! Please let me know what you liked about, where can I improve on or heck, what should happen next? As always, thanks for reading, stay awesome but most importantly stay safe!


	3. Chapter 3

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 3

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

It seemed like today was the day that life just decided to take a royal dump on Noctis and his slowly growing party.

Just literally a minute after slaying a new kind of monster, NOW it seemed the empire decided to finally make themselves known to the seven as an entire fleet of airships had flown towards them. A total of seven, three keeping back for reinforcements just in case the four somehow failed, which Noctis was secretly hoping for now.

'Who are they?', Sora asked, pointing at the fleet.

'Nifs…the empire's soldiers', Gladiolus said with a grunt, laying his great sword on his shoulder, rubbing his chin. 'And our enemies'.

'What do we do? Think we should make a run for it?', Prompto pipped, not liking the amount of ships in the sky.

'Not gonna happen, we're taking them down', Noctis said with an aggressive tone, already summoning his engine blade. One ship opened the hatch, and outran a platoon of magitek soldiers, leaping from the ship and right before the company. Robotic like humanoids, wielding rifles, axes and one carrying a banner behind the entire platoon.

One of the soldiers ran towards the prince, but his shield was immediately in front of the offender and with one swing, he cleaved the soldier in two via waistline. Gladiolus summoned his shield in his left hand and spun around to slam it into another, throwing the soldier aside. More soldiers ran in, only for Donald to cast "thunder" upon them, and three bolts of golden lightning struck them, shortening their circuits and causing several of them to explode.

Sora ran in with Goofy, cutting down soldier after soldier easily with single strikes of the keyblade, before he vaulted over one, leapt on the head of another and jumped. Goofy crashed through them all like a bowling ball crashing through pins, knocking them down and then he tossed his shield. The metal weapon flew and struck home in the head of the soldier, knocking it down and breaking the face.

Another platoon descended from another ship, but Sora was already jumping towards the falling magiteks. He aimed his keyblade at them and yelled: 'Stop!'. They froze in the air like a still picture, and Sora dashed towards them. He used one a stepping stone to launch himself further up in the air. Sora the aimed the key at them as a swirl of air gathered around the tip. 'AEROGA!'. A vortex of wind-lashed out in the middle of the soldiers, gathering them up as time resumed normally for them. The wind tore their limbs and joints asunder, rending them into broken toys.

As their robotic limbs fell from the sky, Sora dived down to re-join the others.

Below, Ignis was dancing around the axe-wielding soldiers, cutting them during his leaps and flips. 'Ignis!', Sora called out, diving towards him. Seeing an opportunity, the specs wearing man crossed his arms, daggers in hand and then leapt backwards out of the horde as his daggers grew frosty. He tossed the two into the ground below the horde, instantly freezing the ground and trapping them. 'All yours!', the strategist offered.

Sora let out a yell of approval and dived right into the horde, the keyblade plunged into the ground sent a blast of magic around him. The soldiers were torn to pieces from the attack, weapons and bodies all torn asunder. Sora stood up and gave him a thumbs up. 'Nice!'.

Ignis gave him a nod of approval, turning to see Donald and Prompto shooting bullet and magic at their targets. Donald blasted the soldiers with ice, freezing their joints to the point of turning them into ice sculptures, which gave Prompto easy marks for his shots. The blonde took down each soldier with well-placed shots, and every time Donald froze or debilitated one, he'd make that moment of weakness a perfect chance to take one down.

But despite the teamwork of the royal retinue and the other world heroes, the empire was steadily increasing the number of soldiers against them. The rest of the ships had decided to risk it all and deploy whatever resources they had left against the group. The area was filled the to brim with magitek soldiers, and their numbers seemingly endless.

Gladiolus was struck across his chest by one axeman, forcing him to reel back but not before he gave the attack a full forced upper swing of his sword, tearing that soldier apart. Gladiolus grunted in pain, looking to see Goofy join his shield to ward off another attacker to give him some space. But Goofy let out a yelp of fear and pointed to Sora and Noctis being surrounded by the soldiers. 'Damnit, we've gotta move!', Gladiolus said, crushing a potion. He looked at Goofy's shield and his own before an idea formed.

'Ya with me?', he asked. Goofy gave him a thumbs up and with a brave look, the two pressed their shoulders together, raised their shields at a perfect angle and then ran together. Combing their strength together, the two shields became a train of destruction, ploughing through the vast horde of soldiers like they were nothing.

They reached Sora and Noctis, creating a clear path in the process for them to take a breather. Gladiolus even gave Goofy a well-earned pat on the back and nodded to him, while the captain just beamed. Noctis struck down a soldier and summoned his dagger to toss into another, while Sora chopped and blasted anything that came near him.

'They just keep coming!', Noctis grunted, parrying another axeman.

'Quit your whining and keep fighting!', Gladiolus grunted, bringing down his sword upon another. 'We'll just have power through them!'.

'Sora, Goofy!'.

The two turned to Donald and Prompto, now fighting off neo-shadows. The duck was even resorting to whacking them with his staff, which gave the two the idea he was running low on mana, and Prompto was mostly dodging and trying to create some distance for himself at this point. 'Hang on Donald, I'm coming!', Goofy yelled and charged through the soldiers. 'Noct, go help Goofy, we've got this!', Gladiolus ordered, smacking another soldier down.

Noctis nodded and warped to his best friend. His sword struck an unsuspecting soldier right in its chest, the prince arriving on time to yank the blade out and backflip off the corpse. Noctis stabbed another soldier and used the remains as a shield to block an axe. The attacker was put down by Prompto, turning in time to take the shot.

Donald was given an ether from Goofy and once recharged, the duck lifted his staff and channelled a great deal of mana into it. 'THUNDAZA!', he roared. Donald might have well brought down Ramuh's power upon the field, for his spell struck practically every enemy here and probably across the world with this. The soldiers were all decimated, but some of the heartless were clever enough to slink into the ground to evade his attack.

Not all but a good portion of them…and that is where things got interesting.

The shadows began to slither and sink into the destroyed magitek soldiers' remains and using the darkness to relink their limbs and forms, helmets becoming corroded and twisted, piercing yellow lights for eyes taking up the hollow ones from before. Their weapons even shifted into much darker and cruder weaponry.

Suddenly the battle turned from fighting the empire, to the heartless possessing the imperial forces.

'You've gotta be kidding me…', Prompto groaned as Noctis cursed.

'Now what do we do? We can't beat all of them!', Goofy asked.

'Donald can ya do that again?', the prince asked.

Donald lifted his staff but all he got was a spark and a tiny flash of lighting from it, no more than that. 'Nope, I'm out!', he sighed. 'Terrific…', Noctis said, brandishing his royal arm. 'Wait, where's Iggy?'.

(*)

Ignis slit his dagger across the throat of a neo-shadow and tossed his right-handed dagger into the head of a soldier. Surrounded by overwhelming odds and with the heartless soldiers surrounding him, his odds had quickly turned against him.

Ignis performed a backflip to dodge an on-coming axe swing, just missing his feet. He landed his hands, pushed himself over a neo-shadow and summoned his spear mid-air. On his feet, he spun his elegant weapon and cleared out the surrounding heartless around him, and then with a thrust penetrated a heartless soldier's torso.

'Determined buggers, aren't you?', he said with a sigh, seeing more heartless rise from the ground. Summoning his daggers again and crossing them over his arms, Ignis looked for an opening or chance to return to the others, he was outnumbered and, regrettably, outmatched by the ferocity and persistence of the heartless. Even daemons lacked their determination, and that was saying something else…

It seems his wish came true, for suddenly when he glanced up, he could see a shimmering light past the empire's ships. The light turned into beams, zigzagging left and right all over the sky, and then it pierced through a ship, damaging it and bathing it with smoke and fire before it charged towards the advisor of the prince.

Ignis quickly rolled away from the light, having exploded upon impact. A burst of light shined through and suddenly like magic, the heartless were exterminated within the beautiful light. Ignis was flabbergasted by this, but when the light cleared, he had a feeling the battle had turned to his favour upon seeing who it was.

A tall and slender figure with blue eyes and medium-length blue hair mostly parted to her left. She wears a black and navy blue, high-collared halter top, a black corset with two pairs of white laces and black shorts. Two pink straps intersecting over her chest, with a silver badge over the intersection. On her arms are white bell-sleeves and tan, fingerless gloves also wears a small, segmented piece of armour on each of her upper arms. She wears black stockings reaching about halfway up her thighs, leaving a small area of bare skin.

There are two strips of blue cloth draped over each of her hips, along with a smaller, white strip of cloth tied around her waist and draped in the same manner. Her silver boots are pointed and armoured, with a sharp "hook" on the outer side of each. In her hands, was a keyblade but far less, well, keylike than Sora's the man believed. She looked around and her eyes narrowed when they fell on the heartless, and she took up a stance. 'Stay close to me!', she ordered.

Ignis looked to another wielder of the keyblade behind the blue-haired woman, but she looked closer to Sora's age. The outfit she wears is a unique hooded pink-and-black dress, with two small black cat ears. There are black ruffles on one side of her skirt and plaid on the other. She also wears thick belted black boots and thin white bracelets on her left wrist and a thick wristband on her right wrist. Short dark red hair with a pale complexion and had possibly the most beautiful blue eyes the advisor had ever seen in a teenager.

Though her keyblade looked…ridiculous…

A neo-shadow leapt towards her, and she quickly sidestepped its attack and swung her weapon at it, destroying it. But another leapt at her from behind, almost hitting her. Ignis tossed his spear at it, piercing the monster and demolishing it with one hit. The spear flew and even managed to strike a soldier down, hitting it in the stomach.

The two turned to him as he slashed a heartless soldier and kicked another aside before the blue-haired woman aimed her keyblade and shouted: 'Pearl!'. A ball of light burst from her keyblade and struck the heartless Ignis fought, but it kept dancing around and hitting several more heartless for a while before it disappeared.

They huddled up closely as the heartless swarmed them, the horde turning into little hills to block Ignis' view of his liege and company. 'There's so many here!', the redhead squeaked, looking around. 'Told you we should have come earlier to help!'. 'No need for the smart talk young lady!', the blue head chastised.

'Ignis!'.

They all turned to see a blinding light within the hills of the darkness and then burst through them showing Noctis and the others, the prince in his Armiger state. Floating above two inches from the ground, surrounded in the crystal ethereal form of his ancestors' weapons. Sora's eyes shot open with shock though.

'KAIRI!', he cried.

And next thing the advisor knew, Sora was blasting his way through the heartless as if he was cutting butter with a hot knife, making his way to "Kairi". 'Sora, there you are!', Kairi called out with a wave, but just narrowly parried another axe-wielding monster. She pushed it off her and slashed at the stomach, bringing it down. Sora managed to seeming teleport to her side and glared at the heartless, keyblade held high.

'What are you doing here with…Aqua!?', Sora asked, finally turning to his fellow keyblade user. 'Talk later, we've got the heartless to deal with first!', she said, firing another pearl at the heartless horde. 'I'm inclined to agree with her', Ignis remarked, growing weary of this seemingly never-ending heartless. Sora nodded and looked at Donald and Goofy, who gave him a thumbs up. 'Go for it!', Goofy cheered.

Sora gripped the keyblade with both hands and lifted it upwards, a surge of magic swirled around him. 'As one!', he cried. The magic changed into blazing flames, circling him until he was blocked from view by the flames. 'Oh man, what's he doing now!?', Prompto asked, already feeling his stomach churn.

When the flames cleared, Sora was now riding a giant lion made of pure fire. A sentient one too, as it took one step and let out a roar that shook ground before them all. The royal retinue's, bar Ignis, jaws fell to the ground as while Aqua looked on in amazement. 'That is a big kitty!', Kairi praised, starstruck. Simba roared once more before he pounced upon the heartless, each landing caused a massive wave of flames to spread around the field and the fires consumed the heartless all around.

'HOLY CRAP!', Prompto shouted, immediately taking his camera out and taking as many pictures as he possibly could. 'Prompto is this the time?', Ignis groaned, stabbing a heartless. 'Iggy, this guy is riding a flaming lion of awesomeness! Why would I waste the chance to take photos of it!?'.

'Hey Aqua, when do I learn that?', Kairi asked, hacking away a soldier.

'As soon as I do!', Aqua remarked.

Sora and Simba leap into the air, Simba spinning around and around in the air, turning into pure fire and raining down hellfire from the skies, blasting what heartless remained behind and consumed them all in ablaze. Sora landed back on his feet, turning to the others as the darkness faded, and the imperial forces wisely retreated, back to wherever they came from.

'Looks like the Nifs got the right idea to get lost', Gladiolus remarked, making his weapon disappear back into nothing. 'Suppose seeing a giant lion of flames consuming everything around it would do that for you', Ignis said, looking at the scorched earth around the area.

With the battle at a close, Sora immediately approached Kairi and Aqua. 'How'd you guys find us?', he asked. At this, Kairi scratched his cheek shyly and looked anywhere but Aqua, to which judging from the glare the blue master was giving the read head, even Sora managed to put two and two together. 'What did you do?', he asked.

'Well…see, we didn't have a ship to go looking so I…may have…borrowed something akin to transport…', Kairi said, but then Aqua interrupted. 'Stole, you stole something that NO apprentice should EVER touch', Aqua chastised, arms folded and eyes dead set on the girl. 'I-In my defence, we had to find Sora!', Kairi said. 'THAT is not an excuse to use something you have little to no understanding of!'.

'Uh, what did Kairi borrow?', Goofy asked.

'STOLE', Donald and Aqua corrected.

Aqua held her hand out for the girl, and with a sigh, Kairi handed back the item in question. Immediately Donald and Goofy gasped with shock. 'THE STAR SHARD!?', they exclaimed. Sora had a bad feeling that was important…and shouldn't have been touched…

'The heck is that supposed to be?', Noctis asked, looking at the item. 'This is a very…well, lets just saw its something nobody, especially someone who DOESN'T know how to use, should have', Aqua elaborated. 'But do you know how to use it?', Ignis asked.

Aqua shook her head. 'No, and that alone is a problem'.

'Why? You managed to get to Sora and the others, so it works right?', Prompto pointed out.

'By pure luck, therefore this is dangerous. Unless you know how to work it, it will randomly take you, well anywhere', Aqua explained. 'She's right, even the King couldn't figure that out', Goofy said. 'He got into a lot of trouble'.

Aqua fiddled with it before she shrugged. 'Sadly, we have no choice but to risk it and with luck, it'll take us somewhere we know', she gave him. 'Sounds fun! Worse thing that can happen is we end in a new place!', Sora said, carefully choosing his words.

'I wish I shared your optimism', Aqua sighed with a tired smile. She lifted the Star Shard, mana surging around it as Noctis and his royal retinue stood well back. The shard started to shake in her hands, but the shakes began more uncontrollable for her hands, sparks of magic shot from it and even shocked the keyblade master.

'Aqua… is this meant to happen?', Sora asked, immediately backing away. 'I have a worrying feeling it's a "no", Sora', she said. Immediately Kairi snatched the shard from her master's hand and tossed it away, but it didn't get three feet before it exploded in a magical puff of smoke and lightning. Once the dust cleared, all remained of the shard was…shards. Tiny specs of light from the sun, no larger than pebbles and the lightning shape part was now a dull grey colour.

Aqua slumped. 'You can't be serious…', she whined. 'Guys?', Sora said, looking at his two companions. They both shrugged, just as clueless as the keyblade users. 'Aqua, by chance, has this object been used frequently?', Ignis suggested, joining their side. 'I'm not sure…umm, I'm sorry, what was your name again?', she said.

'Ignis and these three are my companions. Noctis, Gladiolus, and Prompto', he introduced. 'Nice to meet ya', Prompto said with a wave. 'Pleasure, I'm Aqua, this is my apprentice, Kairi', she said. Kairi waved back, smiling away. 'Any rate, I don't know…Donald, Goofy, how often did the King use it?', she asked. Both looked at the shard, and then back to the others. 'A lot', they both said conclusively. 'So, we've no ship or star thingy…now what?', Sora asked, stumped Aqua opened her mouth, but all that came from her was a sigh. 'I…don't know…'.

Kairi folded her arms, looking down in guilt and not looking at the others. Sora patted her shoulders kindly smiling softly. 'Aww well, we'll figure out. Sides think of it like a…uh, a…', he stumbled, before clapping his hands. 'Think of it like training! It's Kairi's first time on a mission, right? So, we could ya know, see what's out there and get her into the swing of things!'. They all looked at him, a mixed of smirks and eye rolls. 'Only you could take a problem like this so laid back…', Donald sighed, shaking his head.

'Better than letting it get me down!', he replied with a grin. 'Well perhaps Cindy could help', Ignis offered. 'While I cannot guarantee it if she sees your ship she may be able to help'.

'Well, what do we have to lose?', Sora said, 'Let's go see her'.

'Sounds good…but uh, we're gonna need to talk about travelling…and whose riding with who…and if we have enough chocobos…', Noctis said, realizing the number of people that the party was currently made up of.

'What's a Chocobo?', Kairi asked, tilting her head.

Later…

'WA-HOO!', Sora and Kairi cried, racing off with their bird friends down the road, while trailing behind them was Donald riding with Goofy (he didn't trust the Chocobo) and Prompto, racing the two keyblade masters. Aqua rode in front with Ignis and the others in the Regalia, going at a normal speed while keeping Prompto and company in their sights.

In her hands, Aqua was busying herself with the Star Shard…s… to try and put it together via magic and through memory. Her efforts had less than favourable results, seeing as most of the shards were no bigger than pebbles and whatever magic she had wasn't enough to keep them in one piece long enough to repair the other parts. Groaning, she stuffed the rest of it back into her pockets, giving up for now.

'No luck?', Noctis asked, looking at the passing landscape.

'I may have to give up on it altogether, I don't even know if putting it back together will restore it…', Aqua lamented. 'That girl…'.

She turned her blue eyes on the two, watching them racing with Prompto laughing together, Kairi had her arms around Sora's waist and rested her head against his shoulder. Aqua hadn't seen her this happy in so long now ever since she escaped the realm of darkness and begun mentoring her. Kairi wasn't sad or down during those times, and she smiled but most of them were half-hearted and at best mostly made on her effort, but Aqua could see she missed Sora.

When she told the master about Sora's situation, she wanted to go and get him as soon as possible, but without their ship to use and with little chances of contacting Riku or anyone with transport they were limited on options. Plus without Aqua's armour, she couldn't even use her gilder to bring everyone back, something she had yet to do.

So when Kairi managed to sneak off and take the Star Shard when they were visiting Yen Sid's tower to report the situation, Aqua was furious at this recklessness…but a part of her was proud Kairi was willing to go to such lengths for Sora. That determination to help him was admirable but costly.

Far more now than ever…

'So that Keyblade thing…what's that all about?', Gladiolus asked, putting his book down. Aqua turned to him before he returned his look at her. 'Has Sora said anything?', she asked. 'Other than it's a weapon that only he can use and do all kinds of weird crap with?', Noctis added. 'Noct, language', Ignis chastised. The prince scoffed at the man, looking at Aqua. 'It's a weapon designed to fight the darkness, namely the heartless. And only those chosen can wield it', she explained. 'So is it just you three or are there more?', Gladiolus asked.

'There's…ten in total, the rest are elsewhere for now', Aqua said. She wondered how much these men were able to figure out that they indeed from another world, based on what they had seen and possibly what they gained from Sora's group. 'But what's up with the looks? I mean Sora's looks more…I dunno, like a key, yours looks old', Noctis said.

'I lost my years ago, this was my master's'.

Eraqus flashed in her memory, along with a sharp tug on her heart as her eyes grew dimmer with pain. 'Sorry, I didn't…', Noctis said with a scratch behind his neck, he must've touched a sensitive memory. Aqua smiled softly at him. 'It's ok, thank you none the less', she said warmly. The prince smiled back in a friendly manner before Gladio sat forward. 'And Kairi's?'. Aqua giggled. 'I can assure you, she wasn't the least bit fond of the design, calling it far too "girly" for her taste'.

Eventually, they arrived at Hammerhead just as the sun had began to set down, not a soul in sight around the station or garage. The Chocobo riders hopped off with the other world heroes groaning from the long trek, Kairi saying she might have lost feeling in her backside. They spotted Cindy just closing her garage and approached her, the mechanic waving at them all.

'Howdy fellas…and gals', she said, looking at the new members of the prince's party. 'New friends, and potential costumers', Noctis introduced. 'Hiya', Sora said with a friendly wave and smile. Cindy warmed up to them with a friendly smile, outstretching her hand. 'Well then, name's Cindy Aurum, Hammerhead's residential mechanic', she said. 'I'm Sora, this is Kairi, Aqua, Donald and Goofy', greeted the hero.

She gave the two anthropomorphic beings a strange glance before shrugging and smiling again. 'So what can I do for ya'll?', she inquired, 'Something need fixing?'. 'Yes, but it's not a car, nor any vehicle', Ignis said. At this, the blonde blinked and gave them all a sceptical look, their sheepish looks didn't do them any favours either. 'Alright…so what's broken?', she asked. 'Well see, did you happen to see a crash recently?', Sora asked.

'Ohh that…wait, you folks came from there?', Cindy asked. 'Yeah, it's our ship and uh…we're kinda hoping you could fix it?', Sora said hopefully. Ordinarily, Cindy would be hesitant to consider taking a job like this if she didn't know specifically what it was they wanted fixed, but she hasn't had a bad deal from Noctis and company, and truthfully she was curious to see whatever it was Sora and his friends were using.

'I'm gonna need to have a look and see what it is first before I make any deals about fixing it', she said honestly. 'But if I think I can fix it, we'll see what we can do, sound good?'.

'At this point, we'll take anything you can give us', Aqua said.

'Swell, we'll head out tomorrow then', Cindy confirmed. 'Daemons are on the prowl already, and I don't wanna even think about those other nasties from today'. They all wisely kept the identity of the heartless under wrap, for now, the last thing this world needed were more monsters to worry about at night. 'Sure, we'll take you there in the morning', Gladiolus agreed. 'Alrighty then, have a good night everyone'.

With that out of the way, they all decided it was a good time to call it a night, after all, that's happened today Noctis wouldn't be surprised if this all turned out to be one heck of a dream.

At Ignis' suggestion for space, they all transferred to a nearby haven just so everyone could have both the space and peace for sleeping. Everyone was tired from today so Noctis told the advisor to leave dinner off for tonight and make it up for breakfast if everyone was starving enough.

A total of three tents were put up curtesy of Gladiolus, the four royal retinue as always in one, while the girls had their own and Sora shares with his friends. Goodnights were bidding, and everyone ducked into their tents.

A new day was dawning…

A/N: So this was late…

As you can probably tell this is gonna be a full KH story with FF XV, hence the inclusion of Aqua and Kairi since I love these two :3. I'm not sure how long this is gonna be, but ya never know. Thanks for reading, as always. Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	4. Chapter 4

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 4

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

Turning in his sleeping bag, Sora's blue eyes eventually were unveiled and all they saw was the darkness of the tent, he could hear Donald and Goofy's gentle snoring along with the gentle hums of the desert winds.

Rolling on his side, he sees his companions once again using each other comfort, Donald resting against Goofy's stomach with his and Goofy's hat being used as makeshift pillow for the captain. Smiling to himself, the boy quietly exited the tent in the hopes some fresh air would make him tired enough to go back to the tent.

That…and the snores were kinda loud for as gentle as they are.

Scrambling out of his tent as quietly as he could, and quickly zipped up the tent flaps. His body was welcomed by the cool breeze of the night air, the stars above were breathtaking when he finally looked. It was almost like home except the entire night sky looked like as if he was staring at the surface of space, there were stars and cosmic trails along with a large moon that was wrapped in a beautiful bow of stars.

Moments like these made the keyblade user fold his arm and realize how rare he'd take in the night. Sora is lover of the day, who wouldn't be? But he also knew how to appreciate the night and its splendours. Corona proved that to him, where even in the darkest of days small fragments of light will always preserve.

His eyes went down to see Kairi resting on the edge of the Haven, looking at the far distance of where "Insomnia" resided. 'You ok?', he asked, walking over to her.

The princess of light turned slightly to identify the voice since he was whispering and smiled warmly at the boy. She nodded softly as he planted himself beside her. 'Just wanted to take in my surroundings', she revealed. Sora nodded, understanding. While this was technically her sixth world Kairi had very little chances to take in where she was or even explore it. Sora won't lie, he was extremely apprehensive about having her here even with Aqua and the others.

Scratching the back of his head, he nudged her shoulder with his own, a cheeky smile appeared. 'So, how does it feel to have an angry Aqua as a master?', he teased. Kairi rolled her eyes. 'Don't you start buster, Aqua is going to hold this over my head for the rest of my life', she replied. 'That's what happens when you disobey a master~.

'Oh? Then where's your punishment? I don't remember anyone tugging your ear for all the kinds of trouble you caused!', Kairi teased back.

'Jokes on them, I had no master!', Sora laughed.

The two laughed quietly together, the severity of their predicament had faded and the serenity of the night soothed their minds. They relaxed and enjoyed the silence together, shoulder to shoulder and heads gently resting against the other, neither commenting nor moving.

'…I'm sorry I left so suddenly', Kairi lamented.

'It's ok, I get it. You and Lea had to start training as soon as possible, I know', Sora said.

'Doesn't mean I couldn't have waited for a little longer…especially after everything that's happened', Kairi said, clutching her hands together.

Looking down, Sora knew deep down in his heart that was probably one of the worst days of his life, and possibly his second greatest failure as a keyblade user. Bad enough he failed his exam, but the fact he was almost possessed by his greatest enemy to become one of his vessels and be the thing he was fighting against.

Of course, he couldn't be happier when Riku passed his exam, at least his short-comings didn't hinder Riku's exam. And he knows Lea and Kairi will do just as well as Riku…

But it still hurt him, that moment in his life forever scarred onto his heart. Gently he felt Kairi's hand intertwine with his own larger one. He looked at her, a gentle and heart-warming smile was glowing on her face. Sora blushed softly at it, smiling shyly. 'Y-You know, I-I didn't hold it against you…I mean, I…'.

'Sora'.

He shut his mouth immediately. Gently the redhead placed a hand on his cheek, still holding that smile. 'You've done so much in the past two years, and I know what happened won't go away…but', she said. 'I know that this', she says, freeing her hand and placed it on his heart, 'is a heart that gave so much, saved so many people, and would do it all again for them'.

Sora was speechless, his heartbeat was quickening as his cheeks went dark with the red. All he could was stare into her wonderful eyes as she gently pressed her forehead against his own, never taking her eyes off him. Yet the gentleness shifted into sorrow, as she lowered her gaze to his heart again. 'It's not fair…', she said simply. Sora gently cupped her chin to face him, his own eyes were shining with his pain. 'Kairi', he spoke gently, 'They needed me, Terra, Aqua, Ven, Roxas, Naminé'.

People he met, some he hadn't, it didn't matter. Each of them were and are in such pain he was willing to carry all of it to just help them all. It was one of the seemingly endless list of reasons why Kairi adored this young man. 'You didn't have to do it alone, nor did Riku have to…I should've…'. He knew where those thoughts were trailing off too, and Sora refused further let her go down to that path. Gently he wrapped his arms around her, pulling the small girl into a warm hug yet keeping their eyes on each other.

Kairi's cheeks went rosy when she felt the warmth of his body heat and softness of his clothes, the safety exerting from Sora was something no could replicate for her. 'I'd fight all of the heartless in the worlds than put you in danger, and I'd do it all over again if it meant you'd be safe', he said. 'But I can't treat you like you're made of glass, I can't keep you on the side-lines'.

Kairi let out a small whimper as he gently cupped her cheek. 'I want you with me, and I know you'll be great but…what if I can't…what I screw up…?'. His greatest fears, his weakest moment, both coming together at once that will destroy his heart and soul. 'You won't…because I know you won't', she promised. Gently Kairi cupped his cheeks, and gently she placed her lips on his, and suddenly the world faded…

Later…

Up early, as usual, Ignis quietly exited the tent, dressed for the day and ready to get breakfast started for everyone. Despite the number of people increased in their party Ignis was excited to cook for new people. Besides he wanted to repay them for their help from before and what better way to thank a person with a good breakfast?

As the sun slowly rises, Ignis turned to see Kairi and Sora asleep against other sitting upright. The older man was about to wake them before he realised it was still too early for them to be awake and given how exhausting the fights were they needed more sleep. Ignis took one of the spare blankets and one of Gladio's leather shirts from the duffle bags and threw it carefully over them and gently laid them on the shirt.

Smirking at his handy work, the man began the long but rewarding process of making breakfast for everyone…

Slowly but surely Gladiolus woke up next with a jaw cracking yawn and a long stretch as the sun covered the haven and the world in a gentle warmth. The giant cracked the joints in his body as he did a few stretches and rolls, looking at Iggy's work. His amber eyes fell to the young couple still sleeping, except now Kairi was laying her head on Sora's chest and the latter held her close to himself, both content and at ease.

'They're pretty cosy together', Gladiolus whispered to his friend, approaching.

'It would seem so', Ignis chuckled softly.

Gladiolus had begun to get the chairs all stacked up and ready for the day, humming quietly while his friend worked away. Soon Aqua exited her tent, but she was looking around feverishly for someone. Before she opened her mouth, her eyes fell on Gladiolus who, with a gesture, showed her where the apprentice was currently sleeping. Aqua visibly let out a deep sigh of relief upon seeing her, understandingly given the last time she lost sight of her.

'Morning', he greeted with a friendly wave.

'Good Morning', she responded, approaching them, 'How long have those two been like that?'.

'I found them two hours ago just sleeping sitting up, so they've been out here for quite some time', Ignis explained.

Aqua gave an "ahh" in response just as the kettle finally whistled softly. Ignis removed it from the stove and poured himself and Gladiolus a coffee and offered the blue-haired warrior one too. She blinked. 'What's a coffee?', she asked, looking at the strange beverage.

Gladiolus snickered subtly, ducking his head away from the shocked look on Ignis' face, lips opened slightly. Aqua tilted her head in slight confusion before Ignis immediately brewed her a fresh cup and handed it to her. 'It's a beverage that regenerates energy for people, particularly in the morning', he explained. Aqua looked at black liquid and took a sip, but immediately recoiled and stretched it away from her, her face showing she tasted something very bitter.

'Ugh, that's bitter…', she groaned.

'Try adding milk, it'll be easier', Ignis recommended, picking up the flask containing the substance.

Once he poured the required amount, the blackened liquid turned into a more lighter colour. Aqua, with some hesitance, took a sip of her drink. An "mmm" rumbled her throat, and she tilted the drink up to consume more. 'It's delicious!', she said, amazed. Subtly Ignis was smirking with delight, a woman who appreciated ebony despite diluting it with milk.

'Just don't expect Iggy to share the ebony regularly', Gladiolus teased, 'Guy's got a mean caffeine tooth for that stuff'.

'Come now, you're merely exaggerating', the chef responded.

'A person who gives the " touch and I'll make sure your body is never found" look when you're about to take the last one has an addiction for it'.

'Maybe he just knows how to appreciate it?', Aqua offered. 'He buys it doesn't he?'.

'True', Gladiolus relented.

Aqua took a seat with him as Donald, Goofy and Prompto woke up in time for Ignis to finish the eggs. The two unique members looked at Sora and Kairi, then back to Aqua who placed a finger on her lips, shushing them. They eventually just agreed to shrug and leave the two alone, sitting down with the others. 'Where's Noctis?', Aqua asked looking at Prompto.

' *Yawm* Sleeping…', he said, taking a glass of milk from Gladiolus.

'…shouldn't he be awake?'.

'You wanna wake him up? Be our guest', Gladiolus offered, 'Sleeping Beauty isn't gonna budge unless ya kick him hard enough'.

'Or simply pester him long enough as opposed to tenderizing his ribs', Ignis chastised, giving the man a mock glare.

'Oh, so he's a heavy sleeper?', Aqua said, finishing her drink.

'Sounds familiar…', Donald grumbled, looking at Goofy. The knight gave the duck a sheepish look, chuckling awkwardly.

'So, what's on our agenda today?', Prompto pipped, looking at the spectacled man. 'We'll first escort Cindy to their ship and see what can be done, then after, we can finally head for the next royal arm', Ignis explained, filling a plate of food up for everyone.

' "Royal arm"?', Aqua asked.

Prompto jumped slightly, a panic look flashed on his face before Gladiolus elbowed him slightly. He gave the boy a nod and friendly smirk. 'You remember back there when he was surrounded by all those weapons from before?', he asked.

'I think so…', Aqua said, memory yielding little.

'I think seeing as we will likely be working together for quite some time, it'd be best to fill them in on what our current situation is', Ignis said. 'In any event, whether or not Cindy can fix your ship, you'll be with us, so there wouldn't be any sense to keep you all in the dark'.

He sat down once everyone had a plate of food, ensuring to keep some for the other sleeping three as he began to explain to Aqua and the other two just what exactly is going on, and who Noctis is…

Later…

'Do you think Cindy can fix the Gummi ship?', Sora asked, looking at Noctis.

'Honestly, I'm gonna say maybe? I mean, she's pretty good but…', he said, looking at the wreckage.

'Dude, you did not just say that!', Prompto said. 'We're talking about the Goddess of Gears here!'.

Sora blinked as Noctis gave him an unamused look as the blonde began to spout why fixing an intergalactic space ship would be child's play to Cindy. The group in part were waiting for the mechanic to arrive with Ignis, Goofy and Donald in tow, all the while Gladiolus and Aqua were making light conversations while Sora and Kairi were watching Prompto's performance as the prince just watched.

They had all agreed to wait by where the main body of the ship was seeing as there would be where most of the grunt work would take place. Sora wasn't entirely sure how much Donald would be telling Cindy about the mechanics or tricks this ship had or what material it was made of. He trusted him though, because really if they have no way home then they were boned after all.

'Has Cindy ever fixed a ship like this before?', Kairi asked, raising her hand.

Prompto stopped his movement and opened his mouth a few times before he finally answered. 'O-Of course!'. Noctis smirked and folded his arms. 'Like what? Far as we're all aware this is a once-off thing', he said, gesturing the ship in question. 'W-W-Well…like the imperial ships!'.

'Wouldn't the empire have their engineers for those ships? Besides those dropships were big, hardly Cindy alone would be able to fix that', Kairi pointed out with a cheeky smile. Prompto blushed and awkwardly coughed, looking away from his friends. 'W-Well…ya know…no one's perfect', he mused. 'Even a "goddess"', Noctis jabbed. Prompto gave him a pout in retort but before he could give him a vocal response, they all turned to the arriving party.

Once Cindy's eyes fell on the sip, the grew large in awe and even looked back at Sora, before falling back to it. 'Sweet mama Chocobo…ya'll weren't kidding about this thing…', she said, awestruck. Cindy folded her arms and looked back to Donald, who gave her a nod, permission to look. The mechanic and the others approached and after some help getting inside the cockpit, the girl began to take in her new job.

After an hour or two of poking, asking what Donald could answer, some take apart and reassembly, the girl concluded and hopped out of the cockpit. Everyone waited with bated breath for the result of their new friends' situation. 'So…I've got good news and some bad….'.

'Does the good news imply you can fix it?', Kairi asked hopefully.

'Right on the money there, sweet cheeks', she confirmed. The other worlds let out sighs of relief, but then Goofy asked, 'But uh, what's the bad news?'. 'Well…see its gonna take a LONG time to put this back together, and that's before we can even start to patch it up', Cindy said. 'Also, for the materials and tools, we'll need for it…I hate to say it'll cost ya a few limbs…'.

Noctis immediately stepped forward. 'Look, I'll pay-

'Sorry prince, but even your pockets won't go deep enough for the repairs…I'd wager you'll still be paying back through your twelfth generation of kiddies'. Everyone's jaw fell in shock, more so comically for Donald and Goofy. 'No number of hunts could even scratch the pay…', Gladiolus lamented with a grunt. 'Hey Sora, just saying living around Hammerhead isn't so bad…', Noctis offered.

'We may have to start planning to live here!', Aqua sighed, folding her arms. 'Well, I never said you can't pay us back with just Gil', Cindy suggested. Before Goofy could even point out they didn't even have that currency on them, Kairi stepped up. 'What do you mean?'.

'Listen, the prince here hasn't tried to scam me before, so I'm gonna go on a limb and say you five are just as honest as him yeah?'. 'Absolutely!', Sora said. 'Then, I'm willing to help out, in exchange, I get to make blueprints from this and build my own'.

'NO! Absolutely not!', Donald said, adamantly.

'Donald, we can't afford to pay for the repairs!', Kairi argued.

'She's right Donald, besides we gotta get back to the King soon!', Goofy pointed out.

Donald, however, remained resolute. 'I don't care! We can't let the ship be replicated and rebuilt!', he said sternly. Kairi and Goofy looked back to Cindy, shrugging in defeat. That was until Sora smirked. 'Okay Donald, we'll just stay here then…but I wonder whose gonna tell Daisy?'. Donald's eyes widened with horror, but Sora, unknowingly or knowingly, kept up. 'I mean she was pretty upset the last time you forgot about your anniversary…can you imagine missing the next one? Or maybe five years down the line?'.

If ducks could go pale the others were thoroughly convinced Donald would be the very first one to do so. He looked ready to have a full-blown heart attack from the way he looked. 'But hey ya know, she might even come and save us…but what are we gonna say or explain why it took us so long to come home?', he continued.

' "Donald could have let our mechanic have one or two blueprints, but he didn't want to"? Sounds like a legit excuse for you', Gladiolus joined in, smirking. 'Gwarsh, she'll be furious!', Goofy gulped, unintentionally making the whole thing worse, all the while Kairi, Noctis and Prompto were desperately trying not to snicker. Even Cindy looked ready to burst out laughing, keeping her professional look on.

'GAHHHH! OKAY! FINE!', Donald bellowed. 'JUST STOP!'.

Later…

With the agreement sealed, Cindy had immediately began to call in some workers to get started immediately, and she had even brought some of the more powerful light beams to keep the daemons at bay just so they could work. At a rough estimate of how long it'll before the ship will sail in the skies again, several weeks at best.

'Sorry for that, but that's me being generous with the estimation', Cindy said.

'Think nothing of it, we're truly grateful for your help', Aqua said. 'Take as long as you need', she said.

After they bid the mechanic farewell, the nine had all decided to finally head off for the next royal arm. With Sora, Kairi, Donald, Goofy and Prompto on the chocobos and the others in the car, they all sped off for the next destination.

A/N:

And now we have that out of the way. So it's gonna take time for Cindy to bring back the ship up, so what sort of trouble will the group get into? Who knows?

Sorry for the "meh" chapter, but I just wanted to get this out so I can brainstorm what to do with them. Thanks for reading either way, please let me know if there's anything I can do to improve this story. Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	5. Chapter 5

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 5

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

After some digging and information collecting, the party of nine finds the location of the next royal arm for Noctis. In the southern region of Leide, there was a mine that held the weapon in question, and after an hour of driving, they arrived at the abandoned mine.

'So, the next royal arm is here?', Aqua asked as she and the others exited the Regalia.

'According to the hunters anyways…', Ignis confirmed, 'Though the last one we found was pure accidental'.

'Yeah it happens a lot', Prompto mused, 'We found the latest one when we just climbed a volcano!'.

'Oh…neat', Sora said cheerfully, hopping off his Chocobo and helping Kairi. Prompto gave the boy a weird look, not exactly expecting such a laid-back response. Then again, the boy could summon spinning teacups, a giant lion of fire and turn his weapon into a giant hammer, so maybe he was used to extreme stuff like that.

They approached the entrance, going in a single line with Gladiolus in front and Aqua in the back, covering the rear. Inside the darkness, Noctis and his royal retinue switched on their flashlights. The corridor was narrow enough for everyone to keep bumping into the walls or each other. The party came to an elevator, which certainly had seen better days.

'We're…gonna have to use that aren't we?', Noctis questioned.

'Looks like it…', Goofy concurred, although equally apprehensive.

'Maybe, we should decide who goes first? Probably shouldn't overweight it', Aqua offered wisely.

'…what are you trying to say Aqua?', Kairi questioned.

'You know what I meant'.

After some debate on who goes first, it was decided the first group would consist of Noctis, Gladiolus, Goofy, and Donald. Inside, Noctis found there were some other levels to choose from. He eventually choose the first floor just to be safe. The elevator ride had all four of them on edge, the grinding of the metal the squeaky screams of old rusted gears finally brought to life, along with it moving slower than your average elevator.

Donald and Goofy immediately had their hands on the walls while Gladiolus hummed nervously. All the while Noctis was clenching and unclenching his fists, breath held and desperately trying to think of anything outside of the fact he and his friends were stuck in a slow-moving death machine.

'Should've let Iggy go first…', Noctis murmured.

What felt like hours, the ride was over. The doors opened with a groan and they wasted no time in getting out of the ride, letting breaths of relief. Gladiolus then turned to the machine and yelled up to the others, telling them they were off. Without a callback, the elevator doors closed and slowly ascended back up to the surface levels. 'Should we wait for them?', Goofy asked. 'Nah, we'll go on ahead and see what's on this level first', Noctis declared.

Gladiolus placed a hand near his mouth and yelled: 'IGGY! WE'RE GOING TO CHECK THE FIRST LEVEL FIRST!'.

Above, the others heard the giant's words and once the elevator returned with a loud clang, the five decided to enter it together. With everyone inside though it was a tight squeeze, they descended. Prompto was humming nervously, hands wringing, and he looked everywhere like a trapped animal, while Aqua and Ignis were calmly waiting for the descent to conclude. Sora and Kairi though, nervous, were pushed together thanks to smaller space.

'Well, least this trip is bringing us closer', she joked, pointing out how she was pressing against Sora.

'Y-Yeah', he replied shyly.

Passing the first level, they reached the second level and the two oldest members exited the elevator with Sora in tow. Kairi approached, but then stopped when she heard something fall. A quiet curse from Prompto, she turned around to see him picking his phone. 'Crap, sorry', he said apologetically. Kairi smiled softly at him. 'Jitters?', she asked. 'Yeah, don't like being stuck in places like this', he confessed.

'You and me both', Kairi agreed. 'Come on'.

Kairi turned to the exit but before she could even take another step, the gate suddenly closed in front of her. This caught the attention of the others, turning around to see Kairi and Prompto stuck inside it, the former placed her hands on it. Sora immediately ran back to the elevator and tried to pry it open. But the gate refused to open, and the machines began to stir again, and it began to descend. 'Kairi, Prompto!', Sora cried as they descended below.

Kairi looked at the buttons, hoping to find the emergency stop or halt the elevator altogether, but between the ones not alit or broken, she couldn't tell which one was which. Prompto looked himself but he couldn't tell which one was the emergency stop, and truth be told he wasn't even sure if it did work. 'Okay, okay…let's not panic! W-We'll just go back to the last level!', he said, nervously.

'Right…right!', Kairi agreed.

Upon reaching the third level, the cage opened but the elevator shook, and the sounds of metal groaning loudly rang from above. The shakes caused Prompto to fall against the wall and Kairi fell to her knees, but the elevator shifted, breaking and almost slipping further down. More breaking noises resonated from above, warning the two of what will likely come next.

'GO!', Kairi shouted.

They scampered out of the elevator, no sooner did Prompto leap out of the machine, the elevator's wires snapped, and it collapsed. The sounds of crashing metal and loud smashing noises combined with one final explosion of smashing metal.

On her backside with Prompto leaning against the wall, panting, Kairi looked at the shaft where the elevator used to be. With a loud breath of relief, she got back to her feet. 'That was too close', she said, sweating.

'You're telling me! Holy crap!', Prompto said, hand on his heart. 'I'm never taking an elevator again!'. Kairi giggled tiredly at him, almost agreeing him. She patted her clothes to wipe off the dust of her clothes. 'Guess we're going on our own…', Kairi sighed. Prompto groaned. 'Great…'.

Prompto handed Kairi his flashlight and helped attach it to her top, while he used his phone's flashlight and attached it to his jacket. No sense in letting her go in blind after all, plus he had a sneaking suspicion Aqua and Sora wouldn't take kindly if something were to happen to her after all. Just a guess…

The two less experienced members proceeded down the narrow passageway, the blonde with his gun in hand while Kairi held her keyblade at the ready. Kairi was already apprehensive about fighting in this area, given how narrow the place was and she was already imaging what sort of heartless they'd encounter. She hoped a giant heartless wouldn't appear here.

They came to a clearing where there was some light pierced from above, she sees several old abandoned minecarts with broken railway tracks, sand, and dust all over the place while several bits of ore glistened. They stood in the center, still armed and ready for an ambush. Then, Kairi's ears picked up something in the distance. It sounded like rusty wheels finally moving after years of immobility, and the sound was getting louder and louder.

Kairi's gaze turned to a pathway darkened with a railway track, and then suddenly a mine cart shot out of the darkness. She yelped and leaped out of the way, just dodging the mine cart as it rocketed on the tracks and once it reached the broken tracks, it broke off and smashed onto the ground loudly before it crashed into a wall. Kairi looked to the cart's origins and saw goblins pour out from the cave.

'Goblins!', Prompto called out, helping Kairi back to her feet.

The daemons charged at the two, swiping their claws at the keyblade wielder. Kairi blocked their attacks and parried them, leaving them open to her weapon of light. She cuts down two of the monsters. Kairi turned on one and aimed her keyblade at it, firing a Pearl spell at it. The spell smacked the daemon and destroyed it, the spell flew all over the area and managed to smack two more before it dissipated.

A goblin attempted to pounce on her but Prompto quickly turned around and with a clear shot, took down the sneaking monster. Prompto turned around and fired a few shots at the scurrying monsters, he managed to hit a few thanks to the scattershot tactic but many of them danced around his bullets. The blonde then switched to his SMG rifle and began to spray and pray at the daemons, yelling at them as they either dodged or found cover.

One goblin though managed to evade his bullets and sped up to him. The goblin leaped and slashed against his chest, cutting him and making him yell out in pain. He dropped his SMG in pain as he staggered backward, but before the daemon could tear more of his flesh Kairi decapitated it in a flash and stood in front of Prompto. Looking at his wound, Kairi aimed her keyblade at it and said: 'Cure'. A green light surrounded them, and tendrils of green healed the boy.

The blonde nodded gratefully, summoning up his revolver again as Kairi turned to the other daemons. The redhead keyblade wielder hacked away the daemons that came close to her and Prompto while the latter picked them off from a distance.

But as they were progressively thinning out the daemons, suddenly the light from above was blocked. They both looked up to see from above a black ink void, blocking the rays of light and shrouding the two in darkness, their flashlights the only sources of light remaining. Slowly long lanky creatures began to slither out of the black ooze from above, all fallen to the ground with silence, like wraiths.

These heartless were far lankier than the neo shadows, almost like the dusk nobodies Kairi had seen before. Except they weren't malleable like them, their fingers were long nails that glistened with some form of green liquid, red and black lines around their black ink bodies, reddish-golden eyes that shined in the darkness, their legs humanoid looking with black ooze leaking from them like wounds. On where their mouths should be, there were paper shark-like teeth drawn upon the head.

A total of six, along with the seven remaining goblins, Kairi and Prompto were outnumbered. To add more trouble to their list, the darkness was dense and almost blinding them. Their light being their flashlights was enough to reveal the two, but then the heartless' eyes disappeared, and they were then surrounded in pure silence.

Kairi and Prompto were in the center back to back, eyes and ears on full alert as the blonde held his gun up high and Kairi held her keyblade with both hands up. Neither dared to speak, chances of them distracting one another was too risky for them, and the sheer silence of the entire mine was suffocating. Kairi could hear her heart beating in her ears, the sweat trailing down her forehead as she looked for the monsters.

Kairi jumped slightly when she saw a flash of red light in the vortex of darkness, hearing the dust being kicked up and some of the rocks being knocked.

Prompto let out a shot at the dark, probably out of shock or was spooked, but he missed entirely. The spark from his gun lit up the area for a moment but even at that moment, they couldn't spot the heartless. A flash of red shot towards Kairi, the warrior of light had little time to block. The clash of steel rang loudly in the mine, making her stagger backward. She pushed it off her but when she tried to swipe at it the heartless leaped back and vanished into the darkness again. Kairi grunted and held her weapon up.

Another red-eyed heartless shot out at her, this time, however, Kairi aimed and fire a torrent of ice at the heartless. The flutter of the cold blasted it straight in the face and froze the head and shoulders entirely. The redhead swung her keyblade and shattered both the ice and being of darkness, destroying it. One down she thought to herself, turning back to the heartless. Unfortunately, from the corner, another leaped out and with its claws, scratched Kairi's right shoulder.

Kairi let out a yelp of pain, clutching her shoulder in pain but kept the keyblade up, eyes on full alert. But despite the superficial cut, she began to sway and the strength in her legs started to weaken. Her head felt heavy, her vision was hazy, and to add further trouble she felt sick. The girl fell on her knee, heaving. 'Kairi?', Prompto turned, looking at her.

'P-Prompto, something, somethings wrong…', she gasped, almost feeling like she was going to throw up. Quickly the blonde knelt to her level and looked at her wound, seeing it wasn't severe, but the greenish ooze was concerning. 'Crap', he cursed, recognizing the symptom after previous unfortunate setbacks. Quickly he turned and fired another shot at a goblin that attempt to get the jump on them, and in turn, got a bullet to its ugly face.

'Just hold on!', he said, rummaging through his pocket.

'W-What's happening to me?', she asked, coughing.

'You've been poisoned! I've an antidote on me…ah ha!'.

Prompto pulled out a green glass vial and quickly handed to Kairi, and with some help from the gunner, crushed it. Immediately Kairi felt the poison purge from her body and let out a breath, coughing still. She shook her head to shake off the dizziness as Prompto helped her back to her feet. 'We can't fight like this…!', Prompto said, 'Do you have any ideas?'.

'I'm fresh out', Kairi lamented, swinging her keyblade at a goblin and knocking it backwards and into a wall. Just as the sparks flew from Kairi's keyblade from guarding another red-eye attack, Prompto looked at his gun and grinned. 'I've got one!'.

Aiming his gun up high, the blonde fired a single bullet that shined brilliantly above them like a flare. The entire cave was lit up, exposing the heartless and daemons. Not to mention with the intense light that was like the sun, their powers waned in response to it. Kairi grinned and nodded to Prompto, approvingly. She aimed her keyblade as electricity began to surge around the blade and channel to the tip of the weapon. 'Thunder Chain!', Kairi yelled. A blast of lightning shot from the weapon like a web of lightning, silvery bolts blasted the red-eyed heartless and goblins alike. The heartless had massive holes in their chests with the goblins shocked and blasted.

As the heartless disappeared back into the darkness with the goblins, the black ink above and allowed the light to shine down on the two. They each released breaths of relief, glad to be back in the light. Dismissing their weapons, the two searched the area for any more surprises while Prompto rolled his shoulders. 'Close one, huh?', he muttered. 'Yeah…still, feel off…', Kairi replied, rubbing her stomach.

Prompto checked her and her wound, seeing that while whatever wound that would be there had healed up and there was no more of the poison around it. 'First times always the worst, it'll get easier to deal with', he said. 'Trust me, been there way too many times'. Kairi giggled, smiling at him. 'Thanks for the antidote earlier'. He gave her a goofy smile and a thumbs up before they resumed their exploration, more on guard.

They decided to forgo the passage that spawned the goblins and took another turn down one other tunnel, some more railway tracks that were mostly broken in several structures so less chances of being ambushed by a cart again.

As they walked, Kairi spoke up. 'So what exactly is a royal arm?', she inquired. Prompto turned to her oddly, before he remembered she and Sora were asleep when Iggy explained. 'Oh, well umm…see, they were weapons used by Noct's ancestors, like hundreds of years ago', he said, though he sounded like he was trying to make simple or picking at his memories for it. 'And ummm…well…'. With a sigh, he knew he was gonna be bringing up Insomnia again.

'See, Noct's dad was our King, and when he died, that power to use his ancestor's weapons passed on to him'. Kairi stopped walking and gave the blonde a look of shock. 'Noctis is a prince?', she asked. 'Yup, and soon we're gonna call him King Noctis', Prompto hummed in response. Kairi blushed softly and scratched her cheek. 'Oh dear…I guess I should've…you know, acted properly around him huh?'.

Prompto chuckled, she reminded him of everyone else back in school, except she was genuine. 'Nah, Noct prefers when you treated him like he's your everyday guy, that's how I met him!', he assured. Although he left out the real first time, he met him, Prompto gave her a friendly smile. She, in turn, smiled back. 'I get that, its more of hassle when people treat you like royalty, and suddenly you're not the same person in their eyes anymore', Kairi said.

'Huh? You say it like you know how that feels?', Prompto asked.

Kairi tensed up and shyly scratched her neck, giggling nervously and look away. Prompto stared at her before his own eyes widened with realization. 'Wait…a-are you a princess?', he asked. Kairi didn't answer but still refused to look at him, which only provided an answer unintentionally. Prompto blushed and jumped back before bowing. 'S-S-Sorry! I didn't-

'W-Wait a second! It's not like Noctis! Its…', she said, waving her hands rapidly, a blush coating her cheeks. Prompto blinked in confusion, lost. Kairi folded her arms and looked like she was trying to figure out the world's biggest riddle before she sighed. 'Its…complicated…I'm a princess of light', she said. 'A princess of light?', he asked, tilting his head.

Kairi gave him an unsure look before she laid her arms by her sides. 'I'm probably gonna get into trouble, but since you told us about Noctis…it's only fair I explain this', she said, walking with him…

1st Level

Back with Noctis, the four were still exploring the first level with little trouble from the goblins or daemons since they were scarce in numbers. One blast of magic from Donald, cleaving from Gladiolus and a warp strike and problems solved faster than Ignis finishing crossword puzzles.

Noctis had tried to get into contact with the others earlier after hearing a loud crashing noise from earlier that spooked all four of them, but being underground gave them no reception, not to mention the fact his battery was running low. That'll teach him not to charge at night…

'Think the others are faring any better?', Gladiolus asked, hoping to stir up a conversation to keep the atmosphere light.

'I hope so…I'm more worried about Kairi', Donald lamented. 'She's still a newbie at this'.

'I'm sure she's fine, Donald. She's got Sora and the others to help her out', Goofy said in an assuring tone.

Noctis couldn't agree more with that, after seeing what Sora can do along with Aqua being around, and Prompto and Ignis, she couldn't be in any safer hands if she tried. Still not to say he felt a little intimidated by his predicament, heck he had two shields and a mage. The prince was ahead of them leading the way, while he thinks he's leading them somewhere. The mines were abandoned for quite some time based on how run down the equipment was, the amount of broken rail tracks and rust on the mine carts.

He wondered what sort of daemons had made this place their nest, and hoped they didn't invite any heartless to share the rent of this place. They came to a narrow bridge with again more destroyed rail tracks, which made the prince stop in his tracks. They all peered to see how low the ground was from above, and Noctis was pretty sure he wouldn't be getting up if he fell.

'This feels like a good spot for an ambush…', Gladiolus muttered, sword out and shield at the ready.

Noctis couldn't deny that, seeing a lot of passages above them. A good spot for sniping and given how narrow the pathway was it would be easy for anyone to lose their footing and then met an untimely demise. Gladiolus pulled him back and went ahead first, slowly placing his feet carefully to keep his stance right and his amber eyes searched all around for anyone that wanted to take him on. Donald and Goofy held their weapons out in case of heartless attacking from behind them, while Noctis flexed his fingers in case.

Once the shield crossed over to the other side, he gave the prince a nod. After confirming with the two other world beings, who gave them a nod, Noctis went on ahead. But once he reached the middle, he was attacked. A daemon samurai suddenly leaped down from above the ceiling, landing right before Noctis. The prince backflipped away from it, summoning his engine blade and quickly swung at the samurai's long blade.

He parried the attack quickly and managed to create a distance for himself and the monster. 'Oh sure, attack after the big guy crosses…', Noctis criticized. The daemon rushed in and struck at the prince, the speed of its slashes was maddening, yet the prince wisely summoned one of the shields in his arsenal to block the onslaught.

The blade sparked and cut into the shield, each blow pushed Noctis back even as he dug his heels into the sandy bridge, gritting his teeth as he felt each strike. The daemon turned around, parrying Gladiolus' sword, but before it could retaliate the shield swung his sword again upwards, slashing the chest of the samurai. The giant blade slashed the chest and out came the black daemon blight blood, making it stagger back slightly.

'Noct, get back to the others!', Gladiolus yelled, attacking the daemon again.

Knowing the shield had the better chances of holding his own on a narrow bridge, the prince reluctantly nodded and warp struck back to Donald and Goofy, appearing behind them. The samurai turned its attention to the shield, eyes red with murder. But Gladiolus raised his shield just as it attacked him. As it wailed on the guardian, it was ignoring Donald, as he channeled some magic. Aiming his staff, a chill surged around the tip and then ice swirled around it.

'Blizzaga!'.

A blast of ice rocket forth from his staff and smacked the daemon straight into its back, freezing it's back. Yet despite the powerful spell freezing it and making the movement stiff, it persisted on taking the shield's life. Donald's jaw fell when he saw his magic merely hindered the daemon as opposed to freezing it, but then he growled.

'Oh yeah? How about this!', he shouted.

He channeled more magic into his staff, all the while Gladiolus stayed off the daemon's attacks with his shield and sword. He parried another attack and with a single thrust slammed the top of his giant sword against the daemon's chest, knocking it back and even getting it to its knee. Dismissing his shield, he grabbed the sword with both hands and with a yell, brought the sword down upon the daemon. But the daemon suddenly parried his attack with one quick stroke of its corrupted blade, easily deflecting the attack and with the surprise shift in momentum, Gladiolus was wide open.

And then, the daemon stabbed the shield right through his stomach. Gladiolus let out a gasp of shock, dropping his sword. He looked down at his wound as the daemon lifted him with one arm, making him growl in pain. 'GLADIO!', Noctis screamed. With a cry of rage, Noctis tossed his sword at the daemon and struck it in the back, piercing it. The daemon let a roar, turning its head slightly to see the enraged prince, blade embedded in its back.

The samurai then tossed Gladiolus off its blade, leaving his wounded form on the bridge before it turned its attention to the prince. Noctis summoned his twin daggers and began to parry the attacks with wild swings and keeping his eyes on the daemon. Then a shield flew over Noctis and smacked the daemon right in the face between the eyes with a loud clang. It recoiled in pain and staggered back, but this gave the prince a chance for retribution. With a pounce the prince buried his daggers into the daemon's shoulders at once, burying them deep into the shoulder blades.

'Noctis! Get Gladio over to the other side!', Donald bellowed, his staff glowing yellow with electricity. Nodding, the prince navigated around the daemon and grabbed his wounded friend, helping him to his feet and together they ran to the other side. Once both were safely across, Donald bellowed a loud quack and aimed his staff up high.

A large golden bolt of lightning rocketed down from above, destroying the ceiling and crashing down upon the samurai. It practically bathed the daemon in lightning, but it also demolished the bridge and sent it crashing down into the dark depth below, bridge eradicated in tow. Once the lightning disappeared, the two other world beings looked at their two friends. Gladiolus was leaning against the wall just as Noctis handed him an x-potion, and once he broke it open his body was bathed in green. He exhaled, the pain leaving him stiff and small aches.

Noctis gave the two a nod, confirming Gladiolus' condition. Yet his eyes fell to the now non-existent bridge between them. Before he could ask, Donald had already fired a ray of ice from his staff and created a bridge of ice, and Goofy in his infinite wisdom tossed his shield on the bridge, grabbed Donald and together leaped on to it. They slid across it and Noctis barely had any time to dodge them as they rocketed past them.

Last thing they could see were the sparks from Goofy's shield as he and Donald sped off down the corridor, yelling and then once they were swallowed by the darkness, they heard a loud "clang" and a crash.

'…WE'RE OK!', yelled Goofy in the distance.

Then the two heard a "clonk" like noise, followed by indescribable shouting.

'Well can't say I feel any safer but I'm very entertained…', Gladiolus remarked with a chuckle.

'You and me both, big guy'.

Level 3

'So let me get this straight, you're a princess of light, meaning you've no darkness in your heart', Prompto said, 'Which means you can't turn into a heartless like everyone else'.

'Yup…and there's this "passing the torch" thing going on with a new generation of princesses', Kairi explained, based on what Aqua had told her. 'But you're still one of them?', Prompto asked. 'Yeah, I'm not sure why though. Aqua says it may be because of the keyblade'.

Prompto hummed in response, trying to tie all this information in his mind. As much as Kairi was able to tell him, she was one of the Seven Purest Hearts, that according to Aqua are the "keys" to unlocking this door to the purest light and the bleakest darkness. And now the previous princesses have passed that torch to others…which she wasn't sure who they are. But he managed to learn herself and Sora both came from the same world, so that was a plus.

'Well about the keyblade, how does that work? I mean, I saw Sora handing his to Noct earlier and then it suddenly popped back into his hand', he asked. Kairi stopped and summoned her keyblade, holding it out. 'Well, Aqua told me, the keyblade will only stay in the hands of its chosen while in the hands of others it just…goes back?', Kairi said. 'I'm not sure how the whole thing works myself…heck, I've only recently just come out of training with the basic stuff'.

Prompto gave her a bewildered look as she sheepishly smiled. '…As you saw earlier, I'm not as good as Sora or Aqua…not even close', she lamented with a smile. Prompto felt a wave of déjà vu with this conversation, seeing the sheepish look clashed with doubts and lacking in confidence in one's talent. It was almost like…when he joined the Crownsguard. Kairi let out a sigh as she dismissed her weapon and folded her arms. Her face was coated with a forlorn look, the ugliness of doubt. 'Back there, if you were with anyone else you'd would've ended that fight quicker'.

Prompto didn't know how to feel about a person like her berating herself, it reminded him too much of he was feeling when he was just starting with Noctis and the others. The less experienced, less prepared and worst of all youngest member of the team, while the trio had far better grasps on combat and their training showed they were well prepared for whatever the world threw at them. Prompto remembered those moments where his self-confidence would be non-existent, where he'd question why Noctis would put his trust in him.

But all he had to remember was that night where his friend sat down and talked to him, proving he wouldn't have it any other way. Noctis made him feel he was worth bringing, that he proved his mettle to the party more than once.

Seeing Kairi like this, it felt as if he was taken out of his role and put into the role something he never expected to be.

'Well ya know, you did pretty good', he assured. Leaning against the wall, he gave her a friendly smile as she turned to him. 'I get that, the sense of "I'm not good enough". Just because you feel you're out of your element, or your friends are better suited for the fight, but ya know…', he listed. Looking down, he scratched his head before sighing. 'Believe it or not…I only passed my exam kinda thing, just a month before we had to leave home'.

'So, imagine, ya know, you're just fresh out of training and now suddenly you're off full-time to guard a prince, fighting the empire, monsters, daemons…and now heartless', he said with a weak smile. Kairi leaned against the wall with her small smile, her eyes showing she was getting his point. Prompto shuffled awkwardly in his stance, scratching his nose. 'Being the newbie sucks, and trust me I know, but…well, I wanted to be here, you know?'.

'Yeah, instead of being stuck on the sidelines, waiting for your friends to come home…it sucks', Kairi concurred. 'Least for me, I hated being left behind. Being safe while my friends are out there fighting'.

'Right…', Prompto said, understanding her view. Granted it was never about him getting left behind while they fought, it was more so because he wanted to protect the one friend he had. 'And then when you do get out there, you see what the world's got to offer'. Kairi sighed in agreement. 'So why did you join with Noctis?', Kairi asked, curious. Prompto gulped, suddenly feeling the old stretch marks on his body itch. Normally he'd keep those details to himself, but Kairi gave him this aura of assurance, confiding confidence.

'Well, believe it or not, I was a chubby kid', he said, albeit a tad bit of shame sneaking into his tone. Kairi gave the older boy a look of genuine sympathy and admiration. 'I find it hard to believe indeed, you're really thin', she said. Then she blushed and stuttered. 'I-I mean, not that it's bad…'. 'No, I get what you're saying, promise', he laughed.

'But see, I was the socially shy kid who kept to himself until I worked up the courage to finally say hi to Noct'. He left the story of the Oracle's dog for now, not entirely sure if he should bring her in. 'I, in my usual lucky self, tripped and he tried to help me up, and said I was heavy'. Kairi gasped, shocked. Prompto waved her off. 'It's ok, he didn't mean to say it like you think…but in a way, it helped me, ya know? Get fit, eat healthier…'.

He told her the rest of his tale, how he spent most of his early teens getting fit and healthy, how he worked up the courage to finally speak to him again (and blush when Noctis remembered him) and then told her how the Crownsguard thing went.

'So, you wanted to help your friend', Kairi said, smiling with admiration.

'…and ya know, I owe a lot to him for being there. Accepting me as…me', Prompto said with a grin. 'So even if I'm not the best, and I may screw up now and then…I wouldn't go anywhere without them, you know?'.

Kairi nodded, eyes shining. 'So don't let yourself think any less, I mean, Sora probably goofed up a few times on his first run, right?'. Kairi giggled, recalling the stories Donald and Goofy had told her a while back, smiling at them. 'Right, you're right'. She then clasped her necklace, her smile turned softer as her thumb brushed against the smooth stone. 'I guess, despite how determined I am not to be a burden to Sora, I'm still new to all this', she confessed. 'I don't want him to be in danger to save me, it's my turn to help him'.

Prompto nodded in understanding, smiling back at her. Then Prompto recalled something about the two, something he swore he sees in Noctis whenever Umbra delivered a letter to them. 'Speaking of Sora are you two dating?', he asked.

He wasn't expecting an answer to that very blunt method of questioning sure, …but he sure as heck did not expect Kairi's smile to fade…and her cheeks to turn into the darkest shade of red he thought no human could achieve.

Kairi stuttered, then paced awkwardly before she all but marched off.

'W-W-W-We should get going! Find the others! A-A-And that royal thing!', she said, her voice flustered and hi-pitched with embarrassment. Prompto, however, persisted in his questioning. 'You're blushing! Come on!', he teased.

'Shut up!', Kairi said, her cheeks darkening.

'Oh, come on! Wait, have you two been together for a while?'.

'Prompto!'.

'Just asking! He gave me that impression when we first saw ya! The way he was ogling you!'.

'NO, he- was he? Was he ogling me?'.

'Maybe? I could always ask!'.

'DON'T YOU DARE!'.

'Hey, I think he gave me the number to his phone…~'.

'IF YOU SO MUCH AS PRESS THAT…THAT…BUTTON, THING, I SWEAR TO WHOEVER IS LISTENING!'.

Prompto, with a cheeky smirk, took his phone out and opened it. Now truth be told Sora didn't give the blonde his number, and even if he did there was no signal below ground so he couldn't ring him at all.

But Kairi, as she was just as tech-savvy as Sora, didn't know that he suspected. 'Hey, Sora~ Just wanna ask~'.

'PROMPTO!', squeaked Kairi, grabbing her hoodie and throwing it over her head.

'OOOH really~ Aww that's adorable~'.

'STOPPPPPP!', whined the princess, looking like she wanted a heartless to show up and end her suffering.

Prompto was snickering the whole time, but he accidentally exposed his phone screen to Kairi by moving his arm, and when she peeked in a vain attempt to stop Prompto, she narrowed her eyes. The screen was black, which despite her lack of technical knowledge, she knew he didn't even open his phone.

She stood up straight as Prompto finished his laughter, grinning ear to ear at her. '…you have five seconds to run before I hurt you', she promised. Prompto laughed and sprinted ahead as Kairi yelled "five", summoned her keyblade and chased after him.

All the while smiling…

A/N:

Okay, so this is a focus on Kairi and Prompto chapter. I dunno if its just me but these two do have a lot of similarities between them. So I wanted to focus on them with a decent fight scene since I think Sora gets enough screen time. Anyways, please leave a review to help me see where I can improve on and if you wanna see something in this story.

As always, thanks for reading. Stay awesome but most importantly stay safe!


	6. Chapter 6

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 6

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness

Never had Sora would have so recklessly leap down an elevator shaft to save his friend, and if Aqua and Ignis hadn't stopped him he darn well would've dived down. Yet Ignis wisely warned him he'd very likely would break every bone in his body or worse.

'B-But what about Kairi and Prompto!?', he said, his voice was practically dripping with worry.

'I have no doubt they would have gotten out of the elevator the moment it stopped, keep in mind we saw it stop below our level', Ignis reminded. 'Instead of vain attempts like jumping down the shaft, perhaps we could explore our level and see if we can reach them by foot'.

Sora opened his mouth to argue, but Aqua nodded in agreement. 'He's right, better safe than sorry', she agreed. Sora slumped, but reluctantly agreed, and followed them.

Biting his inner cheek, he desperately tried to not imagine what sort of dangers Kairi was in, who knew what was lurking down here? He had faith in Prompto absolutely, but the idea of them fighting a threatening heartless on their own did anything but alleviate his worries. Kairi was still fresh out of training from what Aqua told him, and Gladiolus said once during a conversation Prompto was the less experienced among the four, so that meant two novices were on their own.

If they were lucky they'd find a way back to them as soon as possible.

Ahead of the boy, Aqua and Ignis were keeping their eyes ahead of them while the latter used his flashlight to illuminate their way. How Sora and Aqua were able to see their way through this darkness without a source of light of their own was impressive. They came to a narrow bridge with a ruined minecart rail upon it, broken in several places.

Aqua stepped forward first, keyblade out and slowly walked across the bridge. Once she was in the middle, the master spun around and aimed her keyblade above the two other members of her small party and fired a ball of fire. Her magical attack exploded upon impact, hitting a slithering neo shadow and destroyed it. She put too much magic into the in her spell however and caused some of the ceiling breaking apart.

'Go!', Ignis ordered, pushing Sora ahead.

Together the trio ran across the bridge as the entire ceiling on their side collapsed, large boulders crashed down on the ground. Ignis and Sora leaped as the bridge began to collapse beneath their feet, the former reaching it with Sora just barely.

They turned to see the bridge falling into the darkness below them, their way back blocked by the collapsed rocks even if they could make that jump.

Aqua sighed, dismissing her keyblade and placing a hand on her hip. 'Well, now we can't go back', she said.

'Not that it would've mattered', Ignis hummed. 'Without the elevator, we're still stuck below ground'.

'Hey, guys?', Sora called out. They two older members turned to him pointing to two roads that split before them. They joined his side and Ignis gave the two passages a narrowed look. There were no signs to inform them which path would lead, nor were there any maps to help them guide them on their way. The spectacled man already knew what their next course of action was going to be.

'Guess we're splitting up?', Sora said, looking at Aqua.

The blue-haired woman looked at him with a nod. 'Looks like it. I wish we didn't have to, but we'll cover more ground faster and likely bump into the others sooner', she agreed.

Ignis and Sora both nodded in agreement, but before Aqua could decide who was going where, Sora started to walk off down the pathway on the left. 'Sora!', Aqua said. He turned to Aqua with a cheerful smile. 'We haven't decided who was going alone…', she started, but Sora walked backward with his hands behind his head. 'Don't worry about me, I've been separated from Donald and Goofy before, I'll be fine!'.

With that Sora spun around and walked down the pathway, leaving Aqua and Ignis behind. Reluctantly the master sighed and journeyed down their road to wherever they may lead. Together they kept their eyes and ears on full alert for anything, be they heartless or daemons alike, and with some cheek from Ignis about her restraining her magic lest she bring down the entire mine shaft on them.

She rolled her eyes in response.

They came to an open area that appeared to be more of a construction site than a mine. Several walls were built more than natural with many large machinery scattered all around the place, cranes, bulldozers and some large heavy tools laying on the ground. Aqua looked at one large drill that had looked to have been torn apart by a wild animal, or rather a daemon. More rail tracks were scattered all around them, leading to several paths.

'More roads to explore…', Aqua said, folding her arms and looking around. 'And more chances of getting lost…'. 'Or perhaps if we follow this map here', Ignis called out, placing a map upon a dusty crate. Aqua joined his side as he studied the map, peering into it and memorizing the routes, humming as he adjusted his glasses. 'It seems all these paths connect and lead back here, which means this must have been where they started to mine', he explained.

'What about the levels? Do they have a way to this place too?', Aqua asked.

Ignis shook his head. 'Afraid not. The elevator was the only way to traverse the levels easily, they must have never gotten to developing alternative accesses to this spot'. He then traced one pathway and tapped it. 'Here, according to the map they've reported to finding a door they've been unable to open'. Aqua looked to see several notes written up along with one path, several of them explaining all attempts of opening the door had failed.

'And that's where the royal arm is supposed to be?', Aqua inquired.

'Indeed. And based on these notes the magic that was keeping the door secured was still in effect', Ignis elaborated. 'Which means even if we find it, we'll be waiting for the others until Noctis gets there'. 'Better than wandering around and accidentally stepping into an ambush', Aqua argued. 'Fair point'.

The advisor rolled up the map and placed it in his pocket, leading the two down the pathway leading to the royal arm. The tunnel was narrow and more cramped than the others, several lumps of stone stuck from the ceiling and the ground, making them duck or bump their heads, tripping a few times. They had used this tunnel very rarely based on how little went into making this tunnel less of a hassle to drag equipment through.

'Might I ask you a question, Aqua?', Ignis spoke up, clearing the silence.

'What is it?', Aqua replied, ducking under a large rock.

'What is your relationship with Sora and Kairi?'.

She gave him a strange look, yet his face didn't show any distrust or anything malicious, just genuine interest. 'What do you mean?', she asked. 'I've noticed that the two of them share similarities, but in comparison to yourself, you're not from the same place they came from'. Aqua's strange look shifted to genuine surprise that she stood out more than she had expected, and more so impressed Ignis was able to pick that up.

Ignis's pace slowed in tow with Aqua's walking speed, his green eyes showing interest and the sharpness reminded her of her former master, always able to see through the wall of illusions she dawned on to keep their identities secret. 'I'm Kairi's master, and a friend of Sora's, that's all', she said simply. 'I am aware of this, but how did you meet them?', he questioned. A darkness shadowed her eyes at that question, and Aqua looked away from him.

She had met them when they were children, but her most recent reunion with Sora…was sadly her most prominent memory. 'I…I've known them since they were kids…but only recently met up with them again to mentor Kairi', she explained.

'And why not Sora?', Ignis questioned.

'He was already an exceptional keyblade wielder, he didn't need any lessons from me'.

It still amazes Aqua just how far Sora had come on his own, no mentor or master to teach him to wield such a powerful weapon. She remembers her days of grueling training with her friends, the constant desire to strive for perfection, excelling at all tasks and getting a step closer to becoming a master herself. Yet here comes a young man with no mentor and he was already a future master in the making.

If her fight with him had taught her anything…

'What about you? How did you become Noctis' advisor?', questioned the master, hoping to divert any more questions about herself. Ignis nodded and said: 'It was decided when I was six years old, believe it or not'. A lock of shock crossed Aqua's beautiful features, eyes widened. 'Six-years-old? That's…crazy', she said.

Ignis smiled in response, partially agreeing with her now that he said it aloud. 'Back then it was, but truly it wasn't so bad. I grew up with Noct, practically almost raised him in some sense'. 'I spent so much of my youth studying and learning while looking after him for his majesty'.

'That explains why you're so close, you're like brothers', Aqua mused. Ignis chuckled lightly. 'Indeed, and I wouldn't change a thing…well…if I could change one thing about Noct…it would be his eating habits', he sighed. 'Let me guess: he hates vegetables?', she teased. Ignis gave her a surprised look, her smile was friendly and familiar.

'Believe it or not, but I grew up with two friends who…are brothers to me', she explained. 'But my little brother detested vegetables, so much so he once stuck his carrots underneath his chair by crushing them'.

Ignis chuckled at this as she told the story. 'We tried to convince him to eat more but he refused, he was so fussy sometimes. So one time, I managed to sneak in some carrots into his dinner by mixing it with some meat and potatoes, and he was none the wiser'.

'Clever idea. I once snuck in some vegetables in his soup, and thankfully he was too tired to even notice', Ignis revealed. Aqua giggled. 'Shame we had to resort to sneaking and trickery to ensure our siblings have some healthy greens in them', she mused softly.

'What about you? Do you have a particular food you're not overly fond of?', he asked, enjoying the conversation. '…Brussel sprouts…revolting things…', she admitted, her face turning into the named food's color. 'Truly? I find them delightful', Ignis argued. 'Ugh…I'm just thinking about them and I feel sick already…'.

'Ah well, no one is perfect', Ignis hummed with a teasing smirk.

After exiting the bumpy cavern, the two came to an open area that looked more like a proper construction site. One large crane with the driver's seat being torn asunder by daemons with half the crane itself was missing, the walls were more smoother and wall like that the bumpy and curved walls of the caverns. Railways in much better condition than they had seen so far, the mine carts having been filled to the brim with materials and stone.

Ahead of them was a pit with one a thin blanket of sunlight upon the walls, but no more paths or passages to traverse. Ignis pulled the map out from his pocket and opened it up to check. 'According to this, the door they found should be around here', he said, looking around for the door itself. Aqua turned to the right to see a flight of metal stairs constructed leading to the second floor of the area, but even from down here she couldn't see a door.

'I suppose we could have a look around since we won't be able to unlock the door without Noct', Ignis said, folding up the map again and putting it back into his pocket. Aqua held back the smug look that wanted to make itself known with the keyblade. Then no sooner did they walk down into the clearing, Aqua quickly summoned her keyblade. Slowly neo-shadows rose up from the ground, surrounding the master and advisor, the latter summoning his daggers instantly.

'Well, we found someone…', Ignis grunted, eyeing the horde of the dark creatures.

'And not the ones we're looking for', Aqua responded.

A neo shadow leaped at the master and received a clean cut from the keyblade, cutting it in half. During her swinging motion, she spun and aimed the keyblade at the group, spaying a torrent of ice that caught several of them in a barrage of very sharp icicles. They pierced and stabbed into the beings of the dark, killing three of them.

Ignis ducked and weaved from the vicious claws of the shadows, cutting them once he gets the openings he needed to stab, cut or hack away the creatures. After his previous battles with them, the dagger wielder had adapted to their quicker and ferocious attack patterns.

One shadow spun towards him, Ignis tossed one dagger at another neo shadow on his left, summoning his spear. He pushed his glasses upwards and crouched, before suddenly leaping into the air inhumanly high above the ground. But this was timed because as soon as the neo was below him, he returned to the ground, the spear crushing and piercing the monster, leaving a massive crack in the floor.

The advisor leaped backward in a flip to avoid the claws of another one, attempting to avenge its fallen brethren. On his feet, he chucked his daggers at the heartless, two hitting it square one and killing it. Re-summoning them in hand, he kicked one aside and plunged the dagger into another's back.

Ignis looked to his partner as he slashed another heartless and rendered it's inky form to nothing. The keyblade master was cartwheeling away from any attacks with grace, and when she was on her feet, she'd spin the keyblade and strike down a heartless with one blow. It was an impressive sight for him to see, a woman with such a thin-looking form being nearly as powerful as Gladiolus yet twice the precision and even elegance.

The blue head spun around with a trail of icy mist from the tip of the keyblade, then she shot her armed hand upwards and cried: 'Blizzard!'. A crystal of ice formed an inch above the tip of the keyblade, and then she subdued the heartless by imprisoning the ones close to hear in blocks of ice, fallen to the ground. Twirling around in a perfect 360 spin, she placed glowing spheres around her just as more of the unfrozen heartless began to swarm her. Once they were in range, the spheres all detonated around them, creating a bright of magic that demolished the creatures.

Yet before Ignis could call her name in worry, she suddenly appeared on his left, no worse for wear. She gave him an assuring look, winking cheekily and turned back to the small number of shadows that remained.

A total of six remained, twitching in place as to Ignis it looked as if they were strongly reconsidering their next attack. If they were capable of processing thought anyway. Still, he wouldn't lower his guard, eyeing them as Aqua herself kept her stance at the ready for the next surprise. The shadows began to sink into the ground though, not in the same way they use to mimic murals but into puddles of darkness.

The multiple puddles slowly merged into one, slowly a large hand reached out and slammed into the ground before the two, making them leap back as the rest of the new heartless pulled itself out of the dark puddle. A large humanoid shaped heartless dragged itself out of the darkness, the only difference between it and the normal humans was it was almost larger than an Iron Golem. Large crimson mark shaped like a heart was clear on its chest, black and violet swirling mist around it, the arms were armored in violet and bronze with several nicks and scratches on them.

In the hands were two massive broadswords the were as wide as the Regalia, though there was a line-shaped gap within the steel, the hilt bronze with the handles dripping with black ooze from the daemons. The legs were armored with large spikes on the knee caps, a large shield with the heartless emblem strapped to its back, the helmet looked like it belonged to a forgotten era, two long horns on each side with what Ignis could only describe a dualhorn shaped carvings on the helm, possibly to reference the beast's brutal and ferocious nature.

'Our situation has just taken a turn for the much worse', Ignis lamented, eyeing the heartless. The Dual-Horned swung its right-hand buster blade downwards upon them, but Aqua quickly erected a barrier around the two of them. The blade slammed upon the crystal shield, which shook the very ground beneath them and forced Aqua to fall on one knee in pain, grunting. The barrier shattered as the Dual-Horned retracted its blade and swung the left sword at them in a sweeping motion. Quickly Ignis tackled Aqua to the ground, narrowly evading the large blade as it breezed above them.

Shaking her head, Aqua and Ignis got back to their feet and each jumped away from the swords. The master landed on a pillar above while Ignis remained on the same ground as the heartless, dodging its large swings and occasionally chucking his daggers at it. But the blades merely bounced off the monster's chest harmlessly, landing on the ground.

Aqua aimed her keyblade at the large swords as an idea crossed her mind. 'Magnega!', she cried. Spheres of red and blue appeared below the weapon, and with its power combined with the weight of object, the Dual-Horned's right arm was dragged down upon the magnet spell, the sword stuck. Seeing this, Ignis summoned his spear and tossed it at the opening the master had given him to strike the head. The spear lodged into the right eye of the helmet, but if it did any damage the heartless didn't show it.

The spell ended though and because of the Dual-Horned was trying to break free, it accidentally swung the blade with all its might upon Aqua. The master leaped away from it, the pillar below her was destroyed by the blade, turned from a pillar to nothing more than pebbles and dust. In the air, Aqua aimed her keyblade and fired a string of lighting at the monster, blasting its large form with electricity. The attack did nothing like Ignis' own if nothing else they were being a nuisance to it.

Landing on another pillar, Aqua barely time to react to another on-coming swing of the sword. She leaped over it with a flip, and once more fired a blast of lighting at the helmet. On the ground, Ignis summoned his daggers and dashed to the ankles of the Dual-Horned, hoping this would be the perfect cause of athlete's foot. The man began to hack away at the ankles, but its armor was too dense and thick for his blades, he was sure he was doing a better job dulling his own.

The heartless lifted the leg Ignis' was striking and before it could stomp him into a bloody paste, the man just rolled away in time. The sheer force of the stomp shook the ground and even caused some rocks to break away from above.

Aqua was forced to move to another pillar once more, but this time in the air the heartless, with a thrust of its massive sword, struck at her. She performed a front flip, just avoiding having her head cut off from the massive blade. Her feet found themselves on the monster's sword and she used it as a slide to gracefully slide down towards the heart. Aqua let out a cry as she held her keyblade with both hands and smashed her blade into the helm of the beast.

The strike was enough to break the helmet enough for it to all split apart, revealing the heartless' monstrous form. It reminded her of the Darkside heartless she fought before, except its eyes were glowing red with the head being a skull, black ink oozed from its maw. Aqua spun herself in the air to evade it's arm as it tried to smack her away. Landing back on the sandy ground, she turned to the heartless as it brought down the sword upon her attack.

Aqua cartwheeled away from the strike, all the while Ignis leaped into the air and threw his daggers at the heartless again, now without the helmet protecting it. The daggers found their marks, one piercing the cheekbone on the left, and another straight in the forehead. The monster recoiled back in quiet agony, a dull rumble of a roar boomed from its chest, staggering backward to the edge. Seeing this, Ignis called back his daggers and pulled from his pocket an ice-bomb. Imbuing his daggers with them, Ignis ran at the heartless.

He jumped at it, his feet touching the knees of the giant before he leaped away from it, giving him plenty of space and height for what he was about to do. He threw his daggers into the ground near enough the heartless, and then the ground below it turned into a thick layer of ice. The Dual-Horned began to slip and stagger in its spot, but because of the ice and its massive feet it couldn't maintain a stable stance.

'Aqua hit it with all you got!', he yelled, landing on his feet.

Summoning up all her magic, Aqua performed one of her most powerful spells, Lightbloom. She began to spin around gracefully in place as a swirl of faint white light surrounded her spinning form, beautiful spheres of light shined all around her. Aqua then aimed her keyblade at the Dual-Horned once she stopped in place, the spheres of light all charging forth at the heartless like rockets. Each hit of the spheres resulted in devastating explosives that took out chunks of its form and armor alike, until the final one which hit it directly in its chest.

The last explosion, combined with the icy floors was enough to send the heartless off the edge, allowing it to fall into the darkness below, never to be seen again.

Aqua felt the darkness radiating from the heartless disappear as slowly a crystal-shaped heart fluttered from below, and then gracefully ascend into the sunlight, disappearing.

With a breath of relief exhaled from the master, she dismissed her keyblade. Then she staggered a bit, holding her head with one hand. 'Are you alright?', Ignis asked, immediately checking her for any wounds. She shook her head, sheepishly smiling. 'I'm fine…whoa…just a little, dizzy', she laughed.

Ignis then chuckled as she stood up properly. 'I've noticed many of your abilities involving disorienting activities. How did you prevent yourself from vomiting?', he asked.

'Believe me, I've had plenty of years to practice', she replied.

'HEY!'.

The two turned to see on a higher level was Prompto and Kairi waving at them, both covered in dust, dirt and a bit of pebbles, but luckily beyond that, they were fine. Aqua beamed beautifully at them, waving back as Ignis smiled softly at the two. Quicker than a Chocobo on a caffeine binge, the two youngest members of the ever-growing party raced down the metal scaffoldings and joined back to the master and chef.

'You two ok?', Kairi asked, looking at the weary two.

'Just a heartless or two, nothing we couldn't handle together', Aqua assured. 'What about you two?'. She eyed the slight tear in Kairi's shoulder, defiantly from something sharp she deduced. 'Same with us, heartless but with a few daemons…I uh, I got poisoned from one of them…', Kairi revealed, scratching her cheek sheepishly.

Before Aqua could go into full mother-hen on the poor redhead, she waved her hands quickly. 'D-don't worry! Prompto gave me an antidote, I'm fine!'.

'There you all are!'.

All eyes fell to where Ignis and Aqua came from to see Noctis and his companions entering the area. Much like the others, they were covered in dust and pebbles, although Gladiolus looked more roughed up and Aqua could see some dried blood on his pecs and his jacket, though judging from the lack of a wound she guessed Donald healed him or they used a potion.

'Gwarsh, we were worried about the rest of ya. Is everybody ok?', the captain asked, looking at the messy party. A choir of "yes" and assurances were sounded in the mines, and luckily nobody was in critical condition. That is…until Noctis did a quick headcount.

'Wait…where's Sora?', he asked.

'We got separated from Kairi and Prompto thanks to the elevator, but during our search, we split up to cover another cavern. Sora went on alone', Ignis stated, though there was a trace of regret in his tone.

'WAK!? You let him go alone!?', Donald bellowed.

Before Aqua could defend themselves( Even though she felt it would be superfluous seeing as they all knew what the boy was capable of), a voice called them out. They all looked to another level of the cave near two large walls, a much roughed up Sora, grinning at them. 'Hey! There you guys are!', he said with a wave. Before he could even jump down, suddenly Kairi was right beside him in what could only be a nanosecond.

The party glanced back to where Kairi was originally standing, seeing only a cloud of dust and then back to Kairi, completely in shock. 'What happened to you!?', demanded the princess, checking him for every wound he might have sustained. Sora sheepishly smiled and weakly said: 'Uh heh…got ambushed by a few heartless…and some daemons…'. Kairi scoffed and flicked him on the nose, earning an "ow" from him, then she summoned her keyblade.

'You should've stayed with Ignis and Aqua', she chastised, casting Cure on him. 'But I was looking for the rest of you! We had to split up!', argued the boy. 'And look how well that turned out', replied Kairi.

All the while their audience just watched with bemused looks, Prompto taking a few shots at them with his camera. 'Oh yeah! I think I found that tomb you're looking for!', Sora yelled, gesturing behind him with a thumb. Everyone let out a collective sigh of relief, least this incredibly long trek yielded positive results for them.

The tomb was hidden behind to large walls with only a very narrow corridor leading to it, forcing everyone to slowly squeeze their way through it with only Gladiolus having trouble. Before them was the door where within was the next royal arm and the burial place of Noctis' ancestor. With a deep breath, the prince opened the door and entered, where he obtained his newest addition to his arsenal.

'Five down…', he said to himself, placing a hand on his heart.

Once he left and locked the tomb once more, the party then had one last task…

…how were they going to get out…?

Several long hours later…

'Freedom!', Prompto cried, collapsing face-first onto the ground.

To be fair almost everyone else was close to joining him, many of them were leaning against a wall or using something to keep them up and ready. Sora and Kairi had slumped against a boulder, shoulder to shoulder in exhaustion with Donald and Goofy collapsing with Prompto. Noctis sat upon a smaller rock with Gladiolus standing beside him, only Aqua and Ignis were standing up, though slouching would be the better way to describe them.

The search for another way out had turned the trek into a desperate search for freedom, like prisoners escaping prison. Despite having maps, none of them had described an exit nor made any points to label passages showing at least a way out of the mines. They had deduced the miners may have not found another way out, which bode ill for the party but with that optimism from Sora, the morale was still high.

But their search did not go undisturbed.

Heartless and daemons would spring up upon them from all corners of the mine, they'd get lost in the maze-like design of the place, and to add salt to the wound many a times they fell to traps and wounded up separated from each other and would have to fend off all kinds of nasties.

By the time they ran low on supplies and healing potions, the party were all close to just laying down in defeat, until they returned to the elevator shaft. Gladiolus had offered to climb up and use some rope he carried to pull them all up, but then Aqua and Donald came up with a clever idea and using the shaft with the Aero spell, they created their lift using the shaft as a ventilation fan and blew everyone back up to the surface.

'So…tired…', Noctis groaned, sounding ready to fall asleep on the rock here and now.

'For once I can't fault your laziness…', Gladiolus agreed, letting out a jaw cracking yawn.

'How far is *yawn*, the closest Haven?', Aqua asked, rubbing her eye with her fist.

'Quite a far distance, at least a half an hour drive', Ignis stated, gesturing to the far north.

There was a collection of groans and some whining from Prompto, but in the end, the other world heroes got up and began to make their way to the car, to the surprise of the royal party. 'You guys serious?', Noctis asked incredulously

'You heard him, the sooner we get there, the sooner we can sleep', Aqua said back, her voice laced with dread at the mere thought of the walk.

'OR! We could just go to the hotel in town!', Prompto said hand raised. They all looked at him, then back at each other…

'…I'm willing to spend a few Gil for a room', Ignis confessed.

'Same', Sora joined in, his voice support by the others who voiced their agreement.

One trek…

After selling some materials they found, the party managed to pay for several rooms for everyone. With Noctis and his group with one, Aqua sharing with Donald and Goofy, and Sora with Kairi.

Unaware by Prompto's hand in sleeping arrangements, the two young keyblade wielders entered the bedroom, exhausted and eager to jump into bed and sleep off the tiredness. Until their eyes fell to the bed…the only bed in the entire room.

Their cheeks turned redder than Kairi's hair, eyes widened with surprise and shock as both stood side by side. Sora looked around the room, and his eyes fell onto the small couch that looked uncomfortable but for one night he could tolerate it.

'W-Well…you take the bed, I'll have the couch!', he suggested. Not giving Kairi a chance to voice or argue, no way was he letting her take the couch, he approached it. That was until he felt a tug on his jacket, stopping him. He carefully turned his head to Kairi, her eyes down but he spotted her cheeks had taken a darker shade of red.

'…w-w-we can share the bed…', she muttered, soft and low.

Sora opened his mouth to object, but the combined might of his exhaustion and with Kairi looking at him with those adorable blue eyes was enough to silence any disagreements he could have conjured up. Gulping, he nodded shyly as Kairi released her grip on the boy. Deciding to just get it over with, they removed their socks and shoes, with Sora removing his jacket, and Kairi removing the top of her dress, a thin shirt was underneath it.

They both slipped under the covers, and as Sora was thinking he'd keep his distance from her to give the girl much-needed space, Kairi shifted closer to him. It was adorable how shyly she did it, almost like a child needing her parents to be closer. Once her legs touched his own, Kairi looked up at him before she wrapped her arms around him and laid her head against his chest. Blushing still, the boy gently wrapped his arms around her, resting his chin on her head…

Slowly, they both drifted off to sleep…

A/N:

Royal Arm obtained! Great!

So out of curiosity, cause I'm thinking it…but if you all ship Aqua with one of the boys of FF XV, who would it be? Let me know!

As always, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	7. Chapter 7

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 7

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

Longwythe Rest Area

With a small yawn escaping her lips, Kairi shifted her head slightly before she slowly cracked open her eyes.

The first thing she noticed was a wonderous warm sensation and the slow but steady hum of a heartbeat. A sense of security that made her feel as if nothing could harm her, and she wanted more of that. Kairi gently nuzzled her head into the chest, letting a small sigh of content.

Slowly she raised her head to see the sleeping form of Sora, looking at peace and his breathing was relaxed. Kairi was sporting a large grin on her face, reviling in this situation she and he were in, and she could hear her heartbeat quickly with excitement. Sora shifted, his eyes squinted before his eyelids opened them and showed the princess the beautiful blue eyes he possessed.

When he glanced down to Kairi, still grinning happily at him. His cheeks turned rosy red when he sees he practically had the girl in his arms and felt their legs tangled up in the bed.

'M-Morning', he gasped, shy.

'Morning', she replied, giggling.

Gently Kairi moved up and rested her head on the mattress, now eye to eye with Sora and still smiling at him lovingly. 'Ya know, this reminds me of our sleepovers', she said, before she giggled. 'We used to share the same bed every time, be it my home, yours, Riku's…'. Sora smiled shyly, remembering those nights of innocence and naivety.

When sharing a few blankets on the floor with an army's worth of pillows wasn't awkward for him, that having his best friend by his side was the norm. Now here he is, sharing a bed with the girl who owned his heart.

Slowly with hesitation, Sora gently brushed against her soft cheek to brush away a strain of red hair, enjoying the softness and warmth of her skin. Kairi let out a sigh, closing her eyes and placing her own smaller hand on is own. Opening her eyes to face him, there was a sparkle within them, glistening innocence. Sora felt his throat dry up, the rapid beating of his heart grew into a quicker pace.

Kairi gently pulled his face closer to hers, as Sora moved his body closer to hers until their noses touched. As their eyes slowly closed, their lips moved in…

'Hey guys, you ready to-

Quickly they both turned to see Prompto, door opened with his cheery face slowly changed to shock. There was a silence as none of the occupants in this room had spoken until Kairi turned scarlet and had a look of mortification.

She screamed, Prompto and Sora screamed. Sora fell out of the bed in shock, Kairi grabbed the sheets and threw them all over herself as Prompto quickly ducked his head, averting his eyes while profusely spouting apologies.

'PROMPTO GET OUT!', shouted Kairi through her shield of blankets.

'SORRY SORRY SORRY SORRY!', yelled the blonde. In his rush to escape, he banged his head on the door frame before he slammed the door shut.

On the floor with his legs in the air, the hero rolled back and landed on his stomach with a grunt, getting back to his feet. Sora then poked Kairi's head (at least where he thought her head was), and heard her let out a small sound of embarrassment. She poked out her head to see him, her cheeks still rosy. '…why didn't he knock?', she whined.

Sora shrugged in response, not having an answer to Prompto's negligence of mannerisms. 'Well, plus side we don't have to get up yet?', he offered. Kairi gave him a look, then she let out a giggle. 'True, but you're up already', she sighed, throwing the blanket off herself. 'So I guess I might as well join you in the world of the awakened'.

'Ok, but uh, maybe we should, shower first?', he suggested.

Upon hearing him, Kairi looked at herself and immediately frowned at her state. Last night she was far too tired to even consider how messy she was, now that she wasn't held down by fatigue, she grimaced by looks. Her exposed skin was carrying several splotches of mud, dust and other blemishes on herself, she could feel the dry sweat on her body, and she didn't even want to imagine how filthy her hair looked.

'Yeah…maybe that's a good idea', she agreed. 'But you go first, I'll grab us some breakfast'. Kairi approached her clothes, and to her surprise, they were in pristine condition. Looking over them, she couldn't see any signs of the fights from yesterday nor did she find the tear on the shoulder anymore. Kairi turned to Sora. 'Oh yeah, our clothes patch and clean themselves', he explained. 'I mean, with all the trouble we get into, it makes sense'.

'…is there a spell for that?', she asked.

'You just want to be lazy', he teased.

'That is true'.

Changing back into her full set of clothes, Kairi headed for the door, but then her hand was caught. She turned only to receive Sora's lips against hers, catching her off guard and causing her to blush. For a total of five seconds before she kissed him back. They broke apart, the boy sporting a cheeky smile. 'There we go, first kiss of the day!', he said boastfully. Kairi raised a brow with a coy smirk. 'Oh? "First kiss of the day", what makes you think you'll get more than that?', she teased.

Sora grinned, and then pecked her quickly on the lips, making her squeak with surprise. 'See? Second kiss of the day!'. Kairi rolled her eyes, smiling. 'Fair point, cheater', she conceded. Once that was done, Kairi exited the room and headed down for the main lobby.

She found only Ignis sitting by a table with a mug of coffee in hand with the newspaper laid on the table. The green-eyed man lifted his eyes to her with a friendly nod as she approached him, smiling at him. 'Morning Kairi', he said, courteous. 'Hi Ignis, are you and Prompto the only ones up?', she asked, looking around for the blonde youth. 'Oh he's gone over to the restaurant across the road for everyone…', he said, but then he slowed down when he saw a slight blush on Kairi's cheeks.

Kairi saw this look and sheepishly scratched her cheek. 'Umm…we uh, got a wake-up call from him…', she mused.

Ignis sighed, seemingly understanding what she was implying. 'I warned him his disagreed for knocking first before entering would land him in trouble', he said, sipping his coffee. Kairi then looked to where the restaurant was, before turning back to Ignis. 'Are we looking for another Royal Arm today?', she asked. 'No not today, we've acquired the last of them in this region', Ignis said. He pulled out the map of Eos and placed it on the table for the princess to look at.

'The next arm was in Duscae. Which, unfortunately, the tomb itself had been looted and the weapon stolen', he revealed, pointing at the location on the map. 'How is that possible?', she asked, remembering the arms could only be used by Noctis. 'One of our allies believes it may have been a daemon, and luckily they managed to track down where it was last sighted', he elaborated. He pointed to another spot on the map only a few paces where his finger was.

'There is an old ruin site not too far from there, so we're hoping to see if we can get it back'. Looking at the map, Kairi frowned. The distance from here to there was farther than anywhere else they had explored so far, and the chocobos immediately came to mind. 'The chocobos wouldn't be able carry us that far though, we'll wear those poor things out', she said with concern. 'Agreed, which is why once we eat, we'll visit Cindy and see if she can help'.

'Sadly our funds are a tad bit on the short side…', he lamented. Kairi could imagine, based on how expensive the hotel was along with the food they were purchasing. 'Well is there anything we could do? I mean, we're kind of feeding off your wallets', she offered. Ignis smiled in response. 'Think nothing of it, you are all helping us with our tasks, but we could do with some extra coin'.

'Which is why once we return to Hammerhead, we'll take on a few hunts, and hopefully that will cover whatever costs Cindy will charge us'.

Just as he finished, Prompto returned to the lobby, carrying a few plastic bags in hand and his cheery smile dimmed when he looked at Kairi. His cheeks went rosy, and wordlessly he handed her the breakfast for herself and Sora, before handing Ignis his own. With a quick "good morning", he quietly climbed the stairs to the other bedrooms. Blinking with confusion, Ignis turned to Kairi, who like the blonde, took her bag and left.

'…he caught you and Sora in a compromising situation you said?', Ignis said coolly.

Kairi didn't give him a verbal response, but she did quicken her pace up the stairs, leaving the older man to smugly enjoy his breakfast and coffee.

On her way to their shared room, Kairi turned down a corridor and spotted Gladiolus walking down it, stretching out and yawning. His amber eyes fell on her, who gave the giant a smile and wave. 'Moring Gladiolus', she greeted kindly.

'Morning kid', he replied in kind. 'Where's Sora?'.

'Oh he was taking a shower, Prompto brought some food from the store and I'm just running back', she explained. 'What about Noctis?'.

Her answer came when a sluggish and still sleep-induced prince was walking down behind the giant. If Kairi was honest he looked like he hadn't slept at all for the past few days by how off his walks were. Her face must have shown the concern for him because Gladiolus gave her a smirk. 'Don't you worry kid, sleeping beauty over here is just being dramatic', he assured. 'Go to hell…who wakes up at…', Noctis slurred, before reaching for his phone and checking the time. '…nine am…'.

'Almost everyone', Gladiolus said with a deadpanned tone. 'Anyways, we're gonna see if Aqua and the others are up, Iggy told you our plan today yeah?'.

'Yup, I'll see you guys soon', she said.

Once she bid the two a good morning, she continued her way back the room, a spring in her step. On her way, she began to think about her experience so far and evaluate her progress and so far she liked to believe she was at the very least holding her own with the party. Kairi was happy to see she could keep up with them, despite knowing she was still a novice compared to Sora and Aqua, but she was happy to say she wasn't a liability to them.

Kairi then began to think about how Axel was doing, and a part of her felt a little bad she didn't ask him to tag along with her. Since they started training together, she was rather surprised to see that behind his "jerk move" motives there was a genuine goodness within him. He almost reminded her of Riku in some parts, and he was a great listener to get stuff off her chest. When she got off the phone with Sora the first time, she was adamant they find him and bring him home.

Once she and Axel were brought to the tower, Kairi told them what had happened and her losing contact with Sora. Unfortunately for them, the king had told them that Sora was farther away from the tower or even the worlds he's explored, and without a way to find his ship or him, tracking him down would take forever. It also didn't assure her that Yen Sid himself, deemed him to be a secondary priority and even told them to return to their training.

When they left the meeting, she was furious. How could he ask her, or heck anyone among them to just leave Sora behind for now until they come up with a plan that may take days, weeks, even months possibly? Kairi even had the mind to steal a ship and go off on her search, until Axel pulled her on that plan, stating she had a better chance of getting lost or ambushed by heartless than even reaching a new world to start her search.

She hated to say he had a legit point, piloting ships wasn't part of their keyblade training sadly, and even though he could have, Axel wouldn't be able to use the dark corridor for himself to transport them. Whether he could use it again or not was irrelevant seeing as he couldn't just take them to Sora just like that. So while she was brainstorming, she remembered overhearing Ventus talking about the Star Shard the king used all those years ago and maybe looking back she must have paid closer attention to the "teleporting to worlds" part more than the consequences of using it.

And while she should have known better, or at the very least asked the group, Kairi knew it was their best shot. It took some time, some sneaking and some thoroughly searches (helping Sora clean his room was great practice), she found it. Then came the trick of using it…which she had no clue how to even start it up.

Luckily (or unluckily) Aqua had caught her in the act, and when she touched it to take it from her, she must have unintentionally activated it. Next thing Kairi knew, she and her new master were off to wherever the shard desired to go.

"Maybe I should try and call Axel, or Riku, just to let them know we're at least safe", she mused to herself, feeling guilty. She could only imagine how worried those two, or the others must be. Plucking out her phone from her back pocket, she started to look at her contacts, but to her dismay, she only had Sora's.

'Oh…crud…', she muttered, standing before the door. She placed the bag down and opened the door, eyes still on her phone and walked in after picking the food up. 'Hey, I'm back', she greeted, taking her eyes off the phone, but then froze on the spot.

Before the girl was possibly the greatest sight her eyes had ever bore witness to.

Sora was just coming out of the shower based on the steam from the bathroom and some slithering up from his body, a towel wrapped tightly around his waist covering everything, but his torso. Which Kairi took DEEP notice of how muscular he was. Granted he wasn't anywhere near Gladiolus, but she find his lankier form to be far more appealing. Four-pack muscles on her stomach with his chest looking solid, pumped arms and the tanned skin, his crown necklace dangling down his neck.

Even damp his hair refuses to be flat.

Kairi seemed to have lost control of her jaw because she couldn't close her mouth at the sight, eyes widened (and secretly taking in EVERYTHING and burning it into permanent memory), her face red as her hair, food bag dropped with her gummi phone.

Sora, however, just smiled. 'Why didn't you knock?', he asked innocently with a cheeky smile.

His voice seemed to break her free of her state of shock and admiration because she started to stammer and jumped on the spot, looking away. 'SORRY! I THOUGHT YOU WERE STILL IN THE SHOWER!', she shouted. 'Well I just got out there, so if you wanna hop in, go ahead', he said, gesturing it with a nod from his head.

'Right! Sure, thanks!', she said, shyly looking back at him. Sora then shyly smiled. 'umm Kai…c-could you um, go in? Cause I'm gonna get changed', he said. Kairi blinked, then looked back at his towel then at his neatly folded clothes on the bed. 'Unless you WANT to see EVERYTHING', Sora muttered softly but loud for her to hear.

Kairi's eyes shot open to the size of dinner plates and her face was even redder than the color itself and Sora swore he saw steam escaping her ears along with it. With a very loud squeak, Kairi dashed into the bathroom, slamming the door shut and locking it behind her. Her back against the door, she took several breaths to calm her extremely beating heart, her cheeks felt like they were on fire.

Then a thought just occurred to her, and she let out a groan as she heard Sora's laughter from behind the door. '…why didn't I take a picture of him…?', she lamented.

*Later*

Hammerhead

Arriving at the famous pitstop, most of the party went to the restaurant to pick a few hunts while Aqua and Prompto went to see Cindy about methods of transportation.

The worker was currently at a desk inside the garage, several blueprints on it with a lot of tools next to it and several notepads. Cindy was muttering under her breath about the notes and occasionally scribbling them in. When Prompto called her out, she jumped and turned to the two visitors, her eyes gleaming with excitement.

'Howdy you two', she said, putting down her pens and walked over to them. 'If you're here for your ship, have to say sorry but ain't ready yet'.

'Oh no, we had a feeling it'll take more time', assured Aqua, 'We're here ask about, other means of transportation'. Cindy gave her a worried look before Prompto jumped in. 'It's ok, the Regalia is safe and top condition, promise!', he said. Cindy's worried look turned to relief, the last thing she wanted to hear was that glorious machine to be in pieces. 'Alrighty, but what's the trouble then?'.

'Well see, we're heading to Duscae soon, and well…', Prompto said, scratching the back of his head.

'The journey would be too much for the chocobos', Aqua finished, 'We've only used for short distances but this will be too much for the poor things'.

Cindy nodded in understanding, the journey here to another region would do the poor birds out for life. 'So you need some other vehicles?', the mechanic asked. 'Yeah, don't suppose you have any on hand? We'll pay!', Prompto promised. 'Well…I got two vehicles', she said, thinking. The mechanic showed them the two vehicles in question further in the garage, both covered with a tarp. She yanked them back to reveal one motorbike, along with a regular car.

While the car wasn't anything to brag about compared to the Regalia, the motorbike was a beast in a half. Pristine condition that shined even in the garage's darkness, perfect sized for anyone and with two leather bags on the seat for conveniences. 'These two we found in a scrap yard, but after some polishing, changing a few things and tinkering, these two will get you from point a to z if ya wanted'.

Prompto whistled with approval while Aqua gave the bike a look of apprehension. But when she looked at the car and thought about it, there wasn't enough room for all five of herself and the otherworld beings. 'So, you two wanna ask your buddies if these will suit ya'll?', Cindy asked. 'How much would you charge us first?', Aqua asked. Cindy had a grin.

*Five minutes later…*

'SEVEN THOUSAND AND FIVE HUNDRED GIL!?', Noctis said, horrified.

'That's' what she wants for the bike! The car is just a rental!', Prompto weakly argued.

'Oh, how frigging sweet of her!', replied the angry prince.

Aqua awkwardly scratched her arm as Ignis rubbed her temples, while everyone else was looking over the hunts. The blue head was starting to think maybe just walking everywhere wouldn't be as painful as the payment Cindy wanted. Noctis slumped into his seat in defeat, looking at the bill Prompto got from Cindy, almost like if he glared at it hard enough it'll burst into flames. Prompto sheepishly grinned at the situation, while Ignis spoke up. 'Regardless, she's doing us a discount compared to back home, not to mention the ship', he pointed out.

'Sides, the hunts won't be that hard with everyone else', Gladiolus reminded. 'And most of them are in Leide and aren't too far from Hammerhead'.

'So, we could split up?', Sora offered.

'That would certainly cut down on time if we're all for it', Ignis concurred. 'But the hunts at night are to be done together, remember daemons come out at night'.

Everyone nodded and with some prodding on Noctis' reluctance, they all started to go through the list of hunts before everyone had a few.

As such the parties were split into a two-man/woman squad each.

Sora with Kairi, Aqua and Prompto, Gladiolus with Ignis and finally Noctis would be with Donald and Goofy.

After everyone bid good luck to one another and after the mother hens stressed the importance of safety, they all split up to their hunts…

Lestallum

'Bananas…oranges…', listed Iris, carrying a paper bag filled with groceries, looking at the small paper in hand of items.

Lestallum was as busy as usual within the market, many times she had bumped into a customer or window shopper or get lost wandering the busy streets. The sister of Gladiolus though enjoyed the busy place, seeing the energy of the excited shoppers and equally eager merchants.

Granted Jared was willing to go shopping instead, but Iris had grown bored of just waiting in the hotel for any word from Noctis and the others, so this way she had an excuse to go out and see what was going on in the world. News of late hadn't changed much save for more imperial propaganda, some rumors of the Oracle being alive and well, still performing her Oracle duties.

Then the most recent one that defiantly caught her ears was the speculation of new daemons that have been sited by the hunters back in the Leide region. Iris asked one of Cor's men about this a while back but he hadn't gotten back to her yet, which was the norm for her by this point.

'Now where's the mango…?', she said, looking back at the list before standing on her toes to peer over the sea of people.

Sighing, the brunet scratched her cheek in thought. Yet as she did so, her eyes turned to see someone walking through the streets. She blinked twice, almost certain she saw Noctis and immediately proceeded after him.

He turned down a corner seemingly trying to find his way, which already sent her alarm bells ringing in her head. Given how often he and she explored the city Iris had assumed he'd have the place down like a mental map. Then again this was the same young man who kept forgetting his King's Knight password so often he had to keep a note on his phone with his passwords.

Iris remembered fondly how often she and Prompto would troll him with his phone~

Following him, Iris found him looking left and right before walking down the former path. Iris followed closely, taking out her phone just in case she needed to ring Gladiolus or someone, and perhaps take a picture of this stranger. Although she was aware of the risks she was taking, for all she knows it could be an imperial spy or worse, but if this was someone looking for information about Noctis the last thing she wanted was to put them in danger.

Iris followed this stranger down an alleyway, but when she came around the corner, she stopped. There was nothing ahead of her bar a few garbage cans, several pies left unattended and a few construction obstructions before her. The stranger was nowhere to be seen.

'What the heck…?', she quietly said to herself.

Walking towards the wall in disbelief, Iris looked around, seeing no doors were opened nor were there any other ways to leave this area. Looking up, she rejected the idea he could have climbed this wall and escaped using the rooftops, seeing as the height would take some work to get that far up, plus she didn't hear any exertions.

Iris pocketed her phone with a sigh, maybe the heat was getting to her?

Then, the hairs on the back of her neck stood up and she turned around to find small portals opening in front of her on the ground. Slowly strange white creatures slithered out from the ground and stood in before her.

Iris immediately backed up to the wall with a gasp, looking around for something to defend herself with. Luckily there was a lone pipe just a foot from her, and like a dog for a bone, she quickly scrambled for it. The strange slithering creature leaped at her, and like Gladiolus had taught her, she swung it with everything she possessed.

The creature, somehow, bent its body like it was made of some malleable substance. It weaved around her strikes and landed on its bony thin feet behind her. She swung again, but despite smacking it right on the head, it wasn't even remotely fazed. There wasn't even a sound from the impact, it was like she hit a very durable wall of fluff.

Deciding that if offense wasn't going to cut it, the girl decided to make a run for it. She quickly weaved past the group, but no sooner did she even get past those creatures, another portal opened before her, revealing a giant bulky sized version of them. She even bumped into it and fell back on her backside, rubbing her face as if she ran into a wall. Peering up in terror to see a monster that was a few inches taller than even her brother, with an equally large weapon in hand.

Trapped between a wall of a monster and several malleable monsters, Iris closed her eyes in fear when she sees the monster raising its weapon.

Then, a sound rang through the air, the sound of steel.

Daring to peek, the giant's weapon fell and slowly it collapsed to its knees before fading out of existence, and then before her, was her savior. 'Stay down', he instructed.

He walked past her, and from the corner of her eyes, Iris spotted his weapon…

A key…?

A/N: (Edited) So after some chats with a few of you, and I've decided to do a switch. I did have an idea with someone from the 13 Darkness, but then ultimately decided to scrap it with a new idea. So yeah, I hope this will be a more entertaining change.

A/N: So a short one, but this is just to build what I've planned next and some background to Kairi finding the shard with references to characters. Next time we'll go on hunts and have some more development between the team.

Question: if you could have a KH character appear here, who would it be and why?

Thanks for reading, and as always, stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	8. Chapter 8

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 8

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

'So, these dualhorns…look tough…', Kairi hummed, looking at the bounty paper in hand, lips pursed in thought.

With Sora, the two keyblade wielders were walking just east of where Hammerhead was stationed to where their prey was prowling the area. While Kairi was rather anxious about fighting living animals, seeing as she had mostly been fighting heartless, a part of her steeled her resolve. If Sora can do it, she could surely.

'I think Donald met them when we first landed, said they're pretty tough to magic', Sora commented, hands behind his head. 'Guess we'll just have to stick with a good clonking to the head!'.

Kairi nodded in agreement, putting the notice in her pocket and kept up with him. Wiping a bit of sweat off her brow though, now noticing the sheer heat of the wasteland and even feeling parched. At the recommendation from Ignis that everyone carry something to rehydrate themselves, Kairi opened her water flask and took a swig of ice-cold water.

The heat here was a massive increase compared to the cool summer heat from the islands in comparison. Back home all she ever had to worry about was one heatwave in a million chance, but here it felt like the hottest day on Destiny Islands was this every day. Looking at Sora, who was in far more layers of clothing in comparison to her own, he looked perfectly fine. Lucky him she thought, putting her flask back in her pocket.

In time they came to several large boulders scattered around them, dry bushes with patches of grass in sand and ahead, were the dualhorns. A total of five so a small herd, and once they got close, they both ducked down by the boulder and peered at them. They summoned their keyblades, the redhead peeking at them and trying to conjure up a plan of attack. Based on the size and what Donald said, she was convinced their armor-like would be too thick, and maybe a straight-up strike wouldn't be enough, even with Sora's strength.

'Ok, what's the plan?', Sora asked, giving her a look that gave her a sense of confidence like he trusted her judgment.

Kairi hummed and rubbed her chin, before snapping her fingers. 'That hammer of yours, the one Noctis told us about?', she asked. Nodding, Sora changed key-chains and shifted the blade into the required weapon. Once he laid it beside them to keep it out of sight, he looked at her with curiosity. 'Cutting won't do, but maybe smashing them as hard as you could may break their hides and hard shells', she explained.

'You sure?', Sora asked, doubtful.

'Absolutely. Then once their armors removed', she continued, lifting her keyblade, 'I'll go in for the kill'.

Although she sees him with doubt, Sora ultimately nodded and got up, hammer in hand and jumped on the rock. Once he looked back to confirm, she nodded, and he sprinted off at the beasts.

The hero swung his hammer at the closest one with one wild mid-swing, smacking right into the full body of the beast. The sounds of breaking and cracking rang throughout the desert land, along with the beast being knocked on its side with the vulnerable flesh exposed.

Kairi immediately burst into a dash, leaped into the air and plunged her keyblade right into the exposed side of the animal. Her blade pierced through easily like sticking a knife in butter, killing the beast, mercifully, in quick fashion.

Yanking her keyblade out, she turned to see the other dualhorns stomping their feet in fury at the sight of their fallen member of their herd, roaring with rage. The two heroes used the tactic repeatedly, Sora smashes, Kairi stabs, and so on so forth, until finally, they bring down the final dualhorn.

Not the more exertion task Kairi had undertaken but she felt a surge of accomplishment when she sees the result of her planning and her team work with Sora was, too her delight, just as great as she believed it be.

Clapping her hands to rid them of dust, Sora dismissed his key-hammer, grinning happily at the princess. Kairi smiled at him, but then frowned when his smile faded and, in its place, worry with them looking upwards. She followed his gaze to see a large ship blocking out the sun, a loud humming noise of an engine with the wind blowing the dust and her hair like crazy.

Above, the large hanger door opened and left a small ramp exposed, and then several mechanical humanoids jumped off the ramp and landed a few feet before the two. A platoon of magitek soldiers, a total of twelve consisting ax units and sword units.

Kairi stepped back with worry, summoning her keyblade as Sora immediately jumped in front of her. 'Those guys again!', he growled. 'Didn't we fight them before?', she asked, eyeing them. 'Yeah, Gladiolus said they were the empire? Bad guys', he surmised. Kairi nodded, all she needed to hear to bring out the key.

One sword unit ran at them, but it merely quickened its demise when Sora dashed forward and with both hands on the blade, cleaved both the sword and unit in half. Once the halved unit's remains hit the ground, the rest charged forward to the boy. Kairi rushed in to help, her keyblade shining brightly. She aimed it at the group and fired a pearl at them, the beautiful sphere glided through three soldiers leaving gaping holes in their chests.

Two of the axemen ran at her with incredible speed, reaching her in seconds and causing her to quickly lift her blade to block clumsily. The first axe that reached her weapon was blocked and then the second had enough strength and momentum to bring down her weapon to the ground. Kairi rolled away from them once her weapon touched the ground.

Once she created a space between her and them, she re-summoned her keyblade and aimed her weapon at them and fired a powerful torrent of water at them. The magical aquatic spell dosed them in water and quickly shortened their circuits she presumed, based on how they shook and twitched with sounds of electricity going wild within their robotic bodies. Several small explosives danced around their bodies before they collapsed.

With Sora, not only did he managed to hack away at least three of them easily but using his air-sliding abilities and superior mobility he can cut and run his enemies. He leaped over one swinging axe unit and decapitated it mid-leap, and as soon as he landed back on his feet, he stabbed another unit in the torso. The key piercing it and with it, he fired a spread shot of ice at the ones behind the unit.

The shot-gun spread shot attack froze two units behind the stabbed unit and managed to hit a few though not defeating them. He pulled back his weapon and while spinning his keyblade, he slashed another unit and brought it down with another strike.

The combined might of the two keyblade wielders was more than the imperials' forces could have anticipated, for in less than ten minutes the only units remaining were down to three. Kairi slid on the ground near one and while sliding she cut the thighs of the machine and brought it down. Stopping her slide, she turned quickly, aimed her keyblade up to the sky and yelled: 'THUNDARA!'.

A large golden bolt of lightning struck down from above, bathing the mechanical being in light that destroyed all the circuits and rendered it to dust.

Sora cleanly severed the head off the remaining soldier, letting the body fall and the head to roll away. With a grunt, he smugly brushed against his nose and turned to Kairi, dusting off the dirt from her clothes, giving him a shrug with a smile.

'Think I'm getting the hang of this', she remarked, cockily grinning.

Sora smiled in response before his expression turned sour when they heard the whirring noises of an engine from above. They looked to see two more drop ships arriving and deploying more soldiers, a platoon of twenty this time, but that was from one ship only.

From the other ship dropped an MA-X Patria, a mechanical beast with long bent shaped arms with a plethora of weapons with hydraulic equipped legs. It landed before the two, making the ground shake slightly as it stood up proper.

'You've got be kidding…', Kairi grunted, getting to her fighting stance.

'Watch yourself!', Sora said.

The soldiers consisted of the same unit from earlier, so at least they had an understanding how to fend them off, but then the MA-X fired a barrage of rockets from the back of the cockpit, firing them at the two. Kairi quickly jumped in front and aimed her hand, erecting a barrier around them. The rockets crashed into her magical dome but aside from causing her to flinch or grunt with effort, they were unharmed. After the smoke cleared from the explosions, Kairi lowered the barrier to allow Sora to rush in.

Sora hacked his way through the platoon of machines in his way, bringing them down with one strike after the other before he leaped and used an axe wielder's head as a steppingstone. He leaped off and flew towards the machine, the machine lifted its right arm and unleashed a curtain of flames at Sora.

With a yell, Sora twisted his body to quickly evade the attack and found himself back on the ground. The MA-X turned to stare down at the boy, now becoming its sole target. With its left hand raised, it slammed it down and fired red electrical sparks into the ground. Sora, unfortunately, didn't have enough time to react and was then bathed in red lighting, causing him to yell out in agony.

Parrying an attack and then chopping down another soldier, Kairi turned to her boyfriend's yells and widened with terror. Gritting her teeth in fury, Kairi dashed the boy, running around the platoon as opposed to vainly cut her way through. Luckily their movements were slower than them and when she ran around, they seemed to be slow to catch on to her plans. But not all.

Several of axe men chased after her at a faster pace, just two feet behind her. The princess aimed her keyblade and blindly fired spells at them in a "spray and pray" tactical move, firing ice, fire, and lighting at them. Some flew over them, some missed entirely or by some divine luck, she managed to hit one square in the chest with enough magic to create a hole in their torso. They stumbled and tumbled on the ground but luckily their limbs caught another's legs and together went down.

Once Kairi got closer to Sora, she jumped and turned to face her chaser with her keyblade aimed at it and fired a single beam of light that pierced the forehead of the machine. It twitched for a moment before falling to the ground in defeat. Sora was still being shocked by the electricity of the MA-X, so when Kairi got close enough, she ran her hand along her blade to coat it in lightning and then she tossed her keyblade at the limb dispensing the electricity. The flowery blade spun and sliced through the limb, severing it and falling to the ground with dust flying.

The princess re-summoned her key as Sora fell on one knee in pain, shaking. Kairi aimed her keyblade and cast "Cura" on him, restoring him. Though on one knee still, he gave her a shaky thumbs up in gratitude, as the platoon started to press them into a corner. Kairi clenched her grip on the key tightly, eyes darting left and right to the swarm of mechanical adversaries that were slowly putting their backs against the wall.

Sora got back to his feet and readied himself, yet as they were about to attack, plunking before them were what appeared to be rockets landing in the dirt. They looked to see the machine was covered with sparks and electricity of its own, staggering and looking ready to fall over and die. Rockets were flying out of its back and stabbing in the ground all around the battlefield without any thought to where they were going to land.

One of the rockets even crushed another solider into the ground. At long last, the machine fell to the ground, and as the sparks grew wilder and more sporadic, it exploded in a fiery cloud. Dust flew and both teens had to cover their eyes to protect their sight. Sora though saw the rockets open and started to blink red rapidly. His eyes widened when he heard from a distance alone rocket explode, taking some of the magiteks with it.

As more began to explode from all around them, he paled when he saw the single post of a rocket near them was blinking and beeping faster. Panic surged within him as for what felt like time was slowing down to a crawl, Sora leaped and wrapped Kairi into a hug, turning his back at the rocket. The explosion happened and next thing he near, his back felt the searing heat and the shrapnel cutting into his back.

Before he could even yell out in pain, he and Kairi were propelled into a large rock. They both slammed into it, his world went black…

Team 2

Leaping over the sabertusk while swiping at it's back, Aqua landed on her feet and turned on another predator. Only for it to take a bullet to its head and then fell over, dead. Aqua turned to her partner with a nod as Prompto picked off the sneaky predators from ambushing the blue head.

The master swiped her keyblade to the right and cut down another beast, turned her free hand to another and blasted it with a gust of wind that shredded it's hide and left several lacerations upon its now-deceased form.

Aqua looked for more, but Prompto just finished off the final one with one more gunshot from his revolver and brought the hunt to a close. Dismissing her keyblade, Aqua shook her hands with sighed with relief.

'BA BA BABA BA BABA!', cheered Prompto, doing a little dance while humming a tune.

Aqua giggled softly at him, folding her arms with a blue brow raised. 'You're in a good mood today', she commented with a smile. He stopped dancing but there was still a spring in his step, clapping his hands together. 'Course I am, we never worked together before!', he explained with a grin. Aqua hummed in response, realizing she never had worked with him solo before, so she partially saw why he was so excited.

Then she noticed him shifting slightly, scratching his head shyly. 'S-So, how'd I do?', he asked. She blinked, but then recalled Ignis informing her he was the less experienced and trained among the guard. Truthfully she wasn't sure what she could evaluate with his style of fighting, as firearms weren't something she nor her friends had ever really practiced with, and even then she could only imagine the look of horror her master would have had if he saw Ventus with a gun.

Still, she wouldn't leave the poor boy in suspense, and presented her "master" form and folded her arms, chin cupped by her thumb and finger and making loud obvious "hums" and "hmm" alike. It seemed to have affected him as he suddenly stood up. Holding back her smirk, she musters her professional tone. 'Your aims are near perfect most of the time, and your versatility of weapons is useful…but you're too easy of a target when we're outnumbered', she said.

'If you're rushed, you're exposed and will be taken down…you should probably carry some form of a dagger or even a backup pistol'.

Truly she was mostly talking from what she'd try and do should she ever invest in his style of weaponry, but then again she quickly learned that she had a disdain for firearms. Maybe it was the noise…

Prompto nodded with a hue of red across his cheeks, meekly smiling. 'R-Right, thanks boss-lady!', he said with a chuckle. Aqua raised a brow at the boy with a smirk. 'Excuse me?', she stated. He flinched and then, like a soldier, stood up and with chest puffed out, said: 'I-I-I mean! Yes, Master Aqua!'.

'That's better~', she hummed, folding her arms. Aqua then giggled, her master façade replaced and her poise relaxed. 'Ok, so what do we have to do now?', she asked. Prompto beamed at her, his stiff stance relaxed and he pulled out his phone. 'Well we just gotta head back to Hammerhead and tell the owner what the deal was and then we get paid!', he explained. 'Two thousand Gil in the bank!'.

'Oh? That's a lot for just all this', Aqua said, looking at their fallen enemies.

True there were more than a handful for an average hunter, but compared to some of the hunts she had seen on the posters, these were minimal at best. With her and Prompto, she was sure even he could have taken them down on his own. 'You be surprised, once we just had to take down a dualhorn for nearly three thousand Gil'.

'…maybe I should take up bounty hunting for finances…', Aqua mumbled.

Just as Aqua was considering a new career, Prompto's phone went off, and he answered once he saw Ignis' number. He switched to video call for Aqua to join in. 'Prompto, we've just arrived back to Hammerhead', the driver said, 'Have you and Aqua taken down your targets yet?'. 'Done and done Igster!', boasted the blonde. The dirty sand haired man sighed in response to the name. Aqua joined the blonde to see Ignis sitting in the Regalia while in the background she could see Gladiolus taking a swig of water in the passenger seat.

'What about Noctis and Sora? Any word from them?', Prompto asked.

'Royal pain in the backside hasn't checked in yet, but his target is still a fair ways from Hammerhead, I'm sure he'll ring soon', Gladiolus said. 'But…Sora hasn't responded yet…'. Aqua gave the blonde a concerned look as the blonde's own shifted to worry. 'Really? I thought among all of us they'd be the first ones done! Uh, no offense big guy!', he said, adding that last part hastily.

'Yeah…heh, think maybe he and Kairi are just goofing off?', Gladiolus teased, a smirk on his face.

'In the middle of a desert? I dare say, teens or not, they wouldn't be that reckless to stay outside in such heat', Ignis chastised.

Before they could continue this line of dialogue, Aqua looked to the skies ahead of them and sees several of the imperial drop ships flying. 'Prompto? Aren't those the imperials?', she asked, her memory vague on the enemies of the Lucians. The blonde followed her gaze and then frowned, turning back to Ignis. 'Iggy, there's some imperial dropships nearby!', the blonde said. He lifted his phone to show the man, and he could hear a growl from Gladiolus along with a swear.

'Hmm…they don't seem to be heading towards you two, nor Noctis…wait…Prompto…', Ignis said before his voice turned gravely serious. 'Prompto, your hunt was close to the Insomnia block, correct?', he asked. 'Yeah? Why?', he asked, but then his face fell. 'Oh no…'.

'Sora and Kairi's were closer to the blockade, the imperials must have spotted them and assumed they were with us', Ignis said. 'This means they'll send everything they've got until they either wear them down…or worse'.

Aqua's eyes widened with horror before they narrowed with anger. 'Not if I have anything to say about it!', she declared. Without waiting, Aqua sprinted off to the direction of her two friends, while behind her Prompto quickly chased after her.

The distance wasn't as great from here to where they would be located granted, but with the amount of ships that were starting to pile up and descend on the two. Aqua's mind raced with worry at the thoughts of heartless suddenly ambushing the two, and with the imperials and their versatility of minions, she dreaded what sort of combination of a monster the beings of the dark could create with them.

Prompto miraculously managed to keep up with the woman despite her possessing the superior physic between the two. Yet when he could see her eyes, the young man could see the sheer determination in her eyes that resembled an unbreakable will, and a desperation within them. Despite the number of imperials, the young photographer was having some doubts about Kairi and Sora being overwhelmed, they all had seen what he was capable of, and Kairi was no slouch either.

Except when he keeps looking at Aqua's eyes, even he was starting to worry about the two. On the side of the road, the blonde looked behind him to see speeding down the road was the beautiful Regalia. He caught her and ceased their running, just as Ignis pulled up beside them.

'Hop in!', he ordered.

They jumped in and once everyone was buckled up, he slammed on the pedal and sped off down the road, faster than he had ever pushed the Regalia.

Keycatrich

Noctis let out a huff of annoyance when once his phone was unable to dial another number, dropping his arm by his side. 'Well, no signal, no way to contact Iggy', he lamented.

He turned to Donald and Goofy, the latter was looking around while standing on top of a lone rock. Earlier the duck had spotted one of the imperial drop ships that was looming a bit too close for comfort for the trio, but by the luck of the Astrals or some other deity, they were ignored or most likely went unnoticed. Which was a blessing seeing as their hunt turned out to be more of a pain in the backside than they were thinking?

Hindsight the prince probably should've read the paper properly before deciding that he and the two would go after it. A coerul of all the things he had to decide to take on, and given his first experience with those monster he was more than ready to lay down and cry. However, Donald and Goofy's help made the hunt far less than excruciating. With Donald hitting the wild animal with barrages of ice and flames, to Goofy throwing his shield at it and disturbing its mental chanting of magic and finally Noctis landing the killing blow.

Another huge bounty to his party and he could already see the others piling their bounties on the table with glee. Who knows, maybe they'll be able to eat at the Galdin Quay for celebrations? He was already salivating at the thought of fishing there, maybe Kairi and Sora would join him.

'That wasn't so bad now', Goofy commented, 'Sure was a tricky kitty though'.

Noctis chuckled at him, nodding in agreement. 'Trust me, the first time we took on those things, Gladio was stuck in bed for three days', he said. 'Got his full force by that blaster attacked of it'.

'Yeesh…just glad it missed me with its claws!', Donald said. 'And I didn't like how it was looking at me like I was going to be on its dinner plate!'.

Noctis didn't comment on that one.

He looked up to the clear skies, wondering if there were any more of the imperial ships patrolling around the area for him and the others. Bar the one Donald had spotted earlier, no more ships were looming over them. 'Any luck with your phone, Noctis?', Goofy asked, jumping off the rock. 'Nothing Goof…signals no good here', he responded, about to put the phone in his pocket but then he stopped for a moment. Looking at the two and his phone, he nodded. 'Actually, can you guys give me Kairi's and Sora's phone numbers? Just in case'.

Nodding, they approached him and started telling him the numbers. 'Well, Sora's is 2932002…and Kairi's is 2932002, just add the space between the nine and the three', Goofy explained. 'He showed me that before we headed out for the hunts'.

Nodding, the prince added the two new numbers to his list of contacts, making a mental note to get those two a phone as well. 'Right, well transport is a no go, so guess we're walking', he said. 'Well a little exercise won't hurt', Goofy said cheerily.

Walking onwards, Noctis started to chat away with the two.

'So how long have you two known Sora?', he asked.

'Oh, wow, gawrsh its been so long since we first met him', the captain hummed. 'Well, we met Sora about two years ago when we were looking for our king and the keyblade'.

'Yeah, hard to believe it's only been two…', Donald agreed with a pondering look.

'Huh, could've fooled me. You guys act like you've been buddies since he was a kid', the prince remarked.

'Well, we've kinda known him since he was just starting as a keyblade wielder', Goofy said. 'Gee, it's so wonderful to see how far he came, huh Donald?'.

'Uh-huh…but he's kinda hopeless when it comes to becoming a master!', the duck joked.

Noctis stopped walking, giving them both a look of bewilderment. 'Wait, he's NOT a master!?', he said, incredulously. After everything he's seen Sora do, the idea he wasn't a master was like saying despite Ignis' cooking skills he was still a first-year student in cooking!

Then their faces fell, both giving each a look of worry and guilt. 'No sadly, but he would have been', Donald grumbled. 'If that jerk didn't try and possess him!'. Noctis raised a brow. 'Huh? What jerk?'.

Strangely, neither of them responded to the question. Now Noctis was sure that was another "do not ask" question, based on how many questions he did ask them that were either shot down by Donald or Aqua, or they'd vaguely explain something to them. Despite his efforts and even some help from Ignis, most of their answers were vague or very poorly spoken.

Now though, it was like they were frozen.

'Donald? Goofy?', he said. Noctis even waved in their faces but got no response, yet not only that but the prince felt something had changed. Looking around the area felt like something drastically was wrong, and unless it was him, but nothing was moving.

The clouds above had ceased movement, the wind was still, the sounds of wildlife were dead and even when he looked behind them, he saw a tumbleweed halted in mid-air, even dust that was blown in the air was still like a photo.

'What the hell?', Noctis said, stepping back from the two. His blue eyes looked around for anything, he even slapped his cheek, maybe the heat was getting to him. 'Guys?', he tried again. He even placed his hands on their shoulders, but even as he shook them, they didn't move. He didn't even feel like he pushed them at all. It was like he was pressing on statues, and the fact they weren't petrified nor made of stone, just increased his worries.

Was someone doing this? He thought back to his memories, but he was positive that even Aqua wasn't capable of stopping everything at once.

'No need to worry yourself Noct, they're fine!'.

Quickly, Noctis turned around, but he only sees the pathway that leads out of the area and back to the hunter's HQ. 'Who's there?', he asked, summoning his engine blade.

'Hey now, you won't need that! …well…. not yet anyway…', the voice said, amused yet somehow indecisive. 'Where are you?', he growled.

'If you look to your left, you will see…well, me'.

The prince looked to see a man sitting on a rock, very casually with one knee over his lap and hands closed resting on his lap. He was wearing a black coat that completely obstructs his face, but he sounded older than him. Despite the laid-back attitude, he displayed, Noctis could feel himself gripping his sword even tighter. The prince could feel a worrisome essence from him, almost like the keyblade wielders but on a level that felt…inhuman.

'Ya know something? This is the first time I've ever met royalty, like, legit royalty! Have to say though…you're not what I expected', he said, playfully. 'Sorry to disappoint', the prince said.

'Oh no, don't get me wrong kiddo! You're far from a disappointment! Just uh…well…unpolished?'. He got off his rock seat, dusting off himself and waltzing up to him. 'But I guess you're still a little bit, what's the term? "Wet behind the ears"? Yeah, yeah let's go with that!', he said, snapping his fingers.

'The hell are you talking about?', Noctis growled before he looked at the two frozen members of the party and then narrowed his eyes at the stranger. 'Did you do this?'. The man gave him a shrug. 'Well believe or not, I'm very shy. And I wanted to speak with you alone', he said. 'Don't worry your pretty little head, they'll be fine!'.

'Then talk, who are you?', the prince demanded.

The mysterious man placed a hand on his hip. 'Call me Master, for now anyway', he introduced. 'Gee, a little humble aren't ya?', replied the snarky prince. 'Coming from you? Heh, I think I've at the very least earned my title, you little man? Your ego stems from your heritage'.

Noctis wasn't liking the fact this man had a worrisome good grasp on the prince, and he felt like Master knew a lot more about the prince then he was letting on. 'What do you want?', Noctis demanded.

'Oh, nothing really, your majesty~ Just…well let's say I need you to do me a teenie tiny favor for me', he said, wistfully and his tone was playful. Noctis' grip didn't loosen, and he was eyeing the Master darkly, waiting for an opening or a chance to strike. Though despite his confidence in his talents, Noctis couldn't help but feel a sense of underprepared or worse, a dreaded feeling this would be a very one-sided fight.

It frightened him, never did he ever encounter anyone or anything that made him feel so doubtful about a fight. This Master almost reminded him of Sora and Aqua, but were with them he felt a friendly light and even then, he felt like he'd have a chance to win in a fight against them, but with this man, it was like he was staring down Bahamut.

'And…what's that?', he asked slowly.

'…prove you're worthy of the title, Chosen King of Light'.

Suddenly, the Master appeared right in front of Noctis, so quick he didn't even register he had even taken a step forward to him. Noctis didn't even have a chance to comprehend the fact the man had his hand right on his heart, and the next thing he knew, his body felt heavy. His senses dulled; his limbs stricken by a fatigued he never knew. His strength disappeared; weapon dropped.

'Let us see, if you truly are the one, I seek', Master said.

As his vision went blurry and slowly darken, Noctis' final view was the Master and a glow within the void of the cowl…

A/N: So just in case you didn't go back to the previous chapter, there has been a change, so please check back to get the full story.

Anyways the Master of Masters! …what a card! This is the first time I've written him, so please let me know what you thought of him.

Question: If you would give Kairi or Aqua a summon, what would they be?

As always, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	9. Chapter 9

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 9

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

No sooner had the Regalia began to slow its speed, Aqua jumped out of the car and dashed to where the two wielders of the key's hunt took place. She ignored her friend's cries of her name, their worry clear but Aqua's own fears were dominating her common sense.

She ran to the clearing where even from the Regalia's parking spot, she could see a field of destroyed magitek soldiers and deceased wild beasts. The clear signs of battle was strewn across the plains, the smells of smoke and oil violated her nose along with plumes of smoke.

Yet her friends were not among the carnage, and despite how desperate she searched, Aqua couldn't see them anywhere. One side of her felt a relief that they hadn't been counted among the dead, but equally if not more so, she was terrified. Did the heartless or nobodies show up? Or did the empire send reinforcements?

Her heart was ramming against her chest, shoulders shook and her head was turning left and right madly for them, anything just to assure her they were safe or alive. "Where are they? Why didn't I just go with them!?", she berated herself. Gritting her teeth as her fists clenched tightly till her knuckles went white with fury. "Again", she seethed to herself, "Again I failed when it came to protecting the ones I care for".

With a frustrated yell, Aqua kicked the severed head off a soldier as hard as she could, like a football. The head sailed into a boulder and smashed to pieces upon impact, breaking even the tipping point of the boulder.

A fury coiled around her heart, a desperate anger she hadn't felt in so long, and images of her friends, her student and saviour surged in her mind. Aqua grabbed her head with both hands as she tried to block those horrible thoughts out, she couldn't think of the worst outcome for them, she refused to believe it. This sense of failure, it struck her heart like a knife plunged into her, she had failed them.

Just like with her closest friends all those years ago…

Her despair was halted for a moment when a hand fell on her shoulder. She spun on this person, seeing a very sympathetic yet hopeful Prompto looking at her. No words fell from his mouth, and for that moment she was grateful for the silence. Her fury was subsided, despair took its place in her blue eyes as she looked around the plains. 'I…I can't see them…', she whispered, her voice was so soft and small she almost didn't recognize it.

'Well, maybe they got away? I mean', Prompto said gently, looking around, 'I know Sora can do all kinds of crap but even he knows when its time to cut and run right?'.

'Not if Kairi was in danger…', Aqua lamented.

They turned to see Ignis with his phone, fiddling with the device. His eyes were narrowed and fixed on the device trying to work it. He sighed and pocketed it in the end, a look of worry was forming on his face. Noticing his friends looking at him, he said: 'I'm trying to contact Noct and inform him what's happened, but he isn't picking up'.

The younger friends looked at one another, eyes shined with worry as thoughts of regret formulated in their heads. It would seem splitting up had turned from a good initiative to a disastrous outcome for them all. Ignis approached them. 'The sooner we find Sora and Kairi, the better', he affirmed. 'I'm certain Donald and Goofy can keep him safe for awhile'.

'Hey, over here!'.

They all looked to see Gladiolus knelt before a patch of scorched earth. Joining him, the man rubbed away from dirt and showed pieces of metal, before he gestured to the large charred mech. 'Look, one the niffs MA-X things, and judging from how burnt the ground is, the damn thing must've fired a rocket', he explained. He stood up and then started to showcase the several patches of scorched earth. 'One of them must have hit it hard enough to screw up its aiming, there's spots everywhere with no planning'.

'Yes…I see…so likely Sora or Kairi may have damaged it enough for it to fire randomly, possibly destroying its own allies in the process', Ignis theorized, folding his arms.

'Yeah, but look here', Gladiolus said, pointing to a patch of dirt. The others looked and spotted foot prints that resembled large shoes, and slowly Aqua was starting to put two and two together. One pair of feet however was angled differently, one foot was facing the other pair while another in the direction of the other pair facing forward. 'We know any other teen with big shoes like these?', Gladiolus said with a smirk.

He frowned though immediately. 'Looks like they were too close to the explosion here, and Sora must have seen it, and judging from the position, used himself as a shield for Kairi'.

'Sounds like him', Prompto agreed.

Gladiolus took a few feet forward to the boulder, his amber eyes scanning the boulder thoroughly before he huffed. 'Look', he instructed. All eyes fell to the rock, several bits of it were on the ground and Aqua sees a large dent in it with pieces still crumbling down from it. She paled when she saw there was dried blood…

'The explosion's force was enough to send them flying and crash into the wall and look at the disturbed bits of the ground', he continued. The ground had noticeable prints in it, not footprints but more shallow holes and curved dentures. 'They tumbled down here, but one of them was knocked out', the shield listed. 'If Sora bore the full brunt of the explosion he would have been smashed into the boulder much harder', Ignis suggested.

'Yeah, because look at this', Gladiolus said.

The party could see what appeared to be more foot prints but something was being dragged away to cover them up, thin lines followed a mass of smoothed dirt with dry and nearly invisible droplets of red. 'Looks like Kairi must have dragged Sora away from the fight when things were starting to go boom', the shield said. 'Well that's great, it means they're alive!', Prompto said with a cheer.

Yet no one else shared his optimism, everyone else's eyes were darkened with worry. Aqua walked ahead to look for more tracks, but to her dismay she couldn't see any more tracks. The winds of the plains must have blown more sand and dirt over Kairi's tracks, or perhaps more wildlife stomped them out of sight. And none of them knew their numbers to contact them, only furthering the situation they were finding themselves in.

'While they live, Prompto, we don't know where they are…and keep in mind Sora is severely wounded', Ignis said. 'He may also have shrapnel in him as well from the explosion'.

'W-W-Well, Kairi knows how to treat wounds like that! Right Aqua?', he asked. 'Sides, magic! She can just cast that cure spell and poof!'.

'Its not that simple Prompto…magic can't heal severe wounds like that so quickly', Aqua said with a shake of her head. 'If it were so, then we'd never carry potions'.

'Which means Kairi's got a wounded Sora, is stuck alone in the desert with all kinds of wild beasts, the empire and the heartless on her ass', Gladiolus listed, getting to his feet. Aqua frowned at the information, fist clenched with worry. 'W-What should we do? I mean, we've still got Noct to worry about', Prompto pipped up.

The other two men gave each other conflicted looks, duty calling them and their first thought on the man they've sworn to protect. Yet the thoughts of abandoning their new friends did not sit well with either of them. Sensing this, Aqua turned them. 'Then you three go and rendezvous with Donald and Goofy', she said. 'I'll go look for Sora and Kairi'.

'Absolutely not', Ignis said. 'We won't abandon you like this'.

'But-

'I'll go with her and look for the kiddies', Gladiolus said with a grunt. 'You two go make sure his royal pain in the ass hasn't gotten himself killed yet'.

They looked at the shield, his fellow Crownsguards more surprised than anything else. Noticing their looks, he chuckled. 'Look, I can track them once we get something, but unless you know how to track…', he asked, looking at the master. She gave him a dry look and a roll of her eyes. 'Fair point…but shouldn't you go to Noctis? You're his "shield" right?'.

'Yeah…but I also happen to like those kids, so it balances itself out', Gladiolus shrugs.

Aqua sighed, but none the less shot him a grateful look as Ignis and Prompto nodded. 'Very well if you're certain, we'll head to Keycatrich and return to you two once we've picked them up', the chef decided. 'Keep your phone on and at the ready'.

Gladiolus nodded and once Ignis and Prompto headed off, the two began their search…

Elsewhere

Grunting with effort as her body screamed in exhausted agony, the heat of the sun bore down on her exposed flesh as the sweat dripped from her forehead from the combined exertion and heat. Yet she willed herself to keep pushing onwards, gritting her teeth as she dragged her boyfriend to safety.

Kairi looked around the plains for a place of shelter for herself and Sora, panting and feeling her throat drying up slowly from the heat. She adjusted Sora to get a better grip on him, one arm over her shoulder while she kept him up by holding onto the back of his pants waistline. She was thanking all her lucky stars for her training, at least carrying Sora wasn't the most strenuous thing she could do. If it wasn't for the heat and the drawn out fighting, she'd carry him back to Hammerhead…

As it was, she could feel her strength waning with her thirst growing to the point where she started to feel lightheaded and dizzy. Pressing on she looked around and with luck she found a spot where for now they could at least cool off.

Two large boulders outstretched upwards gave a wonderous amount of shade for them, one of which was pressed against it and looked more like a make-shift tent made of stone. The sight renewed her strength and with one quick adjustment of carrying Sora, she dragged the two of them to the spot.

Once in the shade, she let out a breath from feeling the cooling sensation and no more sun beaming on her skin. Carefully, she placed Sora onto his knees and once she steadied him, she checked his back. Her heart sank when she sees the several tears in his jacket along with several dry lines of red scrolling down his back. The shrapnel was stuck in his back, and she feared if any of his wounds would be infected by now.

'Okay…okay…', she said, taking several breaths to calm herself.

Kairi then started to strip Sora's upper clothing as carefully as she could, the greaves first then his jacket and finally his tank-top. Kairi fought off the blush on her cheeks when she sees the muscular form of his again, using his clothes as makeshift blanket for him to lay down on. Taking another breath to prepare herself, Kairi gently laid him down on his clothes with his elbows supporting his head.

A gasp escaped her lips as she bore witness to the wound on his back. She could see small patches of burns not too severe, just enough to be bright red, but what truly caught her worries was the bits of shrapnel stuck in his back. His back was stained with blood that thankfully stopped leaking out, but now the shrapnel needed to be extracted. Kairi had thankfully had the spell for it, yet she gave her boyfriend one more look of guilt.

'I'm so sorry, but if I don't get the shrapnel out, it could get worse…', she said, mostly to herself.

Once she had him settled, Kairi knelt beside him and summoned her keyblade in her right hand and carefully held the tip over Sora's back. With one more intake of breath, Kairi said: 'Magnega!'.

Red and blue spheres no bigger than her head formed over Sora's back, slowly the shrapnel was extracted from his back, small splotches of red burst from the extractions on his back and more blood leaked from the wounds. Sora didn't even move or make a sound, which Kairi was relived on one hand but now it only worried her just how much blood he did lose. She swallowed back her bile from the blood as her face turned pale.

She moved the magnet aside with the shrapnel in it, letting them be buried in the plains and dust. Taking a breath to calm her own nerves, Kairi turned to Sora's now bleeding back and waved the keyblade over the wounds, casting the cure spell over him. Green tendrils and flowers shined around his back, the wounds closing but she could see the scars were still fresh and likely will be easy to re-open if he moved again. Taking a deep breath as she felt woozy from her magic draining, she slumped against the rock.

Least now all she had to worry about was keeping them alive and hydrated until Aqua or the others finds them.

Looking at Sora's sleeping form, she mustered up some energy to carefully lift him further into the shade, hoping to move his body out of sight from the road or view from the skies. Further in though not by much, Kairi carefully laid on him his side with his jacket as a pillow and helped put his tank-top back on despite her eyes wanting to drink more of his physique in. 'There you go, lazy bum', she teased lightly.

As much as she would want to continue dragging him to Hammerhead or a Haven, the princess couldn't risk it. If another dropship found them, or they were attacked by the wildlife or worse, she knew she couldn't keep herself and Sora safe at once. Fortunately, she had a method of keeping herself and soon Sora hydrated, thanks to a neat trick.

Lifting her hand up, she created a small swirl of chilly winds and frost before solidifying it into a small chunk of ice. Immediately the cold seeped into her palm as it was already dripping water, and she gently lifted it up to her lips and drank some of the melted ice.

She made a mental note to thank Merlin for that if she sees him again.

Leaning against the rocky wall with her "beverage" in the palm of her hand, she looked out to the plains to see the sun still beaming down upon the earth. No sign of any animals or imperials which was a refreshing sight to her, but she pondered why the heartless hadn't tracked them down yet. She wasn't certain how anyone is able to sense or detect heartless, maybe it was the darkness within people's hearts?

Either way the princess sipped more of her ice chunk, pondering what her next plan was. The heat was far hotter than the islands and carrying Sora was an exhausting task on its own, with the heat and the distance of Hammerhead she knew she would have a better chance of bursting into flames than even get halfway to the garage. "If it wasn't for daemons coming out at night, I could travel with Sora when its cooler", she thought to herself.

Kairi then pulled her phone and checked the time, giving her a few more hours before darkness fell. She lamented the lack of phone numbers her phone contained, and if she made it out of this, she was going to get the other's numbers.

As time passed, Kairi summoned her keyblade out of boredom and studied it. She frowned at the overall design of it though, and she recalled just who it was who gave her this keyblade. 'Riku…of all the keyblades you could have given me…you choose the most flowery, pansy looking thing imaginable…', she mused. It still perplexed her that this mystical powerful weapon had chosen her of all people to be a sworn guardian of light.

She just wished this thing didn't look like someone made a keyblade out of a garden. Then she looked at Sora's pocket and spotted something poking out of one. Curious, Kairi gently reached in and to her delight, it was a familiar looking item.

Her lucky charm.

Gently clasping it in both hands holding the delicate thalassa shell-based item, a fond and loving smile appeared on her face as she looked at Sora. A promise between the two of them to bring them together again, and it seemed once more it did its job. Looking down at it, Kairi noticed a magical charm around it, only seen by those who uses magic. Judging by how well cared for the item showed, Sora must have had the charm…well charmed, to keep in pristine condition.

'You kept it with you, all this time', she said softly, touched and feeling her eyes sting with unshed tears.

Gently she held it over her heart, eyes closed as the memories of this link between them slowly surfaced in her mind. One of the hardest things she had to do, was to wish him luck by handing him her charm and then see him off.

Bad enough the first time they were separated was not by choice as far as she could remember, and then the second time they were forced to be apart was so he could continue to bring their friend back home. When they both came home falling from the skies as if the heavens heard her prayers, she thought it'd be the end, they'd finally go back to the life of youthful fun and be free of using the keyblades.

But no, he and Riku had to be whisked away to become masters to prepare for the great battle of their age, to take the trial no other wielder had taken for over a decade. It was the hardest thing she had ever done, to willingly say goodbye to him for now, and wait until he returned to the place where he belonged. By her side. This charm, this small fragile thing was her only way of keeping a part of her heart with him.

Opening her eyes as one tear rolled down her cheek, she leaned over and gently pecked his cheek. Not a word was said, her heart sent its message to his own.

Standing up, Kairi looked around the small area where near the entrance of their small home there was something glistening in the sunlight. Curious, she checked both hers and Sora's pockets to see if they still had the gummi phones, which they did though Sora's screen was cracked in the upper right corner. Hopefully they'll have enough funds to patch that up soon. Once she confirmed their phones was still on them, she approached the object.

Nestled between some rocks and dirt, Kairi knelt and brushed them aside to find a small pendent. Silvery blue chains carried the pendent, the object was grey like stone with face of some sort of beast, and she felt a sense of light from it. 'Huh, how did I not see this earlier…?', she asked herself. Standing back up, she placed it in her pocket and turned back to the entrance, but the moment she did she did a quick turnaround.

Swarms of heartless began to appear before her, shadows, soldiers and even some new creatures. They looked to be those sabertusks Prompto and Aqua were hunting, but she sees the darkness had corrupted them too. Their scales were black as a shadow with the heartless emblem stamped on their backs, their tail ends now sported two edged axes, claws longer and more jagged, while their eyes yellow and glowing.

An entire horde of them slowly began to pile up before their small base, more than she had seen back at the mines. Kairi stared them down, eyes narrowed with determination before she glanced back at Sora's still sleeping form. He was exposed, the heartless must have sensed this and took this opportunity to final rid themselves of their most dangerous adversary she figured. Kairi realized now the only thing between the heartless and Sora's heart, was herself.

Memories of her being saved by him, the amount of times he bore the brunt of pain and agony to save her own life. Not this time.

'This time, its my turn to protect you', she said, her voice driven and steady. Kairi turned on the entrance whilst summoning her keyblade and erecting a barrier, keeping Sora safe. Turning to the heartless, she plucked out her charm and looked at her keyblade. Nodding to herself, she unhooked the chain and linked her charm to it.

In a brilliant light that caused even the heartless to flinch and recoil from it, in Kairi's hands was a familiar weapon that has vanquished countless foes, a weapon that carries the memories of her own and Sora's.

Oathkeeper.

Spinning it in one hand, Kairi aimed it at the horde. 'You want him? You're going to have to get through me!'.

Niflheim

Another day of hearing his radiance bicker with his allies, another argument about the Oracle's stubbornness, and Ardyn's personal favourite, the commodore's snarky responses to the chief researcher's shortcomings.

Oh how that woman had such an eloquent of snarky.

Luckily for the man of no consequence, there was indeed something of interest to attend to this time. One of Verstael's magitek soldiers managed to capture some footage before it was decimated, and what they saw admittedly got his attention mostly.

An anthropomorphic duck casting magic? A dog walking two legs? Truly in Ardyn's time things were far simpler.

However, what had truly captured his full attention were the ones wielding that mysterious key-sword. Even from watching what it managed to capture, Ardyn knew their light was something closer to Noctis' own, but what truly perplexed him was he felt sickened by it. It was warm and protective of the users, not cold and draining like the armiger he used all so long ago. The abilities and strength displayed by those wielders was far greater than Noctis' own abilities.

He hummed thoughtfully as he waltzed down the corridor, wondering and trying to remember of that old fool Regis had them secretly trained, or perhaps they were from a distant land. But their clothes and appearances, especially the duck and dog, strong implied something more…otherworldly.

Stopping his saunter, he raised his head with an amused smirk. 'Well now, a bit rude to be stalking now isn't it?', he said cheerily. With a elegant turn, his eyes landed upon a man dressed in black. He thought at first it was a sneaking rat of the Kingsglaive trying to either gain intel or more amusingly attempt to pick off a key member of the Niflheim military. Instead though, their cloaks were pure black, and their face was nothing like the people of this kingdom.

'Oh? And who might you be?', Ardyn questioned with a smirk.

'Oopsie daisy, so much for a stealthy approach', the man said with a sarcastic tone. He smirked though and nodded to him. 'Well guess introductions are needed'.

'Call me Xigbar'.

A/N: So…this happens.

Thanks for reading, and thanks to everyone whose been answering the questions I've posted, it really helps me get an idea what you folks wanna see, and just helps motivate me to write more!

Question: Can anyone figure out what summon Kairi found? If so, you're awesome!

2nd Question: Do you all enjoy the length of these chapters, or would you prefer longer ones? Please let me know.

3rd Question: Did anyone figure out why I choose those numbers for Kairi and Sora in the last chapter?

Stay Awesome but more importantly Stay Safe!


	10. Chapter 10

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 10

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

With one swing to the upper left, Kairi cleanly sliced a soldier in two mid-air while flipping forward. She brought down Oathkeeper upon another shadow and decimated it with a two-handed stab, burying the blade into the ground and using her magic to elect a wave of magic from the strike which blasted her surrounding enemies.

Kairi yanked her keyblade out of the ground in time to spin and swipe at one of the sabertusks that was leaping towards her with its maw wide open. Instead of tasting her flesh it was fed cold steel as Kairi slashed its head off. Spinning Oathkeeper in her hand, Kairi turned around, aiming her keyblade at the small group of shadows crawling up from the ground.

An ember grew upon the tip of the key and with a grunt, Kairi fired a large ball of flames at the group, creating a decent-sized explosion upon impact. Smoke blew up in her face, momentarily blinding her as she raised her arm to block the smoke from entering her mouth and eyes. Then she heard the clanking noises of the soldiers racing towards her, though she couldn't distinguish where though, so she leaped into the air and out of the cloud of smoke.

In the air, the princess was swarmed by leaping shadows that tried to claw at her. Kairi spun around like a cyclone and with her keyblade flashing from the beautiful setting sun being a beacon of light she sliced and diced the heartless to nothing. Flipping two front flips during her wild swings, she landed on her feet out of the dissipating cloud behind her, panting. She rose her head up quickly in time to block a sabertusk's clamping jaw, its massive mouth wrapped around Oathkeeper.

Kairi threw it off herself with a grunt, the beast freeing her keyblade from its mouth but once it stood on all fours before her, Kairi fired a stream of ice from her weapon. Dagger sharp icicles soared at the monster, piercing it and destroying it.

She rolled to her right when she heard another beast roar behind her, narrowly dodging the leaping creature. The sabertusk landed a few feet ahead of her, which gave the redhead time and distance to conjure up a new spell. That was until Kairi turned around too late to avoid what felt like someone had just smacked her with a tree, sending her crashing and bouncing along the ground.

When she rolled backward, she immediately got back on her feet, keyblade stabbed into the ground to give her support. Panting and shaking off the pain, Kairi got to her feet and stood, shakily but still going. A Helmed Body had been the one to attack her and given how thick its arms were Kairi was grateful it didn't break any bones of hers from that attack.

Not to say she wasn't in any pain…

Digging into her pocket, she yanked out her last potion and quickly downed it, despite the awful bitterness. Her body glowed green as her wounds healed from painful to manageable. Shaking her head, she tossed the bottle aside and raced into the fray once more, hacking away any creature of the dark that came close to her. With her right hand wielding the mystical weapon, Kairi channeled a spell in her free hand and aimed for the ground in front of her.

'AEROGA!'.

A whirlwind air appeared before her, sucking up and throwing any small heartless into the sky above. Kairi leaped and once she was over the spell, she was propelled upwards into the sky, her helpless heartless surrounding her. Spinning around while holding her keyblade outwards from her body she left a trail of fire, creating a ring of fire. As she fell, Kairi turned herself and fired a Magnet into the center of the ring, creating a small but effective sphere of red and blue which sucked the airborne heartless into the flames with an explosion.

As she descents, Kairi aimed for the Helmed Body, diving like a torpedo towards it. Kairi's keyblade pierced through the metal helmet and the body and like before once she stabbed her keyblade into the ground, she let out a wave of magical energy that blasted the heartless around her, killing a few and sending some flying. Kairi pulled her key out of the ground but staggered backward, tired and magically drained from her uses.

Sweat ran down her forehead as she coughed, lungs depleted of air and she started to feel incredible aches in her legs. Bending down with her hands on her knees, Kairi panted and tried to catch her fourth wind. As she could feel some form of air refilling her lungs, she lifted her head to see slowly the world around her was darkening and slowly day's final moments will shift into night. Kairi looked over the mountains to see the sun finally descending below, and the dark had arrived.

A sound of metal groaning and a loud tremor rumbled ahead of her, slowly she turned to see a large metallic hand reach out and drag itself out of the pool of darkness as small embers began to grow in the air around the hand. The Iron Giant finally pulled itself from the void as bombs began to manifest, fluttering in the air with large sinister imitations of smiles. Kairi gritted her teeth, raising Oathkeeper and steadied herself.

Her mind was racing with thoughts as she desperately tried to remember of Ignis or someone had warned her previously about these monsters, but nothing came up. Goblins were one thing, but these were entirely a different cause of trouble for her.

One of the bombs fluttered towards Kairi, and once in range, it opened its mouth to, what she assumed, take a bite out of her. The princess, however, sidestepped its jaws and slammed Oathkeeper downwards, cutting it and making it tumble to the ground. Thinking it was done, Kairi turned her eyes upon the remaining daemons, but from the corner of her eye, she could see the Bomb twitch and spasm, fire crackling around it.

Kairi let out a yell as she quickly ran away from it, and rightfully so because in mere seconds later, the daemon detonated in a fiery explosion that threw her off her feet and onto her back. With a thud and a grunt, Kairi groaned in pain as she rolled onto her side, grunting. With a gasp though, Kairi quickly rolled to the left, because then a large slab of iron slammed down upon where she once laid.

Scampering to her feet, Kairi turned on the giant, now fixed on her as it lifted its sword upwards, ready to strike again. The girl ran again, inches from being crushed by the sword as the ground shook from the sheer force of it.

Once on its flank, Kairi ran and jumped onto its up-high heel, used it as a steppingstone and jumped onto its back. Steadying herself by spreading her feet apart and using its metal shoulders for steps, the princess lifted her keyblade and like swinging a golf club, swung at the neck of the giant. The beautiful keyblade sliced opened the back of the neck, allowing its dark ink to ooze out from it. This victory, however, was superficial as the daemon barely noticed or even acknowledged the wound.

The giant shrugged Kairi off its shoulders and let her fall to the ground. Landing on her feet, Kairi jumped back from another slam of the sword, nearly losing her feet in the process.

Staggering back after landing, Kairi shook from the exhaustion and felt her body screaming in pain. Yet all she did was look back at their safe spot seeing the barrier, thankfully, still up and running and keeping her boyfriend safe from harm.

She just needed to keep this up for a little while longer until Aqua or someone finds them, at least that what's she's been telling herself to keep fighting on. But no matter how willing the mind may be, the body is waning with exhaustion and pain, two things Kairi was unable to ignore for much longer. She reached into her pocket for an ether or anything that could help her.

Her fingers brushed a smooth object though and in confusion, she pulled it out. It was the pendant from earlier, but for whatever reason Kairi felt a certain energy from it. Or rather, a faint hum of a heart. Looking at the giant and the pendant, she nodded and decided to risk it all.

Closing her eyes, she held the pendent close to her heart and called.

'GOLIATH!'.

Upon a tall tower that reached beyond the clouds, a lone statue of a gargoyle sat upon the watchtower. As the rain fell from the darkened skies above while the sun fell, slowly the rock began to crumble and crack, until the eyes glowed with light. The rocks shattered and standing place, with his wings outstretched, Goliath let out a roar that shook the ground itself.

He spread his wings and flew off his tower into a portal to where he was called upon. Before Kairi stood a tall and powerfully built gargoyle with lavender skin and dark hair. Wearing a brown loincloth with a black buckle, he practically dwarfed Kairi in height alone, with onyx colored eyes. Kairi let out a breath of surprise at the creature, but when she looked at his eyes, she knew it was a friend.

With a curt nod, the gargoyle turned to daemons with a snarl as his wings were out and his claws prepped to tear them apart. The lavender skinned beast's claws tore the bombs that came close to him into shreds, not even giving them time to detonate themselves. Goliath grabbed one by punching into it's gaping maw and flung it towards the Iron Giant, exploding just after smacking its head. The golem staggered backward, leaving itself wide open for Goliath to swoop by with his claw digging into the metallic beast's form.

His claws tore asunder the daemon's stomach, ripping open its metal form. This time unlike Kairi's swipe on the neck the daemon fell to its knees in defeat, its body slowly sinking into a puddle of darkness.

The remaining bombs were torn apart by Goliath, like a wild hurricane destroying everything in its path, yet even as they fell more daemons began to spawn around them with heartless joining in the fray. Kairi let out a tired groan, standing upright and using a small portion of magic to heal her wounds. She joined in the battle, bringing down a shadow with one swing and then another solider with another.

Goliath flew near her to intercept a large body trying to tackle with its rubber gut. Goliath grabbed the monster's stomach by the sides, despite even his powerful claws not being to pierce its rubber gut. He lifted the heartless over his head and with a roar, he threw the heartless to its cohorts, crushing them under its obese weight. Kairi stabbed a soldier through its stomach and while the body faded, she fired an icicle at another shadow, piercing its ink colored head.

Now the gargoyle and princess stood back to back, surrounded by an ocean of heartless and daemons, outnumbered and slowly Kairi's body was giving out to tiredness. Yet she held her keyblade up high, eyes narrowed with determination and with a nod to the beast, they dove into the battle…

Keycatrich

Grunting and groaning, Noctis slowly opened his eyes to see what looked to be the ceiling of a tent of sorts, he felt the gentle breeze of the wind along with a coolness as opposed to the blistering heat. Blinking the strange sleep out of his eyes, the prince rubbed them with his arm as he slowly sat up in his cot.

Looking around he could see this rough set up of a camp was the hunter's HQ based on memory, seeing several lists of hunts, notices and other things around him. The cot he was in was smaller than usual, but he could hear voices outside, including one that sounded a tad bit hard to understand from here.

'What…happened?', he sighed, rubbing his head and shaking it to rid the lingering weariness that stuck with it. He lowered his hand when memories of "Master" start to conjure up, and that sensation of everything freezing came back to him like a distant memory long since passed. The place he was sent to…

'Noctis!'.

He looked up to see a very relived Goofy entering the tent, carrying a tray of he guessed was the hunter's food. 'You're awake!', he stated, his voice lit with joy. Smiling back at the other world being, Noctis got up from his cot. 'Sorry bout that, but…what happened?', he asked. Goofy looked at him with a worried look as he scratched his cheek. 'Gee, when we were talking to you about the phone numbers, you suddenly collapsed', Goofy explained.

'Me and Donald had to carry you back to the hunter's HQ, but you wouldn't wake up'.

Noctis could see how many lights were alit, darkness had fallen and more hunters were patrolling the area. The prince gave his friend a grateful nod, and with a gesture, he and Goofy left the tent. Goofy told him since they came here, he and Donald were helping with some of the heartless that sprang up or any daemon that came too close to the campsite. They had also tried to get word to Ignis and the others, but no one had their numbers and they couldn't risk leaving him alone in case heartless or worse showed up.

'But Iggy and the others didn't try and contact us?', the prince asked as he followed Goofy to the Haven.

'I don't know, we didn't hear anything but then again we never got our phones yet', chuckled Goofy.

That's something that needed to change soon the prince thought.

In the Haven he sees Donald with the chocobos, feeding them although with great hesitation and he kept himself at arms distance from the yellow bird. As much as of an arm reach someone his size could muster. Either way, the bird snapped the lettuce from his feathered hand, making him jump back with a loud quack, jumping backward from it. The bird tweeted happily from its snack, fluttering its feathers with approval.

'Lousy birds…', Donald grumbled shaking his hand. He looked to Goofy and Noctis, sighing with relief. 'Oh, you're awake. Phew…'.

'Sorry to startle you two like that', he apologized.

'What happened to ya? One moment you were fine then you went down like a sack of potatoes!', Donald asked.

At the question, the prince went silent as memories began to resurface, and the Master too. Frowning, he folded his arms. 'Can I ask you guys something?', he said, looking at them both. They nodded. 'Have you guys ever met somebody called "Master of Masters"?'.

At the inquiry, Donald and Goofy looked at one another, ultimately shrugging to each other and then shaking their heads to Noctis. 'Nope, can't say we did', Donald answered. 'Why?'. 'Well, when you two were talking to me, he…he somehow stopped everything. Like he froze time! And then he went on about, I dunno, chosen one? Light? Junk like that'.

'Did he hurt you?', Goofy asked.

'No, he just…he said he needed to see if I was the one, he was looking for? Or some crap like that', he listed. 'But…he did something to me and then, it all went black'. 'Do you remember anything else?', Goofy said. He shook his head. 'No, nothing else'. Then, the prince reached into his pocket to take out his phone, and as he predicted, he had numerous texts from Ignis along with several missed calls. Maybe switching them sound on silent was a bad move on his end after all.

He unlocked it and scrolled through his texts, but he glared at one text that got his attention.

Ignis: 'Noct, emergency'.

'That's not a good sign', he grumbled, dialing the number of his advisor. After one beep, he answered. 'Hey Specs, what's going on?'. 'Oh, thank the Astrals, what happened to you?', asked the man on the other end. Before Noctis could answer, the man grunted. 'No, never mind. We have a situation on our hands. Sora and Kairi were attacked by the empire earlier!'.

'What? Where are they!?', Noctis demanded, putting on speaker for Donald and Goofy. 'We don't know! We didn't find them on the site of the hunt, but Gladio is tracking them down with Aqua, myself and Prompto were on our way to you and the others'. Noctis grunted and gestured the chocobos to his friends, immediately hopping on one. 'Don't bother, we'll meet up with you guys. Head back to Gladio and we'll catch up!', Noctis ordered, grabbing the rein of his ride.

'Understood, be safe!'.

With a click, the prince jumped on his bird and with a kick, they sped off onto the road and into the wilds.

With Donald riding with Goofy, Noctis was speeding ahead of them since his Chocobo (who he effectively named him Speedster) was well used to his rider. They mostly stuck on the plains to evade the imperials searching the roads and using the location Ignis provided to them, mostly where the two keyblade wielder's hunt was, Noctis was fixed on spots where were closest that Kairi could have used as a base or place to hideout.

He occasionally glanced back at his fellow riders, both carrying equally worried looks yet they looked deadest on finding the two. The prince could imagine the fear and worry they were going through, it was no different when he heard about his home being invaded by the empire. Noctis was just praying this time he wouldn't hear those two new friends of his shared the same fate as his dad.

He didn't want to imagine how the others would react.

As they raced through the plains, desperate to think where Kairi could be with Sora, yet nothing was coming to his mind. There was a Haven near them if his memory of the map was accurate, but that was still too far from where the hunt took place. If they were wounded, they'd never make the trek, plus he doubted they knew where it was.

"Follow the light".

Noctis blinked and looked back to the two but returned to looking ahead. That voice, it sounded like a girl. Familiar too…

"Follow the light".

Noctis looked around the head of the Chocobo and he could see a faint shimmering light trail ahead of him. He shook his head, but the trail was still there, guiding him. It felt familiar to him as if Kairi was trying to guide him to her and Sora.

"Well, better than nothing!", he thought.

'Follow me!', he yelled, diverting the bird to follow the trail…

*Near Roadblock*

Bringing her keyblade down upon the last bomb, slicing it in half and with one more blast of magic from her mystical weapon that blasted another into nothing, Aqua ran ahead to cut down a goblin that foolishly stood in her way.

A roar that shook the ground around him, Gladiolus brought his great up with a slash that cleaved through a trio of bombs and demolished them. He glanced at the master to check how she was faring, and unsurprisingly she was already cleaning house with the daemons, just cutting down another bomb.

As much as Gladiolus wanted to call it a night, find a Haven and just wait out the night before continuing, his thoughts kept going back to Sora and Kairi. It was bad enough daemons were starting to pile up and the search just getting harder, but if the heartless were prowling around them…

Grunting those thoughts away, he laid his sword upon his shoulder as Aqua joined his side, and then together they kept running in the direction where he hoped more tracks were made by the redhead. Flashlight on, they kept running with the larger man leading the two while taking down any daemon that was too close to them or they just took the flight option.

They stopped for a moment, Aqua raising her keyblade to stop his run. He looked at her before his eyes followed her own, and from a distance, he could see faint lights booming from a distance from their location. Sparks of magic and even a bolt of lightning were signals for them. They looked to another and with renewed vigor, they ran towards the magic.

Running around a large boulder, they came to the battlefield to see Kairi being tossed across the field, crashing through a withered tree. Breaking it and then slamming into the ground with a very loud "thud", even from the distance they could feel it. Before the redhead was an Iron Giant slowly marching towards her, though its body carried several cuts and even the sword was cracked in the body of the steel.

Kairi looked to be trying to get back to her feet, but she couldn't even lift herself an inch off the ground before she fell in defeat. The giant raised its giant blade to finish the girl, and then it brought the sword down.

Before the steel could pulverize Kairi into a paste, Aqua dashed and grabbed her defeated apprentice and managed to move her away from the attacking monster. With its sword down, Gladiolus took this opportunity to strike at the giant's waist. His sword struck at its waist, and when met with resistance, he roared as he tore through the giant. The blade was carved free from its steel obstacle as the giant fell, melting into nothing.

After he checked for any more daemons, Gladiolus jogged to Kairi and Aqua, the latter holding her up in her arms. His face steeled when he sees the condition the poor girl was in, and he felt his throat tightening up. Her clothes were torn and riddled with dirt, sand and her blood, sweat plastered all over her face. Several cuts and marks on her arms, legs and a few on her cheeks, one above her eyebrow was still bleeding and running down her eye.

'Kairi! Kairi, please open your eyes!', begged the master, her voice was so shaken and terrified she was close to tears.

Gladiolus knelt near them, checking Kairi's wounds to see if there was any poison or infection. Kairi stirred and shook weakly, cracking her eyes weakly open. 'S-S-Sora…Sora…', she whimpered, weakly pointing her finger at the barrier.

The two adults looked up to see where she was pointing, and sure enough, the barrier was still going strong. Aqua looked between her student and barrier, her eyes narrowing with worry. 'Kairi, dispel it immediately', she ordered. 'N-N-No…heartless…', she gasped.

'They're gone kiddo, we've taken care of them', Gladiolus assured double-checking for them just in case. 'Kairi, the barrier!', Aqua pressed. Kairi whimpered, eventually she opened her hand up to the barrier and then slowly, a faint violet light shimmered on her hand appeared, and then the barrier broke down. She dropped her hand and slumped into Aqua's arms, eyes shutting tight. Aqua's stern look changed to genuine fear. Gladiolus looked at the princess before he turned a hard look to the blue head.

'What's up with that? Couldn't you dispel it yourself?', he questioned.

'I wouldn't have pressured her to do it herself if I could have', responded Aqua, quick and to the point. 'But unless we break it ourselves there was no other way'.

'And we didn't do it because? Kairi looks like she's just a step away from…', he said, but didn't finish that sentence since his message was clear.

'Because if we did, we'd be doing more harm to her. Barriers like this require you to maintain it using will power and concentration', Aqua explained. 'The more damage it takes, the more mana you lose and when you run out…you start feeling the attacks yourself'.

Gladiolus frowned at this, looking down at the girl with a mixture of worry and respect. Sighing, Aqua placed a hand on her student's head and chanted. 'She must have been fighting for hours and maintaining the barrier for so long…'.

A wave of green flowed from her hand and washed down Kairi's form, healing some scratches and cuts, but Gladiolus could see the result was no greater than just slapping a bandage on them all. The girl looked so close to just passing away in such a state he was almost going to grab an elixir and just drown her with it. If only he had one…

Looking at the cave, he got up and told her he'd see how Sora was faring while Aqua tended to Kairi. Entering, he found the boy still unconscious and on his side. Curious, he checked his back and sure enough, the wounds he expected him to possess were still there, albeit not as severe as they would have been. Gladiolus gently lifted Sora into his arms and carried him out, almost reminding him of Noctis when he was passed out from training.

'Kid's passed out, and looks like Kairi healed what she could', he said, showing her the boy. Gently lifting Kairi into her arms, Aqua looked back at the man. 'They need healing, how far is a Haven from here?', she asked. Gladiolus hummed in return, furrowing his brows in thought before he looked up. 'There's one just south of here…but', he started, before he turned around and more daemons began to spawn.

'Oh shit', he grunted.

'Gladio!'.

The two turned to see the cavalry had arrived, literally.

Noctis, Donald, and Goofy came in charging, weapons out and ready. The prince leaped off his mighty stead and tossed the engine blade at the recently spawned giant, warping towards it and plunging his sword directly into the iron skull of the monster. It stood little chance of survival.

Noctis next leaped off the daemon and warped back to his Shield and friends, standing before them. 'Are they ok?', he questioned, looking at the sleeping forms of his friends. Donald and Goofy looked heartbroken at the sight of the two, but Aqua shook her head. 'We need to take them somewhere safe to properly heal them', she elaborated. More daemons started to spawn as well as heartless in front of them, earning their attention.

'I don't think they like your plan…', Gladiolus joked without an ounce of humor in his tone. It was graver than anything else.

'Then take them to the Haven, we'll hold them off until Iggy shows up!', Noctis ordered, turning to his Shield.

'You better take the chocobos too!', Goofy suggested, shield raised high in time to block a shadow's assault. It was then smacked into the ground by the captain. 'We can hold them here!'.

Aqua and Gladiolus looked at each other, then nodded and quickly placed the two wielders of the key on the birds and hopped on. 'We'll see you at the Haven!', Gladiolus shouted as the birds sped off. 'Don't die on us!'.

With them gone, and more importantly safe from the monsters, Noctis looked to the two otherworldly allies, who with utter confidence nodded back. He then turned to the horde of the dark creatures, blade in hand and with a growl, unleashed his Armiger.

'It's on now', he growled as his body was surrounded by crystals and light…

The prince charged forth with his ghostly weapons around him, grabbing his engine blade and decimating the shadows that crawled towards him. With his limbs wielding the sword, the weapons floating around him flew and stabbed, cut, chopped and cleaved through the darkness, making him seem like a whirlwind of swords.

With Noctis in the thick of it all drawing the attention, Donald circled them while casting spells. He fired a whirlwind of air into a small group that sent them all flying into the night skies, which then allowed the duck to let them suffer the wrath of a thunderstorm above. He created a small black could with lighting bursting from it, and once within range, the heartless were all shocked and destroyed by the bundle of lighting and thunder.

Goofy wisely was keeping any of the flying monsters off the prince, blocking the bombs' fireballs, smacking them aside with his shield and even throwing it at them with enough force to one-shot them. He yelped when a goblin was taking shots at him with their crossbow, dancing like he was standing on hot coal to evade the bullets.

Thankfully Goofy, after mid-stepping, threw his shield at the goblin's head, smacking it and killing it. Impressively his shield ricocheted off the goblin and soared to another goblin, then shot off to a bomb and then finally smacked right into the other iron giant's head, disorientating it. Which gave Noctis an opening, he aimed his arms at the giant and his ghostly weapons soared like rockets, piercing the iron flesh.

The giant fell into nothingness as Noctis brought the Sword of the Tall down onto a large body heartless, destroying it and tearing through it. He spun around and grabbed his crossbow, shooting at a few flying heartless, picking them off one by one.

Then his armiger surge ended, and he was winded. Goofy quickly joined his shield and blocked a new shadows attack. It was then obliterated by Donald's thunderbolt. The duck stood in front of the two and aimed his staff at the growing numbers, casting Magenta. The powerful spell sucked them all into a group, trapping them in place, and seeing all the daemons and heartless stuck in place gave the prince a malicious idea.

'Goofy', he said, pulling out two magic flasks.

He handed one to him and turned to Donald. 'Think you can give us some more thunder?', he asked. Donald nodded and lifted his staff, sparks of lightning surged around his staff, crackling and sparking. A black cloud formed above the dog pile monsters, growing bigger and bigger until it nearly covered them all.

Both Noctis and Goofy threw the flasks at the horde just as Donald cast the huge bolt of lightning. A golden bolt raced down from the cloud just as the flasks smacked and exploded upon impact, creating an explosion of fire, ice and lightning that shook the ground and the force of it knocked the three of them on the backs, not even Goofy could stand against the blast. Dust flew and blinded them, forcing them all to duck their heads and wait it out.

After the winds ceased, Noctis peeked to see there was nothing remaining save for a combination of scorched and frozen land, faint sparks of electricity dancing around. The prince chuckled lightly, surprised they weren't turned to ashes, or frozen or shocked to death from that concoction of destruction. They stood up and dusted themselves off, the two new guys laughing together while Noctis smugly looked on.

But their victory was short-lived, as more heartless began to re-surface along with daemons. 'You gotta be kidding me…', Noctis groaned, summoning his sword again.

'They just keep coming!', complained Donald, jumping up and down in fury. 'Buzz off will ya!?'.

Goofy gulped, but then he turned to the right to the road, he let out, 'Fellas! Look!'. The two turned to see Ignis and Prompto on the road, the latter using one of his sniper guns he seemingly found, picking off some heartless. 'Noct! Get over here!', Ignis yelled.

'Time to go!', Noctis said, pushing Goofy forward and with Donald following behind, they ran for the Regalia.

The heartless chased them with bombs following close by, some managed to get close enough for a hit. Prompto though was picking them off one by one and with Noctis using his sword and Goofy his shield, they managed to stay them off them.

They all piled into the car unceremoniously, but no sooner did he feel he was being crushed by Donald and Goofy's weight, the prince shouted: 'DRIVE!'. Slamming his foot on the pedal, the advisor sped his party off into the night, leaving behind a horde…

*Dawn*

As the sun slowly rose from the mountains, the drive to the Haven was weary and many of the party were barely keeping their eyes open. Only their worries for their fellow companions were keeping them from falling into a well-deserved slumber.

Ignis pulled off the road just near the Haven where the party could see tents were up and faint smoke was rising to the slowly brightening sky. They hopped out of the car and sprinted to the Haven, arriving to see Gladiolus going through their first-aid kit. He looked up to see them arrive, nodding to one of the tents.

'Aqua's been with them the whole time we set camp', he explained, placing a few items back in the box.

'Are they well?', Ignis asked, joining him.

'Hmm…Sora's coming along better, we gave him a hi-potion and she healed him, he's just sleeping now', he said. 'Kairi…*sigh* I dunno…'.

'How bad was she?', Prompto asked worriedly.

'Aqua said she's exhausted herself, said she's used up so much magic and strength by the time we found her she was on fumes. She's worried she may sleep for a lot longer than we thought'.

There were several glances to each other, mixtures of worry, fear, and apprehension, yet none spoke up. Ignis sighed in turn after he and Gladiolus finished with the kit, he placed it on the makeshift table and started to prepare for breakfast.

'All we can do for now is wait…everyone, you can either go for a nap or wait for food…', he offered.

A small compromise and at least now everyone could regain their strength and rest, so to keep their minds off the situation they face everyone started to do their own thing. Donald and Goofy were helping Prompto get some chairs up and ready while Gladiolus grabbed his book and started to read quietly, and finally, Noctis decided to go for a nap.

Lying down on his sleeping bag, the prince slowly drifted off into slumber…all the while thinking of that place, he was taken too…

And what did it mean?

A/N:

Chapter 10! Happy out!

Question: Should Aqua and Kairi get more keychains throughout this story or do you think they should stick with it? I've already planned on Kairi getting one more after Oathkeeper but curious what you people think.

Thanks for reading! As always stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	11. Chapter 11

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 11

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

?

The sensation was equivalent to floating in the middle of the ocean, moving up and down yet not feeling the sensation of the water washing against her. She could hear the wind but felt no breeze from it.

Kairi slowly opened her eyes to see only a circle of light within an endless sea of dark clouds above her. She squinted her eyes when she stared into the circle as she looked around to see nothing but darkness. The next thing she felt was something cool and solid beneath her like she was gently laid upon the ground.

Turning her head left and right to see where she laid, she slowly got to her feet shaking like her legs had turned to rickety sticks. Kairi looked to the ground and sees it was a large platform that showed herself standing on a beach back home, where she sent her letter in the bottle long ago, in her current clothes with Destiny's Embrace in her hand with the sun setting behind her. Behind her were six circles showing faces of people she knew.

Axel, Naminé, Aqua, Donald, Goofy, and Riku. But in the center of them, all was a heart-shaped portrait with Sora's face, smiling handsomely at her. The entire platform's color consisted of light pink with gentle light yellow and royal cream color.

'Where am I? And what does this mean?', she asked herself, looking at her image.

Before she could figure it out, a pedestal slowly rose up from below behind her, the sound it made caught her attention and she turned around. A ball of light was levitating above the stone, calling to her like a song. Cautiously curious, the princess approached the pedestal and stretched her hand out to the sphere. The sphere floated towards her hand and once it touched her fingers, the light shined bright enough to make Kairi close her eyes.

She felt a warmth from it that spread all along her body just as the light slowly faded away. Opening her eyes Kairi sees nothing had changed until below she heard cracking glass. Kairi looked down and sees the pedestal was cracking beneath her feet, and before she could process on her next move, it shattered and she with the shards of her pedestal fell into darkness.

As she was swallowed by the darkness, Kairi struggled against it, thrashing and struggling against it in vain as slowly it consumed her. As she stretched her hand out as the darkness reached her head and slowly eat her away.

Then a hand reached out for her own, grasped it and slowly her world went from dark to blinding bright.

'It is not your time yet, Princess of Light', a gentle voice whispered. As the light shined, Kairi could see someone holding her hand, preventing her descent into the darkness. Though the light was blinding her, she made out two distinct features, blonde hair, and blue eyes…

'Naminé', Kairi gasped as the silhouette faded into the light.

Haven

Fidgeting and squinting her closed eyes, Kairi stirred and slowly opened her eyes. Though blurry and a sensation of exhaustion unlike any other washing over her, she could make out she was in a tent. The shuffles of feet and sounds of muffled voices resonated outside her supposed place of safety. Turning her head to the left, she sees Sora sleeping near her, though he was more relaxed than earlier she recalled.

Slowly she started to sit up in her sleeping bag, shaking her head and groaning as her limbs carried some ache with them. Her body felt like she had been fighting for days on end, and while she felt some form of pride that she managed to keep both herself and Sora safe long enough for help to arrive, she wished she didn't feel this level of exhaustion. She rubbed her forehead tiredly, blinking out the dizziness.

'Morning…'.

Kairi turned to her tent-mate, now with his eyes open tiredly and she sees he was still aching to a degree. He gave her a cheesy grin that was strained, likely still feeling the pain from yesterday. She smiled wonderfully in response to his grin, then she shuffled her bag close to him and laid back down to face him. It was a wonderous sight to see his eyes open again and that lovely happy inducing grin back on his face.

Gently she moved herself closer to him until they hugged, her head nested on his chest. She felt his lips on her forehead, making her giggle. 'My hero~', he praised. Her cheeks turned red from this, yet she couldn't help that giddiness that was slowly building up in her chest as she grinned wider. Raising her head to face him, seeing the look of pride in his eyes was worth the world to her, finally being able to protect him this time.

Gently he brushed a strain of her hair from her face, she allowed herself to sigh in ease from the gentleness of his hands. She raised to level her head with his, slowly inching in to kiss him. That was until…

The sound of the tent opening caught them, and when they turned to it, there was Prompto about to enter with what looked to be medicine in hand, but he was frozen on the spot. Eyes wide with a blush on his cheeks, still as a statue as the two young teens looked at him awkwardly, while feeling a sense of déjá vu.

Without a word, Prompto slowly waved at them and left the tent entrance and quietly left them to it. Once the flap was closed, they heard him yell something on the lines of "they're awake", likely announcing it to the others. Then he added, "also occupied".

The wielders of key both sighed in annoyance, laying down. 'He has the absolute worst timing, I swear', Kairi frowned, pouting. 'Tell me about it…', concurred Sora. With the moment once again ruined by Prompto, they got out of their bags and after some stretched sense they had more room in the tent on their own, they eventually left it and joined the world of the living once again.

Outside they see the mood killer Prompto hanging by the edge of the Haven with Donald and Goofy, showing his photos to them while on a chair in the center where the campfire would have been was Gladiolus with a book in hand. By the stove was Aqua cooking eggs judging by the sizzling noises from the pan, and lastly was Ignis near the edge on his phone pacing.

'Well look who decided to join us', Gladiolus teased, smirking at the duo.

They blushed shyly as everyone turned on them bar Ignis, who seemed to be too pre-occupied by the call he was having. Aqua had a look of relief as she nodded to them while Donald and Goofy approached them. 'You two feeling ok?', Donald asked.

'Still stiff and some aches, but raring to go otherwise!', Sora said confidently, puffing out his chest.

Kairi rolled her eyes at him, gently elbowing him and making him laugh. 'How long were we out?', she asked. 'A few hours, its afternoon now', Gladiolus explained, closing his book. 'Iggy and Aqua were mostly healing you both with some medicine and magic'. He got up and stretched. 'We've just hung out there most of the day'.

The two looked at one another, guilt slowly showing on their faces before Gladiolus waved them off. 'Hey now, it happens to the best of us, we're just glad no one's dead', he assured.

'Exactly, your wounds were very severe when we brought you here, namely your own Kairi', Aqua said, putting the eggs on plates. Sora immediately turned to the girl, who looked at her arms and legs with a frown, seeing the faint and healed marks on her flawless skin. While most have healed and will fade in time she knew, some of her newly acquired scars would not, and she didn't know how to feel about that.

She gave Sora a weak shrug none the less as if it wasn't an issue. Heck, she could only imagine how many he possessed.

'But this does mean we'll discuss about splitting up in future', Aqua stated. 'We're lucky we were closer to you two during the hunts'.

'Oh yeah, how did you guys do?', Kairi asked, hoping to get Sora's attention on something else than her scars. 'All done and dusted, me and Prompto headed for the garage to turn them in', Gladiolus said smugly. 'We've gotten enough for that car and that bike, plus some curatives too'. They all joined at the chairs while Aqua distributed the food, leaving some for Ignis and the nowhere to be seen Noctis. Which caught Sora's eyes as he looked for the raven. 'Where's Noctis?', he asked.

'Sleeping Beauty's still in the tent, doing what he does best', Gladiolus joked.

Sora looked at Donald and Goofy, snickering at the ironic name as Aqua smiled fondly at it, while Kairi blinked curiously at the giggles. 'Well now that we have sorted the transport situation, we're heading for that place with Royal Arm next, right?', Kairi asked, before chewing her eggs. 'That's right, and that's in Duscae', Gladiolus affirmed.

'Which lucky for us is way more forgiving with the temperatures!', Prompto said with a grin, 'Less heatwaves and sun!'.

'In exchange for rain and giant bugs', Gladiolus reminded playfully.

'Least we'll be cooled off there', Aqua added with a smile. 'Besides it'll be a nice change as opposed to constantly worrying about getting sunburnt'.

'Speak for yourselves, we're practically immune to sunburns!', Sora said, nudging Kairi's elbow with a grin. She nodded confidently. 'Absolutely! We've mastered the power of immunity to sunburns after so many years of getting it!', she laughed.

There was a collection of laughter between the seven, some jokes were made during lunch along with some conversations about recent events until Noctis finally emerged from his tent, stretching out and letting himself yawn loudly. He gave everyone a tired "good morning" and nodded to Sora and Kairi with a smile. 'You two ok?', he asked. 'Yup, we're awake and ready to go to Duscae!', Sora said with excitement in his voice.

'Glad someone is', he said with a shrug, 'Just hope we don't bump into any more imperials again'.

As he picked up his plate to join the others, Kairi subtly noticed Ignis was occasionally looking back at Noctis with a keen eye and at the same time with some paranoia from how often he picked, as if he was afraid he'd vanish if he looked away too long. Shrugging to herself as she finished her lunch, she and Sora started to collect everyone's dishes and even offered to clean them as payment for the free food. While they cleaned, they made small talk.

'Hey, can I ask you something?', Kairi asked, drying a plate Sora washed.

'Sure?', he said.

'How do you do that trick? Turning your keyblade into a new weapon?'.

Sora let out an "ahh" sound, nodding and washing another plate. 'I can't explain it, but, it's just something I guess I subconsciously learned it?', he said lamely, as if even he didn't know how it worked. Kairi hummed in response to this as she dried another plate. 'Funnily I remember Aqua saying she and her friends used to have amour too…and they could use them to traverse worlds while using their keyblades by turning them into gliders', she said.

'Whoa, really?', Sora asked excitedly. Kairi nodded, smiling back. 'Yeah, each one was different for them but they're like one seated gummi ships in a way', she continued. 'But I asked her about her own, and she says she lost her armor when she was sent to… you know'.

Sora nodded solemnly, both casting a glance to the blue head who was chatting with Gladiolus about something. 'Think we should ask her about the armor and gliders?', Sora asked. 'Maybe later?', she said turning her eyes back to him. 'I don't wanna press her and make her remember those days, you know?'. Sora nodded in agreement, thinking back when he saw her again.

And nearly got his backside kicked harder than Donald smacking him with his staff.

'But the weapon changing isn't that tricky once you get the hang of it', he assured. 'Can you show me?', Kairi asked. Sora looked at her with a surprised look before he weakly scratched the back of his head, ducking it. 'Uh, shouldn't you ask Aqua? I mean, she's a master', he said lamely. That was not a tone she wanted to hear from Sora, that lack of confidence and look of shame. She was aware of how he failed his exam and that only fuelled her desire to get back at the one who ruined Sora's chances.

'Yeah, she is. But you're also an amazing wielder of the keyblade aren't you?', she teased, putting her hands on her hips and looking at him. 'Well, I guess…', Sora said shyly. 'And don't you want to make sure I know what I'm doing so I can protect myself and you?'. Sora gave her a sideways smirk, not ignorant enough to not see that subtle jab at his overprotectiveness of her. Kairi just wiggled her eyebrows at him innocently.

'Okay, okay! I'll show you how it works', he said with a laugh. 'Great!', Kairi said, finishing off her dish and turning to him. 'Let's go!'. 'Huh? N-Now?', he asked. 'No time like the present!'. She turned to the others. 'We're just hopping off for a few minutes', she said. Most of the party nodded but Aqua folded her arms with a shake of her head. 'You two shouldn't be going yet, you just woke up', she reminded. 'We won't be far from the Haven, we're just going', Kairi said, turning back to the plains for a perfect spot, and then back to Aqua, 'just going to that rock and that's it!'.

Aqua gave her student a look before she lowered her arms. 'Fine, but you're staying in our sights, got it?', she asked. 'Promise!', Kairi beamed, gesturing to Sora to lead on. With a wave, the two jumped off the Haven and walked towards the rock.

Once there, and after they waved like two idiots to Aqua, they summoned their keyblades. When Sora saw Oathkeeper though, he checked his pocket to find Kairi's lucky charm but found nothing. When he turned back to Kairi, she sheepishly smiled and showed the chain. 'Sorry, but when I was looking after you, I spotted it in your pocket and…well…', she said before laughing shyly. 'I guess I was wondering if I could change my keychain too'.

Sora let out a breath, relieved. 'Ok, don't scare me like that!', he laughed. 'But for the first lesson, let's stick with your original first', he suggested. Kairi groaned but followed his advice and returned her keyblade to Destiny's Embrace. Sora snickered at her glare; her eyes bore into the weapon. 'When I see Riku again, I'm going to kick his butt for this choice of design…', she said. 'Least if you do beat him, you'll be the next master', Sora laughed.

' "Kairi the Keyblade Master" does have a nice ring to it', she agreed with a smirk. 'Maybe when I'm retaking my exam, we could do it together', he hummed. Kairi smiled at the thought.

Sora then changed his Kingdom Key to a new keyblade after grabbing a chain from his pocket and turned it into Shooting Star. Kairi raised a brow at that, looking back at hers. 'Oh yeah, well see my own doesn't turn into a new weapon', he explained, laying SS on his shoulders, 'Not sure why but hey'.

'So how this works is, I mostly just build up the magic during a fight, and then I use the magic stored up and send it to the keyblade'. 'But how did you decide what weapon it'll turn into?', Kairi asked. 'I don't. It chooses itself I guess', Sora said. 'Ok? So how do I do it?', Kairi questioned.

Sora smirked. 'We'll spar, and maybe you'll figure it out then', he said.

She didn't know why, but Kairi felt a sudden surge of fear at that smirk, and if Sora needed to fight as well as he does to shift his weapon into a new one…

Kairi was starting to regret her choices…

Sora started first, dashing towards her and swinging upwards to her. Breaking out of her trance of regrets, Kairi blocked his attack. Caught in a deadlock with him, Kairi tried to push him back but he didn't budge an inch, his feet firmly placed into the ground. Sora, on the other hand, was easily pushing her backward and lowering her weapon down despite her best efforts to keep him off her.

Kairi, however, sidestepped to the left which turned Sora's pressing attack on himself and caused him to stagger forward with a yell. Kairi took this chance to strike at him while he was trying to regain his footing. She struck at him with a thrust of her keyblade, only for him to quickly turn around and swing his own perfectly to not only parry her attack but also expose her entirely. Kairi was wide open for an attack yet he didn't take it.

He did something worse though…he smugly smiled at her.

Pouting, she readied herself for more and ran towards him. Their keyblades clashed as sparks of light popped with each strike from the keys, Kairi striking at him while Sora was skilfully parrying her attacks and not attempting to lay harm upon her. Frustration was starting to grow within her, every strike she performed was either being parried or blocked by him, it was like she was hitting more than one keyblade and what further her annoyance was she knew he was holding back.

One more attack that went nowhere and when Sora jumped back to create some distance between them, she let out a deep sigh of contained frustration. Sensing it, Sora blinked. 'You ok?', he asked.

'No…', she huffed. 'You're holding back!'.

Sora sheepishly smiled back, which flat out just confirmed his crime and deepened Kairi's annoyance. 'W-Well…', he started, but Kairi cut him off. 'No, none of that "I don't want to hurt you" junk! I can take on heartless and daemons at once for hours on end, and I can probably take on a nobody too!', she argued. 'So no more holding back, you're going to spar with me like you'd spar with Riku!'.

Sora gave her a very surprised look, probably wasn't expecting her to explode like that. Kairi half expected him to apologize or come up with some excuse that she knew he was just trying to make it easy on her.

He then grinned. 'Okie Dokie, if you're sure cause', he said.

SS suddenly shifted and morphed into two new weapons Kairi hadn't seen before, as they took the form of what looked to be guns, except unlike Prompto's they were closer to what a keyblade's overall design was. Plus, his outfit changed from red and black to more blue, almost like that Wisdom Form he used in the past. He crossed his arms with guns in hand before spinning them in his hands and finally aimed them at Kairi.

'No more holding back then!'.

Kairi realized at this very moment…she had made a terrible mistake.

Sora started to fire several barrages of arrows at the girl, they were ethereal arrows with heart-shaped tips, a total of twelve flew towards her. Kairi jumped away from them but to her shock they were homing in on her like missiles, chasing her. Kairi swiped at them as she kept jumping back from them, hitting a few here and there but to add more worries, from her peripheral vision she spotted Sora in the air, firing more at her like a mad man.

The princess turned to his barrage with her left hand opened and fired a magnet spell at them. The spell formed in the air and drew in the arrows trapping them. She detonated the spell and destroyed the arrows and finally cut down the remaining ones that were homing in her. Kairi looked around the plains to find Sora, but he was nowhere in sight.

'Heads up!'.

Kairi looked up to see her boyfriend diving while spinning towards her, firing more arrows at her. Quickly Kairi erected a barrier around herself, defending herself from the raining arrows. They blasted her shield rapidly, pelting her shield like she was in the middle of a rainstorm. Sora dashed in the air when he got too close to the shield and created more distance between them, but he was starting to glide two feet off the ground, firing more arrows at her.

Kairi could feel her magic waning from this never-ending barrage of arrows, there were cracks in her crystal barrier and she could feel the breeze outside against her, clearly showing it was only a matter of time before Sora turned her into a pincushion. As the cracks grew longer and spreading across the barrier, Kairi thought back to what Sora was saying about absorbing magical energies in battle, looking at her keyblade.

Closing her eyes, she lifted her keyblade up as her barrier was slowly fading yet still protecting her, her keyblade started to glow. Opening her eyes, she threw it upwards, proclaiming: 'Let's GO!'.

A blinding light shined as the barrier turned into magical energies and flew into her clothes and keyblade. Sora's arrows were suddenly sliced and diced into nothing, and when the light and dust settled, Kairi stood there with her new weapon, the Dual-Blade.

It was as tall as her with a similar color scheme as her regular keyblade, but the handle was if two keyblades handles attached, the blades had different patterns on them, one was a breaking ocean while the other formed into a beige vine of sand. Each tip of the blades were curved and.

Kairi spun the weapon in one hand before aiming it at Sora, her clothes were no longer pink and black, but now there were crimson red with some parts of her clothes possessing ocean wave patterns around her clothes.

Sora smiled with approval at her, before he started to fire more arrows at her rapidly. Kairi ran at the arrows without care, spinning her blades in her right hand before she started to spin and dance around with it, cutting the arrows like leaves fluttering in the wind. She leaped, ducked, hopped and flipped all the while cutting her boyfriend's attacks. It was as if she was a whirlwind of knives.

When she was close to Sora, she brought her blades down upon him which forced Sora to jump back from her attack. As he stood two feet before her, Kairi stood up properly and spun her weapon before stabbing it into the ground with a strong determined yet satisfied look in her eyes. Sora was equally proud of her, he was sporting the largest grin his jaw could muster and his were practically glowing with pride.

'You did it!', he praised.

'You are darn right I did!', she bragged, smiling at him.

Looking at her new weapon and clothes color, she beamed. As step closer to catching up to the boys, to be able to muster such power as this felt like a gigantic leap in progress, she was sure even Axel hadn't been able to perform this yet. Kairi gave Sora a genuine look of gratitude though with a subtle wink, and she could see even in him he was relieved he could teach her something. With luck, she hoped that would dash away any doubt of his abilities he had.

'Well, now that we got that done, wanna see if it could change into another weapon?', he asked. Looking at her own, and already imagining what else her frilly key could turn into, she smiled. 'Sure, who knows? Maybe it'll…', she started but when she turned back to Sora, she lost her speech as Sora's weapon changed again.

Now in his arms was what looked like a rocket launcher.

Kairi's eye twitched in apprehension, as she slowly backed away. Sora gave her a confused look and a tilt of his head. 'What? You said you didn't want me to hold back on you', he argued.

'…W-Well…maybe, you could rein it in…just…a…little…?', Kairi squeaked.

'Sora, Kairi!'.

The two looked back to the Haven, seeing Prompto waving at them animatedly. 'Iggy wants everyone back here; says we've got a problem!'.

Looking at one another, they dismissed their weapons, returned their clothes to their normal colors and headed back to the Haven. Never has Kairi been so grateful for Prompto's bad timing.

Back in the Haven, everyone was gathered around the spectacled man, who was oddly enough looking at Noctis in particular. 'What's going on?', Sora asked, looking at the older man. 'I've been speaking to the Marshal for quite some time, he had some concerns for us', he explained. Sora blinked in confusion before Gladiolus told him about Cor.

'It's the imperials, they have been sighted within Lestallum', he said with a grim look.

The royal retinue's stance became tense, more so Gladiolus. His eyes narrowed darkly, and his fist clenched tight. 'Why?', he growled. 'Noctis has been seen there a day ago', Ignis said simply. The three looked at the prince who, like them, had a very confused look on his face. '…what?', he said.

'B-but wait a second, we haven't been there for a week!', Prompto said, just as lost.

'Yet the Marshal was certain Noct was seen there, rescuing Iris from white creatures', Ignis explained, yet his tone sounded as if he doubted the stories. Upon hearing the "white creatures" part, Sora glanced at Donald and Goofy, each of them having the same look of "oh dear" on their faces. This did not go unnoticed by the giant. 'Something you wanna share with the class kid?', Gladiolus asked, eyeing him.

'They're…bad guys', he said dumbly.

'Like the heartless?', Prompto asked.

'Kinda…'.

'Regardless, if Cor is certain of Noctis being there, then likely there is someone going around pretending to be the prince, and if those creatures are there with the imperials, then Iris may be in danger', Ignis said.

'Then we head to Lestallum!', Kairi said, 'if the Nobodies are there with the imperials, then Iris *is* in danger!'.

' "Nobodies"?', Noctis asked.

'We'll explain on the way…', Aqua said, 'for now we should see if Cindy has the vehicles ready'.

The team packed up the camping equipment and then headed off to Hammerhead, paid for the car, promising to grab the bike later. With Aqua driving as she was the only one who had some idea how to use a car excluding Goofy (who Donald as adamant that he'd be the very last person to touch the steering wheel). They sped off following the Regalia.

Outside Lestallum

Once they were close to the city, the party stopped just before they entered the tunnel leading into the city. Stepping out of their vehicles they all could see Lestallum had some changes to it, imperial brand changes. Three dropships were floating around the city with several watchtowers were planted around the out perimeter watching.

'Don't remember Lestallum being under lockdown by the imperials', Gladiolus growled, hands-on the railings on the road.

'If Noct was truly seen within the city, they won't risk the thought of him escaping it', Ignis reminded, arms folded. 'And it looks like they won't be taking any chances at the entrance either'.

Ahead of them at the tunnel, there was a roadblock of imperials patrolling and checking every car that came through. 'What do we do now? We can't just walk in', Goofy asked, folding his arms and tapping his head in thought.

Noctis hummed in thought, looking at Sora and then back at the city, snapping his fingers. 'Well, what if me, Sora and Kairi sneak in the city first then find a way for the rest of you to sneak in?', he suggested.

'And how are you going to do that?', Ignis inquired.

*Later…*

Right at the roadblock, Aqua and Prompto drove the car towards it with Gladiolus and the others hanging back in the shrubbery, watching them busying the imperials by pointlessly asking questions, mixing up the commands and even having Aqua act she was a lost tourist. All the while Noctis and duo of troublemakers snuck in using Noctis' warp and Sora, carrying Kairi, air-dashing quick enough for them to go by quietly and more importantly unseen.

Once the three were though and safe, Aqua decided she'd see the town later without the imperialist rule and drove away. Once she and Prompto were at a safe distance, they hopped out and the blonde rang Noctis.

'Okay, we're just inside the town', Noctis answered.

'So, what are the rest of us supposed to do?', Prompto asked as the others joined them.

'I dunno, ask Iggy'.

In Lestallum, once they exited the tunnel, they immediately jumped to the top of a building. It was one of the tallest buildings in the town which gave them a perfect view of most of the streets and the hotel where Iris resided was just a few buildings away from them. Below them, however, much to the keyblade wielders worry, imperials were patrolling with two berserker nobodies waltzing along with them.

'Holy crap, THOSE are nobodies?', Noctis said eyes bulged.

'Yeah, those are berserkers…', Sora said, knelt beside Noctis and Kairi. 'But why are they working with the imperials?'.

Kairi gave Sora a look, one that screamed he knew the answer as to why they'd work with their enemies, but he shook his head and mouthed "Order" to her. 'Well whatever they are, we'll deal with it later. Let's get to the hotel first', Noctis huffed. He warped to the next building while Kairi stopped Sora for a moment.

'Sora, if the nobodies are here, and are working with the imperials, you know that means the Organization might be helping them', she said.

'I got that idea, but we can't tell them that', he said, but she could hear in his tone he desperately wanted to tell them. 'But remember Order'.

He attempted to go but held firm, her eyes narrowing with disapproval. 'Sora, we have to tell them', she said. 'Kai-

'Sora think about it. You think they're not questioning us? They just accepted whatever junk we tell them? I'm pretty sure they know we're not from this world'.

Sora sheepishly scratched his cheek, not a single argument could be conjured up in his mind. 'What if we encounter an Organization member? You know how dangerous they are, and the Noctis and the others wouldn't stand a chance'.

Sora looked down, her words were full of good points, and while he's not exactly a stickler for rules like his magical friend, he knows the importance of it. Still, he wondered how many of his friends knew about other worlds…

'Sora, please. Let's at least tell them about the Organization, just so in case we DO run into them, they know what to expect?', she pleaded.

'…ok…we'll tell them that much', he promised. They both jumped from rooftop to rooftop, catching up to Noctis in no time flat as they approached the ledge of the building. Sure enough, the see Iris standing by the entrance of the hotel, likely being held as a witness to the lookalike, and the imperials using her as bait wouldn't be surprising.

Two berserkers were guarding the two paths leading into the streets of Lestallum, and one imperial guard with the brunet watching her. Noctis gave the two wielders of the keyblade subtle nods and gestures to the imperial whilst summoning his engine blade. They nodded and split off to different corners of the ledges, weapons out at the ready. Next, Noctis tossed his sword directly at the imperial just as Sora and Kairi leaped off the building and dived down to the nobodies.

The berserkers went down easy thanks to the power of the key and the imperial had no time to react to their destruction as Noctis plunged his sword through its metallic form, killing him. Once its body ceased all movement, he threw the now scrap metal imperial aside and dismissed his weapon, smirking at Iris.

'Miss me?', he asked.

The girl beamed brightly at him, then looked at Sora and Kairi with wide eyes. 'Hey there, you're Iris, right?', Sora greeted kindly. 'I'm Sora, and she's Kairi'. Iris looked between the two, before looking at Noctis. 'Noct…listen…', she said but the prince gently grabbed her shoulders. 'Tell me later, we're here to get you and the others outta here, where's Jared and Talcott?', he asked.

'They're hiding in the hotel, but- Lookout!'.

Sora and Kairi turned around with their keyblades out to see two dusks sprout out from the ground before them. Yet before they could even wiggle and attack the two, they were suddenly destroyed by a swipe of what sounded like a blade.

When their bodies faded to nothing, Kairi and Sora's eyes widened at their savior.

He swing his weapon to the side like he was ridding the remains of the nobodies off his blade before he gave both islanders a smirk.

'There you are, what's going on?'.

A/N:

This WAS meant to be done yesterday but…yeah.

1st Question: What do you think of Kairi's new weapon? Originally, I was gonna make it into a bow but saved for another time.

2nd: I have an idea for Aqua's weapon form, but what do you think it should be?

3rd: I wonder who this could be? KH One players will know~

Thanks for reading, have a nice day! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	12. Chapter 12

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 12

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

One day ago

Iris couldn't take her eyes of this strange young man, who was likely not much older than herself, taking down those white monsters as if they were nothing.

The way he moved was like something out of one of those shows she used to watch, quick as lightning yet as strong as a truck. He flipped around the malleable creatures, seemingly untouchable to them. His strange sword was almost like Noctis' royal arms from what she saw from the photos Prompto would send her.

He spun the weapon his hand with each swing of the strange object, in fact, it looked like a gigantic car key from her spot. When he severed another creature in half, he made it disappear with a flick of his hand. It only then did she see that they were alone in the alleyway, she guessed the monsters must have retreated or he just beat them all.

The young man turned to Iris and approached her. He stood before the girl and offered his hand. 'You alright, miss?', he asked. Now that her life wasn't in peril, she finally took note of him. He wears a black hooded jacket that is unzipped, with short sleeves, gold buttons, and a checker-based pattern at the hem. Underneath, she sees him wearing a white shirt with a V-neck. Blue cropped trousers that are hemmed with the same checker-based pattern as the jacket, black glovelettes on each hand, and black high-top boots.

His hair was short unkempt silver, with bright blue-green eyes and his skin was rather pale compared to the locals in Lestallum. Even his voice didn't register to her, it was not from around here she knew that much. What truly perplexed her the most was, his facial features and clothes, strongly resembled Noctis to a degree, almost like if Noct threw on a wig. And she unashamedly would admit he was just as handsome.

'Err, you alright miss?', he asked again, his voice was smooth and playful with a touch of worry.

Iris took his hand and he easily pulled her back to her feet with ease. On her two feet, she looked up at her savior, who was at least two inches taller than her, she smiled back. 'Thanks for that, but what were those things?', she questioned. 'They're called nobodies, long story short, they're bad guys', he explained simply and straight to the point. He offered no other explanation to them, which Iris presumed meant they were an off-limit topic.

'Ok? But who are you? I've never seen you around here before', she said, smiling at him.

'I've just arrived here actually, and I'm looking for my friends', he said. 'They uh, kinda got lost and I've been looking for them'.

'Oh? Well, …what do they look like?', Iris asked.

Before he could respond, they heard a small growl emitting from them, namely Iris' and the stranger's stomachs. She blushed while he awkwardly chuckled in response, scratching his neck. This embarrassment gave the girl an idea, and seeing as he did rescue her, she gestured to the hotel. 'If you're hungry enough, there's a café at the hotel I'm staying in', she hinted. 'How about I buy you lunch, to say thanks for saving me?'.

'I'd like that, thanks', he said with a nod. They both went down the street towards the hotel as she turned to him. 'So what did you say your name was again?', Iris chirped.

'Its…'.

Present Day

'RIKU!'.

Next thing Riku knew he was tackled by his two friends, nearly losing his balance with the combined powerful hug. He let out a yell as he was balancing two overly affectionate friends with only one leg support him as they nuzzled into him.

'How'd ya find us?', Sora asked.

'It's great to see you again!', Kairi cheered.

'Guys, balance! Gravity!', Riku yelled, feeling himself almost falling.

As the islanders hugged, Noctis and Iris just watched with amusement, the girl smirking at Noctis in particular. Now that she could compare the two, while there was a significant similarity between them, it was easier to tell them apart with their hair and apparel.

Though she was still trying to decide which was cuter.

Once he calmed down his more excited friends and prevent his back from getting acquainted with the ground, he gave them both a friendly smile. 'So how DID you find us?', Sora asked, hands behind his head. 'Well to be fair, you found me so, there's your answer there', he said.

'We mean in this…place', Kairi said, choosing her words very carefully when she subtly glanced back to Noctis and Iris. 'Yen Sid told us this place was way too distant from the other places Sora's been to'.

'He wasn't kidding', Riku said, folding his arms. 'It was in a different section altogether, only thanks to Chip and Dale did we even trace the ship's last point before it went silent'.

'But are you alone?', Sora asked, 'Didn't the King come with you? Or Ven? Axel?'. 'No…I was sent alone', Riku sighed.

After he frowned and looked to Kairi. 'After you and Aqua went "poof" on us, Master Yen Sid was adamant that losing one keyblade wielder was bad enough but another one and a master to boot, was not an option'.

Kairi sheepishly nodded at this, a look of regret was on her face from Riku's frown. 'I offered to go look for you five after Kairi and Aqua disappeared, and with some help from the King, we've managed to trace Sora's ship out here before he went silent'.

'Oh that's great, so you have a ship right?', Sora asked excitedly.

At this though, Riku's frown turned into a look that screamed "oh crap" and suddenly he looked like he wanted to walk away as quickly as possible from this. It made the two younger friends smirk in response seeing as Riku would often have that cat-like grin when he knew the two of them messed up or were about to be in a lot of trouble. 'U-uh…heh…funny story…', he muttered, scratching his cheek.

'You crashed it didn't you?', they both asked, still smirking.

'…kinda?', he said. 'L-Look, there's something about this…place…that's screwed up the gummi ships controls, it shuts it down'. At this, the two younger teens' smirks disappeared and in their place was confusion and worry. 'What do you mean?', Sora asked. Riku folded his arms, shaking his head. 'When I was orbiting around, everything just went shut off, and next thing I knew the ship was starting to fall into the…place'.

'Ok, we need a better code name for worlds because this is just getting silly', Kairi whispered.

'It was *your* idea!', Sora argued back with a chuckle.

'And what would have you called it?', accused the redhead.

'Eos?', Sora questioned, 'That's what this world is called'.

Kairi gave the boyfriend a look of disbelief before she groaned. 'Why didn't you say that earlier?', she whined. 'Why didn't you ask me?', teased Sora.

Riku chuckled at the two, a sense of nostalgia washing over him as he remembered how much he missed his two friends. 'A-Anyways! You were saying?', Kairi said, looking back at Riku. 'Right, bottom line something about this world seems to be affecting the ships that are orbiting it. Which means if anyone else gets too close, they'll end up here too'.

'Did you contact the King about this?', Kairi asked.

'Yeah, and he told me they're gonna be working with Chip and Dale back home about this', he said, 'If we're lucky they'll figure this out soon'.

'But wait a second, how did you get down here anyway without your ship?', Sora asked, remembering his landing. 'I just used the warp system on it before all the power went off, and well, I'm not sure where it is now or heck if it didn't explode on the way in'.

Kairi frowned. 'So that means we still don't have a way off Eos…'.

'Sorry, no', Riku said. 'So much for the rescue, huh?'.

Sora though was still grinning. 'What's with those looks?', he asked, looking between the two. 'This is great! We can finally go explore a new "place" together!', Sora hummed, beaming. Riku opened his mouth to retort but he was silenced by a now starry-eyed Kairi. 'You're right! Just like when we built that raft!', she agreed wholeheartedly. They both looked to the silver-haired youth, eyes glowed with excitement.

He chuckled at them, shaking his head in disbelief. 'You two are way too ok with the whole "we're trapped on Eos" thing', he said. Sora laughed while Kairi giggled. Just as they were about to ask more, they both turned to the approaching Noctis and Iris. 'Hate to interrupt but uh, we're kinda on a mission', he said. 'Oh right! Uh, Noctis, this is Riku. Our best friend', Sora introduced, smiling. 'Never would have guessed', Noctis chimed with a smirk that Kairi slightly shuddered at. It looked worryingly like Riku's…

'And Riku, this is Noctis, he's been helping us find our way around here'.

Riku gave the prince an analytical look before he gestured his jacket. 'Like the jacket', he complimented. At this Noctis smirked back. 'Thanks, but I like those greaves of yours, badass', he said. The prince turned back to Iris. 'So uh, was Riku what you were going to tell me about?'.

'Yeah, he just showed up here a day ago when those weird monsters in white attacked me', she explained. 'But then once Riku took them down, everything went back to normal until the empire arrived'.

'That's when the entire city went under lockdown. Pretty much anyone who looked remotely suspicious was arrested', Riku said. 'We've been stuck in the hotel all day thanks to them'.

Noctis frowned at this, glaring hatefully down the alleyway where they could see several magitek soldiers patrolling the streets. They could also spot some dusks and berserkers patrolling alongside them, though the latter nobodies were fluttering in the air and slithered upwards to the rooftops. 'And those, nobodies? They've been helping the Nifs out?', he asked, turning to Riku.

'Yeah, but only this morning though. Once the empire had the place locked down, they started to appear', Riku elaborated. 'Not sure when or how the empire got their hands on them but all you need to know is there dangerous, more so than the heartless'.

Iris looked at Sora and Kairi with questions evidently on her face before they both mouthed "long story", then she turned to Noctis. 'Where's Gladdy and the others?'. 'They're outside the city, me and those two snuck in to find you and the others, they ok?', Noctis said.

'Jared got hurt by some high-ranked member of the army, but otherwise, he'll live. Talcott is just shaken up by all this', Iris explained. 'But how are we gonna get out of here with all seven of us?'. Noctis folded his arms in thought, looking at the other three were doing the same thing. Even with them and the others outside together reclaiming this city was certainly out of the question. With the empire having soldiers all over the place and the nobodies to add, it would be a full-scale battle on their hands.

Not to mention if the heartless start to spawn, that's three adversaries on ten of them, and then there's the people inside too. 'There'd be too many people to keep an eye on in this city to fight everyone', Kairi pointed out, 'Not to mention the empire could send reinforcements, right?'. 'Once they find out Noct's here, they'll probably send all of the empire at him', Iris hummed.

'That's it…', Riku said. He looked at Noctis with a grin. 'They're hunting for us, right? So, what do you think they'll do once they see us running away?'.

'Chase after us…and leave Lestallum behind', Noctis mused, catching on to Riku's plan. 'Then all we must do is get everyone out of here while making sure Noctis and Riku are seen!', Kairi cheered, clapping her hands together. 'Okay…but how are we going to outrun an army? They've confiscated all vehicles in the section and there is no way Jared and Talcott can run down the tunnel', Iris pointed out.

Sora, however, grinned. 'Leave transportation to me, I've got an idea!'.

*Later*

Caligo Ulldor, the Brigadier General of the Niflheim, that was a name Noctis had only heard once in passing from the Marshal. A man who according to Cor was the human definition of a snake and an insult to said reptilians. He was the one who locked down the town the very moment someone had reported sightings of the renegade prince.

As he exited the empire vehicle, followed by a few men but no nobodies insight. It was a relief for the party since it'd be easier to outrun a few tin heads than flying malleable monsters. One of the supposed captains of the town saluted him in greetings but the general barely acknowledged the greeting alone, instead, he was glaring all around them for Noctis.

'Well? Where is the would-be prince?', he demanded, 'His grace is losing patience with our lack of success on the hunt', he demanded.

'Up here old man!'.

The entire platoon of the empire's forces looked up to see Noctis standing on top of the building, engine blade in hand as he glared down at them defiantly. 'You want me? You're gonna have to catch me first!', Noctis declared. 'Shoot him down! Today we'll claim the false King's head! For the glory of our empire!', Caligo declared, pointing at the prince.

The soldiers started to open fire on the prince just as he ran back for cover, bullets hitting the building and chipping off some of the stone. 'Get someone up there! Surround the building, do NOT LET HIM ESCAPE!'.

As the soldiers started to swarm around the building and some using the fire escapes to climb up to the rooftop, the next thing they saw was a bright light that nearly blinded them all. Then, a huge geyser of water sprouted from the rooftop that reach higher than the city's buildings could ever reach. Waves and rivers of water raced down onto the ground, swallowing up any unfortunate soldier in water and dragging them away while some were crushed by the weight of it.

Next thing Caligo could see were two large dinghies shaped like attraction seats fly upwards into the sky, their forms right in front of the sun caused him to squint his eyes in annoyance from the glaring beam of light. Then the dinghies flowed on the many streams of water and raced down the buildings, he could hear the yells of more than just the prince as the moment they landed on the ground the entire street was as if a huge wave suddenly washed over Lestallum.

Caligo was lucky enough to climb on his vehicle to avoid being swept away by the ludicrous amount of water that suddenly appeared out from nowhere, no water tower in the town could even contain a fifth of the amount of water that near flooded the streets. The dinghies sped along the waters as he, to his dismay, spotted Noctis in one of them with the Amicitia girl, the butler, and his brat all holding onto the railing in the center of the dinghy.

The other dinghy carried three other teens he had never seen before, and to add more fury to the ever-growing stew of rage in his eyes, he could see one of them nearly looked identical to the prince. Caligo growled as two and two were put together, realizing they had been hunting for nothing but a lookalike.

The emperor was going to have his head for this…

*Outside of Lestallum*

Gladiolus was pacing around in front of the Regalia, often checking his phone for any missed messages or calls Noctis tried to do to reach while everyone else was waiting around. Aqua herself was tapping her arm in anticipation, biting her inner cheek with a pensive look as Donald and Goofy were quietly waiting for Sora and Kairi.

'You think they got there ok?', Prompto asked, looking at Ignis, who was watching the city.

'With Noct's warping and Sora's air-borne mobility, they should have reached the hotel hours ago', Ignis said. 'I just hope Iris and the others are unharmed, the empire isn't known for gentle hospitality'.

Gladiolus let out a deep growl in retort to that, eyeing his phone impatiently as Aqua gave him a sympathetic look. Just then, Ignis' phone vibrated and immediately he answered while throwing it on loudspeaker.

'Noct, have you-

'IGGY! GET THE CARS READY! WE'RE GONNA BE MOVING FAST!', yelled Noctis. The team could hear several other voices yelling along with him. 'W-What happened?', Ignis questioned. 'JUST GET READY! WE'RE ALMOST OUT!'.

They all heard a large ominous sound emitting from the tunnel behind them, and when they did turn to see, they spotted several streams of water rushing leaking from the tunnel that was slowly growing in height and mass. 'What the hell…?', Gladiolus said with uncertainty. Even the Nifs at the roadblock were confused by the slow crawling but growing amount of water, but when they turned around all of a sudden, the entire tunnel fired off a huge wave of water.

The roadblocks were destroyed along with the mechanical enemies of the team that were washed away, structures and all as they were thrown onto the woodlands. The team watched in awe at the sight as the water rushed onwards like they were watching a tsunami wave.

'…so, who wants to bet Sora might have done this?', Prompto pips.

'And we'd take that bet because?', Gladiolus grumbled.

Speaking of Sora, they see the two dinghies riding the massive wave, thunderous cheers and laughter rang out the area. Slowly though the wave receded until finally, the dinghies were now touching the roads until coming to a complete stop. The dinghies disappeared as everyone stood up, though the teens and the child known as Talcott were cheering.

'Holy crap! THAT WAS AWESOME!', Noctis shouted, throwing his arms in the air.

'AGAIN AGAIN AGAIN!', Talcott cried with glee.

'Riku! WE GOTTA LEARN THIS! Think of all the things we could do with this back home!', Kairi declared.

'Oh my god yes!', Riku said.

'Had fun I hope?', Ignis chimed in as they all joined up. When all eyes fell onto Riku though, the royal retinue did a double-take before comparing the two to Noctis, while Aqua smiled at the boy. 'Good to see you here, Riku', she greeted. 'Likewise, Aqua', he replied, his tone was respectful and mannered. 'And you too as, Donald and Goofy'.

'Iggy…doesn't he look a lot like Noct?', Prompto whispered, looking at Riku and his best buddy.

Ignis didn't comment, as he was just grateful that their mission was a success and more importantly no one was harmed. Though judging from the energy, they were all displaying, he was dreading the drive back home. But his silence sadly gave Gladiolus ammunition.

'I know Iggy…it's too much for you to handle', he said in such a somber tone like he is telling him some tragic news. 'Bad enough we've one Noct…now we got two…'.

'…oh my god, that IS terrible news!', Prompto cried, grabbing his head with both hands.

'Oh hahaha…very funny', Noctis grumbled, glaring at his shield. 'Next time you can save your sister!'.

'Jokes on you, I've got Sora and company, and we both know they'd do it', retorted Gladiolus.

Noctis growled in annoyance, but before the argument could continue, Kairi pipped up. 'Um, everyone? Maybe we could have this debate on the number of Noctis' out there somewhere without the imperials?', she suggested.

'Oh yeah, because I think we made them mad!', Sora said, pointing at the tunnel, where lo and behold a small platoon of soldiers were racing down towards them. 'Go!', Noctis yelled.

Quickly they piled Iris and the others into the Regalia with Noctis in front while Aqua took Gladiolus, Prompto, Donald and Goofy in her own just as Sora whistled for the chocobos for himself and the other two. Just as the soldiers reached the end of the tunnel, the group sped off away from Lestallum, leaving the imperials behind in the dust.

A successful mission…

A/N:

Not gonna lie, not my best chapter. Sorry, but I wasn't getting any ideas for this one so think of it as a way to bring Riku into the story. So from here on out, we'll be focusing on collecting the royal arms until the very end.

I know I barely mentioned Talcott and Jared, but like the game, they'll barely be in this so yeah. I'm sorry for this being a very "ehhhh meh" chapter, next one will be better promise!

1st Q: Should Riku have the form change too?

2nd: What royal arm should we do next?

Final Q: Bust-a-Base?

Thanks for reading as always! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	13. Chapter 13

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 13

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

Three days later…

Following the events in Lestallum, mostly on the story with sightings of Prince Noctis within the area, the empire eventually lifted the lockdown of the town two days later. A Niflheim diplomat had been seen on the news and heard on the radio about the situation although much of the story was an allegory and twisted truths.

They even stated the man in charge of the lockdown was under harsh reprehension for their actions and cause of discomfort to the people of the town. Although many of the people, more so those who were under the empire's thumb, knew this was reprehension was no more lethal than a slap to the wrist.

Regardless they may have left the town but there was still the platoon that was fixed on chasing the party despite their orders to return to base. Caligo's ego was damaged not only because he failed to capture Noctis, but the fact he mistook another boy for the prince, which will no doubt spread into the military and he'd become the next laughingstock, and that would even trump Loqi's failure. Therefore, he sent what he could to hunt them down and bring as many of them as they could, dead or alive.

Forced on the run, the party had made it to a small motel to drop off Iris and the other civilians for safety and after ensuring they had the empire's attention they sped off on the roads and into the region, using the dense forests to hide from the eyes in the skies and when the magiteks were on foot, pick them off platoon at a time.

They kept this tactic up for a few days until either the emperor himself demanded all forces would return to HQ or they just gave up and just cut their losses.

On the fourth day morning, Ignis had received a call from Cor telling them Lestallum had finally been depleted of magitek soldiers and even nobodies. Which was a huge relief for the ten, seeing as they have been on the constant move to avoid getting trapped by the empire's forces and at the same time to keep them on the party to prevent the soldiers from finding Iris.

After the call and dispensing the news to the group, there was a huge relief and weight lifted from their shoulders.

'Finally, talk about persistent!', Prompto cheered, falling on his backside, 'No more running away from the magiteks!'.

'Better running away than constantly fighting them', Aqua quipped tiredly, stretching.

'I'm just glad it's done and over with, least now we can take a breather for now', Noctis said, rolling his shoulders. 'On the contrary, Noct, we've an opportunity to obtain a royal arm', Ignis remarked.

The prince looked at the advisor as he pulled out the map from his pocket and laid it upon the table. 'Recent reports from the hunters state they found a potential royal tomb within Malmalam Thicket', he explained, pointing the map. 'We're not too far from it either and with the empire retreating they'll be scarce in this region'.

Noctis let out a huge groan, along with Prompto. 'Aww, can't we just wait until another day?', Prompto whined.

'Yeah, we've been evading and fighting the empire for three days now!', Noctis agreed. 'I'm kinda on Ignis' side on this', Riku pitched in. The two boys looked at him as he folded his arms. 'Look it at this way, all we'll have to worry about is wild animals and heartless, if we get it done as quick as possible, we'll avoid any daemons'.

'Riku's right, and without nobodies too boot', Aqua said.

'And like Iggy said, we're not too far from it too, may as well grab it while we've got some breathing space', Gladiolus said with a nod. Donald and Goofy nodded in agreement, despite their exhaustion they couldn't deny they had an opportunity right in their hands. Noctis and Prompto though looked like they were trying to come up with an excuse, but then Sora threw his arms around Aqua and Riku's shoulders with a grin.

'Sides, you got two keyblade masters and two keyblade pros! With us, Donald and Goofy, this will be quick!', he said with confidence. Aqua smiled at the boy as Riku rolled his eyes, but none the less he nodded with agreement. The two boys looked at one another, before with a sigh/groan, Noctis nodded. 'Alright…let's go then', he said, surrendering.

'After breakfast, we'll head off around noon', Ignis said, clapping his hands and heading to the cooker. 'Need some help?', Aqua asked, joining him already. Given that he was now cooking for ten, Ignis nodded and they started to work while Gladiolus and the other two anthropomorphic helped get the tables stacked and ready. Riku turned to Sora, noticing they were one head short. 'Where's Kairi?', he asked.

'Oh, she's still in the tent', Sora said, pointing to the one in the middle, 'Aqua left her get some more sleep. Said she was out like a light when she hit the pillow'. Riku nodded in understanding, remembering unlike them Kairi wasn't used to such excessive hours like them, despite what he heard about her battles with the heartless and daemons. Even he was still feeling the tiredness tugging at him, only stayed by the caffeine running in his blood.

'Well go see if she wants to join us for breakfast, she'll need a full stomach for the day. And I'm sure she'll appreciate something other than cup-a-noodles', Riku said, smirking when he sees Gladiolus turned to him. 'She just doesn't appreciate the good stuff!', he argued.

'How do you eat that stuff so easily? I think I ate more oil than noodles!', Riku taunted playfully.

'Talk crap about the noodles again boy, see what happens!', challenged Gladiolus.

Sora laughed at the two as Riku kept slandering the delicious noodles, and more promises of misfortune from Gladiolus, he approached the tent and opened the flap to enter it. Inside, he sees Aqua's sleeping bag neatly made, as he expected, and sees Kairi still in hers though it was held up to her cheeks. Curious Sora knelt near her, gently shaking her. 'Kairi? Kairi, wake up', he whispered. No sense in startling her.

Kairi murmured something and tugged tighter on her bag, like she trying to block off his voice. Sora blinked at this, surprised how stubborn she was being. Unlike him and Riku, she was a very light sleeper. Sora knew if you so much as sighed she'd wake up in a heartbeat, or even if something like a feather fell on the ground she'd be up, it made his attempts for a late-night snack trickier with her as a roommate.

'Kairi, time to wake up', he said, shaking her shoulder. Kairi groaned before her eyes fluttered open though Sora was surprised to see how much effort she was displaying just to open them. The girl rubbed her eyes tiredly and slowly, looking at Sora. 'Morning…', she said, though her voice was hoarse and sounded like she struggled to get the word out. Kairi must have noticed because she started to clear her throat, even that looked like a struggle.

'You ok?', Sora asked.

Before he touched her, she waved him off. 'Yeah, yeah…sorry, just a little groggy, that's all', she said. Retracting his hand, the boy gave her some space as she sat up.

'Iggy and Aqua are just making breakfast there, I'm just here to see if you wanted something other than Gladio's cup-a-noodles', he said. After calling them by their full names from the start the Gladiolus was insistent that he'd start using the nicknames, more so Sora guessed since they helped save his sister and butler. Sides it was easier than using "Gladiolus" all the time. Kairi lightly giggled at him, smiling tiredly. 'I don't know how he could live off that stuff…', she sighed.

As she and Sora exited the tent, Sora took note of how sluggish she was moving and even noted that it looked like she was trying to stay steady on the way out. Maybe he should let her sleep a little longer he thought as she stretched out weakly in the open air.

Several "morning" greetings and a few jabs here and there as breakfast was served, a simple oatmeal with honey and fruit of various choices as they all sat at around the campfire. While the others were conversing with one another about a few topics here and there, like Prompto explaining to Riku what "Bust a Base" is.

The silver head was given a shake of the head by all three of royal retinue, which only gave him a bad feeling he was gonna want to walk away from that conversation…

All the while Kairi was slowly stirring her oatmeal until the honey mixed in it but sorely wished she reframed from doing that when it took a stickier and gooier look to it. Her stomach churned at the sight of her breakfast, even the smell was making her nauseous on its own. While it wasn't her first choice of a meal Kairi enjoyed a well-made oatmeal with honey, and Ignis made a great one last time she ate, but now its as if the mere thought of putting it in her mouth was the most revolting thing she could do.

She shook her head, letting her mind wander wasn't going to change her appetite and besides, she needed the energy for today. Kairi scooped up a morsel of the gooey food and eat it, but the very moment her tongue tasted the substance, she mustered all her will not to gag or worse, spit it out. It was like swallowing poison and her stomach rebelled at her. She swallowed it, shuddering subtly as she wanted to throw up.

She must have overreacted because the moment she let out a breath, Goofy looked at her. 'What's wrong?', he asked quietly, not wanting to get everyone's attention. She was grateful for that and his consideration. With a weak smile, she turned to him. 'N-Nothing, sorry. I think I just added too much honey', she whispered back, 'My sweet tooth got the better of me again, haha'. Goofy gave her a nod, despite knowing Ignis was the one who poured the honey in at a reasonable amount and Kairi hadn't even touched the jar of honey.

The knight watched her attempting to eat, but everyone time she puts oatmeal in her mouth she had this look of disgust on her innocent face and even swallowing it looked like she was struggling. Concern swelled in him as he turned to the watchful eye of Gladiolus, who shared the same knowing look at the captain. Ignis looked between them and when he sees Kairi swallowing her fourth teaspoon worth of oatmeal, his brow furrowed with concern.

After her fifth teaspoon of oatmeal which was getting smaller and smaller with each scoop, Kairi couldn't stomach any more and just quietly whilst everyone (she assumed) was deep into conversation with one another, she approached the table and placed her bowl that looked almost untouched back on it. She jumped slightly to see Ignis by her side, his own empty.

His smile was soft and genuine as his eyes carried worry. Sheepishly Kairi looked down, rubbing her arm. 'Sorry…', she mumbled, a wave of guilt washed over her. 'Think nothing of it, what isn't eaten today can be used for later', he assured her. 'However, I should have asked if you liked oatmeal'.

'Oh no, I do, and yours was delicious', she promised, 'Its just…I'm not hungry'.

'That's fine, but I would feel better if you would have at least eaten a fruit before we go', he asked, 'It'll be quite the ride to the thickets, and we'll be searching for the tomb for a while'.

Looking at the fruits in the tupper wear, she held back her groan and while having the advisor watching her, Kairi plucked a red apple from it and to sate her concerned friend took a hefty bite out of it. She gave him a thumbs up and walked away while he cleans up at his insistence, she approached the edge of the Haven and after checking the others were still busy, she subtly dropped the apple into the large towers of the grass and swallowed her chewed apple with another shudder.

No sooner did it hit the bottom of her stomach, she almost wanted to spit it out. A wave of nausea rose in her stomach and she even felt like vomiting it up but swallowed it back down. Kairi took a deep breath to relax and settle herself, she was just not at a hundred percent she mentally assured herself, she was still waking up. Maybe it was the three days of running and fighting had finally caught up with her, and again she was the less experienced one so perhaps she's still adjusting.

One more inhale, she exhaled and returned to the others.

Once breakfast was eaten and dishes washed, they broke camp and headed for the Regalia and car, luckily the thicket was at least only three hours away from their location, so they used the chocobos to transport the remaining.

This time Gladiolus and Prompto took to the birds at the giant's offer, letting Kairi and Sora sit in with Noctis and Ignis in the car as everyone else piled into Aqua's own. The drive was quiet and soothing as the cloudy day hinted at rain, but the cool summer breeze was soothing them, more so for Kairi who leaned into her seat with her elbows resting on the door, her head resting upon them. Exhaustion was eating her; she felt her eyes growing heavy as the world passed them by.

Deciding if she rested, she'd be more fit for the trek, Kairi allowed herself to drift away into a slumber.

Malmalam Thicket

An insistent tap on something metallic stirred her from her not so peaceful sleep, Kairi opened her eyes to see Prompto looking at her. 'Bad news, we're here', he laughed. Kairi blinked wearily at him before she sat up and looked around her surroundings to find they were in what looked to be a forest just ahead of them with a Haven luckily nearby a small car park.

Kairi rubbed her eyes tiredly, a dizzy sensation was fogging her mind as she felt like her balance just disappeared on her. She opened the door of the Regalia and exited out of it while Prompto waited for her. 'Where, where are the others?', she asked. She didn't relish the fact her voice sounded like she was trying to cough up something, nor the fact it felt very dry.

'Just by the bridge down the path, Iggy wanted to make sure we're all good to go before we start looking', he explained. 'And lucky us, no imperials were around'.

Least she didn't have to worry about being ambushed by more of those bucket heads.

She and Prompto proceeded down the pathway to find the others have indeed been waiting at the bridge ahead of them. There were waves and some greetings amongst the teasing she got for sleeping in, but unknown to Kairi, Riku and Aqua were taking a good look at her.

'So, there's a royal arm somewhere in there?', Donald asked, pointing to the forest across the bridge.

'That's what the Marshal told me, and so far, most of the reports from the hunter's have been fairly accurate', Ignis assured as they all started to cross the bridge.

'How many times did you guys go looking for one only to find nothing?', Riku asked.

'Six times. Hope today's not the seventh wonder', Gladiolus remarked with a chuckle.

With Kairi trailing behind, she shook her head as they crossed the bridge, attempting to look around the forest to distract this weak sensation that was starting to tug on her body. Every step felt like she was walking a mile and her limbs were pleading for her to just stop despite not even starting the real trial of the day, and that trial was making her up the massive hill before them. Every fiber of her being was all it took for her not to cry.

Upwards they went, some making conversations while others were taking in the scenery and even taking a few pictures. Kairi was more focused on just motivating herself to keep going with the thoughts of getting back to the sleeping bags. She turned into a conversation between Riku and Gladiolus just to keep her mind off the trek, and despite not giving two Chocobo eggs what their topic was she tuned in intently just to keep herself going.

'Didn't think Iris was into outdoors', Riku hummed, 'She never really talked about it'.

'Yeah, I know, but you'd be surprised. I remember once she caught a frog when we were just camping near a lake back home', Gladiolus chuckled. 'She wanted to take the little monster home, but pops was adamant she'd return him home'.

'Why? Was he just teaching her frogs aren't pets?', Riku asked.

'Ahh hell no, pops was just a wimp with those things!'.

Riku laughed in response. They kept talking about various other topics that Kairi find mostly boring or just not her thing, but it kept her mind off her aches. As time went on they came to a small forested corridor that leads further into the cavern, which they deduced would likely be where the royal tomb resided. Great, she thought to herself, least they were getting closer.

Walking into the corridor there was more greenery than rock she noticed, moss-covered walls with vines dangling from all over and several patches of green were all over the place as well as grass covering the path mostly. 'Be on the lookout for anything', Gladiolus stated, greatsword out and ready, 'Last thing we need is an ambush in the corridor'.

Kairi couldn't agree more.

Then as they were likely halfway through the corridor, Aqua stopped everyone, raising her hand. When there was silence, she gestured to a peculiar looking plant just nestled before a tree. It looked more like a houseplant with its large green leaves and tiny purple flower amidst it sure, but the blue-haired master's eyes narrowed. Next thing they knew Aqua tossed her keyblade at it, and sure enough when the blade bounced off the tree a large beast leaped out of the ground, the house plant attached to its head.

'Ambush!', Aqua yelled as more started to surround the ten from all around.

Kairi summoned Destiny's Embrace as everyone drew their weapons, hands both clenched around the handle as two mandrakes prowled near her, hissing and snarling at her. She glared back as her hands shook and sweat ran down her forehead, but she shook her head stubbornly and ran at them.

One of the drakes swung its claws at her, she parried it and struck back with a stab of her keyblade. The blade missed the center of the head, but the teeth of her weapon managed to cut the monster's face enough to warrant a retreat from her. Kairi turned to the other too late and received a claw to her stomach, cutting cloth and flesh and the force knocked her back to the wall with a heavy thud.

Kairi hissed in pain, clutching her stomach and the urge to vomit was growing, but when the wild beast attempted to rip her open came, she met its charge with a wild swing of the keyblade. The blade carved through the monster as she pushed herself off the wall and moved to the right, cutting the monster and letting it crash into the wall.

Her steps became unbalanced and she staggered, almost losing her footing altogether with all the rocks in her way. Kairi lifted her keyblade to cast cure, yet even her magic was seemingly weakened for the green light was brief and while her wounds closed, she felt one poke could open them again. To make things worse, she felt even weaker when the spell ended. Kairi gritted her teeth as she raised her head to see the mandrake leaping at her, but only for it to then be tackled by Gladiolus' shield. He smashed the beast aside and away from the princess.

The giant turned to Kairi. 'You ok?', he asked, but his eyes narrowed when he sees just how weak she looked. Kairi nodded weakly regardless, then she turned to the fallen mandrake and fired a pearl at it while it was on its side. The spell finished it off quickly, and once it lied still, Kairi again felt more fatigue from the casting and was then forced to use her keyblade as a walking stick to keep her up.

Another drake leaped out from the shadows of the corridor, to which Gladiolus greeted it with a two-handed swing of his sword and not only did he sink the edge of his sword into it but he sent it flying away from them. He grunted though as more started to gang up on the two, figuring out that Kairi was vulnerable as opposed to fighting fully prepped and able-bodied prey. Kairi growled as her body seemed to fight against her mind's orders, holding her keyblade up and ready for more.

Just in the nick of time, the drakes were then rushed by Goofy and Noctis, the captain tackling them like a football player while Noctis started to shoot at them with his pistol, picking off the ones Goofy couldn't hit. As the drakes turned onto the more immediate threats, they left themselves open to Kairi to charge in and cut her way past them, forgoing her magic to conserve what pathetic amount of energy she had left at this point.

As the drakes' numbers dwindled, the remaining pack started to flee the fight all together while the ones stubborn enough were brought down one by one thanks to the party. After that and once they were certain there was no more need to worry for any wilder beasts, they resumed the trek with more desire to find an open space.

All the while Kairi was forcing herself to keep going despite her aches and new stinging sensation of her wounded stomach, refusing to fall behind. She wiped the sweat off her forehead though, surprised it was getting hotter here when just outside was a manageable coolness. Through the corridor, they came to a stream and a Haven just nearby. Breathing quietly to herself, Kairi grimaced when they had to walk through the stream, holding back a squeak from the cool water splashing against her exposed legs.

'How far do you think the tomb is?', Noctis asked, looking to Ignis.

'I'm not sure, with luck not much farther', he replied.

'Guys, we've got trouble!', Prompto yelled.

Ahead of them at the top of the stream, there were a mixture of beasts seemingly waiting for them all, a giant toad (It took all Kairi's will not to scream in disgust) giant wasps, two more mandrakes and two large crabs.

'Hey Gladio, think Iris would wanna adopt THAT frog?', Riku laughed.

'I can hear my old man screaming in his grave…', Gladiolus chuckled. 'But for the love of Astrals, DON'T tell Iris this!'.

They all charged into the fight, spreading out to cover more ground and keep the monsters busy with their foes. Kairi went with Ignis and Goofy to deal with the giant frog, against her better judgment for sure. The toad's mobility was limited luckily due to its massive size and with Ignis and Kairi constantly attacking it they gave no chance for it to leap away, but attacking its side was risky as Kairi was nearly turned into a pancake when it attempted to put its massive size to use.

When she evaded its body rolling attack, she stood in front of it, which then made it reel its head back and then ejected its very elastic tongue at her. Kairi lifted her keyblade to block it, but that was a bad choice because the force of it knocked her off her feet and down the stream in a tumble. Kairi rolled and bounced off the ground, her vision was hit by the various amount of water her body splashed onto herself and she couldn't get her bearings.

As she tumbled to the waterfall, her body slide off it and was in the air. Before she fell, her hand was caught, and she bumped into the edge of the waterfall. Looking through the water that splashed against her, Sora was holding her hand as tight as humanly possible while his left hand was holding onto the keyblade stabbed into the stream. The look of determination in his eyes almost left her speechless as he grunted, pulling her back up.

Once she was back on the edge of the waterfall, she fell on her knees, shaking. Sora knelt near her, hands on her shoulders gently which prompted her to look up at him. 'Are you ok?', he asked, his voice was heavy with worry and he was panting too. She figured he probably saw her at the very last minute when she was attacked and practically flew down here to save her.

Kairi looked down, shaking and she could feel tears welling up in her eyes. Wordlessly, she shook her head. 'No…no I'm not…', she confessed. Everything hurts, she was exhausted, and she felt like she could vomit everything she's eaten for the past few days. She was being beaten by the wildlife like it was her first day on the job, she was delaying the team and worst of all, Sora had to push himself to save her again.

'Kairi…', Sora whispered gently, taking her into his arms as she sat there. It was only when he felt her skin against his own did Sora realize just how hot she felt against his cooler skin, and thus prompted him to look at her face to face. He sees the sweat, new and dried, on her face, how pale she looked and weariness that could only be described as dead tired.

'Kairi, why didn't you tell me you were sick?', he questioned, not harshly but with genuine worry in his tone.

'I…I didn't…I thought I was just…', she said, but words failed her. Shrugging in defeat, Kairi said: 'I don't know. I thought it wasn't anything'.

Sora gently flicked her forehead, making her whine in response. 'You doofus…', he chastised softly. He helped her to her feet just as the others joined them, each other panting. 'Everyone ok?', Ignis asked, eyeing Kairi.

'No, Kairi's sick', Sora announced.

Before Kairi could squeak a response, Aqua was already on her like doting mother, checking her for everything, anything and something. She sighed. 'He's right, she's burning up', Aqua revealed. Kairi again opened her mouth, but Ignis pointed out the Haven. 'Then we can set up camp here', Ignis announced. 'Noct, take a few of the others with you and see if the tomb is ahead'.

'Sure, who wants to keep exploring the place and find worse beasts to fight?', the prince asked jokingly.

Once the camp was set up, Kairi was immediately put into a tent with Aqua and Sora, the latter being there more so for emotional support (truthfully, she just wanted him there for comfort). Aqua had some medicine on her, courtesy of Ignis earlier, and after some check-ups, properly healing her wound and even added some soothing magic to help relax her stomach. 'That should help soothe your body, and once you sleep the magic will start fighting back the illness', Aqua explained, placing the medicine beside her. 'Just take one after you wake up to be safe'.

Kairi nodded as her master left the tent, leaving the two teens alone in the tent, Sora sitting near her as Kairi laid down. The princess let out a sigh as she looked to the ceiling in defeat, eyes downcast in sadness as aside from her pride taking a kick, she knew they were delayed because of her. Her musings were broken when Sora gently stroked her cheek, earning her attention. 'Don't worry, the others aren't going to hold this against you', he promised. 'At the very least we aren't trapped or in a really bad spot'.

Kairi pouted though, not exactly feeling like she hadn't caused some form of annoyance to their friends. Sora then leaned in and pecked her cheek, ruffling her hair. 'I'll be outside if you need me, alright? Just yell if you need me', he said. But before Sora could even get off the ground, Kairi caught his arm, giving him a puppy look. '…stay?', she asked quietly, shrinking with each second passing. Kairi felt ashamed of her neediness, but being sick and weak, she needed him by her side.

With a friendly smile that warmed her heart, Sora laid down beside her in the bag, letting her warm-up against him in peace.

Noct's Group

'I'm telling you, I'd be a five star!', Prompto argued.

'Heh right…you'd probably be one of those rare but garbage tier characters', Noctis argued.

' *GASP* How dare you! Riku, did you hear that!?', Prompto said aghast.

'Guys…you DO know this is all going over my head right?', he asked, chuckling. 'What the heck are "five stars" and "garbage tier"?'.

'Wait…have you even played King's Knight?', Prompto asked, stopping in his spot. Even Noctis ceased his walk and looked at Riku with the most serious look he'd ever seen from the man. 'No?', Riku asked.

He wished he kept his mouth shut.

'WHAT!?', gasped the blonde, almost horrified.

'No way! We're gonna fix this!', Noctis decreed. 'Soon as we get back to camp, we're installing that on your phone!'.

Riku rolled his eyes as his friends started to go on about KK, he gave Donald and Goofy a looked that said: "what have I done". They, bless them, gave him sheepish grins and shrugs, just as clueless as he was. While Noctis was strongly saying he'd be a seven-star character, Riku was concentrating on the task at hand. The sooner they get the royal arm the sooner that they can take Kairi out of this place and somewhere she can recuperate. Once the climbed the hill that lead out the cave, Gladiolus was ahead of them, yelled out the tomb was just up ahead.

They sprinted upwards to the top and sure enough, there was indeed a royal tomb. But that wasn't all. Before the tomb was a large beast laying down on its side, deceased. A Bandersnatch from what Riku remembered from reading one of the bestiaries Ignis carried and loaned him, and judging from the kill it looked fresh. They approached the creature to confirm it, and indeed it was deceased.

'Sweet! No boss battle!', Prompto cheered with a grin. 'Lucky us!'.

Yet the others didn't seem to think so, instead, Riku and Gladiolus looked more tense. 'Hate to burst your bubble Prom, but we're not out of the woods yet', Gladiolus grunted. '…did you just make a pun?', Prompto asked.

'He means Prompto, something isn't right', Riku said before Noctis could comment. 'What? We didn't have to fight this thing! What's the issue?', questioned the blonde.

'Simple, we didn't kill it…someone else did', Gladiolus said. 'And say this thing or person killed it and is still around, who could be a problem?'.

'And they say the big tough guy is usually the stupid one'.

They turned around to the entrance, and standing on top of it was likely the hunter.

'Good to see you again, kiddo', Xigbar greeted…

A/N:

All this from scratch! One day it took! God damn it I need to plan better…

Q1: Do you all like how Kairi's written in this? I love this character and while I feel like Nomura should do more with her, I still think she's a good character in the series. Just downplayed and underused.

Q2: Thinking of paring Riku with Iris…

Q3: Are you guys enjoying how these chapters are structured?

As always, thanks for reading! Stay Awesome but more importantly stay Safe!


	14. Chapter 14

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 14

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

Riku felt his shoulders tense at the sight of the man in the black robes, that smug cunning look on his face screamed trouble.

Xigbar, or Briag, if he recalled right, is easily one of the deadliest members of the Organization, and it wasn't just in strength, it was cunning too. The scarred man smirked at the silver head as Donald and Goofy drew their weapons.

'Well now, bit of a switch', he commented eyeing Riku, 'Usually its Sora with those two dead weights'.

Riku's eyes narrowed darkly at him, fingers flexing to summon his keyblade. The man then turned his single eye upon the prince and his allies. 'Prince Noctis, nice to meet ya', he greeted. Almost instantly Gladiolus placed himself in front of Noctis, glaring at the man as Prompto huddled closer to Noctis. 'What do you want, Xigbar?', Riku questioned.

The one-eyed man's smirk only widened as he casually shrugged, and his stance shifted to a more relaxed state. 'Nothing much, I'm a little split on who I wanna take to…whatever his name is, Emperor…something or other', he said wistfully. 'Maybe the prince? Or even the princess? Think Sora would mind if I borrowed his little redhead friend?'.

Riku's eyes darkened as the prince felt a sudden surge of barely concealed rage and power emitting from the silver head, the air around him shifted into something else. Something…darker.

'Oh? Touched a nerve there did I? Sheesh…and I thought Sora was too overprotective of her', Xigbar teased. 'But hey can't say I blame you, heard she wasn't exactly in pristine condition'.

'You go anywhere near EITHER of them…', Riku swore, stepping forward, summoning Brave Heart, and then his body was starting to emit black flames. 'You'll be wishing you stayed where Sora put the last time you fought him! DEAD!'.

Riku leaped towards the man with a yell, bringing down Brave Heart on him. As Xigbar stood there though, his cocky smug looks shifted to one that was more sinister, as if he planned Riku to take the bait. Riku's eyes picked up a dark pink shard of light speeding towards him, which he turned blocked the attack but unfortunately sent him flying away from Xigbar. He landed on his feet as he dug his heels to stop himself from moving further away from the man.

'Temper kiddo don't wanna give yourself an aneurysm', taunted the sniper.

Riku grunted in aggravation, glaring at the man as a whole group of sniper nobodies began to appear alongside him from a click of his fingers. The nobodies aimed their crossbows at the remaining party but did nothing else. 'Anyways back to what I was trying to say before I was so rudely interrupted', he continued. 'You've got a choice buckos, either hand over the prince or princess, I'm not picky either way'.

'Like hell, we will!', Gladiolus shouted back, summoning his sword. 'You want them? Come and get them!'.

Prompto summoned his gun in response as Noctis called his sword out, each of them eyeing the man. Xigbar though scoffed in impatience, waving his hand. 'Geez…ok then', he dismissively said. 'You wanna do this the hard way, we'll do the hard way'. He clicked his fingers again, this time below him at the entrance was a barrier erected, and then more nobodies summoned. Several dusks and creepers along with the snipers that jumped down to join the brawl.

'Have fun kids', Xigbar said before disappearing into a dark portal.

The dusks started to fly towards the group as the snipers vanished into nothing in lightning-fast speed. They hovered above the group and trailed their crossbows upon everyone but Noctis, which became a poor choice in the end. The prince warped up to them and using the royal arm weapon, Sword of the Wanderer. With daggers in hand, the prince sliced and diced his way through their bullets and once he was in range, he turned the snipers into cut up ribbons.

Once the threat from above was removed, he warped back down to the ground and brought out the other royal arm, Axe of the Conqueror. 'Gladio!', he yelled. The shield turned and lowered his shield for the prince to step on. Once his boot was firmly placed on the flat surface of the shield, Gladiolus threw him upwards into the air. With the axe in both hands, Noctis brought down the mighty weapon upon an unfortunate dusk and crushed it into nothing, the force alone shook the ground and sent the nobodies close by away.

Riku cut down a dusk and whilst spinning his keyblade, channeled lightning through it and started to swing it at the nobodies. The motion created waves of lighting-based slashes that cut and sliced through the white monsters easily and ones that weren't directly in the way of the attack still received shocks from being too close to it.

A creeper managed to evade the attacks and leaped at Riku, only for him to erect the dark barrier spell he created that unlike his friends' barrier his was dark violet. The creeper's bladed limbs bounced off Riku's defense and left it open for him to leave it in two. Once he was done, he ran to join the others as more nobodies began to surface from the ground and air.

Donald fired a barrage of ice at the dusk fluttering towards him as Goofy was pummelling a nearby creeper that was performing its name's sake. Goofy turned to see four dusks fluttering towards them, he lifted his shield and charged towards them. Like a bowling ball rolling to a bunch of pins, Goofy knocked down aside and even took down two of them, while Donald shocked them with a blast of lightning bolts from the skies above.

The duck spun around and cast "Gravity" on three dusks, which instead of crushing them flat as pizzas, they were instead levitated into the air helplessly. Goofy took this and threw his shield at the floating nobodies, the weapon ricocheting off each one it killed. The shield flew back to its user in time for him to sock a sneaking dusk in the jaw and block a sniper's beam.

Said sniper was then surrounded by mini flares that detonated around it and the surrounding nobodies, clearing the area for the team.

Gladiolus was blocking most of the beams from the snipers as he covered Prompto to give him clearings to shoot the snipers. The blonde was using one of his rifles he looted from an imperial soldier before, taking quick shots at them whenever Gladiolus lifted his shield from cover. Despite the malleable mobility, the nobodies had the youngest member of Noctis's Crownsguard was able to pick them off easily.

Prompto turned around as Gladiolus slammed the shield in front of him to keep the barrage of bullets off them, took aim and fired several shots at the dusks. 'Are ya holding up there kid?', Gladiolus shouted over the battle. 'Yes, sir! Picking them off like fish in a barrel!', Prompto said.

The nobodies firing at Gladiolus' shield were starting to grow more desperate as their rounds increased in power and size, even making the shield of the king grunt with effort and grit his teeth. Riku jumped over the two and whilst in the air, aimed his free hand at the nobodies, firing a torrent of dark firaga upon them, utterly scorching them and the ground they stood upon. Landing on his feet in front of the two, Riku spun around and with Prompto helping him pick them off, dealt with the remaining dusks and creepers.

A wave of silence loomed over the area, save for the breeze and sounds of the woodland creatures in the distance. They gathered up, each of them checking for wounds or any other troubles. 'Looks like that's all of them', Goofy said, looking around for more.

'Whew…kinda thought they'd be a little tougher', Prompto joked, clapping his hands together.

How he would come to regret those words…

Ahead of them, just a few steps away from the royal tomb, white thorns began to surge and thrash around as a black and grey vortex appeared. Slowly long tendrils slithered out of it, then a long set of limbs and then finally a head the size of a car. Looming over the six was a giant nobody, tendrils for fingers it seems with a body wrapped in white thorns like belts, legs thin but with muscle, the nobody crest painted upon its massive forehead with piercing hollow grey eyes.

'You just had to say that…', Gladiolus grunted with annoyance.

'Me and my big mouth…', Prompto groaned, taking his gun out again.

The thorns from the torso flew up into the sky then dived down towards the six with speed invisible to the naked eye, and it was only thanks to Riku erecting a barrier large enough to make it a small dome were the team unharmed by this attack. The thorns bounced off the barrier though Riku struggled to keep it up due to the sheer power behind it, nearly making him flinch in pain.

While the nobody was fixed on attacking them, Noctis managed to warp out of the crystal and into the air. The nobody lifted its head to the prince to see him summon a royal arm, Blade of the Mystic. He fired three projectiles at the nobody before warping at it, swinging his large sword at it. The projectiles were parried or stopped by three more thorns to protect the skull but Noctis' attacked struck home as he cut into the malleable head.

Cutting its cheek caused it to hiss in pain as Noctis warped back a distance in the air. 'Noct, move!', Gladiolus yelled as Riku dismissed the barrier once the thorny assault desist. Noctis was then struck by a barrage of thorns that thrashed around him, making him yell in pain as he curled up to protect his face as the thorns tore through his clothes and flesh.

Donald and Prompto started to attack the nobody whilst it was focusing on the one member who harmed it, which gave the blonde and duck plenty of openings to exploit. Donald was blasting the torso with magical energies while Prompto was using the assault rifle to tear through the thorns to keep Donald safe and unhindered.

Most of the thorns attacking Noctis were torn asunder thanks to Prompto's barrage of bullets, which gave the prince some freedom to warp out and back down to ground level, though his landing was less than graceful as he crashed into the grass, covered in cuts and tears. The prince got to his knees as Goofy and Gladiolus rushed over to him, the shield of the king covering them since his own was larger than Goofy's.

'Hang in there pal', Goofy assured, pulling out a hi-potion from his pocket and handing it to Noctis. Gladiolus held his ground as the thorns resumed the attack on the prince, the shield taking the hits and refusing to budge as Noctis downed the potion. He choked a bit on the bitter taste before his wounds healed and closed. He gave the captain a nod of gratitude before Noctis turned back to the nobody.

Riku was in the air cutting the thorns as he dove for the nobody. His dive took him to one of the shoulders of the massive creature, which the thorns immediately turned their attention too as a garden's worth of thorns sprouted from the nobody's torso and all soared towards Riku. The silver head quickly erected a barrier again but this time the power of the white thorns lifted him off the shoulder and into the air.

Inside the safety of his barrier, Riku was struggling to maintain it as the thorns relentlessly attacked him to the point where he was forced to shut his eyes to concentrate on the defenses of his barrier, sweating even and gritting his teeth in concealed pain.

The thorns eventually struck the barrier back down to the ground, creating a small round dent in the ground with Riku still trying to keep himself safe from the thorns as their relentless attack grew more ferocious and wilder.

'He's not gonna last much longer…', Gladiolus grunted as he and the other two got back to their feet.

Noctis grunted and warped again to the nobody's head as Donald and Prompto, now targeting the monster, provided covering fire from the other thorns. Noctis warped and flipped over the remaining thorns that managed to evade the bullets and magic from the range duo, even managing to cut a few with his daggers in mid-air.

The nobody then lifted its tendrils for fingers shot at him like a set of rockets. Noctis then flipped over them, his face just avoiding the razor-sharp limbs. He flipped himself to land his boots on them and slide down it, summoning Bow of the Clever and started to fire bolts of magic energy at the monster. While he lacked the same accuracy as Prompto the prince managed to score several decent hits to its shoulders and face, the magical bolts cutting its cheeks and even landing dead in the head.

The nobody lifted its blade-like tendrils to throw the prince off, which Noctis then warped again into the air and fired three more shots before warping back down to the ground where Gladiolus was. Doing so, he knelt in time for the large man to stand in front and block the tendrils strike, barely moving an inch. Goofy threw his shield at the head only the thorns intervened and caught the weapon, but they stayed in place long enough for Donald to incinerate them like old withered wood.

Once the flames dispersed and the shield dropped, Prompto took the shot with his revolver and fired the entire casing of the gun at the nobody. The bullets flew at the monster and landed home, several of them piercing the flesh and even causing it to recoil from the pain.

'Take that!', Prompto boasted cockily, spinning his gun in hand.

The nobody lifted both arms as the tendrils went from solid blades too fast whips, lashing and thrashing at the party. 'Move!', Gladiolus shouted, pushing Noctis away as he lifted his shield to block the attack.

Donald and Prompto ran to the left as Goofy, fortunately, managed to grab his shield before the wild lashes could harm him. The two shield users were now under the ferocious assault of whips so quick they couldn't predict where they'd hit next and feared one false move could tear them apart. The whips themselves were lashing out so quickly the sliced the grounds like butter, splitting the earth left and right and they covered almost all the ground where the team stood.

Prompto and Donald went back to attacking it from a range, but the attacks have now been reduced to minor annoyances as they were mostly hitting the shoulders and even then the whips managed to parry their attacks in the process.

As Noctis was running and jumping from the thorns, the prince looked to Riku and hoped that the nobody had finally laid off its barrages on him.

Riku was no longer under assault from a horde of thorns granted but he was still trapped in a tight spot. The thorns that hadn't left him were still thrashing and stabbing at his barrier and wrapping around it to crush his sanctuary like snakes choking their prey. Realizing, after taking a glance back at the whips, they were outclassed by this monster without him, Noctis summoned Shield of the Just and slammed it into the ground.

The whips lashed against it, but he charged towards Riku even as the whips tried to stop him. Despite the strikes rivaling Gladiolus' own full striking power, Noctis preserved through it as he got closer to Riku.

Then the whips stopped attacking him, which at first, he thought meant they were targeting the others. Foolishly he dismissed his shield to conserve power and see if his thoughts were true, but the next thing he knew suddenly his face was smothered in the ground in no time. He grunted in pain before he was pulled and then yanked into the air with a yell, his whole world going crazy and he felt his stomach lurch.

Noctis sees his foot was currently wrapped with a whip and then he felt another slithering around his waist before tightening and making him grunt with pain. Still, the prince cast his disoriented eyes to Riku and the thorns that were adamant in tearing him asunder. He summoned his crossbow again and though his vision was disoriented thanks to the movement of the whips; he unleashed a barrage of bolts upon the thorns.

Many missed and only scratched the thorns but luckily for him, Riku sees his odds had changed to his favor as the thorns were now lesser and weakened by the prince's attacks. Clenching his free hand, Riku let out a yell as the barrier began to surge with power, and then, a blast of energy burst forth that consumed the thorns in a wave of power. Though winded from the amount of mana consumed, Riku was free from his barrier and turned on the dangling prince in need.

He leaped and cut the whips holding the prince, freeing him and together they fell back to the ground. Back to their feet, they turned their gaze back to the giant nobody as Goofy and Gladiolus were showing signs of exhaustion and their stances were growing feebler. 'They can't keep this up much longer', Noctis grunted, summoning engine blade.

'Then we'll have to go straight for the kill…', Riku said. Then he smirked and then offered his hand to Noctis. 'Follow my lead'. Curious, Noctis took his hand and then suddenly felt an incredible surge of power rush through him.

'Noctis!'.

'You're going down!'.

Suddenly both boys were surrounded with ghostly weapons, swords for Noctis while Riku was in a circle of keyblades, both variations of weapons ghostly blue and they were floating in the air. With a dash so quick they were nearly invisible; the two warriors of light flew to the whips and threw their hands up.

Their ghostly weapons soared from underneath them and clashed with the whips, slicing and ripping them apart like they were made of paper. The whips were decimated in seconds as the nobody turned on the boys, waving their arms around to control the tidal waves of weapons against the whips. It sent thorns at them, but like the whips, they too were ripped and torn apart by the combined might of the master and prince.

They both flew higher into the air as Riku's keyblades took on a dark violet color, darkness radiating from them. Noctis' swords glowed brighter until they shined like holy weapons from the Astrals, slowly spinning behind him like a disc as Riku's levitated near him.

'How about this!', Riku yelled.

His keyblades turned into large spheres of dark firagas, and then with a thrust from his hand, he fired them all like meteors from the skies upon the nobody as the others ran back out of range from his attack. The fireballs crashed into the nobody, setting its whip-like tendrils, thorns, and body on blackened flames.

'Finish this!', Riku said, turning to the prince.

The swords sped up into a blur before brilliantly shining behind the prince as they all melded together to form one great sword, made from pure light itself. Noctis grabbed the handle of the weapon as his body was surrounded by his Armiger aura, small pellets of crystals floating around as his eyes glowed bright blue. Noctis lifted the blade as the weapon grew like a pillar of light as he leaned backward.

'You're done!', Noctis declared.

With a roar the prince of Insomnia dived down to the nobody and brought his giant sword upon it, cutting it in half from head to torso, the light splitting it and when it slammed into the ground, a large tower of light shot up from below and swallowed the nobody up in it.

The body was absorbed into the tower as it faded, the power disappearing as Riku landed on his feet near Noctis, the sword fading away as the nobody. When the dust was settled, he and the prince shared a knuckle bump, smirking at one another.

They turned to see the rest of the team joining them, smirks and grins plastered on their faces as Gladiolus just nodded at them. 'Nice work', he praised but Prompto jumped into the conversation. 'HOW THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT!?', he asked, looking at Noctis. 'AND WHY DID YOU WAIT SO LONG TO USE IT!?'.

'H-Hey! It wasn't me! Riku…actually yeah, how DID that happen?', the prince asked. Riku gave the two a smirk and folded his arms. 'That's called a "Limit", we just combined our powers and then, well, that happened', he said simply. 'It works differently for everyone and depending on who you work with'.

'He's right, us and Sora can do all kinds of tricks together', Goofy backed up. 'Yup! Heck, we're at our most powerful with him around', Donald concurred.

'That fight sure as hell says so'.

They all turned to see Xigbar back at the top of the entrance, looking over the team with a look of disappointment and curiosity. Immediately the team summoned their weapons again, Riku though in the front with a glare. Xigbar, however, scoffed at this. 'Don't get your panties in a twist, I've had my fill of disappointments today', he waved off. 'Disappointment? You wanna say that to our face!?', Noctis growled, baring his teeth.

Xigbar shrugged, indifferent to the prince's taunt. 'I dunno what it is he sees in ya prince, but I'm sure as heck not seeing anything special', he mocked. 'If you think taking down that nobody is an achievement, oh man, you've seen nothing yet'.

Noctis grunted as Gladiolus growled at the man. 'Kid lets be real here, if that wannabe "hero" wasn't around, you'd be no different than that animal carcass over there', he said simply. Noctis turned to the Bandersnatch, the words this man was spewing somehow managed to hit the prince hard. The fight with those things, they weren't like the heartless at all, and their unique abilities caught him off guard…and looking back at Riku, he realized just how much of a game-changer he was in comparison.

'Heh, looks like you guys had most of the work cut out for ya, but imagine what happens if say, one of them goes?', Xigbar hinted evilly, smirking at them all. 'Say if something happened to the princess? Maybe the other master? Or even Sora?'.

'You stay away from them!', Donald yelled, hopping up and down waving his staff. 'You so much as go any closer to them and I'll turn ya into a pile of ash!'.

'Oh? Did I ruffle your feathers fuzz boy?', mocked the one-eyed man.

'You talk big Xigbar but look where your standing when your talking!', Riku challenged, then he smirked. 'Why not come down and say it directly? Or did Sora kicking your backside traumatize you?'. Xigbar's smirk vanished as a look of insult appeared, his yellow eye darkened as if a nerve had been touched. Riku stepped forward, his eyes darkened, and his voice was laced with venom. 'Or what? Gonna work behind the scenes again? Too much of a coward to fight someone head-on or do ya need your boss to watch your back again?'.

'…looks like somebody's boots have gotten a bit bigger since he became a keyblade master…', Xigbar seethed, and from the way his fist was clenched, he looked indeed ready to fight. Yet he reframed from it, grunting. 'Well this was a lovely chat, but I think its time I report back', he grunted. He opened a portal behind him and without another word, walked into it and disappeared while Riku called him out. Once gone, Riku huffed and dismissed Brave Heart.

The team said nothing, but Noctis looked at his hand and a sense of worry came over him. Looking back at Riku and then as his hand, was the gap between them that vast to the point where Riku was unreachable? Sure, he knew that Sora, Aqua and Riku were in a league of their own absolutely and based on what he had seen and from what Donald and Goofy told him Sora was still holding back. Yet now that he fought nobodies, given how diverse their way of fighting was and how that giant one could keep all of them on their toes…

Looking to the royal tomb, and without another word, Noctis strolled towards it, his eyes set on it. Fist clenched as Xigbar's words engraved on his heart…

*Niflheim*

Xigbar re-appeared back into Ardyn's room as the fiery-haired man was sipping some tea whilst doing some crosswords. He didn't even raise his head to grace his new business partner, the word he searched for was puzzling him. 'Hmm…what is a five-letter word for one who underestimates their chances?', he mused.

'Starts with an "I" and ends with "T", Xigbar grunted, sitting on a chair across from Ardyn. 'Oh? Hmm…no, no. Not it', he mused. 'So, you've seen Noctis I presume?'. 'Pfft, yeah. You sure you got the right one? He's useless without his friends…', Xigbar said. 'Riku was the real trump card, and even then, those two idiots of Sora's were still more impressive'.

Ardyn let out a sigh as he placed his pen down and turned to Xigbar. 'So, he's still a greenhorn? Disappointing. I had thought he'd at the very least would earn an "ohh" from you', he said. 'He got a disappointed frown from me, think that's something'.

Ardyn got up from his seat, picking up his mug of tea as Xigbar reported the fight itself to him. As he partially expected, the nobody had caught Noctis and his friends off guard, and to say they struggled was being generous. Indeed, from what Ardyn had seen the nobodies should be more of a challenge than a heartless, and as proved, they outclassed them in every category. 'This is disappointing, but not unexpected entirely', he sighed.

'So much for your rival rising to the challenge huh? May wanna considered his butler instead! He's probably more of a threat', Xigbar teased. Ardyn rolled his eyes in retort, but he gave Xigbar a smirk. 'Well you upheld your end of the bargain, albeit the results are far from what I sought, but a deal is a deal', he said. 'Now, what do you wish of me?'.

Xigbar smirked. 'Not me who wants something…'. Ardyn raised a brow, but his eyes narrowed as a presence was felt within his room. This was darkness but nothing he had ever sensed before; it was something abnormal and powerful.

'Ardyn …meet Niflheim newest "hero", Xigbar greeted as the man turned around to see…

*Party*

Another royal arm obtained, the party of six returned to the Haven to see Ignis and Aqua prepping lunch whilst Sora was getting the fire ready. Upon seeing the others though, their brows furrowed with worry.

'What happened to you guys?', Sora asked.

'Nobodies…and Xigbar', Riku grunted out.

The two other keyblade wielders looked at each other then back to the boy, but before they could ask more, Noctis stepped up and looked at them. '…You need to tell us what's going on', he announced. 'Tell you what?', Sora said.

'Sora…I mean tell us everything', he clarified.

'Oh no! Nu-uh! We can't do that!', Donald said, sternly and adamantly.

Noctis glared at the duck before Gladiolus spoke up. 'Oh no you don't, after all that crap that's happened to us, you owe us!', he argued back. 'Okay, maybe that's a bit much big guy…?', Prompto squeaked weakly.

'I mean, they DID save Iris from the empire-

'And what were the creatures HELPING the empire?', Gladiolus challenged.

'That is unfair of you Gladio', Ignis chastised.

'Very well'.

All eyes fell to Aqua, arms folded as she raised her head to face everyone. 'If we hadn't been here for this length of time, the Organization wouldn't have shown up. And given the issue that Cindy hasn't fixed our ship yet, we'll likely be here for much longer than we wanted'.

'B-But Aqua!', Donald started but she raised her hand. 'Donald, I understand we need to uphold the Order, but as a master, I will take the responsibility for whatever consequences will come', Aqua said, her tone was soft but there was the master tone few of them knew she possessed.

'But only after Kairi recovers, she needs to be part of this as well', she said sternly. Before Gladiolus could respond, Noctis said: 'That's fair, no sense in keeping her out of the loop'. Gladiolus exhaled impatiently but relented none the less. 'Speaking of Kairi, has she gotten any better?', the shield asked. 'She's still sleeping, but her fever's gone down', Aqua stated, 'But with the royal arm collected, and if Sora's willing, we can try and move her back to the Regalia'.

Everyone looked at the boy, who nodded and headed into the tent for Kairi. 'We can head back to Lestallum and stay in the hotel for her to rest up', Ignis said, starting to clean up the lunch as Prompto and Goofy helped.

'With the empire gone, it'll be safe right?', Prompto asked as he helped Gladiolus with the chairs.

'Yes but let us try to keep a low profile, lest we have them occupy the town again', Ignis affirmed. Once the camp was broken down, Sora had Kairi in his arms and was carefully carrying her out, the girl was still asleep. Gladiolus approached him and with permission checked her. 'She's still pretty pale…but once she wakes up we'll give her some soup and she'll be right as rain'.

'I hope so…', Sora said, voicing his worries.

With Riku and Aqua in front for heartless or nobodies and Gladiolus with Ignis in the back, the party of ten made their way back to the Regalia and spare car (Prompto insisting they give it a name in the future). In the said spare car, Kairi was laid on the backseats with Sora resting her head on his laps, whilst the royal retinue stayed in the Regalia, Donald and Goofy taking the chocobos.

Aqua drove the spare car with Riku in the passenger seat. Once everyone was seated and ready to go, they drove off from the thicket, the royal four with questions and the six other world folks with answers for them…

A/N: Another arm down. Now the four are getting curious about their new enemies and threats, Aqua is gonna tell them about other worlds, what will be their reaction?

1st Q: What should the name of the other world car be?

2nd Q: Can anyone guess whose Ardyn's new "buddy"?

3rd Q: What did you think of Riku's Limit with Noctis? Should I try and expand on it?

4th Q: Would you people like a chapter with the group just hanging out?

As always, thanks for reading, Stay Awesome but more importantly Stay Safe!


	15. Chapter 15

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 15

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness

The drive to Lestallum was quiet, barely a word spoken between the four in the car. Riku was looking out the window to see the world growing darker and greyer as the clouds above gathered, rumbles of thunder boomed in the distance.

Aqua hadn't spoken since they got in the car and drove, her eyes set on the road as her hands were tightly gripping the wheel. Not out of worry for Kairi, the boy knew that, but more so because she was still a novice with driving a vehicle and she wanted to get to Lestallum safely without worrying about surviving a car crash.

A test Riku was more than happy to postpone for as long as possible.

In the back Sora was mostly keeping quiet while taking care of Kairi, even throwing his jacket around her to keep the sleeping girl warm. Though Riku wasn't certain if she was cold, he knew in some part it was mostly done by Sora to keep himself busy and not worry about her. He was stroking her hair too, like it helped him stay calm.

Then he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, making him sit up and pull it out, answering it. 'Hello?'.

'Hey Riku', a voice replied.

Riku straightened up at Iris' voice and cleared his throat. 'Iris, hey. What's up?', he asked, ignoring the strange look Aqua gave him. 'Just checking in on you guys, we haven't heard a word from you for days', she explained. 'Sorry about that, we've been on the run since we dropped you guys off in that motel, just got another royal arm after the empire gave up', he said, running a hand through his hair. 'That's great to hear!', she praised.

'What about you guys? Everything alright?'.

'Yeah, after the empire left Lestallum we managed to get a ride back there, we're staying in the same hotel again', Iris said. 'So far there hasn't been any more sightings of those bucket heads or that general'.

'That's good, we're actually on our back there too', he revealed, 'Kairi's sick, and we're just bringing her there to heal up'.

There was silence on the other end, which made Riku check if he lost connection or something was interfering with their call, so he looked at his device and saw the call was still going. 'Iris? Hello?', he called back.

'W-Wait, you're coming back, right now?', she asked, almost surprised and…panicky?

'Yeah? I mean, we're what…a half an hour away?', he said, guessing.

'Yeah half an hour', Aqua replied, eyes on the road. 'Yup, half an hour', Riku confirmed.

There was shuffling and quick movement on Iris end, her voice sounded like she was in a frenzy as if she was trying to find something. 'Iris, you ok?', Riku asked. 'Yes! Yes, I'm fine!', she squeaked loudly, something fell on her end. 'Gotta go see ya later stay safe bye!', she said in one sentence before ending the call, which left a flabbergasted Riku on the other end. He blinked before slowly putting his phone away.

'…what just happened?', he asked.

Aqua shrugged in response while Sora, when he turned to the younger boy, shook his head. Sighing to himself Riku returned to looking outside the window as the rain began to fall. 'So, we're really going to tell them about…everything?', Sora asked, not taking his eyes off Kairi's sleeping face. Aqua exhaled from her mouth and while turning the car, said: 'Yes, especially if the Organization is getting involved with the empire'.

'Much as I'd prefer keeping the Order upheld, Aqua's right', Riku sighed, 'Xigbar said he's after either Noctis or Kairi. Plus, the nobody he summoned was too much for them'.

'We've put them in more danger than ever because of our interaction with them, therefore we're responsible for them', Aqua said. 'If Riku, Donald and Goofy hadn't helped them…'.

'Not to mention the heartless', Riku added, 'And so long as it's gonna take for Cindy to fix the ship, we're not going anywhere'.

Sora hummed in agreement, then he felt Kairi stir in her slumber, making small noises. He looked down to see the red head squinting her eyes before weakly opening them up to see Sora. 'Sora…?', she said croakily like her throat was dried up. 'Hey there', he greeted, smiling. Kairi looked around her surroundings, confusion etched on her weary face. Blinking tiredly, she looked to the front seats, Riku looking at her.

'You alright Kairi?', he asked.

'Riku…what's going on?', she questioned.

'We're on our back to Lestallum, Noctis grabbed that royal arm', he elaborated, 'but uh, we've ran into a problem'.

'Xigbar attacked them while they were looking for it, and Gladiolus…well, he wasn't too pleased that our enemies are now their enemies', Aqua joined in. 'So now, we're gonna tell them what's going on'.

'Oh…okay', Kairi hummed. Sora glanced at Riku worriedly, not exactly liking how easy going Kairi was regarding revealing other worlds to their new friends. Though Sora did tell them Kairi wanted to at least warn Noctis' company about the Organization, other worlds weren't part of the deal. 'How you are holding up?', Riku asked, changing the subject. Kairi's eyes looked heavy as she skin was still pale, and the boys could still see some dried sweat in her face. 'Tired…', she slurred.

'Anything else? Nauseas? Queasy?', Sora asked.

She giggled. 'Those are the same thing, dork…', Kairi sighed, a small smile graced her features.

'But do you feel like that?', he said, a small smile appearing on his own face.

She shook her head lightly, looking up at Sora. 'Just tired…and cold', she confessed the last part softly. Riku then took his own jacket off before Sora could take his tank top off, last thing he needed were two of his friends to be sick and handed it to the boy. Sora placed it on Kairi's legs and tucked it under her, creating a blanket out of jackets for her. Kairi let out a content sigh, closing her eyes again. 'Go back to sleep Kairi, we'll be at Lestallum in an hour or two', Aqua lied.

'…ok', she breathed, slowly drifting off to sleep.

With the princess of light returning to the dream world, the three wielders of the key sat there in silence, worries tugging their hearts as the rain grew heavier…

*Lestallum*

Arriving to the town just as the rain turned in a storm, the party quickly made their way to the hotel with Sora and Riku wrapped Kairi up entirely in a cocoon of jackets and even pulled her hoodie over her head to protect her from the rain. Sora carried her through the town as fast as possible which left the others in the dust. They got to the hotel the thunder was booming from above.

Once inside and after paying for their rooms, they were greeted by Iris in the lobby. The brunette smiled at the group but then frowned when she sees the red head's condition in Sora's arms. 'Is she gonna be ok?', she asked.

'She said she's tired and cold, but that's all', Riku assured, 'A good sleep and maybe a hot bath and she'll be right as rain'. 'That's good to hear, everyone else ok?'.

'Aside from having some scratches, wet socks and maybe some green in our hair? Peachy', Noctis commented, earning a snicker from Prompto. Iris gave the prince a smile but the oldest Amicitia noticed something different about the smile. It wasn't the "I'm crushing on you" smile she used to give him, but just a regular happy smile. Gladiolus raised a brow at that change, not sure if he should be relived or worried.

'Sora, why don't you take Kairi to your room and see if she's up for the bath', Ignis suggested. Sora nodded and headed up, bidding everyone a "see you" as he ascended the stairs. Inside their room, Sora gently laid Kairi on the bed as she slowly woke up from her small nap, likely from Sora laying her down. 'Wha…', she whispered.

'We're at the hotel', Sora explained, letting a sneeze.

Kairi looked at him, concerned but he waved her off. 'I'm fine, just a sneeze', he promised. Kairi slowly sat up, groaning weakly and rubbed her forehead. 'This sucks…I feel like crap', she whined softly, already done with being ill. Sora could imagine, remembering all those times he caught something and was under the care of Donald and Goofy. He loved them dearly, but boy did Donald have a terrible bed side manner.

Not his fault he caught a cold after being submerged in snow…

'Well if you feel up to it, you can have a hot bath', he suggested. At the offer, Kairi let out a sigh. 'That sounds so good right now…', she confessed, slowly getting to her feet. But Sora stopped her almost instantly, placing his hands on her shoulders. 'I got it, you just rest up ok?', he offered. After a second passed, Kairi nodded and gratefully, sat back down on the bed. The fact she didn't even attempt to argue with him only told him just how weary she was.

As much he liked it when she wasn't stubborn, he appreciated a lot more than her being this sick and weak.

In the bathroom, which was a decent size for a two bedroom, he got to work on filling the tub with hot water and even checked the compartments and cabinets for soap or bath oils. He did find some small scented candles among the bathing oils, an idea coming to mind.

Outside, Kairi went from sitting to laying flat on her side facing the patio outside, the rain pelting the glass wildly as the heavy winds rang throughout the windows. Just looking at the rain and wind made her shiver in discomfort, already feeling the chill seep deeper into her bones, and if she wasn't having a bath soon, she'd wrap herself up in likely all the blankets this room had.

Sora exited the bathroom with a toothy grin and then approached her. As she sat up, she sees he had a towel around his arm, his posture was straightened up and he bowed to her. 'Your bath is ready, madame', he said in an accent that sounded as if he was trying to mimic Ignis except he's never heard him speak.

She giggled, clasping a hand around her mouth to stifle them though her grin was showing through her hand. 'Thank you, good sir,', she said kindly, getting to her feet. Sora bowed again, stepping backwards to allow her to walk forward. Inside the bathroom, Kairi had to pause and gasp at the sight.

The room was dimly lit with only the candles being the only light source in the room, the smells of vanilla tickled her nose and lulled her into a sense of serenity and peace, along with the smells of coconut oils from the tub. She turned to Sora, who winked. 'Enjoy yourself', he encouraged, closing the door behind him.

Kairi smiled warmly, her heart swelled with joy. She looked to the tub and started to strip. Once she slipped into the tub, she exhaled a breath of pure elevation, leaning against the tub as she felt the cold that had sunk into her bones melt away to the heat of the tub. Closing her eyes in delight, she smiled thinking of Sora as she started to close her eyes, and rest.

*Other Room*

'Thought we were going to wait till Kairi gets better', Gladiolus asked, sitting on a chair.

'We've already told her we're telling you guys, so Sora can give her the run down once we're done', Riku said, on the bed. The moment of truth was here, Riku could feel Donald's glare bore into him from behind, while Goofy just looked uncomfortable at this confrontation. Aqua though kept a passive look on her face, her eyes were fixed on the topic about to unfold.

'Right…so…where do you wanna start?', Noctis asked.

'…First, we need all four of you to swear, this will not leave this room', Aqua started. 'What we tell you, stays in this room. No one can know about this, not even Iris'. Gladiolus nodded in agreement, the less his sister got involved in this the better he believed. 'Ok sure', Noctis hummed.

'Noct…', Ignis stressed.

'Okay, we swear on our lives, no one outside this room hears about this', he spoke again.

'We mean it!', Donald pipped.

Aqua raised her hand to calm him, making the duck fold his arms impatiently, whilst grumbling something about the Order and how much trouble they'll be in once their King finds out. Though after several times Sora broke the rules Riku had a good feeling the King wouldn't hold it against them, if his track record was any indication of how much leniency he was given.

Aqua addressed the four. 'You probably figured it out, that we're not from Eos', she started, 'We're from different worlds…'.

'SO YOU ARE ALIENS!', Prompto shouted, pointing at them.

He was then smacked on the back of the head, courtesy of Gladiolus. 'Will you drop that alien garbage already?', he growled, 'and let her finish'. Aqua nodded gratefully to Gladiolus as Prompto rubbed the back of his head with a whine.

'What do you mean other worlds?', Noctis asked.

'Exactly what I mean. There are…other worlds outside of Eos', she explained. 'Myself, I'm from a world called "Land of Departure", whilst Riku, Sora and Kairi are from "Destiny Islands", and Donald and Goofy are from "Disney Castle". To start off with'.

Ignis folded his arms in thought, after carefully comparing the two keyblade masters, Aqua certainly didn't have the islander look based on her clothing whilst Riku's own clothes didn't look islander but his tanned skin looked like he belonged on an island, much like Sora. 'Except…Kairi isn't from the islands…she was born in another before coming to our islands', Riku elaborated. 'Really? Cause she kinda looks like an islander', Prompto hummed.

'That's because she came to our world when she was four', Riku explained.

'How?', Gladiolus asked.

'One thing at a time', Aqua reminded, waving a hand up to stop this. 'Lets not detract from the subject. Once everyone was silenced, she continued. 'My point is, we're from different worlds. And for years it was always been like that, all worlds lived in ignorance of each other'. Aqua then summoned the keyblade in her hands and showed it. 'The keyblade wielders had a task, to protect the light of all worlds from the darkness', she said, 'They…we are the only ones who knew about other worlds, but we always try to remain anonymous when we're exploring or guarding it'.

'The light?', Prompto questioned.

'…That's complicated…', Aqua lamented.

*Twenty minutes later…*

Aqua explained to the four about the Order Donald was so adamant in keeping, about how the worlds were all ignorant of one another, that the keyblade wielders had a task to protect the worlds, and even explained some lore of the keyblade to them.

Then came the realms of light and darkness, to which she had to try and convince Gladiolus about when he started to question the whole thing. Aqua did her best to keep the realm of darkness to a minimum, the less she thought of that place the better.

'So because of the Order no one knows about other world…and the keyblade wielders are the only ones who can know about it', Ignis hummed. 'Yes, and because the keyblade chooses its wielders, be it from a master passing it on, or if it finds a powerful light within the heart', Aqua said.

'Right…so where do the heartless come in? They're beings without hearts, right?', Noctis asked. 'Yes, when a person loses their heart to the darkness, they become a heartless. And the darkness within people's hearts is what attracts them'.

'And as you can imagine, there's darkness within every heart', Riku joined in. 'Except for the Princesses of Light'.

'The what? You sure you aren't just making this up as you go along?', Gladiolus questioned.

'I wish…', Riku sighed. 'But the point is, the heartless are numerous and they never stop coming'. Noctis cupped his chin in thought, puzzled despite having so many answers to his ever-shortening list of questions. If they hard darkness in their hearts, why did it take so long for the heartless to show up? Did the daemons have something to do with it? Or they in league with each other?

'Okay then, what about those things? The nobodies?', Gladiolus asked, 'Are they like the heartless?'. 'Yes…and no', Riku replied. 'When a heartless is created, a shell of the ones whose lose their hearts are left behind. The bodies that remain give nobodies their form, while the abandoned souls give them life', he explained. 'As you saw, they're stronger and while they have littler variety compared to the heartless'.

'But what about that Xigbar guy? Is he a nobody?', Prompto asked, 'Because he just looked like a another human'.

'This is where the diversity between them and the heartless. People with the strongest wills can retain human form when they become nobodies. Like Xigbar, for example', Riku added. 'And there's more people like him?', Ignis questioned. 'That's where Organization XIII comes in', Goofy said, 'They are nobodies who kept their human forms, and are the strongest ones among them'.

'So Xigbar can control the nobodies and even make some right?', Noctis said.

'Yup', Donald confirmed.

Then Noctis said: 'But whose their leader?'.

Aqua's eyes darkened as her fist clenched, Riku's own eyes narrowed and the two members of the King's group gave each other a worried look. Noctis' own eyes showed anxiety, he truly did not like the looks his new friends were showing. 'Guys?', he asked.

'…A man who wants to start another Keyblade War…and someone whose caused more pain than anyone else', Aqua growled, and even Gladiolus was surprised by the barely constraint rage that bubbled within her. 'Master Xehanort…', she spat.

*Sora's Room*

A soft knock on the door woke Kairi up from her light snooze, the water lukewarm now as she sat up. 'Kai? You ok in there?', said Sora from outside. 'Yeah, I'm ok. Just took a nap, that's all', she promised, looking at the door. 'I'm just about to come out'.

'Oh great, hey Iris actually brought some PJS over for you, said you might want to get a little cosier?', he said. Kairi smiled at the thought of something a little cosier for the stay, kinda relived that she didn't have to wear her normal gear for the rest their time here, and coming out of bath and jumping ton PJS sounded delightful. 'That's wonderful, tell her thanks for me', she asked, getting out the tub. 'Will do', he assured.

As she dried herself Kairi smiled in relief when she noticed she wasn't as tired as she was prior to the bath, the cold that plagued her body was gone and her voice was clear as a crystal. As she wrapped the towel around herself, she looked at her clothes she folded back on the toilet, again dried and in pristine condition. But instead of throwing them on again, she knocked on the door. 'Sora? Could you pass me the PJS, please?', she asked.

She heard shuffling from outside and then some footsteps approaching the door, she sees the doorknob jiggle for a second but then it ceased movement. 'Uh…are you…decent?', he asked. She giggled to herself softly, a faint blush painting her cheeks. A part of her wanted to tease him, maybe be bold, but then she looked at the slowly dwindling candles and the bathtub with lukewarm water, she smiled and shook her head.

'Yes, I've my towel around me', she assured.

The door cracked open and slowly she sees a pile of clothes on his hand as Sora slowly pushed the door open and with his free hand firmly clasped around his eyes. 'Here you are', he said, waving the hand around to show her items. Kairi smiled wickedly, deciding a little teasing wasn't going to hurt him.

She gently placed her hands on his mobile one and after she used her free hand to place her PJS on the sink, she grinned. 'Also?', she said softly. 'Yeah?', Sora asked.

'I lied…I've just got out of the tub', she said, making sure she sounded embarrassed.

Sora's response was instant. His form stiffened, his cheeks turned scarlet and his mouth hung. 'GAH! SORRY!', he yelled, almost tripping on his way out and slammed the door behind him. Once the door was closed, Kairi just roared with laughter, clutching her stomach as her eyes were prickled by tears.

She desperately wished she had thought ahead and recorded the whole thing with her phone, (Prompto showed her before), she could imagine how everyone would've reacted. Though thinking back on it, maybe it wouldn't have sat well with her if she showed everyone a recording of them with the princess in a towel…

Yes, probably should be grateful she didn't think that far ahead.

Then as she continued to laugh, she threw her head back with glee but with too much momentum. She slipped off the tub with a shriek and fell back into the lukewarm water with a huge splash that sent water all over the floors.

Kairi thrashed in the water to turn herself up right, breaking through the water to the surface with a gasp. Looking at the mess she made and the floating towel in her tub, Kairi groaned loudly.

Karma at its finest…

*Other Room*

'Xehanort is gathering the Thirteen Darkness, and you guys have the Seven Guardians of Light, and then when you go fight him…that'll recreate the Keyblade War', Noctis surmised.

'Yes', Aqua confessed, 'Though I'm not sure why he'd want such a thing to happen'. 'Indeed, if the first war caused all worlds to split apart, then who knows what will happen with this one'. 'But wait a second, he needs YOU guys to do it right? I mean, you are the guardians', Prompto asked.

'Yeah?', Riku asked, raising a brow. 'I know you gotta fight them, but that'll cause the war to happen…so? Maybe, DON'T fight him?'.

Everyone looked at him, but before someone could ask, he stood up with hands out saying: 'Hear me out! You said you guys must clash for all that to happen? That Xehabort guy', he listed.

'Xehanort', corrected Riku.

'Right, thank you, anyways, he's gonna need all of you to fight. So, if you don't fight, the war doesn't happen, and then his plans are useless, right?', finished Prompto. The other worlders looked at one another, clarification in their eyes and even Riku looked to contemplate his words. It was true that the Seeker of the Darkness did need them for his goal to be completed, and that would nullify any attempts of assassinations on them as their deaths would only cancel any plans he had.

'That's not a bad idea…', Ignis concurred, holding his chin. 'But it wouldn't work'. 'He's right', Aqua agreed. 'What!? B-But', Prompto gasped. 'Prompto, us not fighting him won't stop him from coming up with alternatives, and worse, he will use whatever he has to goad us into conflict', she explained. 'Example? Attacking other worlds, spreading heartless, nobodies and worse, sending the Organization to capture the Princesses of Light'.

Riku nodded in agreement. 'She's right, we ignore him, and he'll do worse. Fighting him is all we can do'.

'But seeing as you guys are stuck here, think that Xigbar freak is gonna come looking?', Gladiolus questioned. 'Not unless he's told to, even then we don't know why's working with the empire', Riku said. 'That guy's always been an oddball of member, and very unpredictable'.

As they all sat there, some absorbing the information while some trying to wrap their minds around the consequences of the reveal. The brothers shared glances, Aqua spoke up. 'Listen, we know we've put more trouble on your plates, and if we leave you-

'Not gonna happen', Noctis said firmly, getting up. 'Whatever their goals are, Xigbar and his nobodies are with the empire. Which means the empire is your enemy too, if he's promised them something in exchange for you guys'. Aqua looked at him as he offered his hand, 'So like it or not, we're stuck together. And seeing as we're doing well so far, may as well keep it up, right?'.

Aqua looked at the prince, before smiling and taking his hand strongly. 'I guess so', she said.

'Great, so now we've a bunch of literal nobodies to go up against, along with other worldly problems', Gladiolus chuckled, 'Can imagine pops hearing this, and I'm not sure he'd be proud or horrified'.

There was chuckles and laughter made, the tense air faded and as everyone decided to go do what they wanted to do while they enjoy their stay, with the royal retinue having their worlds expanded. Though Noctis decided to visit Sora and Kairi, a question looming on his mind.

*Sora's Room*

He knocked on the door gently, which opened quickly to show Sora with a smile. 'Hey Noct', he greeted. 'Hey Sora, how's Kairi doing?', he asked. Sora stepped aside to let his friend in, and upon entering he sees Kairi on the bed in a set of PJS likely Iris choose for her, the moogle prints were a dead giveaway. 'She's doing good, I'm just heading out for some hot chocolate for us, you want one?', he offered.

'Yeah sure, I've got something to ask her, actually', he said. 'Ok, see you guys soon', Sora said, biding them a "see ya" and left.

Kairi smiled at Noctis, who gave her a courteous bow, 'Your majesty', he greeted with a smirk. Kairi rolled her eyes in response. 'Funny, Prince Noctis', she replied. Noctis chuckled as he sat on the bed. 'So Aqua told you guys everything?', she prodded. 'Yeah…damn, didn't think you guys had that much on your plates', he commented, 'And you're still a newbie?'.

'Yeah…', Kairi sighed, 'But, it means I can finally help keep Sora safe, so that's good!'.

'I get ya…', he mused. 'Listen, I uh, I've been meaning to ask you something, but did you ever have a weird dream?'. Kairi smiled at him and giggled. 'Yup, one time I dreamt I was a kitten, very relaxing', she giggled. 'But not what you mean?'. 'No, but cute', he said. 'Have you ever, woke up in a place where there's nothing but darkness, with only a single beam of light above you?'.

Kairi's smile faded as a look of contemplation took over, sitting up right on her knees. 'Yes actually', she confessed, clutching her necklace. 'After I lost consciousness when Aqua and Gladio found me and Sora, I…I remember a place like that, but it's a vague'.

Kairi looked at Noctis. 'Why do you ask?'.

Noctis then began retelling his own dream…

A/N: Again…one day it took!

So this is a very dialogue heavy chapter, and worst of all trying to add in the KH lore and plot. God help me it hurts.

A guess had asked where does this take place during KH3 so for those wondering, this took place after they found Ventus.

Next time we'll have a small story arc, its time to Bust a Base!

1st Q: Do you think there was something else I should have had the party tell Noctis and company?

2nd Q: Has ANYONE come up with a name for the car?

3rd: Should we do the Assassin's Creed Festival?

As always, thanks for reading Stay Awesome but more importantly Stay Safe!


	16. Chapter 16

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 16

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

Sitting in the lounge Riku was looking at the newspaper while drinking a coffee brewed by Ignis earlier. Following their conversations about other worlds and all the things he, as well as Aqua, will no doubt be hearing about from the mage of the King.

Riku truthfully wasn't bothered too much by the fact Noctis and company knew about other worlds, giving their assistance in their tasks and seeing as the Organization was involved, it was only fair they knew what exactly what they were up against. He has yet to talk to Sora and Kairi about the whole thing but ultimately decided to leave them alone while she recovers.

Light knows they need more time together.

'Hey Riku', called a voice.

Riku looked up from the paper and sees Iris approaching him, hands behind her back with that cute smile on her face. He greets her with a raise of his mug, smiling at her. 'Hey Iris, are you doing well?', he asked, lowering the paper on the table. The girl sat down on a chair near him, nodding. 'Yeah, just took care of Talcott and have some free time', she said, 'Plus Gladdy is heading to the bar for a bit, saying something on the lines of "I need a drink…or seven", she mimicked her brother's tone by deepening her voice.

Riku chuckled behind his mug, he could imagine after everything they told him. 'Well hopefully he won't be too tough to deal with after a few drinks', he joked. 'Oh, trust me, I'm not babysitting a drunk Gladdy, I'm leaving that to Iggy', she replied with a grin.

'Better than Prompto, right?', Riku teased.

'Yup! Last time he tried to care for him, he ended up being crushed under Gladdy for the whole night!', she laughed.

Riku chuckled lightly, finishing his mug of coffee and placing it on the table. He wasn't exactly a coffee drinker before coming to this world, but ever since Ignis introduced him to ebony coffee, he started to develop alike to the substance. They sat there in comfortable silence, looking out the glass panels to see the rain had grown heavier and became torrential outside. 'Guess we're not going anywhere today', he hummed.

Leaning back into his chair in thought the silver-haired master started to ponder more about Xigbar and his motives. As far as he recalls what Sora's encounters with him and the other members of the Organization, very few ideas formed in his mind. Whatever he wanted with Kairi and Noctis did nothing for him, as Sora mentioned to him before they wanted to make sure the next seven princesses of light were unharmed.

Why now he suddenly seeks Kairi is worrying, but Noctis as well was in danger. It'd help if he knew more about the empire's group, maybe someone with strong darkness within their hearts attracted him, someone, close to Maleficent or the other villains they had fought in the past.

'Well that's fine, nothing wrong with a break fight? I mean you guys spent three days running from the empire, right? And then went to grab a royal arm', Iris reminded, smiling. 'True. Given everything that's happened it's nice to just chill out, you know?', Riku agreed. 'Just now, I'm kind of bored'. Iris at this smiled excitedly and hopped off the chair. 'If you're bored, we could watch something? There's a TV in Gladdy's room with a movie channel', she suggested. Riku grinned back.

'Sounds great', he responded, 'Shall we?'.

They got up and headed for Gladiolus' room, though Riku sees there was a noticeable spring in Iris' steps. He shrugged it off as they climbed the stairs, thinking back to the day he first met the girl. Following his ship teleporting him to Lestallum, he tried to contact Sora using the Gummi Phone and at least get an idea where he could be, but unluckily for him, his own was damaged during the ship rocketing left and right.

Thus, he at the time, he had no phone, no clue to where he was, the location of his friends was unknown. A bad situation to be in for sure, especially when the fate of all the world was at stake. Then came the nobodies, Iris and him accidentally revealing himself to her along with the keyblade. A part of him thought he should have declined her offer in favor of searching for Sora and Kairi, but maybe he knew given how huge this world was searching on foot would yield only failed searches and aching feet.

Staying at the hotel for a day with her was comfortable he'd readily admit. The girl had told him about her brother, she helped him explore the town and even showed him some of the sights like the meteor ahead of the town. It was fun to explore the town with her, and maybe it was because he didn't have to fight nobodies, heartless or anything dangerous. Looking back Riku realized whenever he did go to other worlds, he never had a chance to take them in.

Iris helped him take a load off his shoulders and just see the town, a new world for him to see. Then came the empire and his mini vacation ended there and then.

Sure, they helped reunite him with his buddies, but still, he wished he'd take a page or six out of Sora's smaller notebook and just took more time to explore the world at his leisure. Entering the room of the giant, they both sat down on the bed, well he did, and Iris just laid on the bed on her stomach. Truthfully the shows and movies they watched were at minimal distracting and helped passed the time, but Riku was barely paying any attention to them.

Growing up tv shows and movies never really caught his attention as a kid, he spent most of his free time with Sora and Kairi, playing on the islands and camping with them. Luckily for him he never needed technology to amuse himself, and while there were a few shows here and there that he'd watch it wasn't something he'd consider a fun pass time.

As the film ended the two teens just laid down, the silver head on his back looking at the ceiling in thought. 'That was…weird…', he commented, shrugging. 'A crocodile…it was a crocodile the whole time…', Iris said, aghast. 'Gladdy, you ass'.

'Guessing he tormented you with that?', Riku asked, smirking.

'I never went swimming in a lake for nearly six years…', Iris confessed.

Riku chuckled. 'I used to do the same to Sora and Kairi when we were kids', he admitted. 'Told them all kinds of stories back home'.

'Like what?', Iris inquired, looking at him as he sat up to face her. 'Well, once I had to get them home early and told them we had to leave the play island, they asked me why', he started. Then he made a wicked grin. 'So I, being the little brat I was, told them some tale about a terrifying Kraken that would snatch up naughty kids that didn't go home early on that day'.

'Riku, that's so mean!', Iris laughed, 'How could you do such a thing to your friends when they were kids no less!'.

'Hey, I was a kid too! And a brat, might I add!', Riku argued. 'But trust me I ended up paying for that later…'. 'Oh? Your parents lectured you on not being a little brat?', Iris asked. '…no…trying to calm down two terrified crying kids who started to argue they'll stay on the islands forever…', Riku groaned.

Iris laughed at the sheepish and blushing Riku, scratching the back of his head. Not exactly his proudest moment as a kid and looking further back the boy realized he was more of a brat than he remembers. How in the heck he managed to stay friends with those two was beyond him, but he could chuck it up to Sora just being…Sora.

'I remember Noct and I used to scare the crap out of Gladdy whenever we played hide and seek', Iris mused, 'one time we hid in a closet all day, by the Iggy found us we were sleeping on the spare blankets'.

'Sheesh, that guy can sleep, anywhere can't he?', Riku remarked. 'You have no idea…', Iris grinned. 'Once he fell asleep during training with Gladdy on the bench before they even started!'. Riku chuckled back. They sat there in content, talking more of their childhoods, friends and all the mischievous activities they got into, Riku feeling a genuine sense of relaxation and just had fun with this girl.

Laying there together looking up at the ceiling in thought, Iris is looking at him, studiously. Riku didn't notice her so she was free to take in his features. Again, he did bare a lot of similarities to Noctis, but now that she took in him fully, she found herself staring. He was younger than Noctis from height and facial structure alone, but she found that more attractive to her. His silvery unkempt looking hair added a sense of exoticness to him like he was from another world (if only she knew).

His blue-green eyes were something she felt like if she stared into him, she could see everything within his soul, the strength behind them and the maturity glowing. If there was one thing he and the others had in common, it was amazing sets of eyes.

'Like what you see?', he asked, not looking at her.

Iris blushed softly before smirking. 'Maybe~ I mean…how many guys have silver hair?', she asked. '…I know a few…' he muttered; several faces appeared in his mind. Iris raised a brow at this but shrugged it off when he didn't elaborate further. 'Other than that, your eyes', she said, 'Next to Noct, I don't think I've ever seen your type'.

Riku understood in part, back home most of the islanders had unique eyes like Sora and even a few others he knew. Compared to the people here some had pretty eyes but so far, he had no one to compare to the others. Excluding Iris', he will readily admit her eyes were something else. Maybe it was the innocence within them, but he sees a strength resembling someone he knew. 'Why would you? Islander trait', he bragged softly.

'Oh yeah? So do all islanders have muscle like you or?', she questioned.

'Pfft, just me and Sora I guess', he shrugged, not remembering anyone else with muscles like him and Sora. 'We spent most of our time back home doing all kinds of activities, mostly sparring'. Iris playfully rolled her eyes, 'Boys will be boys', she teased.

'And what did you do when you were a kid?', challenged Riku.

'Watch Gladdy bench pressing like a mad man and mostly watched him and Noct spar almost every day', Iris said simply, 'I spent most of my life just learning what it means to be an Amicitia and went to a regular school'.

'Really? Not gonna be a future shield?', he asked, surprised. 'Not unless Noct's wedding goes through…', she said, a sad sigh escaped her lips. Riku raised a brow. ' "Wedding"? Wait', he said, sitting properly. 'W-Was Noctis supposed to get married?'.

'Yeah…long story', she sighed. 'See, it started with-

The door suddenly opened, making them both jump and look. Gladiolus was at the door looking at them, not remotely buzzed but he had a serious look on his face. His glare was tense, and Riku didn't know why but he was suddenly considering how fast he could jump out that window. Why he felt it he didn't know.

Gladiolus broke the silence by addressing the young man. 'We've got get going', he said. Riku got up the bed and looked at him, 'What's going on?', he asked. 'Cor's here, says we've got a problem', Gladiolus hinted, 'A big one'. Nodding, Riku smiled at Iris and then followed Gladiolus out of the room and down to the lobby.

There they see the others waiting around with Cor standing at the entrance, wet from the rain despite having an umbrella by his side. 'What's going on, Marshal?', Noctis asked, arms folded. 'We have a situation that concerns you, and your new associates', the Immortal said, looking at Aqua and Sora. 'We've have had reports of the empire's forces fortifying the bases surrounding this region', he said, pulling out a folder. He opened it up and laid it on the table for them all to see several bases in different parts of Celigne.

One near Old Lestallum, another just by the valley leading back to Leide and finally one just a few miles away from Cape Caem.

There were several looks of concern from everyone, more so from Noctis when he sees just how far the empire's bases were and how much land they managed to cover for themselves. 'Why are they all just popping up left and right?', Noctis asked. 'Probably trying to regain more control over the land, more so especially after the fiasco that occurred here four days ago', Cor said. 'The more land under their thumbs, the better the chances of catching you'.

Cor showed them a photo of Xigbar in one of the bases. 'This man here has been sighted by one of spies in the last few days before the bases being constructed', he said, 'The moment he started to show up at each base, more of those white monsters appeared'. The other world heroes glanced at each other. 'Care to explain?', Cor asked, eyeing them. 'Enemies of our own, unfortunately', Aqua said tactically.

'And considering we're alive thanks to these people, they are our enemies too', Ignis said, giving the Marshal a "do not" look. Cor relented as Aqua picked up another picture and showed it to the others. 'Who's this?', she questioned. 'That is the empire's commodore. Aranea Highwind, the mercenary', he revealed. 'From what I gathered she's a renowned fighter in the air and one who was recently hired by the emperor himself'.

'Oh great…', Noctis groaned. 'She doesn't look *that* tough', Riku remarked, looking at the picture. 'Looks can be deceiving, young man', Ignis reminded, gesturing Donald and Goofy. 'Good point'.

'Regardless, we can't ignore the empire's reach growing. If we do so, we might end up having the regions full of bases like this', Cor said adamantly. He turned to the prince, 'Its time for you and your friends to start kicking some of them out of your land, your majesty'.

Noctis turned to Sora's team, and they all nodded, ready to help. Noctis turned to the Marshal with a nod. 'I was looking for an excuse to go after some bucket heads', he said with a smirk.

'Don't forget, it's not just the magitek soldiers we're facing', Aqua reminded, 'If Xigbar has been around, we'll be fighting nobodies too, and possibly the heartless'. 'She's right', Ignis agreed, 'If we're going to do this, we'll need to plan accordingly'.

*Later*

There was silence among the royal retinue as they drove to Hammerhead with Aqua's car in the back, none had spoken a word since they left Lestallum, each of them keeping to themselves in thought. Noctis sat in his seat in quiet contemplation, he'd often glance to his friends to see if any of them had wanted to say something yet like him, they'd much keep the silence alive and let any noise or talk remain unwanted and unheard.

Gladiolus was nose deep in his book, but the prince knew he was just using it to keep himself out of any conversation seeing as the prince noticed he'd been on the same page for nearly half an hour now. Prompto was only sitting in the seat fiddling with his camera and only occasionally making some humming noises. Ignis just drove in silence while occasionally taking a sip of his coffee, not making any attempts to converse with his brothers.

As grateful as the prince was for the silence and breathing space to think, he felt like something needed to be said, something that he knew they were all thinking about. '…we're outclassed', he confessed with a sigh. No one said anything but he knew he had their attention. 'You saw what those nobodies were like, and we all know if we didn't have Riku and the other two, we wouldn't be here'. 'And as shit, as that sounds, we're now heading into our home filled with those things'.

'Noct, if you're trying to boost morale, you're doing a REALLY bad job at it', Prompto weakly laughed, leaning back in his seat.

Chuckling in response, Noctis turned to each of them and continued: 'My point is…I trust them, as much as I trust in you guys and the Marshal'. He leaned forward on his seat as Gladiolus lowered his book and Prompto sat down his camera. 'If I had any doubts, we could do this, I'd tell the Marshal we'd just have to hold off on it…but you seen what they can do, we know what *we* can do'. 'And this is our chance to finally kick back the empire for what they did. Not just to our home, but our people'.

Looking at one at a time, he could see in their eyes the same fire he had. Gladiolus chuckled and ruffled his head in good nature. 'What the hell happened to you suddenly?', he laughed, 'Coming out with that speech'.

'Yeah, sure you didn't secretly practice this with Iggy before getting into the car?', questioned the blonde, eyeing Noctis playfully.

'Noct, I fear they might have seen our notes', Ignis whispered loudly, smiling.

'Screw you guys…', laughed the prince.

*Hammerhead*

Driving into the parking lot of the station, the team had already split up for their duties. Ignis with Kairi and Goofy to procure some curatives and other items while Donald, Gladiolus, and Riku headed for the weapon shop for a few things the shield thought they'll be needing soon.

The rest of the team headed for the garage where Cindy was waiting after Sora reminded them all they had to pick up the bike from Cindy. They approached it seeing several of Cindy's crew members running about and installing what looked to be CTVs all around her garage, their boss looking around frazzled and miffed.

'Uh oh, something's happened', Noctis stated, gesturing the miffed engineer.

Upon reaching her, Cindy turned to the group with a look that replaced her annoyance with a look that said, "aww crap". 'Something up?', Sora asked. 'What's happened?'.

Cindy wordlessly though, reached into her pocket and handed Aqua back what looked to be a hefty sum of Gil. Confused, the blue head looked at her. 'This is the fee for the bike', she said. Aqua looked at the Gil, then back to the girl. 'Why?', Aqua asked. Cindy took off her cap and ran an oily hand through her already messy hair with a grunt. 'Well sweetie, I can't sell you something that I no longer own', she grunted.

The four looked at her with shock. 'What!?', Sora asked. 'B-but you had a bike!', he argued. 'I *did* kiddo. But then while you were all gone, some no-good son of a sabertusk stole it from my garage', she revealed. 'Hence why we're installing more cameras around the place'.

'Well, do you have an idea who stole the bike? Maybe we could track them down for you?', Noctis offered. 'I appreciate that prince, but I reckon you'd only be wasting your time. My boys told me he's long gone, heading down to Insomnia', she said. 'If them imperials hadn't taken him out, then either those daemons or wild critters got him', Cindy declined. 'Mighty sorry bout your ride being snatched away'.

'Shame too, I was starting to look forward to the bike', Sora said with a smile.

'Pfft, we both know none of us would let you ride that thing', Noctis scoffed, smirking. 'Hey, I've rode a bike!', Sora argued. Aqua rolled her eyes at the boys with a smile as Prompto waved Cindy bid them a good day and went back to organizing the set up of the CTVs. 'Name one time', challenged Noctis.

'Simple! When I was stuck inside a computer world and had to use a bike to win a death course!', Sora revealed with a grin. Noctis and Prompto both blinked at the boy, then turned to an equally surprised Aqua. '…how…?', Aqua started slowly. 'I'll tell you guys later, but what do we do now? We still need another ride unless we wanna stuff Aqua's car with two more passengers', Sora said. 'Insomnia isn't that far from here, we can use the chocobos for that trip', Noctis said.

'Right then, we'll just decide whose going with me', Aqua started, but the photographer piped up. 'Hold on, you haven't given your car a name yet?', he asked. 'No?', Aqua said slowly, confused. 'What? Why not?', he replied. '…should I?'.

'Well duh, we've the Regalia, yours needs a name too!', he argued.

'Guy's got a point', Noctis spoke, 'It's yours, gotta give it a good name'.

'Noct, I can understand naming your car because of your late father but mine's…', she tried but then Sora raised a hand. 'New Destiny!', he cried.

'What? How about… Wayfinder!?', Prompto suggested.

'I-I already have something named that…', she squeaked.

'Destination Seeker', Noctis joined in.

'That's lame…', Sora pouted. 'And yours sounds better?', Noctis challenged. 'You both suck at names!', Prompto stated cockily.

'Are you three seriously having a serious argument about naming my car…?', Aqua said exasperatedly. As they argued amongst themselves the master took out the keys to her car and for a moment of poor parenting, she looked at Kairi and contemplated giving her the keys and the car. 'She is the most mature and responsible…', she mused to herself.

'You guys ready to go?', yelled Gladiolus as he closed the trunk of the Regalia, 'We've gotta meet up with Cor and the others at the Haven'.

'On our way', Noctis said, he and Prompto joining the giant. As the team gathered up in their respective cars, Sora and Kairi deciding to use the chocobos this time to give Donald and Goofy space in the backseat. They all headed off down the direction to the Haven, thoughts on the task that laid before them…excluding Aqua.

"New Destiny has a nice ring to it…but Wayfinder is much more fitting…but I already have something named that…Destination Seeker makes sense but…somehow not making sense…", she pondered heavily. "Darn it, this is gonna bother me for the rest of the drive".

As the master was heavily pondering the name of her car, Riku watched her worriedly as her brows furrowed with impatience and a touch of irritation. Confused, he took a glance at the two backseat passengers, each giving him shrugs of equal confusion and concern.

By the first base just near the entrance to Cleigne, they all hopped out of their vehicles and birds to decide who was going where. The base is merely a drive away from the hunter's HQ and didn't look so fortified compared to the two in the other region. Sora and Riku performed a quick scout around the area using chocobos and after they returned and told the others the result, they started to formulate a plan.

'Right now, the Marshal is waiting for a party to meet him at the Fort near Cape Caem, meaning Xigbar or someone else equally threatening is there', Ignis said, getting off his phone. 'Which means trouble for him, right?', Sora said.

'Quite, so it would be wise for one or two keyblade wielders to go with him', he said. 'But for now, let us decide who will deal with this fortress'.

'Well…it didn't look heavily fortified from the outside, but inside could be an entirely different ball game', Riku said, hand on his hip. 'Or worse, it could be a trap to lure us in', Kairi offered, 'If Xigbar told them about us they wouldn't take any chances, right?'.

'Can't disagree with the little lady here', Gladiolus hummed, 'that place could be crawling with nobodies'.

Noctis looked at the base, then he looked to Riku and then smirked. 'Well, it sure as heck will be when they see me going in, right?', he said. Everyone looked at him as he nodded. 'Xigbar probably told them I won't stand a chance against the nobodies, and there I go walking into a base full of them…but remember who a certain general mistook somebody else to be me?'.

'Like a person who's fought and beaten nobodies in the past…', Riku grinned, catching on his friend's train of thought. '…I don't get it', Donald said, looking between the two.

'If Riku goes into the base, disguised as Noctis, then the empire will be focused on him', Kairi simplified, 'And that way, the other bases' security will be more lax when they hear the prince had been sighted at another base'.

'Right on the nail, Kairi', Noctis praised.

'I dunno, ya think they'll fall for that trick again?', Prompto said, looking at the two, 'I mean Caligo probably got a better look at Riku last time'.

Sora, however, gave Donald a grin. 'Care to give Riku a new wardrobe?', he asked. Donald nodded and summoned his staff, pointing at Riku. Everyone stepped away from him as he opened his arms and nodded. With a small ball of magic leaping off the tip of Donald's staff, the sphere landed on Riku's clothes and in a bright light, they changed entirely.

He now wears a poncho-like jacket that reached to his knees, a pair of black pants with black boots, two black leather greaves. Around his waist were two pouches made of brown leather, the collar reached below his jaw.

Looking at his new gear, he grinned as he turned to admire them. 'Damn Donald, if you ever give up magic, you'd make a killing in the fashion business', he praised. Even Sora and Kairi were looking at his outfit with a mixture of awe and envy, both making mental notes to make sure they ask Donald to do the same to their later.

'That'll do', Ignis said, nodding. 'Hopefully, they'll overlook the hair'.

'Okay then, so who wants to go with Riku?', Noctis asked, looking at everyone. 'Me and Donald can go with him', Goofy offered, hand raised, 'We can handle nobodies easily'. 'That's right!', agreed Donald.

'Well Prompto, wanna tag along?', Riku offered. The blonde looked surprised he was the first one he'd ask, but grinned and nodded. 'No worries! I've got your backs!'.

'Awesome', Riku said. He turned to the others and nodded. 'Alright, we'll ring you guys once we're done busting the place up'.

'Time to Bust-A-Base!', Prompto cheered, throwing his fist in the air.

'We're…not calling it that', Riku said as Prompto, Donald, and Goofy hopped onto the chocobos. He turned back to the others. 'Watch yourselves, alright? If Xigbar isn't at this base, then he'll be at the others'.

'We'll be fine, just be careful over there, okay?', Kairi ordered softly. He nods once more and hops onto his Chocobo, kicked in the sides and the four sped off towards the base. Once they were at a fair distance, the six turned to each other. 'All that remains is Fort Vaullerey and Cape Caem', Ignis listed. 'Vaullerey is just nearby Old Lestallum while Caem is at the very least a two-hour drive from there, that's where Cor awaits'.

Before Sora could offer to with Cor, Aqua stepped up. 'I'll go to Cor, and Noctis can deal with Vaullerey', she said. 'You sure that's a good idea?', Noctis asked. 'Yes. Wherever the Marshal is going must be the most dangerous, and the last thing we need is to hear the empire bringing the full force upon it if word gets out you've been sighted there'.

'Aqua's right Noct, at least with Vaullerey you can draw a few eyes there and we can help the Marshal without worrying about too much reinforcements arriving', Ignis said, cupping his chin in thought.

Seeing the point behind this, Noctis ultimately agreed to the plan. 'Right, me, Sora and Kairi can take down that fortress', he said, 'While you two go with Aqua'. Gladiolus looked ready to argue about being separated from the prince, but then he looked back to Sora and Kairi, who gave the man assuring nods and determined smiles. As much as he hated to be away from Noctis, he couldn't deny putting his safety in two keyblade wielders' hands wasn't exactly a bad choice.

'Are you sure Noct?', Ignis asked. Not insulted but surprised. 'Yeah, between the three of us we can handle whatever the empire throws at us. You guys though have no clue what's going on at that base'.

'Heck, if we get ours done as soon as possible we can always meet you there!', Sora said with confidence. 'He's right you know', Kairi agreed with a nod.

The two men looked at each other before Gladiolus shrugged. 'Alright then, if you're sure about this'. 'I am', Noctis promised.

Once they were done, Noctis and his team jumped into the Regalia while the rest took Aqua's car and each of them sped off to their mission.

A great battle was about to unfold.

A/N: Part one of this little arc…

So the original idea was for them to reclaim Insomnia…but I couldn't think of a legit reason why they'd take a massive risk like that so I decided base busting would the next best thing…debatably…

Q1: So the name of Aqua's car is still undecided but two reviews have suggested the names:

knarf2010: Wayfinder.

Speedy24: New Destiny.

Which of these names do you think would suit the car name better? Let me know!

Q2: Has anyone figured out who the "hero" is?

Q3: Does anyone know the significance of Riku's disguise.

Q4: Who can guess who stole the bike?

Q5: Whose excited to see Aranea?

I wanna say sorry for this messy chapter, I just wrote myself into a wall. Hopefully, I'll make the next chapter a lot better and worth your time. Thanks for reading, as always, Stay Awesome but more importantly Stay Safe!


	17. Chapter 17

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 17

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

Cape Caem

'Are you certain you don't wish to swap? I'm fine driving', Ignis assured, looking at the bluehead. 'Oh no, I'm content doing it; besides you've driven most of the time since we met', Aqua promised, turning the car, 'Enjoy your break'.

Ignis hummed in gratitude, settling back into his seat while Aqua resumed her attention to the road. The drive was quiet, likely each of the oldest members were thinking on the task ahead of them but at the same time, they were thinking back to the younger members. It wasn't a secret that Gladiolus and Ignis were extremely apprehensive about letting their younger brothers going off with the others, especially invading an imperial base.

While they have had some experience in doing tasks like this, and they had faith in Noctis and Prompto holding their own, going separately from them was an entirely different situation.

The giant in the back seat was on the phone with his sister, giving her instructions about what to expect should the empire's forces return to the town and what to do. According to him, Iris had already been moved to a different location with the region, a cabin in the woods. Isolated and in a forest, they'd be safe she assured him.

Looking at Aqua, Ignis could see her jaw was tense and her fingers were clenched tightly around the wheel, likely her worries for the others were lingering on her mind. 'Are you concerned about Kairi?', he asked, looking ahead of them. There was no need to worry for Sora and Riku, the former had proven he was a force of nature on his own, and given what he had seen Sora do before, he had a good feeling the base would stand little chance against him.

If Riku is a master and as Aqua says his rival, then surely, he'd do splendidly with Donald and Goofy.

'…yes', she sighed. 'I know its silly to be worried since she has both Sora and Noct…but she also has a penchant for recklessness'.

'Hey kettle, names pot, have we met?', Gladiolus joked, hanging up his phone.

Aqua smiled in response, turning the car along the road. 'Funny…', she replied dryly.

'I understand your concerns, we're not exactly thrilled that we're not keeping an eye on our own too', Ignis said, 'But we can't discount our allies' capabilities either. Sora and Noct will keep her safe'.

'And likely Sora will pull something out of his ass that could nuke the damn base for all we know', Gladiolus reminded. 'Language Gladio…', Ignis huffed. Aqua giggled, 'Oh trust me, I'm no stranger to swears', she said, 'I remember my brother had quite the sailor tongue when we trained'.

'Sounds familiar…', Ignis hummed in reply, looking back at the giant. Gladiolus innocently smirked while wiggling his eyebrows. Then Gladiolus looked at her. 'Hey, been wanting to ask, who were your brothers?', he questioned.

At this, Aqua's smile dimmed and in the place of light, there was darkness. '…they're names are Terra, the oldest between us, and Ventus…or Ven for short', she said. Ignis looked at the woman when she stopped talking and just kept her eyes on the road. Glancing back to the shield, he subtly shook his head. That topic was not the appropriate subject to discuss before a mission like this. The next thing that happened was Aqua slowing down the car as they rounded a turn of the cliffside, and she stopped the car and parked it off-road. They looked to the ocean in disbelief as they all got out of the car.

'You've gotta be kidding me…', Gladiolus gasped.

Before the hovering over the ocean was a base in the skies, four giant building-sized propellers keeping it afloat with what looked to be a landing deck on top of it, the Niflhiem crest proudly painted upon the front of the airship/base. Multiple large cannons that size of a small house were stuck to the exterior of the ship.

In the middle of it, all was one of the giant magitek towers that from what Aqua was told by Ignis that amplified the soldiers of the empire to powerhouses.

'*This* is what the Marshal wants us to take down?', Gladiolus grunted, hands on his hip. 'How the hell are we supposed to get on that thing?'.

'…maybe we should have brought Sora for this one…', Ignis lamented.

'Can't disagree with that thought…', Aqua sighed.

Just as the three stood there contemplating their options, Ignis' phone rang. He answered it and after some talking, he nodded and told the caller "we're on our way" before hanging up. 'Well…it would seem the Marshal does indeed want us to take down that ship, and luckily for us, he has a way in', he revealed.

'And what's his plan?'.

*Cape Caem caves*

The three warriors stared down the Marshals' transport with looks of dread, sweat dripping down their foreheads and genuine fear.

'You gotta be kidding us…', Gladiolus groaned.

Before them were two imperial magitek speeders waiting for them upon the back of a tow truck being held up by two stands. In great condition absolutely, seeing as they were polished and in perfect condition along with several members of the Crownsguards explaining to them that their engines run on magitek technology that will last them long enough for them to get them in and out of the ship.

'These are the only methods of transport my men were able to procure that were easy to use and small enough to get close to the ship', Cor explained, arms folded. 'They're easy to handle once we get started'.

'Wait…we?', Ignis asked.

'I'll be joining you on this mission. We don't know what exactly we're facing on this ship, and we're not taking any chances', Cor said. He gestured them to follow him. They went to a table where more of the soldiers were standing, several plans were on the table along with schematics of the airship. 'Here's our plan', he said. 'Four engines are powering the ship's flight, heavily guarded'.

'All we need to do is break down two of them to cause the ship to fall, after that we make our exit and let this thing fall into the ocean'.

'Huh…that's it?', Gladiolus asked, 'Just go in, cause some damage, get out, done?'.

'Not exactly', Cor said, 'We've also received word someone of interest is on the ship, a vital member of the emperor's council'. 'The chancellor?', Ignis asked. 'No, someone else. Some new guy that, according to our reports, is an absolute daemon of a soldier', Cor said. 'So, we're gonna remove him?', Aqua asked, folding her arms.

'Yes, and that will be your mission', he said, looking at the bluehead. 'Scientia has informed me you'd be the most capable of dispatching more…vital members of the empire'. Aqua gave the spectacled man a subtle glance of annoyance before she ultimately nodded to Cor. 'Excellent, then here's the next part', he continued. With a nod from the Immortal, his men placed upon the table six small beeping devices. 'While Aqua is dealing with the target, we'll plant the bombs in the control rooms for the engine'.

'Kinda a bit of an overkill isn't it? Just take one engine out and the rest would follow wouldn't it?', Gladiolus said, looking at the bombs. 'Better safe than sorry, Gladio', Cor reminded, 'Unless you want the empire to bring this thing into future battles'.

'No, no. We're quite content with see this thing sink to the bottom of the ocean', Ignis cuts in before Gladiolus could argue back. Nodding, Cor addressed the rest of them. 'Then we have our mission, while we plant the bombs, Aqua deals with the target. Once both tasks are completed, we'll leave using the speeders and then once we're out of range, we'll detonate the bomb'.

He handed each of them an earpiece radio and after explaining it to Aqua how it works, then each of them hopped onto the speeders, Cor with Ignis and Gladiolus with Aqua. Gladiolus was on the seat and grabbed the handles of the machine, Aqua hopped on behind him and after some "just hold on" from Gladiolus, she reluctantly wrapped her arms around his waist.

Times like these she truly wished she had her glider…

The machines hummed to life and slowly levitated up from the truck and then, the two speeders sped off out of the caves and into the skies. Aqua already felt her stomach lurch from the sudden speeding momentum, though she had a good guess, not to the same degree as her companions. Gladiolus let out a few swears of surprise and even groaned from the speeding momentum.

The base was in sight, and quickly they sped towards it using the systems stealth mode to approach it without the empire picking them up. 'Alright', Cor said, using the earpiece to communicate with the team, 'Gladio, head for the right and land in the docking bay, your engine is there'. Gladiolus confirmed and glanced at Aqua. She gave him a nod and they dived towards the docking bay while Ignis and Cor headed for their own.

Gladiolus managed to land within the bay with only some collisions here and there, bumping into a few walkways and even crashing into one unmanned M-AX unit. Aqua was surprised he didn't make the blasted thing topple over like a cut-down tree. Landing the speeder on the landing zone, they hopped off it.

Taking in the sight Aqua sees several unmanned machines in rows left and right of the bay, several soldiers were standing there like statues. According to the schematics Cor was given from the spies, the magitek soldiers were often left "switched off" when the ships were deploying them, a method to conserve more power. On the ship it was no different it seemed, and likely using the stealth mode on their speeder was keeping them docile.

She turned to Gladiolus summoning his sword at the ready. 'Alright, guess here's where we part ways', he said, taking out his phone. Joining him, she sees his phone had a map, likely how to navigate the ship. 'If Cor's guys were right, then your target should be on the top floor', he said, 'and my engine is just on the second floor'.

'Then I can just use the elevator shaft to make my way up', she stated, looking around for the said passageway. 'Better not, take an elevator and you'll probably be stuck in one full of Nifs', warned the shield. Then he sees the woman sporting a smug look. 'I never said I'd take the elevator itself', she replied in a coy tone. She then jumped to one of the walkways and sprinted down it to a corridor where an elevator was, based on the map, leaving the shield to his task.

The blue head snuck her way down the corridor, keyblade in hand and keeping her eyes and ears open for any patrols or just a scientist or worker casually walking down the corridor. This place didn't seem to have any form of cameras from where she was standing, maybe they were confident that nobody in their right mind would dare try to infiltrate this place. The whole corridor felt so empty and dismal she noticed, the very mechanical and robotic scenery disturbed her.

The only "décor" that didn't make her feel like she was walking facility was the blatant emblemed of the empire's seal on them. The dull hums of the engines were her only musical entertainment, several voices over the intercoms too busy and hectic for her to discern from the other. Soon she found an elevator and opened it.

Inside was no different than outside but her critiques aside, she sees the number above the door was lowering which meant she was going down. Or was she?

Looking up she sees the latch and using her keyblade, hits it open. Aqua climbed out of the elevator and was rewarded with the wild winds rushing up and blowing her hair wildly as she felt unsteady with the quickly descending elevator.

'Going up', she said to herself.

Aqua leaped up to one of the girders held in between to more and then began her long ascension up to the top floor…

*Formouth Garrison*

It didn't take the team very long to get the attention of the empire, having Donald blowing up the front gates does that. Also, the prospect that Prince Noctis himself was attacking their bases would likely get someone's attention, and then all forces would certainly be directed towards the prince.

A situation Riku was betting on.

The silver-haired master was cutting his way through the mechanical soldiers, leaping over them and firing darkness at them. With his keyblade in his right hand and left-hand glowing with darkness, Riku was happy to say their assault had given them the advantage over the enemy base. He leaped into the air as an MA-X unit was lifting its bony metallic limbs to aim. He fired a barrage of violet fireballs at it, exploding upon impact. The machine's limbs were not only melting quickly but they broke apart in places.

As it collapsed to the ground, Riku dashed past the fallen machine as he uses his darkness to summon a blade of energy. Whilst spinning in mid-air at an angle, he becomes a spinning disc that cuts and carves past his enemies, the magiteks stood little chance at surviving his brutal attacks.

And unlucky for the empire, he wasn't their only biggest threat.

Following close was Donald whacking any soldier in the knees and casting a torrent of magic at his enemies. Donald lifted his staff upwards and with a quack, summoned down three golden bolts of lightning upon the army of soldiers, their size was enough to swallow five of them each and those close to the blast zone were shocked and had their circuits fried.

Goofy rammed into a soldier with his shield and knocked it down. As a soldier brought down its axe on him the captain leaped into the air like a rocket, shield first and caught the enemy off guard. The shield smashed into the jaw and broke it apart. In the air, he dived towards a speeding sword wielder and crushed it with his weight and shield, breaking it apart.

Then finally was Prompto, providing covering fire to the others and keeping the snipers at bay for them. Switching between his pistol and rifle, the blonde did his job and then some, using flares from his gun to momentarily blind the enemies, using his machine to create a gravitational sphere to hold them in place, and even using one of his machines with a saw to rip and tear.

'How we are doing over there?', Riku yelled, decapitating a soldier mid-spin.

'I think we're winning!', Prompto yelled, rolling away from a swiping sword. That attacker was then clobbered by Donald, smashing his staff into the skull of the machine and destroying it. The duck turned on two more running towards him, which were then picked off by Prompto's careful shots. The two raced to Riku as Goofy gave one more uppercut to the final soldier, knocking it into the air before he followed them.

'Hey come on Nifs!', Riku yelled, stabbing a soldier through its robotic stomach. 'You've got PRINCE NOCTIS here, and *this* is all you got?'.

'Yeah! Do we have to handcuff him for you?', Donald bellowed, joining in the charade.

The four heroes were now standing the magitek enhancing machine, Prompto explained what it was on the way in. Before Riku or Donald tore it apart, Prompto let out a yell. On the walkways, a single soldier started to man one of the turrets and turned the gun on the four.

'Looks like they're answering your taunts "Noctis"', Goofy said, already raising his shield immediately. The machine burst with bullets, trailing upon the ground as Riku and Prompto ran in different directions, Goofy held his ground and with his shield, he was defending against the bullets. Donald immediately ducked behind the captain, the bullets were pelting his shield madly and even pushed him back from the force.

While they acted like the decoys, Riku ran towards the turret, leaping into the air, hand aimed at the turret. But then the gunner suddenly turned on him, opening fire on him. With a yell, Riku quickly erected a barrier around him, just in time to protect himself from the bullets. The bullets crashed against his barrier as he fell back down to the ground, barrier up.

Fortunately for Riku, Prompto was close enough to the turret and he tossed a sphere-shaped object right at the turret, landing beneath the gunner's feet. The sphere detonated, creating a huge dome of blue and white electricity for three seconds. The soldier's body was sparking with electricity and it spasmed until it collapsed backward, turret fried and crackling as a fire started.

'Problem solved!', Prompto yelled, waving at the three.

Lowering shield and barrier, the three other worlders sighed in relief. 'Glad that's over…', Riku said, shaking his hand, 'Let's turn that thing into scrap'.

He gave Donald a nod, and then the duck stepped forward, the machine was a few feet away. He lifted his staff in the air, channeling a large amount of magic into it. It cackled and sparked; small traces of lighting surged around it as the staff glowed yellow.

'THUNDAZA!', he cried.

A giant bolt wide as a house rocketed down from the skies and utterly consumed the machine before the party, not only destroying it but taking a gigantic chunk of the ground it once stood on with it. When the dust settled, there was nothing more than broken pieces of scrap along with a large hole that probably was at least ten to fifteen feet deep, faint sparks of electricity fluttered around the hole. Donald shook weakly, dropping his staff as he rested his feathered hands on his knees.

Goofy immediately approached him and patted his back, worry in his eyes. The duck gave the captain a weak thumbs-up as he panted and shook from exhaustion, not used to using that level of magic. Prompto looked at the destruction before them in awe whilst thinking back to a certain Astral, only one being could replicate that form of power.

Just how strong is that duck…?

'Is he gonna be alright?', Riku asked, looking at the two.

'He's a little winded…we should probably get going', Goofy replied, hoisting Donald upon his back. 'Before more imperials show up'.

'Uh, guys…', Prompto said slowly, pointing to the southern skies.

All eyes turned to see a fleet of airships floating above the base, a total of twenty to be sure. Riku clicked his tongue as he summoned his keyblade again while Prompto got his pistol ready. 'Goofy, mind Donald, we'll handle them', Riku instructed. Goofy nodded and quickly scampered away to hide and care for Donald, leaving the two boys behind to face the imperials.

As the ships flew above the base, heaps of soldiers jumped from the bays and surrounded the boys, creating a sea of imperial magiteks. Back to back, Riku and Prompto glared at the horde as they both thought of their next move, and if they could even move fast enough…

'Didn't expect to meet again so soon, Highness', a voice boomed from the intercom.

Prompto and Riku turned to see one lone ship that was lower than the other dropships. 'You were foolish to come here', a different voice bragged.

'That's Caligo…but who's the other guy?', Riku asked, not taking his eyes off the ship.

'Sounds like Loqi…another imperial general guy…I think…?', Prompto said, wrecking his brain for any memory of the man. 'Surrender now, or we will make you wish you had!', Caligo taunted. But then Riku lowered his weapon and took a step forward to Caligo's ship, smirking at it. He held up his keyblade and yelled: 'Don't remember me Caligo? It's me! Noctis 2.0!'.

There was a silence that was so great you could hear a feather drop; nobody had dared to make a sound. Even Prompto's jaw was hitting the ground (or at least if it could). Then they heard a howl of inhuman rage over the intercom, a rage so great Riku almost mistook it for a heartless.

'YOU! YOU'RE THAT LOOKALIKE!', he screamed, and if Riku could see him he'd probably would be as red as paint. 'DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOUR ACTIONS HAVE DONE TO ME!?'.

'I'm guessing making you look like a complete idiot in front of all your military buddies?', Riku yelled back, smugly.

Another cry of rage before total silence as the dropship bay opened. But instead of more magitek soldiers, only one man leaped from the hangar and landed a few feet before Riku. It was no magitek soldier, it was someone far more deadly.

Ravus.

The near white-haired man glared down at "Noctis" in disgust as Riku's smugness was replaced with unease as he turned his gaze to him. With a scoff, Ravus raised his arm. 'All forces, retreat. This base is lost to us', he ordered.

'B-B-But High Commander-

Caligo, with his voice failing to hold back that inhuman rage, attempted to argue but the commander spoke. 'That is an order, "general". Fall back, and leave this to me', he said, emphasizing "general". Caligo, begrudgingly, ordered the remaining forces on foot and air to fall back to wherever their main base was, leaving one ship for Ravus behind for transport of course. Once the remaining army fell back, Ravus turned to Riku.

'So, you're this doppelganger I've heard so much about', he said, his voice was cold and unamused. Riku stepped in front of Prompto, blocking Ravus' view of the less experienced boy. Something was off about this man, his presence wasn't like the other imperials or magitek soldiers Riku would go so far as to even say it was something dark.

Almost, akin to the heartless dark.

'And you are?', Riku questioned.

'That's Ravus, High Commander of the Niflhiem Army…and the big brother to Noct's fiancé…', Prompto said, quietly adding the last part. 'Oh…great…', Riku grunted.

Ravus looked at Prompto and the area, brows furrowed when his count was shorter than the last time he had encountered the royal party. 'And where's that brat of a king? Off hiding like his father?', he taunted snidely. 'That's none of your business', Riku said. 'Now you can get lost like the rest of your army, or we can do this the hard way'. Ravus raised a brow at the boy's threat, almost insulted he'd have the nerve to even speak to the commander in such a tone.

That rebellious look in his eyes…it reminded him of Noctis, and that only fuelled the man's ire. 'You've a lot of nerve boy', he growled, drawing his saber. 'As High Commander of the Niflhiem army, I will have you and your party executed for treason against the emperor'. '…You can try', Riku said, shifting into his stance. 'Word of advice? Treat me like Noct, and you're gonna regret it'. Ravus smirked cruelly, as his prosthetic arm was glowing violet as a dark aura glowed from him.

'Fool…who said I was going to perform the deed?'.

Then as he lifted his false arm, a portal of red and violet appeared around the man in white. Riku's eyes widened in horror at the sight and as the portals began to spew out the creatures of the darkness. Shadows at first that were slowly taking form of Ravus himself, but they were ink colored with yellow eyes piercing their dark voids. Just like Riku had done two years ago, Ravus had created a group of Anti-versions of himself.

This man has gained the same power Riku foolishly took before…

*Fort Vaullerey*

Warping to a walkway, Noctis crouched low and placed himself against one of the watchtowers nearby, hiding from a patrol of magiteks. Leaning to the edge, he looked up to another tower to see Sora on top of the building, waving at the prince in confirmation.

Least one of them was in position and more importantly out sight.

Noctis warped up to Sora just before more soldiers could spot him. From there they had a clear view of most of the base. Ahead of them was the magitek enhancing device fully operational and going, protected by a dome of red laser barriers. 'Looks like they're not taking any chances', Noctis grunted, crouched down with Sora. 'So how do we turn it off?', Sora asked, looking at the older man. 'Good question…', the prince hummed. Then Sora's GP went off, vibrating silently in his pockets (at Kairi's insistence) and he answered. 'Good news, I think I found the control room…place…', Kairi whispered on the other end.

Inside the room, after taking down two of the magiteks, looked at the screens with her phone on her ear. 'Okay, so…um…how do I turn it off?', Kairi asked, looking at every button and monitor like a paranoid clean freak hunting for bugs. 'How the hell would I know?', Noctis asked. 'And what makes you think *I* know any more!?', argued Kairi. 'I'm stilling trying to figure out what an "email" is!'.

Noctis groaned, he just had to be paired up with technology-challenged teens…

'Sora, any advice?', Kairi pleaded.

'Well Kairi, in my experience when you need something to turn off, you gotta go with the old method!', he said. 'And what would that be?', she asked. 'Smash everything in sight!'. Kairi blinked in reply, then looked at the computers and then at her keyblade. She smiled. 'Are you guys insane? There's no way-

Noctis was about to continue his lecture when he suddenly heard smashing and breaking at the end of Sora's phone. The barrier ahead of them suddenly went off along with miraculously the magitek soldiers all shutting down and collapsing to the ground. His jaw was slack as Sora looked around the base, impressed. 'Huh, didn't know the magiteks were connected to that computer…', he said, bemused.

'Did it work? I've smashed practically everything', Kairi asked.

'…tell her she's just taken out an entire base…', Noctis said dumbly.

'What did he say?'.

'Let's just say Kai, you've got the highest kill count today!', Sora said with praise.

'…suck it Riku~'.

'Whatever just hurry to the machine, we'll meet you there!', Noctis huffed. Ending the call, Sora followed the prince as he warped towards the machine. Sora leaped and dashed in the air just as the prince warped right before the machine, barely functioning courtesy of Kairi's smashing. The boys turned to see her running towards them, waving at them with obvious glee. 'Okay, now we just have to destroy this', Noctis said, looking at the device. 'Think I've got some flasks left', he muttered.

Sure enough, he pulled three thunder flasks from the Armiger and placed each of them on the machine, making sure they were all neatly tucked into it to ensure they didn't fall out. Once done, he turned to the keyblade wielders with a nod. Sora summoned his keyblade and aimed it at the flasks but Kairi spoke up. 'Hold on, could I do this?', she asked. The two boys looked at her oddly before she summoned her keyblade. 'I just wanna see if I can use my tier three spells', she revealed.

Noctis folded his arms as Sora looked at him for what appeared to be permission. Although the prince just wanted to get out of here as quick as possible, there was no need to rush. Not only did Kairi bring the barrier down, but she practically took down the entire base without any of them breaking a sweat or harm. All things considered, he believed she earned this little request. Shrugging, he gave them a nod and stepped back.

Grinning, Kairi grabbed the keyblade with both hands and aimed it at the device. Taking a breath, Kairi's keyblade began to glow a gentle golden red. A small ember fluttered to life at the type of Destiny's Embrace, growing slowly into a campfire sized flame. 'Firaga!', she cried. The giant ball of fire blasted off Kairi's keyblade and sped towards the machine. The impact not only exploded to near blinding the three, but the force blew them all off their feet and six feet away onto their backs.

The explosion was loud and near-deafening, all of them groaned from the small pain from the impacts of landing on their backs. 'Ow…', Sora groaned, rubbing the back of his head. Kairi rubbed her head, looking sheepishly at the glaring boys. 'Heh…looks like my magic's good to go', she giggled shyly. Noctis glared at her as they got back to their feet, wiping the dust off his clothes. Ahead the destruction Kairi had caused was impressive, to say the least.

The entire ground was scorched black with several bits of metal scattered around the place, some of it was on fire as a large plume of smoke rose from the resting spot of the machine. 'Let's just get out of here, before the Nilfs catch on we've just committed terrorism'.

Before they could get going, Sora looked up to see a dropship looming over the base. 'Too late', he grunted, summoning his keyblade. Kairi and Noctis looked, both they groaned and summoned their weapons. The dropship bay doors opened, but while the three were expecting a platoon of magitek soldiers to rain down from the sky, they were not expecting a lone woman leaping off the ship and dive towards them.

The woman landed a few feet before them, landing on the ground as if she just jumped from a crate than fifty feet. She stood up and stared at the three, a large spear in hand. The empire's commodore, Aranea Highwind had arrived.

'Well, well…look at what I've got here', she said, her tone was playful and cocky, 'Prince Noctis…'. She turned to Sora and Kairi with a raised brow. 'And…two teenagers with giant keys…?', she said, confused and curious. 'Keyblades, thank you very much!', Kairi huffed. 'Thanks for clearing up that confusion, sweetheart'.

Aranea spun her spear over her shoulder and laid it against her, smirking through her helmet. 'Okay prince, here's how this is gonna go: You can either come quietly', she said, before her spear was suddenly active and sparking with red lightning, 'Or I knock you on your ass and drag you back to the emperor'.

Noctis huffed and with the others, readied himself. 'Or option three, we take you down and send you packing!', he replied.

Aranea smirked at this, almost impressed by the prince's confidence. 'On your ass it is!', she said. Suddenly she lunged towards the prince like a bullet and with a thrust of her spear, she stabs it forward to him. Noctis quickly parried her attack by summoning one of his shields Gladiolus gave him before splitting up. While he was unharmed the sheer power behind Aranea's attack knocked him off his feet.

Then she jabbed at him again while in the prince was in the air and because of this she sent him flying further from the dragoon. The prince's shield disappeared as he warped to a tower and landed on the walkway. Aranea turned to her bounty, only for Kairi to bring down her keyblade upon the dragoon. The queen of the skies blocked her strike as she danced around Kairi's swipes and swings, seemingly untouchable.

When the princess's attack was dodged again by the dragoon leaping backward, she aimed her keyblade at the commodore. 'Blizzaga!', she shouted. A large spread shot of ice spiky balls fired towards the older woman. Aranea didn't dodge the attack, but instead, she grabbed the spear with both hands and as the electricity sparked within the weapon, she swung her spear upwards. The force of her attack destroyed the ice by splitting them into pieces and sending them flying upwards into her domain.

Kairi gasped, never seeing anyone just smacking away a tier-three spell like that. Even Riku's never done that before. Aranea gave the girl a coy smirk as if she was amused by her attempts to hurt her. 'That all you got?', she said in a sickeningly sweet tone.

Kairi gritted her teeth before her keyblade shined brightly as the dragoon swung her spear at her again. This time Kairi lifted her keyblade, changing from its regular form to the Dual-Blade and into her Strike Form. Kairi not only managed to parry Aranea's strikes effortlessly but while she was spinning her swords she nearly managed to nick Aranea's chin and would have even sliced her jaw in half had the dragoon not leaned backward.

She jumped back from the girl's strike and stared down the princess, Kairi spinning her blade before gently laying it against her shoulder, freehand placed on her hip as she smugly raised a brow. 'That all *you* got?', she mimicked. Aranea gave her a smirk as if impressed by her. 'Oh, so not just a pretty face', she complimented, 'but can you handle me in *my* domain?'.

Next thing they all knew, she knelt before suddenly shooting up into the sky like a missile. Kairi and Noctis looked up in shock as the woman easily was as high as the airship, an inhuman amount of strength to even leap over the base's walls.

While in the air, she readied herself to dive down and take Kairi out, but what she wasn't expecting was seeing Sora just five feet below her and flying up fast. 'Let's do this!', he said, summoning a new keyblade in hand and then changing it into a new weapon.

A key chain he had gotten from an old-world he had visited twice, a weapon with pirate-themed designs as the blade shifted, changing into a halberd with the same pirate design. Into his Strike Form, Sora reached the dragoon and started to strike at her with his spear. Aranea barely had a chance to take in the fact that this boy had not only managed to jump at the same height as her but now she was fighting someone who can keep up with her.

They clashed in the spears thrusting against each other, sparks flying all over and both managing to keep themselves from harm. Aranea brought down her weapon on Sora's, forcing him to descend to the ground. She dove after, spear out as she dived. Sora, however, flipped himself, spreading out his arms and legs and the next thing the woman knew, she flew right past him as his descent slowed down. Aranea turned her head to see him, but he smacked his spear into her back, sending her faster towards the ground.

It was only because she managed to correct herself in the air and using the spear's electricity to blast a burst of energy to give her some way to slow down her fall did, she return to her feet unharmed. Sora landed a few feet away from her as Kairi and Noctis joined his side, weapons in hand as Noctis summoned Blade of the Mystic. 'You can't beat all of us', Kairi warned. Aranea was about to make a snarky retort when suddenly, they heard the sound of a swinging sword. Next thing they knew the dropship had been split in two.

They all turned to the destruction above to see the ship explode into flames before it fell onto the base, shaking the ground. Aranea glared at the burning ship and turned back to the confused trio. 'What the hell happened!?', she demanded. Then a presence was noticed, but this felt inhuman…

'Keyblade wielder'.

They all turned to one of the watchtowers, a single man landing upon it gracefully. 'Who is this?', Noctis said. When he got no response, he and Kairi looked at Sora, eyes wide open with genuine fear in his eyes.

'Kairi…Noct…run', he said, pushing them behind him as he grabbed the halberd.

'Sora?', Kairi questioned, horrified that he was this scared.

'Who is it!?', Noctis demanded.

The man smirked…

*Nearby*

Overlooking the base on the bike, the young man grabbed his sword. 'I found you…', he said.

*Airship*

Kicking open the air vent grate, Aqua slipped out of it and gracefully landed in the corridor. Looking around for anyone in case they heard the fallen grate, she breathed an air of relief when she sees she's still alone in the corridor. Ahead of her was a door with a security gate near it, meaning her target was just ahead of her.

Summoning her keyblade, Aqua approached the door and smashed open the security gate, opening the door in front of her. 'Aqua, we've just planted our bombs', Ignis spoke in her earpiece, 'Have you taken down the target?'.

'I'm just outside his office, this shouldn't take much longer', Aqua assured. 'Gladio, have you planted your bomb?', she asked.

'Working on it…', Gladiolus grumbled back, 'Had some trouble with a few scrap heads'.

'Based on the fact we haven't heard the alarms, I'm assuming you've remain undetected?', Ignis asked. 'Did you doubt my sneaking skills?'. 'A huge man with tattoos and a giant sword sneaking around a heavily fortified airship? Surely no one would notice', Ignis remarked.

Aqua giggles quietly at the grumbles Gladiolus made before returning to her task at hand. She opened the door, entering the room. This was the commander's room, based on how pristine and well furbished the place was. Carpet floors, several leather chairs, a desk, and one white leather seat. Behind the desk were several monitors that were showing several spots of the ships via cameras, along with a large keyboard.

The chair was spun around not facing Aqua, which gave the master the impression her target wasn't aware of her entering. Quiet as a ghost Aqua slowly approached the seat, keyblade in hand and ready to strike. Close enough, Aqua silently took a deep breath and stabbed the keyblade right through the seat.

Nothing happened…

Confused, Aqua grabbed the seat and turned it around. All she found was a hole she made, but nobody or any trace of someone having been there. 'Where…where is he?', she asked herself.

'Right here'.

Aqua's blood ran cold, her eyes widened as her body stiffened. Slowly she turned around to identify the voice despite after so many years of hearing it. Standing at the entrance, now covered a violet barrier, was a man.

Silvery-white, eyes yellow with dark skin.

Wearing two intersecting straps over his chest, red ones dropping much lower down and almost resembling crisscrossed suspenders. The same medal she carried over her heart was his belt. He wears a skin-tight, black, high-collared shirt. His hakama are dark grey near the top, with several loops for his belt and two buttons, both of which are undone. The rest of the pants are tan with a small, lighter stripe of tan on the bottom hem. Also wearing a plain black wristband on his right arm, while his left arm is significantly more armored.

'Its been a while, hasn't it?', Terra asked, grinning darkly.

A/N:

*Slams head on desk* This was the longest chapter I've ever done…

So three fights, changes with some characters, new/old faces showing up, and more trouble on the horizon. Next time…more fights… *sigh* Hopefully I'll make it another good one.

Q1: Do you wanna see Cindy in the next chapter?

Q2: Can anyone guess what Form Change weapon I'm giving Riku?

Q3: Has anyone figured out who is who?

Q4: What did you think of the Airship Base?

Q5: Do you wanna see Lunafreya in the next chapters?

As always, thanks for reading! Stay Awesome but more importantly Stay Safe!


	18. Chapter 18

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 18

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

*Several Days ago*

Punching the metal wall in restrained fury, Ravus let out a hiss of anger. The wall that he choose to lash out upon now had a sizable dent and likely, had he not controlled himself, would have turned into a hole.

Caligo's incompetence had costed the empire greatly in resources, occupying Lestallum with soldiers that could have been used for more useful tasks, but not only was it a waste but he failed to capture even the fake Noctis.

The prince's new allies had proven to be far more of threat to the empire than any of the Kingsglaives, the boy with the key alone had the power to rival the kings of yore, and those other creatures, one who can use magic like the king before, and the dog thing having the power to take on their soldiers with nothing but a shield…

Seething at the thought of the false king obtaining allies with powers greater than the empire could ever hope to mimic, any chances of capturing him have fallen to impossible. As he pulled his prosthetic limb from the wall, Ravus exhaled a frustrated breath before he resumed his march back to his chambers. If he was lucky enough perhaps, he could convince that maggot of an emperor to allow him to hunt Noctis himself.

Even then, looking at his arm, thoughts going back to the boy again filled him with doubt. It was clear that the boy was on a different level of power compared to Noctis, and that was just the boy on his own. The other two, the doppelganger and the blue woman, plus that redhead and those two otherworldly beings, the five of them are on a different level compared to the prince and his friends. Fighting them head-on as he is, even with his new arm would be suicidal at best.

'Looks like someone's having a bad day'.

Ravus didn't bother to turn to identify that voice, he was, unfortunately, familiar with this strange man. Ever since that man Ardyn introduced Xigbar to his grace, things have drastically changed around the palace. Those monstrous creatures of white were all over the place, and when Xigbar even promised his grace power that would not only even the odds against those Lucian scum but even dwarf the new heroes too.

But Ravus refused to trust that man with one eye, knowing much like Ardyn there was something eerie about him. He kept him at arms reach and would only speak to him when it was an absolute must. Then he felt an arm fall around his shoulders. 'Hey now, no need to give the literal cold shoulder there', he said in a very cocky manner, 'just wanted to see how you were doing'.

Ravus scowled at him, glaring. Xigbar was unfazed though he took his arm off the commander. 'Pretty mad, got ya', he said, hands up. 'What do you want now?', growled Ravus.

'Well word from the grapevine says Caligo, that fat pompous tool, screwed up big time', he said. With a wicked grin, he says: 'He's helped good old Noctis gain a new ally and one who trumps the other kids'.

Ravus scoffed bitterly at the man, walking off. 'Is there something else or are you here to relay the same news to me?', he spat. 'You could say that…but if I'm right, you're planning on going after the prince yourself, right?'.

Ravus stopped his march, not turning to him. 'Hey man, I get ya, and I get the whole "If I was there, he'd be dead" spiel, but let's be real here', Xigbar sung cheekily. 'If you go, either those kids will take you down faster than Caligo consuming dinner, and if they don't those two creatures will'.

Clenching his fist, Ravus turned around to tear into Xigbar, but then froze when he sees that malicious smirk on his face, one that eerily resembled Ardyn. 'What if I told you, I can give you that extra boost?', he said. He approached Ravus, his golden eye was glowing with a dark purple tinge within it. 'I've heard from Ardyn you tried to use the Ring of the Lucii, and the light rejected you', he said, his voice was toned with malice yet somehow there was a touch of understanding within it.

'You trusted the light, it rejected you and took your arm in response. So my thought is if the light abandoned you…', he listed, raising a hand to reveal a black fire in it. 'Why not ask the darkness for power?'. Ravus looked at the fires, a great power surged within it and he could feel himself being drawn into it, the temptation. Yet the darkness was like the blight…and he's seen enough of the magitek soldiers to know how much it can and would warp him.

Ravus looked away and almost walked from the dark, but then Xigbar spoke: 'Think of your sister…'. Ravus reeled on him with a snarl, but Xigbar was unfazed. 'Consider what's going to happen when your potential brother in law gets to Altissia…you think she'll be safe in his hands? That the empire will leave her be?', he questioned.

Ravus' doubts showed eyes narrowed as he stared into the flames. Luna's safety above all else, and if the light had refused to grant him its power to protect her…

'What…do you want in return?', he asked slowly.

'Oh, nothing much…just deal with the keyblade wielders', Xigbar said, 'and you do that, and I'll give you an extra boost'.

Xigbar smirked as Ravus took the flames…

*Present Day*

Riku's eyes narrowed as the group of anti-Ravus' surrounded both him and Prompto, the real one standing outside of the horde as his eyes had a yellow glow within them as the dark flames covered his prosthetic arm.

'An interesting power, Xigbar gave me…the power to control these so-called heartless…', Ravus mused, marveling at his creations. Riku glared at the anti-Ravus', bad memories resurfacing in his mind as Prompto kept switching his aiming, not sure which one he should shoot first. 'Why would you trust Xigbar?', Riku demanded.

'With the heartless under my command, boy, I won't have to fear anything. Even you and your companions', Ravus said, smugly. Riku scoffed at him. 'You're an idiot! The heartless aren't under your command, as soon as you lower your guard, you'll lose your heart!', Riku warned. "Oh jeez…so this is how Sora felt when I did this…".

Ravus scoffed, aiming his sword at them. 'Deal with them', he ordered.

The group of dark doppelgangers rushed to Riku and Prompto, sabers in hand. The boys met their charge with their own, as the master dashed towards them. With a swipe of Brave Heart, Riku sliced through the darkened saber-like cutting through butter but he cuts the shadow's shoulder to the waist, decimating it. Turning around he aimed his left hand at the two running to him and fired a dark firaga at them. The first one was smacked in the chest, creating a fiery explosion that consumed them both in smoke, until the other leaped out of it and stabbed towards Riku.

The master parried the attack, knocking the blade upwards exposing the anti and with a yell Riku stabbed it in the chest, killing it as the body faded into a black mist.

Prompto, however, struggled against the superior anti, trying to keep his distance from them whilst taking aim. The anti's speed was almost like Riku's own, able to close the distance between them and even deflect some of his bullets. When it got close to him, Prompto summoned his rifle as the blade was swung down on him. The blonde blocked the attack, though the saber sank into the steel almost cutting it in half and the power behind the strike buckled his knees.

The anti-Ravus yanked its sword out of the rife, and Prompto took this chance to unleash a barrage of bullets on the monstrous lookalike, filling its shadow form with lead. The shadow faded away, but another instantly took its place and resumed its assault on the blonde. The boy yelped and quickly rolled away from the swiping steel, summoning his pistol and took aim at the shadow. Only before he could shoot him, the anti-Ravus slammed the palm of the darkened prosthetic on his chest.

They blasted the gunner with a shockwave that Prompto felt his breath being smashed out of his lungs and he felt a bone snapping within him. He was blasted away from the monster and slammed into one of the unused airships. His body smashed into it, creating a large dent that almost tore through the steel. Prompto groaned in pain, hacking up some blood before he slipped out of the dent and fell to his knees in pain.

Hearing the crash Riku turned around to see Prompto on his knees, trying to get back to his feet after coughing up more blood. The master dashed towards him, bringing Brave Heart down on the anti-Ravus' that huddled near the boy. One slash across the back of a Ravus and then with a blast of darkness from his hand, blowing off the head of the monster. Riku reached down to check the boy, worried by the blood. Prompto gave him a weak grin in response, his teeth pinkish from the blood. They looked behind Riku and Ravus merely summoned more of his shadows.

'How much longer can you hold on, boy?', Ravus sneered.

Riku huffed in response, pulling out a potion and handing it to Prompto, kneeling to him. 'Listen, drink this, find Goofy and get going, alright?', he instructed, placing the hi-potion in his hand. 'What? But…', Prompto said, attempting to argue, but Riku shook his head. 'This is a little out of your range buddy, I'd rather bring you back to Noct alive'. He didn't ignore the hurt in Prompto's eyes, but the blonde exhaled in defeat before he nodded.

Prompto guzzled down the potion, feeling his bones mend and pain subside, Riku helped get the blonde to his feet. Riku gave him a nod and then returned his eyes to the growing numbers of anti-Ravus', keyblade slowly starting to glow.

Breaking into a sprint Prompto managed to run away into the base, gun in hand just in case. When he was far away enough, the group of shadows finally surrounded Riku in a circle as he held the keyblade upwards. Then as the light became bright enough to force even Ravus to raise a hand to block it, Riku cried: 'Here we go!'.

The keyblade shined brilliantly, the blackguard around it broke off. It spun around in the air as it grew as Brave Heart changed from a key into a long gladius sized blade. The ring turned into a decently sized shield with the Soul Eater Eye emblem upon it the face of it. The weapons flew to Riku's hands, the sword in his right and shield in left, his clothes turned into more of a yellowish color with violet lightning patterns.

Guardian form.

Riku tossed his shield at the anti-Ravus', the black weapon ricocheting off four of them with a glowing reddish light surging around each impact. While his shield flew, the master air dashed past the shadows, cutting them down one by one like a gardener weeding out the weeds. Knowing the horde will continue to grow Riku brought his fight to Ravus, swinging the gladius at him from the right. Ravus grunted just as he blocked his attack in time, the force of their collision sent dust flying across the field and even shook the ground.

Pushing Riku off his sword and letting him land on his feet, Ravus struck at him with quick and precise strikes of his saber, his thin blade clashing with Riku's as sparks flew off their strikes. Riku's shield returned to him during a swing, which he caught with his free hand and with a spin, slammed it into Ravus' arm, the force catching the commander off guard and pushed him back with heels dug into the ground.

Riku slammed his shield against the commander, but was caught by the metal arm of Ravus, stopping the momentum and with his metallic fingers clenched down upon the weapon tightly, he threw Riku over himself, sending the boy three feet from him.

In the air upside down, Riku flung his shield at Ravus with a yell. Ravus then parried the shield with great difficulty and deflected it aside, letting the weapon bounce off the ground a few feet from them. Back on his feet, Riku leaped at him and swiped rapidly at the man. Their blades met with a deadlock; a shockwave emitted from their clash. Eye dead set on each other as they tried to overpower the other with gritted teeth as Ravus' darkness started to grow.

Their lock broke and Ravus swung his saber at Riku again, only for the silver-haired boy to retort with a swing of his own, knocking the saber aside. Ravus roared as his arm was suddenly encased in purple lightning and he thrust his palm at Riku. The boy met his with his burning with dark fire and when their palms locked together, the very ground cracked beneath them, fire and lighting encasing both limbs.

'You keep using the darkness like this, along with using the power of the heartless, and you're going to end up like them!', Riku warned, flinching at the sting of electricity.

'Silence boy!', Ravus spat, his darkness growing with each passing second.

'Xigbar is using you! He's trying to turn into a heartless, and then make you a nobody!', he tried.

Ravus snarled with a feral look on his face, head butting Riku and forcing the boy to loosen his grip on Ravus' hand. The commander then slammed his palm into Riku's chest and blasted him with lightning and force, coating him a web of lighting as he flew across the field. Riku crashed through the unused airship all the way, an explosion left in his wake as he bounced off the ground repeatedly until he rolled over the ground coming to a stop.

Shaking as he struggled to get back up, Riku grunted with exertion as he pushed himself off the ground, his body ached. His clothes reverted to normal as Brave Heart changed back to its original shape. Riku pushed himself up to one leg, keyblade stabbed into the ground to get some form of support as his vision started to blur. He heard footsteps approaching him slowly, his blood leaking from all over his back, sides and his cheek.

'Is this all a "master" is capable of?', Ravus taunted, eyeing the boy. With a scoff, Ravus held his sword up. 'No matter, once I deal with you, that boy and girl will be next'.

Riku's eyes widened with fear, images of Sora and Kairi flooded his mind. Thoughts of seeing Ravus taking them down, seeing Sora being beaten by the shadows, Kairi losing her heart to them. 'Sora…Kairi…', he whispered, hand gripping the keyblade tightly.

'Rest easy, I'll make their deaths swift', Ravus promised. He then brought down his saber upon Riku, but the boy caught the saber with his gloved hand. His mismatched eyes widened with shock, Ravus attempted to pull his sword from Riku but it was like it was stuck between two boulders. Riku slowly turned his head to the man, his eyes darkened with fury.

'Big…mistake', he growled. Riku crushed the blade in his hand, shattering it in half as his own body glowed in a violet light. With a roar, Riku thrusts his keyblade straight into Ravus' chest. A violet burst of light exploded upon impact, Ravus dropped his broken saber as his jaw fell and eyes widened in horror. He was blasted into the air, ten feet into the sky to be exact. His lungs depleted of air as he looked down to see Riku suddenly vanish before him.

Then he felt a slash across his chest, but Riku was nowhere in sight. Then another slash on his back, and again no Riku to be found. Riku was using an old technique of his, Dark Aura, to disappear and reappear to strike at the man. After seven more strikes, he appeared above Ravus and aimed both hands at him. 'DARK FLARE!', he yelled. A massive black and red sphere blasted from his hands and smacked Ravus right into his stomach, charging down to the ground and upon impact, exploding.

Riku landed a few feet away from the man as his body was no longer glowing from his dark power. However, once it faded, he fell to his knees in exhaustion, keyblade vanishing as he struggled to keep himself up. Having little challenge since his venture into the realm of darkness, this certainly proved he had gotten it easy for quite some time. Still, he won in the end. That was all the mattered for now.

He attempted to stand back up, but he ultimately fell on all fours, arms shaking with pain and tiredness. He couldn't even muster the strength heal himself.

'Y-You…what…are you?'.

Riku weakly turned to see Ravus climbing out of the small hole his attack made, standing weakly over as his gear was burned and torn in several parts, hair blackened in some parts with soot, even his prosthetic looked close to becoming scrap metal, the darkness leaking out of it like a bleeding limb. Ravus' human hand was now carrying a shadowy blade, likely replacing his broken saber. 'It doesn't matter…you won't leave this place alive', he swore.

He leaped at Riku, but then when he brought his sword down, there was a loud noise that startled the boy and next thing he sees was Ravus falling backward with a cry of pain. 'Riku!'. He looked to see Prompto with his sniper rifle in hand as Goofy quickly ran to the boy and hauled him over his shoulders. 'Hold on buddy, we're gonna get going!', Goofy said, adjusting him.

Ravus, however, was relentless, despite his wounds, he still charged at Riku and Goofy. This time, however, before he got too close to them, Donald suddenly leaped in front of him, staff held in both hands. 'Force!', Donald cried. A wave of invisible force blew Ravus ten feet from them, but while he was in the air, Donald aimed below him and yelled: 'Magnet!'. A blue and red sphere appeared on the ground and once Ravus above it, he was then sucked down and back landed on the ground, unable to move.

'Come on, this way!', Prompto yelled, pulling out the Chocobo whistle.

Once the three birds arrived Goofy placed Riku on one and hopped on his, then altogether the three trotted off away from the base, leaving a wounded and defeated Ravus behind.

*Fort Vaullerey *

Sora considered himself a brave boy, after all, he's faced there were very few things that could instil fear within his heart. Xehanort's plans, for example, losing his friends, Kairi getting hurt, and of course, Riku's cooking.

But against an enemy, there was nearly nobody he feared, and he always had the confidence he'd surmount the challenge. Not this man, no, he truly feared him.

Sephiroth.

Long silver hair with long bangs that frame his face, and dresses in a black leather coat. The coat has a large collar that reaches his ears even when folded back and is kept closed by a black belt with a silver buckle around his waist. His coat has a red-violet lining in the front. It is also noticeably more tattered. Blue eyes, the sleeves of his coat end in metal rings in place of normal cuffs, and he wears black leather gloves. There is an odd, black and red, fin-like growth on each forearm.

Sephiroth's chest is exposed, revealing a grey strap around his abdomen with two black belts over it, as well as two brown, overall-like straps that intersect over his chest. He wears black pants and black knee-high boots, with two grey belts wrapped around each boot as well as a silver pauldron over each shoulder. He sports a large, navy blue wing on his right shoulder, like an angel's. In his right hand was his Masamune, a long odachi like blade that was just three inches taller than the man himself.

With Noctis and Kairi behind, he was already ready to get them to run for the hills and hold off the one-winged angel alone.

'And who's this supposed to be? You another "surprise" from that wannabe pirate?', Aranea taunted, laying her spear against her shoulder. Sephiroth gave the woman a cold smile, one that Sora shivered at and it wasn't even directed at him.

'Sora, who is this guy?', Noctis demanded, not taking his eyes off him. 'Noct, take Kairi and go!', he said, keyblade returning its original form. 'What? Why the hell-

'Look, this guy is no joke! Just go!', Sora said, his fear seeped into his tone. Kairi looked at Sephiroth, the darkness around him was nothing like she had ever sensed before. It was so cold, like being trapped in a snowstorm with nothing to warm you, his eyes were so devoid of anything but malice. 'Prince Noctis…Princess Kairi…', he mused, looking at them both. 'Such…precious lights within you two'.

He lifted his long sword and aimed at them. 'Can it protect you both? Or will it be snuffed out like everyone else?', he asked. The two held their weapons up, ready for him. Sora gritted his teeth, not risking taking them off the man for even a nano-second. Aranea however scoffed and held her spear. 'Now you listen here! That prince is MY paycheck! So why don't you get lost?', shouted Aranea.

Next thing they knew, Sephiroth swung his long sword upwards towards the dragoon. Six waves of blade-shaped energies rushed towards her. The dragoon leaped into the air just seconds before the blades touched her, the ground splitting as the energies trailed on the ground. They kept going, cutting the fences, airships and even the very walls around the bases before vanishing. Landing on a walkway, Aranea looked to the silver-haired man, still smiling coldly at her.

The trio, more so the ones not familiar with the newcomer, stared at the destruction left in wake of the attack. 'Holy crap…', Noctis said, awed. He turned back to Sephiroth, slowly starting to see why Sora was afraid of him. The man returned his eyes to the boys and girl, before he lifted the masamune into his stance, ready for the slaughter. 'Here he comes!', Kairi said.

Sephiroth vanished in a blink of an eye, and only when the two turned around behind them, did they see the man wielding the sword in one hand. He swung it but Sora was already in front of them and blocked the attacked with a loud clang. Just in time for the blade was just inches away from Kairi's neck, she even felt the breeze from the thing. Sora ran to him, keyblade dragging along the masamune and once he got close, he swung at him.

Sephiroth quickly parried Sora's strikes with inhuman speed, wielding the long sword with one hand and deflecting all of Sora's strikes.

During a parry, Noctis took this chance to warp strike the silver head, using the Blade of the Mystic. He sent three ghostly swords at the silver-haired warrior before he warped towards himself, but Sephiroth swiped the attacks away and when Noctis was close, he vanished. Noctis landed on his feet on the spot Sephiroth once stood, looking for him. 'Noct, look out!', Kairi shouted.

The prince turned around just in time to raise his royal arm to block Sephiroth's strikes, but the dark warrior was striking at him with such power and speed Noctis felt like he was being attacked by an iron golem pummelling him. Sephiroth only ceased when Sora joined in and started to strike at him, keyblade wildly striking at him. Sora managed to slam the teeth of the key into his shoulder before landing another hit to his hip, which case Sephiroth leaped back from him.

Sephiroth waved his hand, and then suddenly Sora was surrounded by orbs of pale light, trapping him. He clenched his fist and the orbs flew towards the boy, Sora quickly used barrier to block the attacks. Though he was unharmed, the moment he lowered his shield Sora was then struck by Sephiroth's sword, slashing him and sending the boy flying.

Noctis warped to his flying friend and caught him mid-flight, and then landing back on their feet. He yanked out a potion just as the winged man dashed towards them, with Kairi jumping in front of him and aiming her keyblade at the enemy. 'Triple Burst!', she cast, fire three large fireballs at the man. Sephiroth just slashed them in half and reached the party of three just as Noctis helped Sora down the potion.

Kairi raised her keyblade upwards to block the masamune, but when Sephiroth slammed his blade on hers, Kairi was smashed down onto her back from the sheer power of the former hero. Gasping in shock from the pain of the impact, Kairi looked at the sword in horror, the blade had sunk into the steel of her keyblade and had it cut any farther she would've had it in her rib cage.

Noctis summoned a great sword while Sephiroth was applying force to the sword, swinging it at him. Sephiroth dodged it easily though and swung at the prince, missing him intentionally but slicing up his t-shirt to expose his stomach.

Then the warrior vanished again and appeared in the air, glowing in an ominous purple aura. 'Descend…heartless an-

Sephiroth was then suddenly struck from above by the dragoon, plunging her spear into him and together they flew back down into the ground with a heavy thud. On the ground, Aranea stood above him with both hands on her spear. To her horror, Sephiroth had a firm grip around her spear, keeping it from touching his exposed chest. Smirking cruelly, he easily pushed the spear further and further away from him despite Aranea struggling to pierce his chest. Getting to his feet, Sephiroth released his grip on the spear.

Then the dragoon struck at him a charge, but once again Sephiroth just deflected the attack like it was nothing, exposing the woman with his inhuman strength. He raised his hand above him and said: 'Perish'. Three large pillars of fire rose from the ground in a triangle formation, large as a fuel tanker. The dragoon had little time to evade it, the flames raising her as she managed to dive out of the pillar before she was reduced to ashes.

Landing on her side, she rolled around to put out the flames, her spear dropped to the right as she panicked.

As the flames disappeared, Sephiroth turned back to Sora and co, weapons out and ready for more as he slowly walked towards them, ignoring the no longer enflamed Aranea. 'Ok, so he's pretty tough…', Noctis commented, 'Sora, any advice? You've beaten him, right?'.

Sora weakly chuckled, 'Yeah I did…when he was holding back and treating our fight like it was just an afternoon spar…and I wasn't nearly half-dead after?', he replied weakly. 'Oh…that's good to hear', Noctis said. Just as he got closer though…

'Sephiroth!'.

The man with the long sword stopped walking, smirking sinisterly. Slowly he, and the others, turned to the left to see a man walking towards him, carrying a massive sword over his shoulders with blond spiky hair. He wears a high collar sleeveless indigo shirt, black pants and boots, and black cloth covering his left leg and arm. A pauldron on his left shoulder and his chest is covered by two straps, held in place by a badge representing Fenrir. He also wears a pink ribbon around his left arm, likely a tribute to someone.

Sephiroth turned to this stranger, no longer interested in Sora and company, his smirk plastered on his face. 'Good to see you, Cloud', he greeted, suave and cool, but with malice laced with it. Noctis looked to the blonde-haired man, glaring heatedly at Sephiroth as he swung his sword off his shoulder and held it with both hands. The blade was as long and wide as Gladiolus, but it looked more complex, and it was covered in bandages.

'Not running away this time? Have you finally gained the "strength" to be rid of me?', Sephiroth challenged. Cloud grunted, gripping his sword tightly. Then he dashed forwards, almost as if he was flying. Sephiroth met his charge with his own, their blades clashed with sparks, both swinging them in such speeds and strengths it was like they were just using sticks. Into the skies, they took their fight, steel clashing with each other.

Cloud is certainly in a league of his own, from what Noctis sees, the blonde man was not only keeping up with Sephiroth's insane strength and speed, every strike was countered and matched by him. Sephiroth managed to create some distance from him, then he swings his sword and created waves of energy slashes at him. Cloud, however, met his with his beam of energy, swinging a single blade sized beam at Sephiroth's own.

They exploded upon collision, but Cloud flew past the smoke of their attacks colliding and struck at Sephiroth again, swords meeting once more. The silver-haired man vanished when Cloud attacked again, appearing above Cloud and summoning more orbs to trap him. They exploded around him, but Cloud dived down back to the ground, narrowly dodging the explosion from above.

He stared up at Sephiroth, flying there smugly. Sora and the others joined his side, weapons at the ready. Cloud looked at Sora, scoffing. 'Can't help but meddle, can you?', he asked. 'Its what I do', Sora replied.

Cloud hummed, and then both he and Sora dashed towards Sephiroth, Noctis warped to him and Kairi ran towards Aranea.

Both warriors unleashed a barrage of strikes on Sephiroth, the latter was deflecting their attacks, however. They managed to bring him back down to the ground, but Sephiroth remained unharmed though, his long masamune was swinging around him like it was nothing, deflecting both keyblade and buster sword from him. Sora got closer to him after Cloud blocked the giant sword, then began to strike at Sephiroth.

Sora brought the keyblade upwards to Sephiroth's face, but the warrior dashed backward from him, missing him. Sora grunted just as Noctis warped before the man, then using Armiger state. The prince began a torrent of strikes on the warrior, weapons of his own and the royal arms flowed forth like a raging stream. Sephiroth deflects, parries and guards against each attack despite the overwhelming number of weapons yet like none had touched him yet. Noctis summoned his engine sword and joined the barrage of weapon, hoping to strike as much space as he could so that Sephiroth would eventually be overwhelmed.

Joining the prince, Cloud was striking at Sephiroth's sides as Sora changed into Element Form and summoned his Double Arrow guns and then began to rain down arrows upon the man. With the prince's armory worth of weapons striking him, Cloud's relentless strikes that caused even the one-winged angel to stagger and take minimal damage, and Sora's raining arrows, it was like he was trapped in a tornado of weapons.

While he was fending them off, Kairi reached Aranea and knelt before her. She aimed her keyblade at her and cast "Curaga" on the dragoon, healing her burns and wounds if there were any. Aranea gave the princess a bewildered look as she stood up. 'You…know we're enemies, right?', she asked. 'Well yeah…but you also tried to kill that man, so…truce?', Kairi offered, holding her hand out with a sheepish smile.

Aranea rolled her eyes before pushing her hand aside. 'Fine, just until we kill that guy…but you know it's back to prince hunting after', she promised. 'Oh, that's ok', Kairi said, a smirk appeared. 'I'll just kick your butt after that'. Grinning, Kairi ran back to join the boys while Aranea, scoffing at the gull from Kairi, leaped back into the air.

Sephiroth was slowly (VERY slowly) being worn down by the seemingly endless assault from three different directions, and then when all three finally made a strike upon him. Cloud's sword stabbed him in the gut, Noctis bringing his engine blade down into his shoulder and Sora, switching back to a blade, stabbed him into his chest. But…he just smirked at them all, unfazed. 'Humph…I suppose…it can't be helped', he mused, almost like he wasn't stabbed at all. His body glowed in a sinister red as his eyes started to shift and change into green cat-like eyes.

With one swing of his sword, he smacked all three of his attackers aside, blades yanked out of him and his wounds seemingly healed almost instantly. He disappeared and re-appeared in the air, a dark void appearing behind him as his wing spread out. 'Witness, the end'.

Meteors fell through the void, hurtling towards the party in the dozens.

Noctis grunted as he started to warp left and right to evade them while Cloud just slice and crushed the meteors, Aranea leaping off the meteors and even using some to keep herself in the sky. Kairi quickly ran to Sora's side and erected a larger than usual barrier to cover both. The meteors crashed all over the place, destroying the watchtowers, machines, docked airships, buildings and even the walls nearby.

Cloud tried to get close to Sephiroth to stop this onslaught of meteors, but because of the meteors, he had very little space to move around and each one he cuts another almost hits him. Noctis himself was starting to lose concentration, pushing his body to the limit and his pool of magic was dwindling. When he warped again to evade one more meteor, the prince was then hit by a meteor that exploded once it hit him, sending the prince to fall on the ground.

Kairi struggled to keep her barrier up, teeth-gritting as each hit felt like she was taking the meteors to the head repeatedly, the ground shook with each meteor hitting it. Aranea managed to leap off one more meteor to reach the skies above the barrage and when she set her sights on the angel. 'Let's try this again', she grunted. Aranea dove towards the warrior, her spear sparking with red lightning as she charged like a bullet.

Sephiroth glanced at her just as she plunged her spear into him, but Sephiroth managed to swing his sword at her, but this time Aranea managed to stab him in the torso just before he could stop her. In the air, the void vanished as Aranea gave the silver head a smirk, before she leaped off him, spear in hand. Sephiroth flew back down to the ground, placing a hand on his stomach but still unfazed.

The angel glared at them all as Kairi dispelled the barrier. 'Go check on Noct!', Sora yelled, charging at Sephiroth with Cloud and Aranea. Kairi ran to where the prince fell, seeing him curled up into a ball in pain, she sees smoke rising from his clothes. Kairi knelt before him, dismissing her keyblade to help him. 'Just hold on Noct, I'll heal you', she promised.

'K-Kairi…', he grunted, painfully.

'Don't move…', she started but when she turned him to face her, his eyes were now red. Above her, she could hear thunder booming loudly as the clouds gathered up. Cracks of purple lightning rocketed across the skies like a storm was on the way. How though she asked, the day was clear skies, no cloud was in sight. Then just over the horizon, her eyes widened in awe.

Looming over them all, the Astral, the Fulgurian, Ramuh, had arrived.

'N-Noct…there's a giant man looming over us…', Kairi said.

'Oh yeah…Kairi…that's Ramuh, god of thunder', Noctis grunted out.

Sora and Aranea turned to giant old man from a distance, eyes wide opened and jaws dropped. 'Holy shit…', Aranea gasped. 'WHOA…', Sora gawked. Slowly Ramuh reached out for them, grabbing Kairi and Noctis in his hand before he reached for Sora.

Aranea looked between the two inhuman fighters and the giant man that was reaching for her and Sora. '…nope!', she said, 'I do not get paid enough for this, and sure as hell not working overtime!'. With that, the dragoon leaped on top of the base walls and then leaped off into the night just as Ramuh grabbed Sora. Then the old man lifted his staff, bolts of lightning blasting of it as he raised high.

'Wait, Cloud! Get out of the way!', Sora yelled.

But the blonde didn't budge, eyes deadest on his darkness, fixed on his greatest enemy. As they drew their weapons and charged, Ramuh struck with Judgement Bolt, his staff landing dead in the middle of the base, an explosion of lighting tore the place apart, the earth raising upwards as lighting ran wild below the earth. The blast's light was so great the three handled heroes had to cover their eyes.

*Later…*

When the skies cleared, Ramuh returned them to the ground before vanishing to where the Astrals remain, all that remained of the base was rubble and destruction. Not another soul in sight. Sora looked around for Cloud but in the end, he sees no traces of his friend. Looking down as the worst thoughts begin to plague his mind, Kairi placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. 'Sora', she said softly, giving him a sympathetic look.

Sora nodded in gratitude, but his eyes were downcast. Then he felt a hand on his shoulder smacking him. He looked to see a bemused Noctis. 'What are you worried about? If the guy can fight that Sephi-guy like he can, then you think some lightning bolt will do him in?', he asked. Sora and Kairi gave him surprised looks as the prince scoffed. 'Come on, if he's anything like you two, then this wouldn't stop him', he argued, 'Sides, if that one-winged jerk survived, then Cloud likely did'.

Sora and Kairi smiled back, nodding. 'Right, you're right', Sora agreed, nodding.

'Course I'm right, now let's get back to Lestallum. There's a bed with my name on it, and I don't intend on moving from it for a week!', Noctis said with a sigh, and then a yawn escaped his lips. 'I'm with Noct, I think after all that I could sleep for a month!', Sora laughed. Together the trio left the ruined base behind, their toughest fight done and luckily with minimal wounds…

A/N:

I vastly regret making this story arc revolving around fights mostly! Never again! (I hope).

Anyways, Riku and Sora are done, so how fares Aqua and the others? We'll see soon!

So normally I'd leave questions for you lovely people but I also wanted to know if *you* all had questions of your own, and since some of you I can't respond to via messages, why not ask and I'll respond to them in the next chapter? Just a thought.

Just two QS today.

Q1: What do you think of Riku's form change?

Q2: Did I do Sephiroth and Aranea well?

As always, thanks for reading, stay Awesome but more importantly Stay Safe!


	19. Chapter 19

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 19

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

It wasn't often that Aqua, a master who stared down the darkest of things and a cool head, ever felt a worrying desire to punch something or someone. She may have her limits with Kairi's penchant for recklessness and even when Ven would be careless in his training but never to the point where she wanted to hit something.

Here and now though, staring down this living mockery of her friend, her brother, she wanted to punch him so hard even a behemoth would flinch at.

Terra stood at the entrance, still smirking at her with contempt and smugness. 'Have to say, Aqua, I didn't think it'd be this easy to separate you from the others. But then again, you are the same woman who jumped into the dark realm fruitlessly', he mocked, almost amused. Aqua gritted her teeth, summoning her keyblade and readying herself. Terra gave a raised brow at this sudden act, almost surprised her first reaction would be combating him.

'Wow, almost, what? Two years? And *this* is your response to seeing an old friend?', he questioned, giving her an innocently confused look. 'Shut up! I know this isn't Terra talking!', she shouted, aiming her keyblade at him, 'You stole his body and are just parading it around like a puppet!'.

Seeing him like this, those terrible eyes, that silvery hair, everything screaming the man who took everything from her, her family, and brought so much ruin to the worlds. Seeing Terra again like this, it only brought back her memories from that place, her hell.

Terra's expression shifted back to smugness. 'Yeah, I suppose thinking you'd fall for it again was a bit…much', he said, 'I forget you're not as naïve as your brothers'.

Narrowing her eyes, her shoulders shook with fury that only that man could get out of her. 'Then again, it didn't take too much for you to fall into the darkness, did it?', he asked. Aqua growled and leaped at him, bringing down Master's Defender upon the man. Her attack was repelled by Terra's keyblade, summoned much faster than Terra had ever down before. In his hands, holding back Aqua's own was Chaos Ripper, a dark keyblade.

He pushed her off him and when she landed back to her feet he swung his keyblade at her in a downward slash. Aqua sidestepped his attack, his keyblade slamming into the carpet. The impact of the strike created a large dent in the floor, but he yanked it back up like it was nothing and dashed at the master. Their keyblades clashed, with Terra having much superior physical strength compared to the smaller woman, but her mobility and quick feet gave her more space to work around.

Leaning backward to evade a sweep of his keyblade, just missing her chin, Aqua performed two backflips from him to create distance. After she had some space though Terra dashed towards her, she quickly trailed her keyblade in a small circle around her, planting five glowing mines in a star pattern around her and jumped out of it. Terra couldn't stop his dash in time as he got close enough for them to sense him and detonate.

The explosion was minimal with tiny pillars erecting in the explosion, hitting him and sending him into the air. Aqua took his airborne state and aimed her keyblade at him. She performed "Triple Firaga", firing three large balls of fire at the darkened friend, they soared towards him. Terra, however, flipped himself in the air, he then cloaked himself in darkness and charged towards the fire. Keyblade out like a spear, he pierced through them and dived towards Aqua.

His strike was blocked by Aqua, though just barely as the force pushed her back, even with her heels dug into the floor. She slammed into the wall with a thud, the carpet left in her wake was torn and ripped apart, even the wall had a small dent in it from the force. Pushing herself off it Aqua cartwheeled from Terra's strikes just in time, his attack tore the metal wall apart like wet paper, leaving a large scar in the wall where anyone could see the circuits and construction.

Aqua fired a barrage of icicles at the man while he had his back turned on her, firing a total of seven six inched icicles at him. Terra turned around to cleave three to pieces and then fired a dark firaga at them. The huge sphere consumed the remaining icicles and flew towards Aqua, in turn, she cast blizzard at it. The two opposite elements clashed in the air, exploding in a forceful manner that sent the furniture flying all over and some of the fires fluttered to the ground and the very flammable carpet was already inflamed.

Aqua and Terra dashed towards each other again, their weapons clashing in the middle of the room. They struck at each other with incredible speed, despite the latter being stronger than Aqua, her quickness and more agile footwork kept him on the defense as she relentlessly struck at every space she could. Terra caught one of her attacks using his gauntlet to block her strike, then he headbutted her in the head to knock her back.

Her vision was blurry as agony raced through her skull, making her clutch her head in pain. But just as Terra attempted to stab at her, she used "teleport" to disappear from his sight and reappeared right behind him. He had no time to stop her as she raised her keyblade upwards and right beneath his feet erected a pillar of ice that encased him entirely. Once he was subdued, Aqua staggered backward, holding her head in pain.

She retracted her hand from it to see a shimmering red liquid in her palm, and then she flinched when she touched the aching spot with her fingers. Aqua took out a hi-potion and downed it quickly, seeing the flames had gotten more out of control. Then as she was about to attempt to douse the fire, the prison of ice shattered to pieces before her. Aqua raised her keyblade to block the shards that struck at her, but that was a mistake.

Terra suddenly appeared before her and then with his armored hand, punched her straight into her stomach. The air was punched out of her as she choked, eyes widened as the shock of pain raced through her body and then the struggle to breath came. But it didn't stop there, while his fist was still dug into her, Terra spun around and slammed Aqua onto the ground with equal force, shaking the while room and creating a much larger dent in the ground as almost swallowed Aqua whole.

Aqua cried out in pain, coughing in agony as Terra dug his fist into her stomach. He grinned madly at her, retracting his fist as he raised his keyblade to finish this fight, but Aqua quickly cast a barrier around her just as the key came to close her face. The barrier repelled Terra's attacks and even made him recoil his keyblade so hard he it flew out of his hands. He turned back to her, still in her barrier she glared at him with pain in her eyes. 'You think *that* will stop me?', he taunted, summoning his again, 'That cocoon of yours won't last forever'.

With that, Terra began to pound her barrier with both hands on the keyblade, each strike sparking light around her shield. Aqua felt the strikes of the keyblade pounding her mind, closing her eyes to retain concentration. Her only chance to win this battle was to hold out until he could conjure up a plan…

*Second Floor*

Snapping the neck of the last magitek soldier from the shadows, Gladiolus tossed the piece of junk soldier aside behind one of the airships and approached the hatch leading to the engine room, yanking it up and then climbing down. Down there, he sees no security or even engineers, which caused some suspicion to raise within him but regardless he heads to the spot Cor had instructed him to plant the bomb.

Near one of the main doors to a lower section, he pried off a panel where likely most of the controls and power goes to the engine, he takes out the bomb from the pocket dimension of armiger. 'Okay…okay, so just input this…and stick it on, easy', he said to himself, partly chastising himself for being such a low tech kind of man. It may the one time where he wished Prompto had taken his spot, kid would have likely figured it out much faster than him.

Regardless of his lack of tech skills, he followed the instruction Cor had given him earlier, set the bomb and lodged it between two pipes that likely protected the wire. Once he was sure the bomb was firmly in place, he placed the panel back on as convincingly as he could then proceeded back up the ladder and back to the main floor.

Once he closed the latch, he called the others. 'Gladio here, bomb's set and ready to go boom', he announced in his earpiece, 'How's everyone else?'.

'Scientia here, having some trouble finding a way to the control room, guards are all over the place', Ignis reported.

'Leonis, bombs set, making my way to you Amicitia', the Immortal confirmed. 'What about Aqua?'.

'Aqua, you done up there?', Gladiolus asked. Just as he finished, there was a loud thud that rumbled throughout the floor, making him jump and ready his hand to summon his sword. There was no response from her, making him worried. Looking up to the ceiling, he squints his eyes at one spot of the ceiling, seeing what looked to be a bulge from it. Another loud thud and the dent grew before the sound of groaning metal ruptured throughout the room.

The dent turned into a hole and out came Aqua and Terra falling through it, the former was in a barely kept together barrier while her assailant was continuously striking her defenses. They both fell on top of a docile airship with a loud crash, flames pouring down from the hole. Aqua's barrier broke as she rolled off the airship and tumbled to the floor with a heavy thud. Above her Terra got to his feet, rolling his shoulders and cracking joints in his neck.

He jumped down to Aqua, struggling to get back to her feet but with her barrier been forcefully broken and the pain from Terra's strikes, it was too much in her state. Terra summoned his keyblade again and placed his foot on her back, stopping her from moving. 'Looks like you're out of options, Aqua', he gloated. She stared up at him with clear pain in her eyes. Terra, however, responded to her defiance with a kick to her sides, making her cry out in pain.

Aqua, in her agony, tried to swing at him but he stomped on her attacking shoulder and pinned her there, earning another cry of pain. Keyblade laid against her throat, she stiffened as he raised the weapon above her. 'Rejoice, you're gonna make a phenomenal heartless, Aqua', he promised.

A yell halted his action, but then next thing Aqua could see was Gladiolus tackling Terra.

The two men tumbled a few feet from Aqua, the Crownsguard wrestled against Terra on the ground, keyblade sliding away during their tackle. Terra struggled against Gladiolus, but the much more muscular and far heavier man had more of the advantage. Terra tried to swing a fist at Gladiolus, but he evaded it and delivered a punch to his jaw in response. He slammed his elbow onto Terra's neck to hold him down.

'Stay down, or I'll break your neck', Gladiolus growled, pressing into him. Terra choked a bit before a growl emitted from his throat and then his right hand was cloaked in darkness once more. Gladiolus had little time to take it in before he was suddenly punched in the jaw that threw him off Terra and onto the ground. The shield rubbed his jaw, nearly convinced it was dislocated from that punch before he looked at Terra aiming his hand at him, violet embers dancing on his palm.

He fired a dark firaga at the shield, but Gladiolus rolled to the left, ducking under the burning sphere as it smashed into one of the MA-X units. The explosion of the machine created a chain reaction that caused more explosions from the other machines around it, flames sparking all over as smoke began to clash with the cleaner air.

Gladiolus got to his feet and summoned his greatsword, eyeing the silver-haired stranger, rubbing his neck. 'The shield of the king…', Terra said, tersely and unamused. 'Shouldn't you be guarding your king?'.

'And who are you supposed to be? Ravus' number one fanboy?', taunted the older man.

Terra gave him a dry chuckle, summoning his keyblade again. This shocked Gladiolus, he didn't see it properly the first time after all. 'What the…that's…', he said dumbly. 'Yes, a keyblade', Terra confirmed, smirking. Gladiolus readied himself as Terra dashed towards him, nearly catching him off guard. With a swing of his keyblade, Terra swiped at him, Gladiolus rolling aside from the attack and during his rising, he swung his sword at him.

His blade was repelled by Terra's key, but the shield shoulder tackled him and knocked him on his back. He slammed his sword on him, Terra firing a smaller blast of fire at him before he could bring his blade over his shoulder. Gladiolus quickly stepped to the side clumsily to avoid that ball of fire but doing so gave Terra the chance to get up and leap away from him. Turning back to the man, Gladiolus ran at Terra, swinging his sword at him from the side.

Terra clashed with his enemy, their strikes rang loudly throughout the second floor of the ship like two dull bells ringing in the cathedral, but Gladiolus felt every strike racing down from his sword into his limbs. It was like he was fighting an iron golem head-on, blocking the sword as opposed to dodging it. Terra managed to disarm the shield with one swing of his sword, shooting the giant sword into the air.

Gladiolus staggered backward, grunting. Terra raised his blade, ready to strike at the heart. Gladiolus, however, summoned his shield just in time to meet Terra's keyblade with the flat surface of his shield. Gladiolus dug his feet into the ground, not moving at all despite the insane power Terra displayed in his strike, he then knocked the keyblade aside before punching Terra in the jaw with the shield.

The silver head flew and slammed onto his back, grunting before spitting out blood. He turned a furious look on the shield, summoning his sword again. Terra's body was cased in darkness again as he got back to his feet, his yellow eyes more intense with the darkness. Terra then sunk into the ground, as if he was swallowed up by the darkness. Gladiolus looked around him, before his eyes fell to his own feet, a pool of darkness beneath him.

Gladiolus let out a yell of surprise when Terra suddenly shot up from that pool, striking at the giant's shield that he just miraculously managed to between himself and the darkened hand. The force of the attack made him slide backward, but Terra wasn't done. He unleashed a barrage of attacks, keyblade mixed with some monstrous giant hand that Gladiolus had almost no chance of even blocking. Each strike was like an airship sized giant was striking him.

The hand then grabbed the shield entirely and then crushed it into a metal chunk of scrap. Gladiolus managed to retract his hand before it too was crushed into nothing, eyes wide with shock and dismay as Terra held the scrap in hand. 'Heh, question. What good is a shield to a king, if the shield cannot even protect himself?', Terra taunted snidely. He tossed the shield away in the growing fires, his aura of darkness disappearing as his smug look further infuriated the Crownsguard.

'Bastard!', Gladiolus cursed with a roar, swinging his sword at him. Terra collided his keyblade with Gladiolus', locking them in a deadlock. 'Persisting? You're more stubborn than I-

Gladiolus reared his head back and slammed his own into Terra's face with a loud cracking noise resonating from the impact. Terra recoiled but Gladiolus slammed his sword into Terra's waist, his sword sinking into him as he threw him into a large container. Terra slammed into it with a thud, denting the thing as he bled. 'Word of advice, punk? Don't waste your time spewing garbage!', Gladiolus said, punching his chest.

Terra growled, pushing himself off the container and placing a hand on his wounded side. Then he smirked and mouthed a word. His body was then covered in a green light and then bleeding stopped, the light diminished, and he stood up properly like nothing happened. Gladiolus groaned. 'You've gotta be kidding me…', he grumbled.

'I'm impressed, shield of the king. I had never expected you to last this long, nor long enough to deal damage to me', Terra praised, but his tone was false and sarcastic. 'But I'm afraid this where things have to end'.

'Keep barking boy, I'm not out of this fight yet', Gladiolus warned, readying for the next surprise attack. But Terra dismissed his keyblade. 'Oh no, *boy*, you were never in this fight', he said. 'I'll admit I underestimated you, but you're still nothing to me'. Gladiolus snarled and ran at him, leaping into the air and grabbing his sword with both hands. With a roar, he slammed his greatsword down upon Terra with full force.

Terra, however, merely raised his right arm and caught the blade like it was nothing, stopping the blade within seconds, not even budging from his spot. On his feet, Gladiolus stared in horror at the man, still smirking at the shield. 'Did you, truly believed you were doing true damage to me? What a tragic sense of a naivety you must-have if you truly believed in your state, you had a chance of winning', Terra said. 'I'm afraid, this little game ends now'.

He vanished again, reappearing behind Gladiolus to strike at him with dash. He managed to cut the shield's back as he dashed in front of him. Gladiolus yelled in pain but before he could even comprehend how and when Terra did so, he was struck again from the front, then from the sides, and the back, and again from the front.

The final strike knocked him five feet from Terra and onto his side, bleeding profusely from around his body. Gladiolus grunted in pain, struggling to get back up but he slumped down in defeat. Terra picked up his fallen sword and dragged it to the fallen shield, stabbing it beside Gladiolus' head. 'How disappointing', he sighed, 'The shield of the chosen king, to be this lackluster'. Gladiolus showed his teeth in fury as he forced himself to get up despite the blood loss, even reaching one knee before he collapsed.

'Get away from him!'.

Terra turned around to block Aqua's strike again, but even then she managed to flip herself over him using their keyblades as leverage. She kicked Terra in the back of his head, forcing him to stagger forward and while in the air, she blasted him with lighting that struck his back. Terra roared with pain as Aqua landed near Gladiolus. She dashed to Terra and struck at his back with her keyblade, and then slashed at him two more times before one final strike knocked him away from the two.

Terra managed to re-correct himself after hitting the ground first time, landing on both feet. He then laughed. 'Not bad, "Master Aqua",', he taunted, casting cure on himself again. Standing upright, he faced Aqua as she readied herself for more, her wounds healed. 'Such a shame you didn't perform as well as a mentor as a fighter when your friends were around!'.

'Shut up!', Aqua shouted back. 'You stole Terra's heart and body! Give him back!'.

Gladiolus looked at Terra, surprised. 'Wait… *that's* Terra?', he said. 'No. That's his body…but Xehanort is controlling it, using it like a vassal', Aqua elaborated, clenching her fists. 'Oh? You never told him, Aqua? You've never told them how I became like this? How *you're* the one who started "Terra's" descent into the darkness?', Terra mocked. Aqua's shook with fury, her eyes bore nothing but hate for this man, every word that escaped his mouth was like a stab at her heart.

'Or better? How your "noble" sacrifice was in vain? How you spent all those years in solitude, whilst I had all the time needed for further the master's plan? And all thanks to this body Terra loaned me', he gloated. Gladiolus looked at Aqua as her body was starting to be cloaked in a darkness of her own, he sense something had changed and NOT for the better. With a snarl, Aqua dashed at Terra, flying across the burning battlefield like an angel of war.

Their keyblades met but this time Aqua was the one pushing him back like a rocket. She unleashed a barrage of strikes with speed so great Gladiolus couldn't even see her keyblade moving in the speed. Sparks flew left, right and all over the place, Aqua broke through Terra's guard and smacked his keyblade out of his hands and struck his chest, cutting into him. 'GIVE HIM BACK!', Aqua screamed, her voice was full of rage it almost startled Gladiolus.

Yet he heard pain in her voice, an agony that was still latched onto her heart after all this time.

Blasting Terra forward with a magic force, Aqua raised her keyblade over her head. Flames erected around her as she used the fires surrounding them all to fuel it into larger and dense towers of fire. She used magnet to pull Terra into her, and when he was above, she roared as she stuck her keyblade upwards and the flames burst wildly, consuming Terra's body in a storm of flames.

The final pillar was formed when all three of them combined and like a volcano, erupted and blasted Terra with a forceful blast of intense heat and sent him crashing to the ceiling with enough striking force that almost made him tear through the metal. When the flames dissipated, Terra fell from the ceiling and onto his back with a heavy thud, almost like a broken doll.

Aqua panted, shoulders shaking as the darkness around her grew denser and more profound. She marched towards Terra, keyblade down and nearly dragging on the ground, her intent clear. Gladiolus got to one knee, teeth gritted as sweat ran down from his forehead, both from the increasing heat of the now inflamed engine room and exertion of his body's limit. 'Aqua…Aqua, wait…', he grunted. She ignored him, standing over Terra, expression unreadable.

'You've caused me so much pain…toyed with my friends' hearts…took everything from us', she listed, her voice growing angrier and colder with each syllable. 'Eleven years of my life…spent in that hell while you ran and destroyed worlds, homes, and more'.

She lifted the keyblade up. 'Desecrating Terra's body, shaming him! Tainting his heart with the darkness!', she cried. 'Aqua!', Gladiolus shouted. 'DON'T YOU INTERFERE!', she screamed, 'HE TOOK EVERYTHING FROM US!'.

'That's not the guy who did it! You said that's Terra's body!', Gladiolus argued, 'Xehanort, or whatever his name is, he's just using him!'.

Aqua's eyes narrowed, as if the information meant little to her, turning back to Terra. 'You said he took his body, used it like…like a vassal…does that mean he can be saved?', Gladiolus persisted, 'But if his body is destroyed, then that's it!'. Aqua felt her armed handshake with hesitation, Gladiolus' words carrying so much weight and truth to her, yet the thought of letting him go after everything sounded so wrong. "He doesn't know what happened", a voice told her, "How you suffered, how lonely you were, how this man took EVERYTHING from you".

Glaring at Terra again, she raised her keyblade. 'Aqua! Don't do this!', Gladiolus shouted. 'This isn't you! You said he's your brother!'. 'DON'T LISTEN TO HIM! END IT! TAKE BACK WHAT HE OWED YOU!', the voice screamed.

'Aqua…?'.

Her eyes looked down to see those blue eyes she had grown to adore throughout their childhood. They looked so confused and lost as if he had woken up from a long slumber. He was staring at her with fear as if he feared her. "DO IT! FINISH HIM!", it persisted.

Aqua shook her head, grasping it with one hand screaming. 'NO! SHUT UP! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!'. She looked to the ceiling and let out a cry of agony, her voice echoing the entire room and the flames being blown away by her power, her darkness evaporating. Shaking from her fear, Aqua turned to Terra, looking at her like she was a ticking time bomb but not moving. Though she feared that was due to him being so beaten up by her attack.

'A-Aqua? What's, what's going on?', he asked, confused and scared. He flinched in pain, gritting his teeth. 'Terra! J-just hold on!', she said, kneeling to him, dropping her keyblade and placing her hands on his shoulders, healing him with "Curaga". Terra let out a breath of relief, his hair still silver but his voice and eyes were his own. 'Terra…Terra, I'm so sorry…', she gasped, her own eyes stung with tears yet to shed for him.

'Aqua', he started but she shook her head. 'Terra, its ok…just rest', she said but he smiled. 'I can't believe you…', Terra said.

'…you'd fall for it again'.

Aqua's eyes widened in horror as time slowed down for her, Terra placing his hand on her stomach and fired a blast of dark fire. The explosion sent Aqua flying, but he fired three more, hitting her and knocking her further into the air before ultimately, she plummeted down with a thud. 'Aqua!', Gladiolus cried, forcing himself to his feet, clutching his bleeding side.

Terra got to his feet as the shield limped to her and picked up her keyblade. Gladiolus knelt to the woman, helping her sit up as she whimpered in pain, her clothes were burnt and torn, eyes barely opened from the pain. 'Shit! Just hold on!', Gladiolus said, scrambling for a potion.

Terra was eyeing the keyblade, Master's Defender, with a look of contempt. 'This keyblade…I remember this well', he mused. 'The day when Eraqus showed his true colors. His hate for the darkness so great, he was willing to murder Ven to stop Master'.

Terra then looked to Aqua as Gladiolus helped her crush a potion, healing her and at least stopping the bleeding. Aqua faced Terra with fear, not taking her eyes off the keyblade in his hand. 'I think it's time you stopped relying on that coward's help, don't you agree…sister?'.

With that, Terra's darkness ran from his arm and leached onto the keyblade, covering it in darkness. Then…it snapped in two.

Dropping the broken weapon, the Master's Defender laid there before Terra's feet, broken and useless now. Aqua's eyes ran with tears as she cried out, hands reached for the keyblade and had Gladiolus not stopped her, she would've charged forth blindly. 'NO! YOU FREAK!', she screamed, thrashing against Gladiolus.

Not that, her last memento of their father, the final thing to remember him by. Her strength in the darkness, the light that helped her fight back the never-ending sadness she had to endure. Gone, like her brothers before. 'Aqua! Stop it!', Gladiolus growled, 'You can't beat him without a weapon!'. 'On the contrary Gladiolus…she can't beat me, so long as she remains with the light, and false hope', Terra bragged.

Summoning his keyblade again, he readied his next strike, likely the final blow to the two. 'Let's end this, huh?', he asked. With his final words, Terra leaped at them, keyblade over his head. Gladiolus grabbed Aqua into a tight hug, back turned to Terra to shield her. He may not have the weapon, but he'll be damned if he didn't uphold his role as a shield.

But as Terra got close, he suddenly stopped just as a powerful force dashed between him and his enemies, wind blowing the fires, nearly blowing them out. A sound of steel cutting and when Terra looked to his right, he sees several MA-X units and steel containers suddenly splitting in two, even on the ground there was a long trail of cleaved ground.

Terra looked to see from the fires was Cor approaching him, katana in its sheath while Ignis was running towards the fallen. The Marshal regarded Terra with contempt, almost eyeing him up. 'And who's this, I wonder', Terra questioned. 'Cor Leonis, or Cor the Immortal', he replied indifferently, 'Doesn't matter which one you pick'.

Terra chuckled cruelly, aiming his keyblade. ' "Immortal" huh? First time I've had the pleasure of killing someone with an ego like that'.

Cor smirked tersely in response. 'Provided I don't kill you first'.

Cor suddenly performed a quick draw with his katana, sending out three arcs of energy to Terra. The dark warrior had to dodge the attacks this time as opposed to stopping them, but while he was in the air, Cor threw a shuriken towards him with speed quicker than the eye could see and Terra was struck in the chest and sent flying over the steel containers.

Cor turned to Gladiolus just as Ignis handed him an x-potion. 'Get them out of here', he ordered, 'The bombs have been planted'.

'What about you, Marshal?', Ignis asked as he and Gladiolus stood up, the latter carrying Aqua in his arms. Cor gave the two a stern look, before looking to where Terra fell. '…'.

Ignis and Gladiolus looked at him before they nodded solemnly. 'I understand', Ignis relented. 'Cor…', Gladiolus started but Cor shook his head. 'Save the speech for later, I don't plan on losing my title as the Immortal today', he assured. He looked to the broken keyblade and picked it up, handing it to Ignis. 'Think she'll appreciate this', he said, looking the unconscious Aqua, likely from her wounds.

'Cor…that guy, he's…something else', Gladiolus confessed, shame in his tone.

'Then you know, what you need to do once you reunite with Noctis, right?', Cor questioned. Gladiolus nodded. He clapped his shoulder, 'Then get going', he ordered. The two nodded in response, and ran, leaving the burning base to the Marshal.

The two returned to the bay Gladiolus and Aqua landed just as the ship began to rumble with alarms going off. Cor had likely detonated the bombs just as the three left, and once they hopped on the speeders, Aqua held by Gladiolus while being in the middle of the two.

Ignis sped off just as the bay doors were closing, they sailed into the air and without time wasted, they flew back to the mainland. Looking back at the fallen base as it slowly descended into the ocean below, Gladiolus looked at Aqua, gently brushing her hair from her face, he bowed his head in defeat.

This victory had not only cost them the Marshal…but also showed him just how powerless he is…

A/N:

Done in one day…third chapter of this week…my god, I need to stop that…

So as promised, the arc is over and we can finally take a break from fighting chapters! (Looks at plans) …s***.

Anyways: QUESTIONS NEED ANSWERS!

Guest Isa:

First Q: I don't wanna say much on that because its spoilers, but I can safely say the other worlders will be here until the end of FF XV.

Second Q: Don't worry about pushy, an honest question since to be fair I never intended the story to be THIS long, three chapters at best! So I can't say for certain how many chapters but I will say I have a LOT for this story!

Keybladelight:

No Luxu for this story, sticking with KH3's cast. Sides less confusion.

Trivia time: I found out this earlier, but…did you know Kairi's hairstyles, from KH 1-3 were all based on Utada Hikaru? Not kidding: /news/otaku/videogames/kingdom-hearts-character-kairis-hair-was-inspired-by-utada-hikaru/100972/

So next chapter is gonna be a bit relaxed, just so we can all take a break from the fights while dealing with a few potential ideas.

Please as always if you have more questions, ask away!

Thanks for reading, stay Awesome but more importantly Stay Safe!


	20. Chapter 20

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 20

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

Lestallum

As the sun started to descend Noctis pulled the Regalia into the parking lot, letting out a sigh of exhaustion and slumped into his seat. 'Next thing you two are gonna learn? Driving', he announced as they all slowly exited the car.

'Wouldn't be a bad idea…give Iggy and Aqua a break', Kairi said, letting out a small groan after as she stretched. The party had agreed, before separating, to reunite at the hotel in Lestallum after they finished their raids. However, they all also agreed not to use phones to contact them until either they all make it back to the hotel or two days had passed just to ensure no distractions or potentially make their tasks any more difficult.

Making their way to the hotel, each of the three let out several sighs and groans from their fight. Sephiroth may not have harmed them to the point of immobility but given what he put them through it was enough for all of them to contemplate sleeping in the streets just for a reprieve. Noctis himself taking a meteor felt like if Kairi hadn't healed him he'd probably be out cold.

Seeing the hotel as the lights started to light up, they entered it and Noctis paid for their rooms while asking the staff member if anyone else of their party had arrived before them. The worker claimed to only take the shift just now after their latest guest arriving, none matching Riku's or Prompto's description. Regardless, the three of them decided to wait for them and head for their rooms, Noctis getting one for himself and the other members of the royal retinue and one for the keyblade wielders.

As they proceeded down the corridor to their rooms, a door opened showing Goofy exiting it. He turned on the three with a relieved smile. 'Hey fellas, welcome back', he greeted. 'Hey, Goof…', Noctis grunted, showing a tired smile. 'Gwarsh, you ok?'.

'Long story…but hey, we took down the base', Sora said with a tired smile, 'What about you guys?'.

Goofy opened the door to show them in, despite how tired they were and entered. Inside they see Prompto sitting in one of the arms chairs, exhausted but alive, Donald sitting on the bed looking at Riku, who was in the bed and looking rather beaten. Kairi and Sora instantly went by his side, concern. He gave the two friends a weak wave and smile. 'Hey…', he groaned. 'Riku, what happened? Did you fight heartless? Nobodies?', Kairi asked.

'No…we got to meet Ravus though…', he grunted.

Noctis' eyes glowered at this, folding his arms. Then his face shifted to confusion. 'Wait…Ravus did this to you?', he said, 'But, last time I checked he just got a prosthetic arm, how the heck did he do *this* to you?'. Riku sighed. 'Pretty the last time you saw him, he wasn't using the darkness to summon Anti-Ravus' and using to try and kill you'.

'What? What do you mean?', Sora asked.

'Remember when *I* was tricked by Maleficent? Yeah, that kind of dark power', Riku grunted, sitting up in the bed. 'And judging by how many he managed to summon, along with how strong he got compared to what Prompto told me? I'd say he's far into using it'.

Kairi folded her arms with worry before she frowned. 'Do you think Xigbar tempted him to using it?', she offered. 'I mean, can Xigbar do that? Give someone the power of darkness to summon and use the heartless?'. 'It's likely Xehanort taught him to corrupt potential vessels', Riku theorized, 'Given how close he is to the darkness'. 'So, does this mean anyone can use the same powers as Ravus?', Prompto asked.

'No, if you had a weak heart, you'd be no different than a heartless in human form, if anything they're often used by the heartless', Sora explained, recalling a few former enemies in the past. 'But if Ravus can do all that then his heart has to be strong'.

'But it'll only be a matter of time before the heartless eventually consume his heart', Riku said. 'And then he'll turn into a heartless'. Noctis frowned at this information, his thoughts going back to Ravus' sister. Does she know what the empire is doing to her brother, or how deep his hatred went for the royal family that he'd be willing to use the darkness? Looking down, he tried not to think how'd she react to all this.

Riku then laid back with a grunt. 'But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it', he sighed, 'I dunno about you guys, but I'm going to take a nap'. Deciding the silver-haired boy had the right idea, and after everything that had happened today a nap was in order, Noctis hummed in agreement before yawning. 'Sounds good to me', the prince agreed, 'I'll see you guys later'. Once they bid each other a good night, everyone headed off to rest. Donald and Goofy shared their room with Riku while Prompto went downstairs to cancel the other room he reserved for him and royal retinue.

Entering their room, the two keyblade wielders took off their shoes and socks, with Sora removing his jacket and Kairi just threw off her top, keeping her white shirt on and the PJS bottom, wanting to have some comfort while sleeping. They both laid on the bed together, throwing the sheets over them, and like before Sora, wanting to give her space, shuffled a bit to the edge of the bed…only for Kairi to shuffle closer to him, looking at him.

'No escape', she warned playfully, then wrapped her arms around him and nuzzled her head into his chest. Sora shyly blushed, still not used to Kairi being so close to him like this. Not that he was complaining he loves having her close to him. Hesitantly he wrapped his arm strong arms around her, pulling her close to him. Kairi looked up at him, smiling at him. Sora gently brushed the back of his hand against her cheek, his eyes warm and she sees something else in them.

'You did great today', he said, confident. Kairi raised a brow before catching on what he was talking about, softly blushing. 'Well…you and Noct helped me with Sephiroth…', she started, but he chuckled softly. 'Come on, even I couldn't beat him alone. But aside from standing your ground against him, you managed to shut down an entire base! And you could take on Aranea alone if you had to!'.

Kairi felt her cheeks grow warm, ducking her head shyly as she relished in the praise Sora was bestowing onto her, her heart swelling with delight. 'T-Thank you…', she squeaked softly. She heard him chuckle so more before he petted her head and made her blush harder. Laying together in the bed, face to face sense sleeping was starting to become a secondary option, besides she wanted to have more time with Sora alone.

They stared at each, taking in the wonderous silence and peace, no more fighting, no bad guys or Prompto interrupting their moments. Sora pushed a strain of her hair out her face but doing so made a question pop up in Kairi's mind, and after some mental debate, she spoke: 'W-what do you think of my haircut?'.

Sora blinked, tilting his head in confusion. 'I-I mean…I did cut it just to be shorter…y-y-ya know, umm…long hair can get grabbed in a fight…a-and mine was growing a bit too much to keep neat so-so…', she rambled, blushing deeper and deeper as her voice got more hi-pitched with embarrassment. Thinking back to the reason why she cut her hair, Kairi did admittedly cut it because it was getting longer during the first few weeks(at least she thought it was the forest screwed up her sense of time), and it became more of a hassle to care for.

The downside was after a few days later when she sees it again, she hadn't seen just how young it made her look. Even Axel teased her that he almost mistook her for being a pre-teen. She didn't hold back in the arena that day…

Her rambles were ceased when Sora kissed her cheek. 'You look beautiful', he said softly.

Kairi's cheeks had gone from a soft hue of red, to "I dunk my head into the reddest paint in the world" red, so red it spread to her ears. She suddenly turned around, back turned to Sora, not even daring to let him see just how red those three words nearly turned her into a squealing high school girl getting a compliment from her boyfriend (despite…being that).

'K-Kairi?', he asked, confused.

'SLEEP TIME! WE SLEEP NOW!', she squeaked.

'H-huh? But, why aren't you looking at me?', he persisted.

'Goodnight Sora!', she said, turning off the light and purposefully breathing like she was sleeping.

Blinking in utter confusion, the boy shrugged and wrapped his arms around the girl, resting his head in the crook of her shoulders, sighing contently before following her idea and going to dreamworld.

*Next Morning*

With a sigh, Riku laid his phone on the table near his bed and stared up at the ceiling. Not a word from Aqua yet, and it is slowly starting to wear on his mind. Hands down, next to the King, she is the best keyblade master amongst them, and surely taking her on a mission like this was the equivalent to using a gummi ship's cannons to wipe out an anthill. Plus, he's seen what Gladiolus and Ignis could do, heck they exceeded his expectations before, and if what Prompto told him about Cor was true, then this should have been a cakewalk.

So why was it taking them so long to respond?

Looking to his left he sees Prompto on his phone tapping away madly on it. He had his tongue sticking out in concentration and Riku could hear the small sounds from his device. 'What are you doing?', he asked. Prompto ceased his taps and looked at the boy, blinking for a second then smiling. 'Just playing King's Knight', he said, turning his phone to show him. Riku hummed in response: 'Oh yeah…that game you and Noct were going on about last time'.

'Yeah, we've been playing this since the launch day!', he replied, then grinned. 'You wanna have a shot?'. Riku sat up as Prompto sat near him and handed the device to the boy, giving some quick tips on how to work the thing. Riku immediately knew he wasn't going to enjoy this, the phone was much, MUCH, slimmer and convenient sized than the GP, and the game…he had no clue how to play it.

After fifteen minutes of him dying and the music starting to annoy him, the master gave up and handed it back to Prompto. 'Nope, not for me', he lamented. 'Aww come on, maybe if you started it on your phone maybe you'll have it easier?', Prompto argued. 'I don't even know if my phone can play games…', Riku muttered, lifting his own and showed Prompto it. The blonde hummed taking the phone and after some tapping, he found what looked to be an application to buy games.

'Huh, looks like you guys can connect to the stores here too', Prompto said. He started to show Riku a few apps within the cyberstore, some audiobooks, music and other things outside of games. When they found King's Knight, Riku figured hey may as well let the older boy download it for him. Who knows, maybe he'd get into it if he starts from the bottom. Prompto placed the phone down on the table, telling him it'd take some time for the app to download.

'It'll take a few minutes to download, your phone's slow when it comes to downloads', Prompto teased. 'Heh, but I can use to contact people from other worlds, millions of miles away from here', replied Riku. Prompto laughed in response, saying he couldn't argue there. Sitting down on the bed, the blonde started to fiddle with his camera before Riku, curiosity getting the better of him, asked about it. 'Just a little hobby of mine, you know?', Prompto said, 'Plus, it's a good way to create memories'.

Riku nodded in agreement, making him think of the journals Sora kept during his journeys, and even Riku himself during his adventures. 'You wanna look? I think I got a few of you and the others', Prompto offered. 'Sure, show me'. Prompto started to show off his photos he managed to save and to say Riku was impressed by his work was an understatement. The photos were impressive, several images of amazing locations that he must have taken during their journey. One photo was showing Sora and Kairi fighting one of the empire's MA-X units, the brunet leaping over the rockets while Kairi was gracefully back-flipping over them.

Another was one with Aqua spinning in one spot with her keyblade held high, crystal water floating around her as the heartless shadows were being destroyed. The way Prompto managed to capture the image made the woman look like an exotic being from another world, the color blue glowing beautifully around her as the sunlight glistened off the water.

The next photo showed off Noctis and Riku fighting one of the iron golems during the three-day run. Once again Prompto captured the two of them in such a way Riku had to do a double-take. In his right hand, he was channeling sparks of lightning, while Noctis was glowing in his blue light as he used Blade of the Wanderer to strike at the giant.

'Damn Prom…these are good', Riku praised, smiling at the photos. 'You nailed them'. Prompto beamed with pride in his eyes, the two of them looking more of them, snickering when they see the selfies he took during the fights. Some more beautiful visuals of the world, some images of food Ignis cooked, some of Sora's theme park ride tricks, and a few pics of Prompto with the others. He mentioned he wanted to get a photo of everyone soon.

Soon enough, there was a knock on the door, and entered was Iris. 'Hey guys', she greeted. Her eyes softened at Riku's state. 'The base raiding didn't go so well?', she asked. 'Not as bad as I look', Riku laughed, 'we took them down before Ravus came and kicked my ass'.

Iris giggled at him. 'Well you didn't die, so that's a plus', she teased. Riku nodded in agreement. Prompto, however, took note of the girl's…tone to Riku. For as long as he's known her, Iris always had a crush on Noctis, but ever since the last time he's seen her, he noticed her tone to the prince was more friendly and casual. Now with Riku…its like she was talking to Noctis again. Plus, Riku's tone was more friendly and warm to her.

Looking back and forth between the two, Prompto was slowly starting to see something between them…and he wasn't sure if he should take a snapshot of this or be terrified if Gladiolus found out. The blonde shrugged in the end, maybe he was just misreading the situation between them and got off the bed. 'Well if you guys are gonna stick around, I'm gonna head into the city and see what's up', he said, putting his camera in his pocket.

'Sure, just stay safe and text us if you see Gladio or the others', Riku said, looking at him. 'Will do!', Prompto promised, heading out of the room. Once he was gone, Iris turned back to Riku, frowning. 'You going to be ok?', she asked. 'Yeah, Donald healed me after I got settled in, but *grunts* there was only so much he could do', he said. Iris sat down on the bed after he offered, smiling at her. 'So, like it or not, I'm bedridden until the duck says otherwise'.

'Least you can take it easy', she reminded. 'Bet Noct is still probably asleep'. Riku chuckled in response, smiling at her. There was a comfortable atmosphere between them as she told Riku what's been going on since they headed off for their missions. After they got word the bases, at least Riku and Sora's ones anyway, were dealt with Iris and the others were then moved back to Lestallum, though she confesses to Riku it was rather redundant seeing as she was told they would be moved to Cape Caem soon.

She told him the Crownsguards had discovered Noctis' father's boat within the lighthouse, and they've moved a few soldiers there along with asking for Cindy's father to help fix it. 'What's so special about the boat?', Riku asked. 'Aside from it being Noct's father's?', she said with a cheeky smile. Riku gave her a mock glare, before flicking her forehead, she giggled. 'Well Mr, it's your only way to get to Altissia'.

'Why? What's Altissia?', Riku further questioned. Iris rolled her eyes. 'Sheesh, do the guys tell you anything?', she accused playfully. 'Ehhh…secrets are kinda a running gag between us', Riku mused half playfully half-serious. 'Seriously? So, do you know Noct is going to get married?', Iris asked. Riku blinked, before letting out an "oh" and then nodding. '…can you explain that?', he asked, sheepishly smiling. Iris laughed and then started to tell him what she knew.

*Lobby*

After waking up and having a small breakfast, Sora and Kairi exited the lobby after texting everyone they'd be leaving the hotel for a few hours to kill time. However, Kairi was positively excited the moment she and Sora left the hotel because after they work up Sora had pointed out since coming to this world, they had nothing to do today. They both agreed not to take any hunts without anyone who could drive, they didn't sense any heartless or darkness looming over the city.

Sora also pointed out they couldn't train either since there wasn't a secluded spot and the less attention, they drew upon themselves the better. So today was their first and very likely last "day off" from heroism. As happy as that sounded to her, Kairi didn't exactly want to stay in a hotel to rest or spend the day doing nothing, but then Sora spoke up and said the second most desired words she wanted to hear from his mouth.

'Then…do you wanna…go out with me? A-As in…a date?', he asked, shyly and cutely.

It took all her training to not squeal and tackle him into the tightest hug her arms could do.

Thus, here they were outside of the hotel and looked to see the perfect clear skies above them, a perfectly hot day that paled in comparison to the heat of the island. Sora turned to her and with a majestic bow, he said: 'And the date starts…now'.

Kairi giggled as they walked down the steps and into the city, but not before Kairi caught his hand and held it. Sora blushed softly but smiled happily, and they continued to walk into the town, Sora swinging their joint hands together, fully enjoying this as much as she was.

Once in the busy section of the town, the two were already taking in the large town. There were plenty of people were walking around, talking to one another about the local news, more so about the actions of the empire, the lockdown of the town and then rumors about there being two prince Noctis'. The two giggled at that last one, making their way to the marketplace as the hustle and bustle of the town had caught their attention.

Several stalls with dozens of people all over the place, they were mostly looking at the hand-crafted things that were made. Kairi picked up a rather beautifully crafted ornament that looked like an ancient dream catcher. Chocobo feathers with silk netting with bamboo for the structure, and she smelled beautiful floral-like scent. The price tag was unfairly cheap she found, and when she bought it, she left a good tip to the old woman and acting like she was in a hurry so she couldn't wait for her to work out the change.

After that they explored the market, finding a few more hand made items and even some spices and herbs Ignis had been meaning to buy for dinner later, they went near the carpark and started to take in the sight of the crater. Leaning over the rails to see, they both let out awes at the sight. Kairi even went into detail how the meteorite that landed on the crater years ago became the main power source of the city's power company. Something she had learned from Ignis before leaving here.

'Hey, wanna get a picture of this together?', Sora asked. Kairi nodded excitedly as he pulled out his phone. Adjust themselves for Sora to get them and the crater behind them, the girl gave the peace sign while Sora gave a goofy smile, taking the picture. He took two more of them but on the third, he sneakily kissed her on the cheek, making her blush during the photo.

After that, they went back to the town, but they nearly passed a stall that was selling some kebabs. The smell alone got their stomachs growling and Sora paid for two each, handing two to Kairi. Sitting down on the steps, they took bites out of their food. 'MMM…delicious!', Kairi said, swallowing her meat. 'Yeah, this world has so many tasty foods!', Sora agreed, taking a chunk out of his own. Kairi finished her first stick and started on her second one, thinking to herself.

She was smiling though, a sense of content washing over here as she took in the warmth of the day. She missed this, being able to relax with her best friend, not to worry about the up-coming troubles or whatever danger was waiting for them. Here in the now, eating good food, relaxing with her boyfriend, she truly wished for more of this. But that's not to say she hadn't enjoyed the dangerous side of the adventure.

Exploring the world with her friends, fighting together with them was fun and thrilling, seeing what the world had to offer, the history, the locals, the towns, everything. It certainly quenched her thirst, but she wanted to see more of the worlds, maybe even go on her adventures. Well, …she wouldn't mind having company, that was for sure. She must have been staring in the distance because then she felt a poke in her thigh.

Kairi looked to see Sora poking her playfully, the stick in his mouth. 'You okay?', he asked. 'Yeah, just thinking', she confessed, taking a bite out her kebab. 'What about?', he said, flicking his two sticks over his head. Kairi turned to see impressively the two sticks landed straight into the bins behind them, giggling slightly. Of course, he could do that…

Kairi placed her naked stick down beside her and said: 'About other worlds, you know? I mean', she looked up the sky, 'I was thinking, ever since I came here, I realized just how big this world is, and it's only made me think about the others'. Sora smiled, but said nothing, encouraging her press on. 'You, Riku, Aqua, you've all seen so many places. And I wanna go myself', Kairi said, almost wistfully. She then giggled, scratching the back of her head. 'I mean…if we…win, you know?', she said.

Her thoughts slowly drifted back to the fateful day that will come, maybe sooner than they'd wanted. The day where the guardians of light will clash with the thirteen darkness, where the fate of all worlds will be decided. Fear tugged on her heart, despite how much she had improved since her training and how her confidence had grown. Clasping her necklace softly, she lowered her head as her smile dimmed.

'Then let's go on a tour!'.

Kairi raised her head to look at the brightly grinning Sora. He stood up and offered her his hand. 'How about it? We beat Xehanort, save the worlds, and then we go on our worlds tour!', he suggested, 'Just you and me! All the worlds we can find, do what we want, and see what's out there!'. Kairi looked at his hand, then back to his glowing smile. There it is again, that smile of his, the one that couldn't be toppled by anything you throw at him. The confidence she wished she had, but at the same time felt invigorated just by being on the receiving end of it.

Kairi grinned in the end, taking his hand. 'It's a promise', she said. Sora lifted her to her feet, his smile SOMEHOW getting even bigger and brighter. 'Then it's settled!', he exclaimed, leading her back into the town. A weight lifted off her heart thanks to him, thoughts of that day buried deep into nothing but the void of her mind, here in the now she was going to enjoy her time with her boyfriend. She took hold of his arm and laid her head on his shoulder, enjoying the closeness between them. Sora flashed her a cheesy grin in response.

They reached the power plant of Lestallum and took the sights in, the girl taking photos of the town during their walks, thinking of showing these to Axel when they find their way back to them. Then as they were about to head down the alley where it'd take them back to the marketplace, Sora stopped walking, startling her. She looked at him then followed his gaze, a small black dog trotting towards them.

There was a green rope around its neck and right leg, giving the two the impression it was a pet along with how well-cared he looked. When the dog approached them, he sat before them, barking softly at them. Kairi cooed and knelt before him. 'Hi there', she greeted, scratching behind his ears. The dog yipped in approval, panting and wagging its fluffy black tail. 'Aww, whose good puppy?', Kairi further praised.

Sora knelt with her and ruffled the dog's head. It was then he sees the pouch tied on the rope on his body. The dog looked at Kairi and turned slightly to show the pouch as if telling her to look in. Curious, she reached in the pouch and pulled out two items, a small notebook with a small piece of paper attached to it with "Noctis" on it. 'Oh, are you delivering something to Noctis?', Kairi asked, looking at the little furball. The dog yipped, confirming her thoughts.

'What about the envelope?', Sora asked. Kairi looked to see it was a rather fancy looking one, a plain white letter with a seal she didn't recognize but on the back of envelope had her name on it. Kairi frowned and looked back at Sora with confusion. 'Its…for me', she said. Sora's smile dimmed and looked back to the dog. 'Weird, this little guy doesn't have any darkness around him…', he mused. 'Maybe Noctis will know something', she said. They stood up and decided to return to the hotel, with Sora sending a quick text to Riku.

*Hotel*

Entering Riku's room with everyone (excluding Iris, having left earlier) joining in, but no sight of their missing companions. However, when Noctis and Prompto spotted the dog, they both beamed at him. 'Hey, Umbra!', Prompto greeted, scratching his ears affectionately. 'Oh, so you guys do know him?', Sora stated, smiling at the dog prancing around Noctis. Kairi handed the prince the notebook, and when he opened it, he smiled warmly. The smile was different though, it was something that reminded Kairi of Sora's when he was smiling at her.

With a note pen, he wrote back a message and closed the book delicately, then gently returned it to the pouch. 'Thanks for bringing me the message boy', he said, gratefully. Umbra barked happily, wagging his tail at him. The dog then turned to Kairi expectedly, making the redhead blink before she took out her envelope. 'Oh? Do you want me to write a response to…whoever sent you?', she asked, confused. Umbra barked softly as if to say "yes". 'His name's Umbra, and his Luna's dog. A messenger really', Noctis explained. 'Whose Luna?', Sora asked.

'Noctis' apparent fiancé', Riku remarked, looking at the prince. Kairi and Sora looked at Riku, then back to Noctis, before jumping in shock. 'Wait, you're engaged!?', Kairi said. 'And NOW you tell us?', Sora asked. Noctis huffed, his cheeks turning slightly red from the sudden attention to his love life. 'Aww guys, now you put him in pouty Noctis mode~', Prompto teased, 'He ALWAYS gets like this whenever his wonderful fiancé is mentioned~'.

'Shut up Prompto…', Noctis warned darkly. 'Aww Noctis that's so cute~', Kairi praised, not the slightest bit of teasing in her tone. 'It's pretty romantic, a prince who lost his home is now on a quest to reunite with his love!'. Noctis' cheeks darkened, and he sent Kairi a death glare like she was pouring oil on an open fire that was his embarrassment. 'But wait a second, if you and she are engaged, what happened to the wedding?', Sora asked.

'That's…', Noctis said, but then Goofy pipped up. 'Well, Ignis told us that the whole reason for the wedding was meant for a lease fire-

'Ceasefire!', Donald corrected.

'Right, a ceasefire. Insomnia and Niflhiem were at war with each other, and the wedding was supposed to be a way to end that war', Goofy said.

'You mean, the one with Insomnia and the empire?', Kairi said, only asking because she feels like she missed out on a conversation. 'Yup, me and the other two told Donald, Aqua and Goofy about this the day after we met you guys', Prompto said. 'The wedding was supposed to be the empire's peace offer, I marry Luna, Insomnia surrenders to the empire and the war ends', Noctis said. 'But it was all just an act, soon as the Nilfs got into Insomnia, they betrayed my dad and took over'.

Sora and Kairi glanced at one another, giving the prince sympathetic looks. He waved them off and looked at the redhead. 'But you got a letter from her too?', he asked. Kairi nodded and showed him her own, to which Noctis raised a brow. 'Huh…that's weird', he mused. 'Does she send letters to everyone that way?', Riku asked.

'No, outside of me and Prompto, I dunno anyone else she'd send a letter to', Noctis confessed. Kairi opened her letter up and read it to herself.

"Greetings, Princess Kairi.

My name is Lunafreya Nox Fleuret, Noctis' fiancé and the Oracle of Tenebrae. Firstly, I wish to bestow to you and your companions my gratitude for keeping Noctis and his brothers save from the heartless and nobodies. I cannot pretend to know the burden the warriors of light must carry, but please know your safety is in my prayers.

If you intend to come to Altissia, I would be most grateful if we could speak properly, face to face. I know you have questions, and I wish I could say more, but for privacy reasons, and keeping Order, I must reframe.

May your heart be your guiding Key, Princess.

Lunafreya".

Kairi looked at everyone with bewilderment as everyone shared the same looks of shock. She re-read the letter over and over in disbelief. 'She called me a princess…she knows about the Order…and the guardians of light', Kairi gasped.

'She even knew the old saying…', Goofy said. 'Gwarsh, even I thought I must have misheard it before…'.

'How does she know about all that!?', Donald said, 'We didn't say squat to her!'. He then glared at Noctis, but the raven glared back. 'Buzz off feathers, I didn't get a letter from her for weeks!', he defended himself. 'It doesn't matter', Riku said, getting everyone's attention. 'If Luna does know about other worlds, there's got be a reason why she would be privy to that information'. He looked to Kairi, 'You better write back to her soon, maybe tell her about Ravus'.

'Yeah', Noctis hummed in agreement, 'Maybe she can talk to him? Get him to dump that darkness garbage before he does turn into a heartless…or worse'. Kairi nodded and began to write a response to the Oracle just as Noctis' phone went off. He picked up and let a breath of relief. 'Its Iggy', he said. Standing up, Noctis answered the phone. 'Hey specs, where've you been?', he asked cheerily. But then his face slowly slipped into concern, 'What? W-Wait…what happened?', he said.

All eyes fell on the prince as he started to pace and listen to Ignis, his face contorting into anger and worry at once. 'Where are you now?', he asked. He then nodded. 'Ok…we're on our way', he announced. He hangs up then, looking at his phone then back to the others. 'We gotta go to Cape Caem', he said. 'Why? What happened? Are they ok?', Prompto asked. 'They…they're fine but…', he staggered but then growled.

'Cor's dead'.

There was a silence, none had spoken and even Kairi stopped writing her response to Luna, turning around to the prince. Prompto paled and fell to the bed. 'W-What…?', he whispered, 'No…No…NO! T-That's gotta be a mistake!', Prompto yelled, getting to his feet, 'You're talking about Cor the Immortal! THE IMMORTAL! There's no way he's gone!'.

'Ignis wouldn't lie or joke about something like this Prompto!', Noctis yelled back. 'He told me they got off the airship, yeah a freaking airship, but he stayed behind to stop some freak and bought them time to escape!'.

'B-But, Aqua, and the others were there! There's no way they couldn't have handled whatever the empire had!', Sora said, standing up and looking at Noctis. When the prince turned to Sora, then to the other guardians of light, he shook his head. 'Her keyblade was broken', he sighed. The eyes of the guardians widened with pure shock and horror, Riku's own darkened. 'W-What?', Sora gasped, falling onto a seat. 'No way…'.

'Ignis told me it was someone from Xigbar's group…some guy she knew before. Someone who wiped the floor with Gladiolus and Aqua', Noctis lamented. 'Terra…', Riku grunted. 'Yeah, Gladiolus said something like that', Noctis confirmed.

'Aqua was forced to fight Terra…and likely, she couldn't beat him…', Kairi said, her voice close to a whisper. She took a deep breath and resumed her writing as Riku got out of the bed, grunting with pain. 'Then we need to go, if Aqua's keyblade is broken, then she's defenseless and the heartless WILL take advantage of that!', he stated.

'Right…Prompto, get Iris, tell her we're heading to Cape Caem', Noctis said. The blonde nodded and ran out of the room for the girl. Kairi finished her letter and handed it to Umbra, putting it back in the pouch. 'Be safe, ok little guy?', she pleaded, ruffling his fur. Umbra whimpered softly, nuzzling into her palm to comfort her. He then scampered off out of the room, leaving the team.

Once everything was sorted, arrangements made, the team drove off to Cape Caem, Iris was given a spare car from the Crownsguards, which Prompto drove.

Their situation had taken a drastic turn for the worst.

A/N:

So Luna knows about the Order, Kairi's heritage and the guardians of light~ How is that possible? Who knows? …well I do but besides me!

Anyways, hope you all enjoyed this chapter, a little bit of a wind-down, some fluff between Sora and Kairi (Which I haven't done a lot of) and now we're heading for Cape Caem. How will Aqua deal with her broken weapon? We'll find out soon!

So if you have a question, please ask away!

Here's mine:

Q1: If I was planning to do the Assassin's Creed Festival, should it be included in this story or should it be a separate thing? I mean I do plan to do it like the games where it takes place in its continuity but just wondering.

Q2: Sora, Riku and Kairi's KH3 designs? What do you all think of them? I like Riku and Kairi's…but I still prefer KH2 Sora :)

Q3: Would guys like to see more Ardyn in this story? I know I haven't used him a lot.

Q4: Do you think Donald and Goofy should get more screen time?

As always, thanks for reading. Stay awesome but more importantly, stay safe!


	21. Chapter 21

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 21

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

*On the Road*

In the Regalia, Noctis was the driver with Riku in the passenger side and the other two keyblade wielders in the back. There was a silence in the car, each of them taking in the recent updates from the advisor and processing what had been revealed.

'I can't believe it…Aqua's keyblade was broken?', Sora said, disbelieving. 'I mean…I didn't even know you could break a keyblade'.

'As strong as they are keyblades aren't unbreakable', Riku spoke up, looking at the ocean in deep thought, 'Mine broke when we first returned to the realm of darkness thanks to the demon tide…'. As Noctis made a turn and drove into the tunnel, he said: 'So what can she do? Can't she just summon another one?'. Riku said: 'Not as simple as that. Usually, you need a chain strong enough to create a keyblade unless you have a master who can create one for you'.

'And I'm gonna go on a limb and say you don't know how?', Noctis asked.

'Right on the munny, Noct', Riku confessed.

Noctis sighed, his thoughts going back to Gladiolus, especially after what Ignis had told him. The giant hadn't been himself since they escaped the ship, that for the last few days he was mostly training and often gone out for hunts, alone. He'd come back sure, but not without looking more furious than when he left the base. He knew people like Xigbar would be a completely different enemy compared to an average nobody or heartless, but this Terra was able to beat both him and Aqua at once…

And now with the Marshal dead, the odds had stacked against the party more than ever.

In the backseat, Kairi was quietly looking at the world pass them by, deep in thought over Lunafreya. From what Prompto had told her via texting, Lunafreya was this worlds "Oracle", meaning her job was to maintain the stability of this world and communicate with the gods and cleanse this world of the darkness known as the "Starscourge", what that is she didn't know and neither did the boy.

As far as she knew about the woman personally, from what Noctis told her, she is a princess of another place called Tenebrae and is Ravus' little sister. Then the worst part was when she was told the princess was a prisoner of the Empire after they not only took over their home but killed their mother. It was only because of her royal blood apparently that Tenebrae had some autonomy, plus she had a suspicious feeling the people would revolt if they so much as even scratched the woman.

It only furthered her concern when she kept thinking back to the letter. How does she know about the Order, the guardians of light and more importantly, how did she know about her being a princess? Kairi leaned back into the seat in thought, looking up at the tunnel ceiling in deep thought. 'Still thinking of Lunafreya?', Riku asked, seeing her concerned face from the corner of his eye. 'Yeah…how does she know about all that? Especially if Noct hadn't spoken to her', she confessed.

'Maybe someone from the empire told her? Xigbar maybe?', Sora suggested. 'With Ravus around? No way. He wouldn't let that guy anywhere close to her', Noctis counter-argued. 'Speaking of Luna, what did you write to her?'.

'It was more me being courteous to her and agreeing to meeting her in Altissia if we get the chance, but I also warned her about Ravus', Kairi said. Leaning forward she said: 'If Ravus is only using the darkness to protect her, then she needs to know what's going to happen to him if he uses more of it'.

'Think he'll listen to her?', Sora asked, looking at the prince. 'I dunno…', Noctis replied. 'But hey, maybe Luna will tell Kairi how she knows when they do meet up'. As confused as the prince was that she would request Kairi to meet her raised some concerns for the redhead, Noctis didn't feel like she had any malicious intent. They're both princesses, so maybe she wants to talk to someone who might have an understanding like her?

He pushed those thoughts aside as they exited the tunnel and after another five minutes of driving, they see Ignis waiting for them by a small stall selling vegetables. They parked the two cars on the dirt path with Prompto carefully parking right behind the Regalia. Ignis turned to the arriving parties and after bidding the seller a good day, he approached them.

'Good to see you're all safe', he said, but then he looked at Riku being assisted by Sora, one arm over his shoulder and holding him up by the belt. 'Are you well, Riku?', he asked. 'Just a little sore, I'll down a potion later', dismissed Riku, 'Where's Aqua and Gladio?'. Ignis's face softened with concern as he leads them to the house, Sora assisting Riku all the way. 'After we managed to escape from the empire, we received word from one of the guards that his majesty's boat was stashed away here', he explained. 'Thus, we opted to come here then ask you to join us'.

'Makes sense', Donald hummed, 'But what happened on that ship?'.

'I believe you're familiar with this "Terra", correct?', he questioned. 'Kind of, but we know what's happened to him', Sora said, his voice made him sound so down. 'Yes…well, suffice to say he proved to be more of a challenge to Gladiolus, and Aqua', Ignis responded, even by his professional tone they could tell he was equally horrified that Aqua lost. Getting closer to the house, Kairi looked to the rocky path near the ocean to see Aqua sitting on one of the rocks, looking out the sea. She stopped walking, earning the attention of everyone else.

When they followed her gaze, their eyes softened with worry. 'Ever since she recovered, she has been sitting there for most of the day…', Ignis explained, 'Only coming up to help us with some labor'.

'And Gladio?', Iris asked.

They all looked towards the spectacled man, who shook his head. 'He has gone out for some hunting. Some wild beasts were prowling the area and he offered…or rather, decided himself, he'd go and exterminate them', he said. 'And let me guess, you offered to go and he "kindly," said no thanks?', Noctis asked, frowning. 'If we wish to put it generously', Ignis confirmed.

Looking at the master below, Kairi turned to Sora, who nodded. Without a word, Kairi started to jog down to the master, leaving the others. The rest of the party made their way to the new base of operations likely, where Riku was immediately taken to one of the bedrooms. Donald had offered to use some magic to restore him but the master declined, stating he was just sore from the fight. Once he was in bed, with Iris watching over him, Ignis took the others to the lighthouse.

Just outside of the old tower was Cid, the father of Cindy, sitting down on his chair looking tired and downright done with the process. When he sees the group, he gets off his chair and tips his hat to them. 'Your Majesty took his time', he said gruffly yet harmlessly at the same time. Noctis placed a hand on his hip looking at the grouchy old man, but before he could introduce the others, Cid spoke up. 'Sora, Donald, and Goofy aye? Heard about you from my daughter, Cindy', he said, waving his hand.

The trio blinked, surprised by his bluntness and the fact he's also named Cid. Maybe it was just a common name they thought. 'She wanted me to let you guys know your ship shouldn't take that much longer to patch up', he stated, 'But she's expecting your feathery partner to come through with his side of the deal'.

Donald grumbled in retort, crossing his arms and looking away, while Sora rolled his eyes. 'At any rate, how fares the repairs to the vessel?', Ignis said, turning to the old man. 'Well son I've got some bad news for ya'll…most of the repairs I can do myself, but we've hit a snag', he said, 'The engine your old man had? Its long-gone dead son'. The three members of retinue looked at one another, a dreadful sense of déjà vu was coming on and knowing their previous ventures with the Cid family, it will involve going somewhere and fetching it.

'Then what can you do to fix it?', Sora asked, 'Do you need something?'. 'Aye boy, we're gonna need mythril ore if you want me to fix the engine, and then some', Cid said. Behind them, Donald and Goofy gave each other looks of surprise, likely due to the fact this world ALSO had mythril too. Next thing they'll find is someone has the name of a Gummi Ship. 'And where can we find that?', Noctis asked with a grunt littered with annoyance.

'Heh, you tell me, sonny boy, I've never even seen the blasted thing. My daughter recommended it to me', Cid said with a smirk. Before Noctis could let out another noise that was nothing but annoyance, Prompto spoke up: 'Course she did! She's fixing a ship after all! But maybe we could ask the Crownsguard about it!'.

Ignis nodded in agreement, turning to the others while Cid says, as he left, he was gonna see if he could do more with the yacht while he waits for them. 'I can ask the guards if they know a place where mythril could be mined, perhaps one our spies knows', Ignis conversed. 'Unless of course, you want to explore every cave and tunnel on Eos until we find it?'.

The prince grunts, before sighing and nodding to his advisor. With a nod, Ignis headed for the house and left the five remaining members by the tower. 'Guess we've got some time to ourselves', Prompto said to no one particular. He pulls out his camera and starts to walk off, saying he was going to get some photos while he waited around. The two anthropomorphic beings said they would go and see how Riku was doing and see if they could help out around the house.

Leaving only Sora and Noctis behind. 'Sounds like your ships almost ready to take off', Noctis hummed, looking at Sora. 'I guess so. I thought she'd be a bit longer', Sora confessed while throwing his hands behind his head. 'Think you guys will head off immediately after she's done?', the prince asked. Sora gave the older boy a perplexed look, humming and cupping his chin before ultimately, he shook his head.

'Nah, not until we get rid of Xigbar and help you guys get your home back', Sora said with a grin. Noctis crossed his arms, a smirk appeared on his face. 'Seriously? Thought you guys had a universe to save?', he teased. 'So, you wanna deal with Xigbar, the heartless, nobodies and everything else the empire throws at you without us?', Sora challenged. Noctis laughed, shaking his head. 'Okay, got me there', the prince relented. 'But hey, we won't say no to more help'.

Just as their laughter died down, they looked to the woods and see Gladiolus returning from wherever he went, likely a hunt. To say he looked more frustrated was a very small understatement. His face showed a darkness within his eyes, fury of a wild animal that was begging for something to tear apart, and the fact he still had his sword out gave the two the impression he wasn't done fighting…anything, yet.

'Man, Gladio looks pretty upset', Sora said, putting both hands on his hips.

'That's putting it mildly…', Noctis concurred with a bite of sarcasm. The prince shook his head and turned to the younger boy. 'I'm gonna go talk to him, you should probably check on Kairi and Aqua', he suggested. Sora nodded, gave the prince one more look of support, then jogged off to Kairi and Aqua. Taking a breath, preparing himself for the likely shitstorm that was Gladiolus temper, the future king approached him. The giant was stalking around the spot, before with a growl emitting from his chest, he stabbed his sword into the ground, before sitting down and resting his back against it.

He punched the ground next to him, cursing loud enough for Noctis to feel the anger in his voice. As Noctis grew closer to him he refused to look up at his charge, almost as if he was so ashamed, he couldn't face his king. Standing before him, Noctis folded his arms and gazed at him. There were no words exchange at first, the prince letting his brother cool his mind before he spoke first, no sense in arguing with the man.

Noctis then sat on the ground, looking at Gladiolus as he kept his head down and glowered at his clasped hands. The wind blowing softly, whistling through the leaves and branches above them, the silence between them was unheard of and strange to the prince. His worries slowly grew as Gladiolus still couldn't face him, and he just looked so very defeated. Even during his early years, if there was a way Noctis often used to describe Gladiolus, it'd be persistent and too damn determined to stop. Even when he loses fights against Cor, he still got back up and trained even harder.

This defeated look, it is much worse than when he lost to Ravus.

'…guess Iggy told you what happened?', he grunted out, still not facing him.

'Specs told me you *and* Aqua lost to some guy named Terra', the prince spoke, making sure the shield didn't feel any more of failure. If Aqua lost, then clearly whoever the fought was worse than your average baddie.

'She only lost because that son of a bitch used her friend's body against her…he kicked my ass', he growled, looking at the prince at long last. Seeing his face showing fury mixed with shame, it disturbed Noctis. 'I barely managed to hurt him, and he healed it like it was just a bug biting him', he said, 'And he wasn't even *trying* to beat me'.

Gladiolus punched the ground again, this time harder and he just barely missed the rock near his fist. Noctis almost reached out to grab his shoulder before reluctantly disregarding it, coddling Gladiolus with false confidence wasn't going to fix this. The man was truly furious with his performance and seeing him this angry over a loss it worried the prince. His friend's anger slowly drained from his features as he ran a hand down his face, groaning.

'Gladio', he said, but the words failed him.

The shield looked down; eyes dimmed. 'He broke my shield Noct…he kicked my ass, and he would've killed me if Aqua didn't step in', he lamented. Closing his eyes, he ran a hand through his hair and sighed. 'I'm not…strong enough, Noct', the shield lamented. Noctis leaned forward. 'Gladio, come on, you lost a fight', he said, 'That doesn't mean you're not strong enough…'. Gladiolus shook his head, giving the boy a hard look. 'Not this time Noct, this guy was in a whole new league of strength', he said.

He stood up and dismissed his sword, looking at the prince as he stood up. 'I can't protect you and the others if I'm falling behind like this', Gladiolus said, arms crossed. 'So that's why…I'm gonna head off for a while'. Noctis raised a brow at this sudden announcement, before saying: 'Heading off? As in, leaving?'.

'Just for a while, until I get stronger', Gladiolus promised. '…and where are you going to get stronger?', Noctis questioned. Gladiolus didn't say anything, he just stared down the prince as Noctis refused to relent to his hard gaze, standing his ground. Both warriors stared intensely at each other, neither backing down. Gladiolus then smirked. 'Just some business I need to take care of, that's all', he said. Noctis then smirked in response, before he groaned exaggeratedly. 'Fine, keep your secrets', he said, waving a hand.

Gladiolus turned to go, but Noctis grabbed his arm. 'But you're taking Aqua with you', he said. Gladiolus opened his mouth to protest, but when he looked at the prince, his blue eyes showed there was no room for an argument. 'If you're feeling this bad about losing, then imagine how she's feeling about all that? Keyblade broken, fighting a friend and losing?', he said. Gladiolus closed his mouth as he looked down, closing his eyes and then inhaling through his nose. Opening them again, he looked at Noctis and with reluctance, nodded. 'Okay, fine'.

Releasing his grip on the man, Noctis addressed him. 'Gladio…I get what you're saying', he confessed. 'Sora, Riku, Aqua, they're in a whole different league than us…and then there's Xigbar, Ravus and now Terra…'.

Noctis grunted, looking at him. 'I know it's rich coming from me…but even I wouldn't have stood a chance against Terra if he could beat you and Aqua…but I'm still getting there', he continued, showing one of the royal arms in his hand. He then smirked. 'So, you listen to me, as your king, I order you to come back better than ever. Even better than your old man', he commanded. Gladiolus was both amused by the proposal but more so…impressed by the sheer confidence he was displaying.

He gave his future king a cocky grin and placed a hand on his hip. 'Oh? That right?', he said. Noctis gave him a smug look. 'Any lesser would be an insult to a king, wouldn't you agree?'. Gladiolus chuckled, ruffled the prince's hair good-naturedly. Noctis waved off his hand with an annoyed growl, but he was still smirking at him. They shared a brother's arm bump before the shield nodded to the prince and headed off to get his partner.

*Earlier*

Reaching the rocky beach before her, Kairi had a sudden sense of nervousness attacking her will when she saw her master before her. Truly the princess hadn't thought of a way to approach her master's situation, and she feared making the situation worsen, or even make the master close herself off to the others.

Biting her lip, Kairi made her way to the blue head, hopscotching her way to her, making some noises and "whoas" when she nearly lost her balance. When she got close to her master, the last step nearly made her trip and slam her face into a small puddle of seawater, Aqua turned around to see her nearly slipping before she staggered forward. Aqua caught her apprentice in time before her delicate face became familiar with the rocky beach.

Looking up at her blue-haired savior, she shyly smiles. 'Looks like my footwork still needs work', she giggled, scratching her cheek. Aqua softly chuckles in response to her student's awkward humor, helping her to sit down on one of the larger rocks. Both sat there in silence, watching the ocean and the sun shining over it, the smells of saltwater made Kairi think back to the islands. Looking over to her master, Kairi opened her mouth to speak up but her voice seemingly vanished.

The master's gaze was sullen and devoid of the light she always carried. There were dried tear stains on her cheeks, circles beneath her eyes likely from lack of sleep since the raid. In her lap laid Master's Defender, broken in half and unfit for battle. Kairi's flawless face turned to sadness as she reached out for Aqua and gently placed a hand on her hand resting on the handle of her keyblade. 'Aqua…', she started, but whatever she wanted to say or do, nothing was coming to her. It was as if the words she sought just didn't exist anymore.

'…he made a mistake', Aqua whispered.

Kairi looked up at her, confused. Aqua looked to the ocean, a far off look in her eyes as if Kairi wasn't there anymore. 'My…master. He made a mistake', she lamented. Looking at the destroyed keyblade in her lap, her voice was so quiet and defeated, for a moment, Kairi couldn't recognize her master. Her eyes were slowly replacing the emptiness with doubt and shame. 'I was chosen among the two of us, and he elected me to be a master', she said.

'Yet…I failed everyone…Ven, Terra…and now this'.

Kairi was horrified, hearing this woman, this person who survived the solitude of the darkness for nearly twelve years and is an idol to the princess. Hearing this from her, the sheer confidence in her failures, it tore her heart apart. 'Aqua…that's…that's ridiculous!', Kairi said, grabbing her shoulder. 'You deserve to be a master! Eraqus wouldn't have made you a master if he genuinely thought you weren't ready!', Kairi argued.

Aqua turned on her, eyes hardened and said: 'If he saw how much I screwed up Kairi, I sincerely believe he'd be disgusted!'. They stood up together, Aqua more so because she was about to walk off but Kairi held her there by grabbing her forearm. 'Aqua, that's not true! You should know-

'I should know my master better than that?', she accused. Her tone was sharp as if she was halting any argument the redhead was about to have with her. They both stared down at each other, as much as Kairi hated to have confrontation like this hearing Aqua berate herself like this infuriated her. Among all of them, she had no reason to be this harsh to herself and hearing her act like this only angered her.

'You're letting whatever Terra…or Xehanort, whoever, they said get to you!', Kairi argued. 'You know better than anyone that's how he gets to you!'. Aqua ripped her arm from the girl. 'Doesn't mean he's wrong! He was right about Terra's fall being on me!'.

'I was the one who started Terra's doubts, I was sent to watch him because we doubted him!', she ranted, 'If I hadn't been so dismissive of Ven's abilities, he wouldn't have run off without us! I failed them both! And now…', she growled, but Kairi could see her anger slowly waning and shifting to despair. She looked at her keyblade before she shook. 'I…I can't even call myself a master without a keyblade…', she lamented.

Kairi's anger vanished when she saw tears starting to run down her cheeks, utter despair in her eyes. She shook her head, holding back a sob. 'Seeing him again like this…knowing that I couldn't save him, that his body was used to create two of the world's greatest threats…', she whispered. Kairi gently took the woman into her arms, hugging her despite the keyblade between them. Aqua froze from it, not used to someone giving her hugs as opposed to her being the instigator of them. 'You're not a failure, you saved Ven, remember?', Kairi said.

'Kairi…', Aqua whimpered.

'You've made mistakes Aqua; everyone has. And you may not have been able to save Terra then, nobody says you can't save him soon, right?', she offered. 'She's right you know'. They both turned to see Sora approaching them, a sad smile on his face but she could see the earnest in his eyes. He placed a brotherly hand on her shoulder. 'I know what it's like having your best friend as your enemy, especially when somebody took over their body and heart', Sora explained.

'But that's why you can't give up, because you know they're still in there, waiting to see you all again, right?'.

Sora stepped back and summoned his keyblade. '…I wasn't chosen by this, you know that', he said, a look of shame flashed in his eyes before he pushed it down to smile weakly at them. 'And yeah, me not passing my exam kinda says a lot about me, but you know…If I could make it this far, despite not being picked off the bat', he looked to Aqua, 'Why can't you?'.

Tears ran down her elegant cheeks as Aqua's heart swelled, before the two younger teens hugged her together, wrapping her in a cocoon of safety, and love. Aqua shook before she finally broke down and collapsed into their arms, finally letting out all the pain her heart carried in those years of solitude, being cut off from her friends for so long and almost blinded by the darkness.

Seeing her friend, brother in fact, in such a state had cracked that wall of resolution and determination she had built in her years in the dark realm and losing her master's keyblade had been the final hammer to break down her wall. In the arms of her student and rescuer, she finally dropped that strength to allow herself a long-overdue moment of weakness at long last. Huddled into a group hug, they weren't aware of Gladiolus watching them from the cliff, his own eyes glistening somehow with remorse.

Looking at his hand, he started to see why Noctis wanted him to take her too.

To reclaim that strength…

*Next day*

After the plans were set, the seven remaining party members had agreed to go and obtain the mythril ore. Riku though was put on guard duty of the house, in case the empire's nobodies and/or heartless prowled around the area. Though still not in tip-top shape, he would be more than able for the task at hand. Plus, Gladiolus admitted he felt better knowing Iris was safe with Jared and Talcott if the master was around.

He would come to regret that later…

With their chocobos at the road, Aqua gave both her friends one more hug, promising to return safely and better than ever, while Noctis gave his shield one pat on the shoulder and nodded with a stern command they both come back soon. Though many of them were saddened that the party must once more be split apart, each of them knew the necessity of the choice. The journey to Altissia could not be delayed much longer, but it made no sense for the shield and master to force themselves to continue with the lingering doubt in their hearts.

As Noctis entered Aqua's car (Prompto STILL insisting they name it someday), and Ignis in the Regalia with the remaining three of their party, Aqua and Gladiolus trotted off with their birds to the distance.

Though they may be apart, Kairi and Sora knew they were all still connected, and knew the day will come when everyone will be reunited once more. They could not wait for that day…

*Leide*

Back in the canyon with the Gummi Ship, Cindy closed the final door latch just below the pilot's feet with a satisfied grunt. Clapping her hands together with a grin, she stood up and looked around the interior of the now repaired GS. It took a while, many sleepless nights and several of those were just keeping the lights on to ward off the daemons. The powerful lights did their jobs for the first few nights but after she managed to fix the lights of the ship, she was awed by how powerful they were.

The headlight alone was enough to coat the entire spot in light so powerful it disintegrated several bombs in a manner of seconds. Cindy was already making a list of requests Donald owed her when she would finally build her own GS. 'Whew…another bit done', she sighed, stretching her limbs before she sat in the pilot's chair. The mechanic looked around the room, before landing on the main controls, seeing several lights blinking and listening to the low hum of the ship's power, proud she managed to get it back online.

Maybe it won't take her much longer to get it airborne.

Then, curiously she leaned forward to the buttons, then thinking if the ship had some form of a scanner to tell her where the biggest concerns or damage to ship was, that way she'd have a better idea where else to fix. Granted Donald had given her an extensive overview of the ship overall and because of that, she had a great idea on where the most attention was needed. Having said that it never hurts to have the ship tell you where it's hurt the most.

'How hard can it be?', she asked herself, pressing a few buttons to at least get it started. The monitor before her showed a hologram of what she thought was the ship's body and structure. That was until she sees several glitches and even some scrambled words that were equally clear as smothering oatmeal on a glass window. 'The heck…?', she said, pushing another button, hoping it would clear up the message.

Then she pressed one of the large triangle-shaped buttons…and the whole ship began to shake. Cindy let out a yelp as she was launched back into her seat, when suddenly the alarms went off wildly in her ears, the whole interior went red as the tremors got worse.

The loud hum of the ship grew louder but she also heard something akin to rockets going off in flames. Quickly launching herself to the monitor, Cindy visibly paled when she sees the text on the monitor told her the one thing she did not want to see.

*Returning to Last Destination*

'No! NONONONONO!', Cindy said, pressing every button under the moon to stop the launch, there was no hope in heck she was going to visit any aliens! But her button mashing was stopped when suddenly the belts reached out and wrapped around the poor mechanic, pulled her back into her seat and strapped her in it.

The ship then launched into the skies, disappearing into the night sky and out of the world's atmosphere.

Cindy had become the first person from Eos to explore new worlds…

A/N:

…I wanted to get this done yesterday…

Not sure how I did with Aqua and Gladiolus coming to terms they lost, but I hope I did them justice. Cindy is now off to see other worlds, where do you think she'll go? Next time the party goes for the mythril ore, Sora and his buddies finally meet Ardyn, Lunafreya gets Kairi's letter, and Riku gets to be lazy!

As always, if you have a question please ask! It helps motivate me to make more!

Q1: Does anyone miss Naminé and Xion?

Q2: Would you like more fluff between Sora and Kairi?

So I've asked about the AC event, and so far a lot of you are saying it should be in this story, so I'm not sure when it'll happen per say, but I can say it won't be done soon until we get everyone back together again, and after we do Episode Gladiolus, you'll see what the future chapters will be about.

As always, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but more importantly Stay Safe!


	22. Chapter 22

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 22

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

Tenebrae

"Lady Lunafreya

I have received your letter from your adorable pup Umbra (please give him extra tummy rubs for me). You honor me and my friends with your kind words, and worry not, Noctis and his brothers have been good to us in return, I owe his shield for saving mine and my beloved's life a while back. I look forward to meeting you in person, Noctis has said nothing but splendid things about you, and congratulations on your matrimony.

I wish this letter would be filled with nothing but good news, but unfortunately, my friends have very deep concerns about your brother, Ravus. I cannot pretend to know how he deals with serving the people who took your home, nor do I know how much of what transpires with the Niflhiem military, but I fear for his safety.

If you know as much as I believe you do about us and the light, then you should know how dangerous the darkness is. He's been using the darkness to gain incredible power, but the costs are too great for him to use recklessly. Please your grace, speak to your brother and talk him out of using the heartless, otherwise, he will become a heartless himself.

May your heart be your guiding Key, Your grace.

Cordially, Kairi".

Re-reading the final paragraph several times, the Oracle lowered the response to her with a hefty sigh. Lunafreya settled the letter on her table and stood up from it, approaching the balcony to see the sun slowly rise, bathing the city of water in the gentle light. Lowering her head to waters below her "apartment", the Oracle's mind went to the other world princess' words. She was not a fool, despite how the empire's general takes her for, the last time she had seen her brother she knew there was a horrible change within him.

Since that man of the darkness, Xigbar if memory served her right, had come to the empire with promises of power for his ever-growing military forces. The empire is slowly becoming something worse than before; it was deplorable how they made their mechanical abominations before, now with heartless and nobodies filling their ranks the Oracle feared just how much the darkness was spreading around the empire's people. Ravus had been adamant in her remaining ignorant of their plans, keeping their talks short and very narrowed onto irrelevant subjects.

Yet when Lunafreya had finally gotten to see him again recently, his presence was tainted by something. Her heart sensed a growing darkness within him, not like the blight or be the evils of the empire, but it felt worse. His light was growing dimmer and fainter, the shadows in his eyes were slowly shifting into something inhuman and evil. Lunafreya knew that man in black had done something to him, but worst of all she was powerless to do anything about it. She was kept away from Ravus by the empire's guard and if it wasn't the mechanical monstrosities it was nobodies.

She wouldn't be able to even open the door a smidgen without bringing down a horde of those monster on her. That was when she knew her answers lied with those guardians of light, and luckily for her, she had the friend to assist her in these trying times. It was a risk of course, but she knew Umbra would evade the heartless and nobodies easily, clever pup.

Sitting down on her bed, she picked up her pencil and started to prepare another letter for Kairi, not adding anything of importance other than her gratitude, and it was nice to speak to someone else. Plus, and this may be her romantic side, she was curious about her "beloved".

Just as she finished the first paragraph though, there was a knock on the door. She stiffened as her two dogs, Pryna and Umbra, sat up in alarm of the knock. 'Sister? Are you awake?', her brother's voice called out. Slowly placing her pencil down, she approached the door and opened it to greet her brother. 'Come in, Ravus', she said softly, allowing him to enter the room. Again, the Oracle felt the dark power that resonated within her brother, and just as Kairi had warned, she senses his light was growing fainter.

Her brother turned to her as the door closed, his mismatching eyes showed the rare affection he could possess but it was tainted by the drive to protect her. He looked to the letter, narrowing his gaze. 'Another letter for the brat?', he questioned, 'So soon?'. 'I was writing to one of his companions', Lunafreya responded, her tone was soft and gentle but carried an edge within them. 'She's told me something that has been plaguing my mind for quite some time about you, brother'.

His brows furrowed as his eyes darkened, she knew it. 'This darkness within you, it's not of this world, and you know it', she lectured. Ravus scoffed. 'And you trust the word of those who follow the false chosen king?', he barked bitterly. Ignoring that growl she wanted to let her brother hear, Oracles have teeth as well, she crossed her arms. 'Noctis is not the subject of this talk, but his companions carry a light like my own, and the darkness you carry is disturbingly close to the heartless', she said.

Ravus huffed, looking at his prosthetic as he emitted a dark fire within the palm of his hand. Lunafreya subtly shivered from this, the fires her brother created was nothing like the blight, but it certainly felt eviller. 'This power helped me to stand against the false king's companions, and once I master it, none will stand a chance', he assured. 'And the cost of mastering such a thing is too much for you', Lunafreya argued back, grabbing his human arm. 'Brother, this darkness, it will consume you', she started but Ravus turned to her.

'If it means keeping you safe from him, then it is a price I will pay', he growled. Lunafreya's eyes turned steely at him, her will undeterred. 'You are acting foolish! What nonsense did that man put in your head to make even CONSIDER this offer?', Lunafreya demanded. 'Protecting me from Noctis? My fiancé? How noble of you!'.

Ravus ripped his hand from her and gently despite his frustration, grabbed her shoulder. 'Protecting you from that foolish prophecy!', he near shouted, his eyes nearly taking a golden gleam within them for a fraction of a second. 'Look at yourself sister! You grow weaker and sicker with each Astral you awaken! Summoning the Tidemother will kill you! And you'd do it all for that false king!', he berated. Though she hears the anger and ridicule in his voice, she mostly heard the concern and love her brother carried for her.

Lunafreya was not as naïve as her brother thinks, she is very aware her body was falling apart, he strength waning and weakening her with each Astral she meets. Yet she knew this was ordained, Noctis will become the King of Light, she believes in him despite her brother's insistence of the incompetence of the king. 'It is my choice, brother', she said, gently taking his hand and lifting it off her arm, Ravus didn't even attempt to resist. 'Just like it was your choice to use this dark power'. They stared down at each other, her brother's expression unreadable and it hurt the Oracle that he'd gotten so good at hiding his emotions from her.

Without a word, Ravus left his sister behind to resume his tasks. Alone, the Oracle sat down at her table and resumed her letter, adding a bit more to it. She wished she could ask Kairi more about this darkness, and if there was a way to save her brother from it, but until she could speak to her face to face, secrecy was a must for now.

She finished her letter, both, and placed them on Umbra's person. She smiled and gave her puppy an extra tummy rub, a request was a request after all. The pup barked in delight as Pryna yipped happily when Lunafreya ruffled her neck, her only companions to keep her happy. 'Please deliver this to Kairi and Noctis as soon as you can', she pleaded. Umbra yipped in response, trotted off to fulfill his task for his master and disappeared out of the room.

Lunafreya turned to Pryna skipping merrily to the bed, sitting before a pair of feet and placing her paws on the legs. Lunafreya smiled at her guest. 'I apologize for my brother…he's, very protective of me', she sighed. 'He's every right to be afraid of what you're doing does indeed harm you as grievous as he says', her guest said, softly and warmly. Pryna barked insistently, likely demanding affection, and the guest gently rubbed her head with her ethereal hands as best as she could, but the dog feels the affection behind the attempt.

Lunafreya sat down on the bed, turning to her guest. 'I do appreciate your company as much as your assistance in saving Noctis', Lunafreya confessed.

'Thank you again…Naminé'.

*Vesperpool*

On the road in the Regalia, Ignis drove the prince and keyblade wielders to their destination. 'So, this place is supposed to have what we're looking for, right?', Kairi asked, on her knees to sit up and see the large woodlands on their right. As the sun was high in the sky in the early afternoon, giving them plenty of time to find a haven and place their vehicles. 'We hope it is', Ignis said, 'According to the guard this region was where most of the mythril was mined and processed'.

'But wait a second, didn't one of them say this place was under imperial lockdown?', Sora asked, remembering overhearing some akin to that. As the drove into the tunnel, Ignis spoke up: 'They all but turned the key and left the gates open for us, and anyone else I suppose'.

'Just suddenly? That seems like they were expecting us', Kairi said, sitting back down. 'It's like the empire knows everywhere we're going and going to be'.

'Certainly, seems like it', Ignis agreed. 'And very likely we know who will be waiting for us. Chancellor Izunia'.

'You know him?', Sora asked.

'Unfortunately, we've had several run-ins with that man', Ignis said with contempt in his voice, 'For better or for worse, many situations we found ourselves trapped in he was the rope that pulled us out of it'.

'And you think he's the one who ordered the lockdown to be lifted? Just on the chances, we'd have to come here?', Kairi said, summarising Ignis' concerns. 'Astute as always, Kairi', the older man praised. 'Hey so long as he's opening up the paths for us, can't complain', Noctis said in response, looking at his advisor. 'But whose to say he'll let us out?', Ignis countered, not taking his eyes off the road. 'Take note that we're three allies down'.

'Iggy's got a point, we're not really at the top of our game now, even with everyone else here', Kairi agreed, sitting deeper into her seat. Sora placed his hands behind his head, humming. 'Hope Gladio and Aqua are gonna be ok', he said to no one. 'Yeah, the big was pretty ticked after that fight with Terra…', Noctis voiced his concerns. 'And Aqua doubly so', Ignis added. 'I just want them to come back safely, after everything that's happened', Kairi said with worry.

As the cars left the cemented roads in favor of nature's paths, they found the rest of the journey would have to be commenced on foot. They parked both cars near the Haven and decided against making camp immediately at Ignis' suggestion that their search for the ore may take some time. He pulled out a map and rolled it open on the hood of the Regalia. 'If the map is correct, the location of the ore should be right around here', he said, pointing at near the corner of the map.

'Guess we're going on foot', Noctis groaned, looking the woodlands ahead of them. 'Better hurry up fellas looks like we're gonna have some rain soon', Goofy pointed out, gesturing to the darkening clouds above them. A mixture of groans and moaning from the party, they headed off into the woodlands.

They stuck with the pathway, no sense in risking wild animals attacking them, especially when Donald pointed out large alligator-like beasts prowled in the waters near them. Aside from that, they had no other issues traversing through the woodlands without hassle. While walking, Noctis hanged back with Sora as the others followed Ignis leading them into the woods. Sora looked at the prince. 'So…how do you feel about marrying Luna?', he asked. Noctis scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, letting a breath of agitation. 'I guess… I was ok with it…', he said lamely.

'Huh? Thought you'd be…I dunno, happy you were marrying her. She sounds like she's special to you', Sora asked, confused. Noctis shook his head. 'She is…it's just…well…', Noctis started but awkwardly fumbled his approach. Truly the boy had poked a question and concern that the prince had not considered with everything that has occurred since he learned the dreadful news of his home being conquered and destroyed.

Marriage was never something he'd ever considered before the whole arrangement, and when his father had brought this up to him, he willingly accepted it. His memories of Lunafreya were minimal but cherished. 'I haven't seen her in years, we've only been able to keep in touch using the notebooks', he said, 'When I was told I'd be marrying her to end the war…guess I just went along with it…'. He scolded mentally at himself, the excuse sounded so lame even Prompto couldn't defend him.

'Huh…I guess, that makes sense', Sora said, looking at the sky in thought. 'What about you? Thinking of proposing to Kairi when all this is over?', teased the prince, smirking at him. Sora turned bright red, nearly tripping over himself, and then looked ahead of them to see Kairi chatting with Prompto, the blonde showing her the camera. She was smiling away at him as they took selfies and when they weren't, she was taking in the beautiful pictures he did take of their adventures.

His gaze softened at her, subtly glancing down to her fingers and imagining a ring around her finger, being his…wife…

'Can't…say I don't like the idea…', Sora confessed, smiling dreamily at the girl. Noctis rolled his eyes with a grunt. 'That's it? No dilemma? No, "I dunno about that", or any form of "probably should think hard on this?",' he listed.

'Well…I guess the real question I should be asking, is would she say yes?', Sora said, smiling at the prince. Noctis let out a groan, that boy is too optimistic for his good. Sora gave the prince a weird look as he lowered his hands. 'Why does it have to be so confusing for you? If Lunafreya means that much to you, then wouldn't you want to be with her?', he asked, his voice wasn't cheery, but it carried something in it.

Crossing his arms in thought, Noctis looked to the boy. 'Because…what if, I dunno…we've grown apart for so long, maybe we're not as compatible?', he explained. 'The letters you get from her though says she still cares a lot about you', Sora argued, 'Heck, if you weren't as special to her why would she go out of her way to send letters to you?'.

Noctis bit his inner cheek, not exactly certain how to counter that argument. As short and sweet as the letters were, the prince felt the emotions behind them, the love she carried for him. He'd take his time to find the best way to respond to her, how to convey his feelings in words. The time when he'd receive the letters was spacious sure, but each one was worth the wait because he felt her message carrying weight to him, like a constant message to cheer him up even at his weakest moments.

'Maybe when you see her in Altissia, maybe you'll see her differently', Sora said hopefully. 'If we have the time…knowing the empire', Noctis bemoaned, fully aware of how hectic things are going to be when they arrive. 'Every moment with the special person can be precious', Sora said wisely, 'Sometimes even for a little while, those moments are enough'. Looking ahead of them to Kairi and Prompto, Sora said: 'This is the longest time I've ever gotten to spend with Kairi and Riku since our journeys first started'.

He smiled at Noctis. 'So, when you meet up with Lunafreya, even if it's just for a few minutes, you make that a moment to carry with you and her, so when things get bad, you can look back to that moment'.

This prince was speechless at the words, as childish as he put it there was wisdom in them. Somehow though, Noctis couldn't help but feel like Sora had some first-hand experiences with what he was saying. Behind that smile, the prince sees a sadness within, like he just remembered something painful…

*SNAP*

Both boys were blinded by a flash of light that startled them and made them groan in pain from the sudden light. They looked ahead of them rubbing their eyes to see a cheeky Prompto grinning ear to ear with an equally smiling Kairi. 'Got them!', Prompto declared, showing Kairi the photo. She gave him two thumbs up of approval, looking like she just won the lottery. 'Perfect capture Prom!'. 'Prompto I swear to the Six I'm going to shove that camera down your throat…', Noctis growled.

Prompto and Kairi looked at the photo, totally ignoring the threats of the prince and gushed the photo. 'Wow, you captured the spark in their eyes!', Kairi praised. 'Lookout Luna, you've got competition~', Prompto laughed. Noctis rolled his eyes at him while Sora just looked confusedly at Kairi. '…is Kairi trying to pair us off?', Sora asked, looking at Noctis. 'I think she is…', Noctis hummed in response.

Hearing this, Kairi looked at Sora, who then wrapped an arm around Noctis' shoulders. 'Well, if she wants it~', he said. Noctis did the same and together they walked off, leaving the two behind. 'I'll be sure to send you a postcard from Altissia Kairi, never thought I'd be married to a wife and husband!', Noctis declared. As they watched the two walking off, Prompto whistled. 'Luna is gonna be a very lucky woman', he mused.

'…NOPE!', Kairi declared.

She dashed and practically snatched Sora from Noctis, catching them both off guard as Kairi wrapped her arms around Sora and held him away from Noctis. 'This boy is mine! You've got Luna!', she said sternly, glaring at the prince. Sora didn't say a word, just enjoying how protective (and possessive) his girlfriend was when it came to him. Noctis smirked in response and looked at Sora. 'It should be his choice shouldn't it?', he asked cockily.

'Oh, don't worry, he knows the right choice~', Kairi assured. She helped him stand up properly, then cupped both his cheeks and then pressed her lips his. Sora stiffened before he ultimately relaxed into it and kissed her back, holding her against him. Noctis let out a mock disgusted groan before walking away, 'Okay, okay! You win! Just stop sucking faces already!'. Unashamedly behind them, Prompto was taking pictures of the two.

Breaking the kiss, Kairi looked at her boyfriend with a smug look, wiggling her eyebrows at him. 'Who do you belong to Sora?', she asked. 'You, duh!', he said with a dumb smile. 'Darn right you do', she affirmed, pecking his cheek affectionately. They turned back to the road ahead of them before seeing the rest of the path ahead of them leads into the woods and what appeared to be ruins of some sort. However, that wasn't the only thing that had caught their attention, because there was a red car parked right at the end of the pathway.

'What the heck…?', Kairi asked, folding her arms, 'Who left this here?'.

'Gentlemen, what a pleasant surprise'.

The four other world heroes turned to see Ardyn standing by two broken architecture near the lake. Immediately upon seeing him, Kairi felt a shiver down her spine, a cold sensation that reminded her of seeing Ansem for the first time. There was an inhuman sensation around this man, despite his over-the-top sense of fashion, his speech seemed warm but she sensed the falsehood with every syllable. She sub-consciously took a step back from him, which must have been seen since Sora almost instantly stepped in front of her protectively.

'UGH! Iggy called it!', Prompto grunted. 'He was waiting for us!'.

'With my imperial friends, no less', Ardyn chirped happily, waving a hand aimlessly. Sure enough behind him deeper into the waters, there is indeed a platoon of imperial soldiers, not the magitek kind but riflemen and military personal. An airship docked just by the giant ruin before them. 'Great…so what, you're planning on capturing us?', Noctis accused, eyeing the man.

Ardyn, however, was unfazed by the prince's glares, wistfully smiling at them all. 'Fret not, prince Noctis, I'll put in a good word for you, and your companions', he said, so sickly suave and charismatically. He turned to Sora and company, the boy staring at him with a tense look while Donald and Goofy stood beside him, ready for whatever came next. Ardyn's smile hadn't shifted, though Kairi saw his eyes were gleaming with intrigue. 'Ahh, these are the new friends of yours?', he asked.

'Allies to the crown, what of it?', Ignis asked, eyeing him.

'Nothing to worry about, I assure you. I've heard so much about them it's rather amusing to meet them face to face', he said. 'The keyblade wielder has caused quite the commotion within the empire'. None of the party were surprised by the statement, it made sense Xigbar would have spoken about this to Ardyn, but how he told him was another story. Still, Ardyn turned to Kairi. 'Princess Kairi, an honor to meet you', he said, bowing to her.

'O-Oh, thank you…', she said, more so out of mannerisms, but his name was lost to her. 'Ahh, my apologies, I am Ardyn Izunia, chancellor of Niflheim', he introduced. 'How did you know about Kairi?', Sora asked, his voice was tense and from the look on his face he looked ready to smash his face in. Ardyn however, smirked. 'Oh? She *is* a princess?', he questioned shrewdly. Sora grunted and flexed his fingers to summon his keyblade but Kairi caught his hand stopping him.

He looked back at her as she leaned into his ear. 'The empire is right behind him. If we attack him, we'll have to fight them too', she warned. Sora looked back at Ardyn, before relaxing his stance but not taking his eyes off the man. 'Come now, I believe you have business to attend to', he said casually, walking ahead towards the ruin.

Reluctantly the seven followed him, though Kairi stayed in the back with Sora. As the man was reminding them to avoid causing a ruckus, IE a fight likely, Sora turned to her. 'You ok?', he asked, lowering his voice. 'No…there's something off about him', Kairi responded, 'Didn't you feel the darkness from him?'.

'Kinda? I know he's got it but it doesn't feel any stranger than Xigbar's', he shrugged. Kairi shook her head. 'No, he's different…almost, like a corruption', she tried to describe, but this darkness was new and unclear. Unlike Sephiroth where he was manifestation of Cloud's darkness and is nothing but darkness and Xigbar who once possessed light within her heart, this darkness feels like something had changed Ardyn from the inside.

'Don't worry, he doesn't look that tough. Push come to shove, we can take him on', Sora assured, grinning at her. Kairi smiled back in reply to his smile, nodding. 'Yeah, you're right', she hummed.

Walking to the ruins as Ardyn went on talking. 'So, might I ask why you are here? I highly doubt it has anything to do with research or archaeology', he questioned. 'Is it perhaps…mythril you seek?'.

'Guys, he's reading our minds!', Prompto gasped, spooked.

'No, he isn't you doofus…', Donald groaned. 'Isn't mythril a rare ore?'.

'Correct my feathered friend. It is indeed a very precious resource, we can't let just *anyone* get their hands on it', Ardyn rambled.

'But how come you're letting us through? Aren't you helping us?', Goofy pointed out. Ardyn gasped dramatically. 'I never said that!'. 'Of course, ya didn't…', Prompto mumbled. 'Now why would I? Wouldn't you want to earn this ore yourselves? Far more rewarding do it yourself', Ardyn chastised playfully like a teacher lecturing a student.

'Would be nice to have something handed to us now and then…', Donald muttered. Walking closer to the ruins as the sun started to descend basking the world in dusk, Kairi tried her best not to show how disconcerted she felt as she started to count the number of imperial soldiers around the area, mostly just riflemen with no magitek soldiers. It was odd to see normal humans prowling the area, and worryingly it did nothing to calm her nerves.

Where were all the nobodies?

They stopped at the entrance to the ruins, the man with flaming hair raising a hand to halt the march. 'Worry not, I'll be but a moment', he announced and approached the archway. The party looked to one another before Sora tapped Kairi's shoulder and pointed at Ardyn speaking with an all too familiar face.

Aranea.

After a few seconds, he gave them the all-clear and gestured them to approach the woman, Kairi and Sora more so hesitant. The dragoon gave the prince a bemused look, then smirked at Kairi who gave her a friendly wave. 'So, you're the "new recruits" they sent for "special training", right?', she asked, not even remotely pretending to be professional. Catching on to the speech, Kairi stepped up. 'That's us! We look forward to learning how to jump like a dragoon!', Kairi said with some form of sass in her tone.

Aranea smirked with a small twitch in her eye. 'Oh…think you're gonna need some extracurricular later with that attitude… "recruit"', she said with a restrained comment. Kairi merely smiled innocently but her eyes showed mirth and amusement. The dragoon turned to the prince. 'Nice cover, Runaway Prince', she said with a smirk.

Noctis didn't say anything, feeling the eyes of the imperials around him as Ignis gave the young wayward prince a look the ushered caution. Sensing their tension, the silver-haired woman waved her head and shook her head. 'At ease "recruits", there isn't anything in it for this ex-mercenary to turn you in', she said, calmly and coy. 'Let's get this show on the road'.

'Yeah, we better get started on our training!', Goofy said with a nod.

Sora and Donald glanced at each other subtly, slightly worried the captain may have bought the recruits part to heart. It wouldn't be the first time Goofy made a blunder like this.

'But what exactly are you meant to be doing?', Ignis asked. 'I'm just here to escort you, that's all I'm being paid for. So watch yourselves in there', she explained. Aranea nodded to Ardyn, who with a wave said: 'I trust you to be civil. Commodore Aranea Highwind, I leave them to you'.

As he left, the four other world heroes glanced at each other as Aranea leads the prince and his brothers to the entrance after giving orders to the two men stationed at the entrance. ' "Highwind"? Wait…wasn't that the name Riku wanted to use for our raft years ago?', Kairi asked, looking at Sora. 'Yeah…and that was the name of the gummi ship…', Sora agreed.

'Gwarsh, who would have thought it was a common name? First Cid, the that my-thrill-

'Mythril', Donald corrected with a grunt.

'Mythril stuff, and then Highwind? Gee, there's a lot of things similarities here', Goofy finished.

'Who knows? Let's just go and find that ore, then we can get out of here', Kairi said, gesturing to the entrance. 'Right, let's go!', Sora said. They followed the rest of the party into the dungeon…

*Unknown location*

Reaching the shore, at last, he hacked and coughed up the seawater he swallowed accidentally, resting on his arms on the shore. Gritting his teeth, he exhaled and rolled onto his back, panting heavily as the night sky watched over him, clear skies with a blanket of stars. He raised his head to see the small speeder finally sink into the ocean before him, joining the airship in a water junkyard.

Slowly he got to his feet, grunting with exertion and after some joints cracked, he stood up, rolled his shoulders and neck. Turning to the hill that would eventually carry him to the road, he narrowed his gaze when he sees daemons manifesting before him.

'It never ends, does it?', he asked himself, summoning his sword. 'Oh well…'.

A/N:

Hello Naminé~

So Naminé has been with Lunafreya, likely giving her some details…or did she? It will be explained in the future, promise!

Next time our heroes will be searching for the mythril ore, what sort of troubles will they encounter?

Questions?

Q1: How did I do with Ardyn?

Q2: Do you think Kairi and Aranea should have some form of a rivalry?

Q3: Did anyone see the RE-Mind DLC trailer!? I did it was awesome! Just disappointed with one aspect, sure you can figure out what.

Q4: Should Aranea have a bigger role in this tale?

Q5: Did any get the my-thrill reference?

As always, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but more importantly Stay Safe!


	23. Chapter 23

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 23

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

When nightfall came the entrance opened itself up to the party and no sooner did, they enter it they were greeted by the dark. Immediately the inhabitants of the world switched on their torches while Sora and Donald used a spell to create a ball of light for them to guide their way.

They walked down five flights of stairs before coming to a clearing with two different pathways left and right. They also see there was light, magic lights that may not entirely guide their way, but it was enough for them to see the ground and the walls. 'Huh? Who left the lights on?', Prompto asked, looking around. Upon the walls were small pillars emitting faint but visible lights, almost like mystical torches.

'Do you think the owners are still home?', he further asked.

'Wouldn't be the first time we barged into someone's place', Sora mused, smirking at Donald and Goofy. The two snickered quietly while Kairi gave the boy a raised brow. 'Breaking a thing you three get up to?', Kairi accused with smirk. The boy just smiled innocently before they all headed to the left after Aranea assured the team the right was nothing but space. One open area into another, there were violet mists scattered around the ground, and coming out them were skeletons.

'Daemons!', Prompto yelled, summoning his gun.

'Hey look, we found the residents', Aranea said, drawing her spear as everyone drew their weapons. 'And their guests!', Ignis said just as violet portals appeared behind them and spawned heartless soldiers, air soldiers, and three defenders.

'Well let's go greet them!', Noctis said, summoning engine blade and flinging it to the air soldier. The blade struck right in its chest as the prince reappeared and used it as a steppingstone to strike at the other ones.

Prompto busied himself with one of the defenders, shooting it to earn its attention. It shield snapped at him like a wild dog, making him yelp and stagger backward. It then fired a fireball at the blonde, which made Prompto roll away from the attack and switched out his pistol for one of his machine weapons, Noise Blaster. He charged it up to the max just as the shield lunged to him, and with a cry, he expelled the full force from his weapon.

The blast repelled the shield and was thrown upwards, the defender staggered backward with the its hand latched on the shield. 'Got ya!', Prompto said, pulling out his revolver and firing a single shot right into the heartless' skull, destroying it. He turned in time to duck under an air soldier's flying kick, on his hands and knees.

He turned around and using his SMG rifle, he unleashed a storm of bullets at the thing, spraying mostly everywhere but the heartless in the skies. However, Prompto's air barrage took the flying heartless out of the sky and forced them to fly lower and closer to the ground.

Sora flipped over the defenders and swiped at the flying soldiers that flew towards him, slashing them in half mid-flips. Behind the bulky heartless, Sora turned around just as it swung it's shield in a circle to smack the hero. 'Stop!', Sora ordered hands up and freezing time just as the shield was a few inches away from him. The boy slashed at the exposed back of the heartless a few times before dashing away and fighting back. When time flowed normally, the slashes burst forth and destroyed the defender.

Donald and Ignis were fighting the soldiers, the duck using his magic and staff to keep them at bay while Ignis sliced and chopped up the foolish cartoonish creatures that were too close to his liking. The spectacled man tossed both daggers at two leaping shadows, piercing their chests and taking them down, and performed a backflip when one spin kicked towards him.

When he got back to his feet, a defender aimed its shield at the man and fired a breath of freezing ice at him. Donald jumped before the mana and fired a spray of flames at the ice, blocking it and engaging in a deadlock of the elements. The duck gave the man a nod as Ignis summoned his spear, adjusted his eyes and leaped into the air. He then reappeared above the defender, spear plunged through the defender and finished the knight.

Ignis turned to the air soldiers flying towards him, but then a shield flew at them, smacking them in a perfect ricochet arch before flying to a soldier and decapitating it. The shield was caught by Goofy, who gave the man a thumbs up before running to assist Prompto. Kairi on the far left was spinning her keyblade in hand before she changed into Strike Form, summoning Dual-Blade.

Kairi looked at the skeletons surrounding her, hissing and dancing mockingly at her like she was a helpless cub. One skeleton leaped at her and another threw a violet beam of the blight at the girl, only for Kairi to spin her blade and deflect the beam back at the leaping skeleton, killing it instantly. She dashed to her ambushing adversaries, slicing them to pieces in a flash of light.

Kairi then used both hands to spin the blades above her head, creating a small suction of air that drew in the soldiers. Like a blender, Kairi sliced them all into nothing, then spun her blade to mid-level and then spun, swung her blades upwards sending the air into a condensed blade of air that sliced an air soldier in two. Kairi spun her blade in hand with a smile, impressed by her new ability.

Finally, Aranea plunged her spear through three soldiers in a line, expunging them all and stabbed it into a skeleton, utterly obliterating its form in a matter of seconds of the attack. The area was cleared, and not a daemon or heartless remained.

Even dismissed their weapons, some clapped the dust of their hands and clothes while others just looked around. 'Heh, that was easy', Noctis said, smugly. 'Try and not let it get to your head', Ignis warned, 'We've just entered this place. Likely we'll see far deadlier creatures inward'.

'Four-Eyes' got a point, usually, the worst daemons are deeper in these places', Aranea joined in, holstering her spear on her back. 'Just how deep can this place go?', Kairi asked, returning to her regular form. 'Good question princess…'.

Sora and Donald entered a room on the left to see if there were any other paths to take. Much like the room prior, there was nothing but space. However Donald spotted a glint in the corner on the right, he approached but before he got too close, Sora immediately grabbed the collar of the duck's jacket and yanked him back and threw him on his back. 'Hey! What's-

As he bellowed, several rocks fell from above, burying the glint in stone and dust. Both Sora and Donald looked up to see much of the debris came from, much of it looked to be withered and old, in fact, Sora was sure if they threw a rock at it they could probably bring down the whole ceiling from that one stone throw. 'That was close…', Sora said, looking at the duck and offering his hand. 'Yeah…thanks', he said, taking his friend's hand and was pulled up. He adjusted his hat with a sigh and then together they returned to the others.

'You two ok?', Goofy asked.

'Yeah we're fine', Sora said, 'But this place has had better days'.

'Best to take our time then, very likely the floors could be was withered as the ceilings', Ignis stated just as Prompto and Kairi re-joined the others. 'That's a dead end too…', Kairi said, 'Looks like we've only got one way to go'. Thus, the team headed further into the ruins, some keeping their weapons out and ready for any more surprises. When they ventured into a narrow corridor, Sora and Noctis took the point while Goofy and Ignis took the rear-end.

They found another open area with more skeletons, which were dealt with quickly without the heartless to back them up. It was certainly nice to have an easy fight now and then.

Leaving that room, they opened a door that lifted upwards and walked out onto a walkway were above them, Sora pointed upwards. Above was what looked to be the surface of water, like they were trapped underwater. 'What in the heck…?', Kairi asked, looking at it in awe. They all stood on the balcony near it and looked up, taking in the beauty of it. Light was glistening upon the surface; it was as if they were underwater and the surface was just a swim away from them.

'How's this possible? A-Are we underwater?', Prompto asked, his voice was a mixture of fear and awe. 'Look, there's fishes too!', Goofy said, pointing to the water. Sure, enough fishes were swimming around the surface like they were in the ocean. 'What the hell is this place?', Noctis asked, turning to Sora. 'You guys ever seen something like this?'. 'Nope, first time for me too', Sora said, unable to look away from the majestic water.

After some photos were snapped by Prompto and Kairi, they ventured onwards into the ruins. That was until they came to a collapsed pathway with barely a ledge to shimmy across. They all peered down below them to see another floor waiting for them, but rather too far to jump without risking breaking their legs and knees. 'Think we can make that jump?', Prompto asked, his tone sounding strongly against it.

'The ledge will hold us', Noctis said, already shimming across the gap. Followed closely was Ignis and Aranea, then a reluctant Prompto. Kairi and Sora leaped across the gap with Donald and Goofy jumping across after them. Then just when the two other world beings landed behind them, the ground beneath them suddenly shook and bits of the floor started to break away. Quickly, Sora grabbed Kairi and shoved her off the floor and on her back by the rest of the group's feet.

The ground finally broke away and the three of them fell with the debris, each of them yelling as they descended into the darkness. 'SORA!', Kairi screamed, falling on her knees to stare down the collapsed passage disappearing into the dark.

The rest ran to join her, looking down with her to find them but nothing, they couldn't even hear their yells anymore. 'GUYS!', Prompto yelled, cupping his hands against the sides of his mouth. No response, but before Noctis or Kairi jumped down to find them, Ignis held them both back. 'Hold on! Jumping down without seeing where you'll land is suicide!', he warned, holding back a more desperate Kairi.

'B-But! What if…', she started but one look from the advisor stopped her argument. With a sympathetic look on his face, he said: 'I understand your worries Kairi, but it wouldn't be any benefit to anyone if we throw ourselves into more danger'. Kairi lowered her gaze back to the hole before she nodded solemnly. Aranea glanced at the girl before she gestured to the next entrance. 'Maybe we could find a way down to them? Think the ore is on the bottom floor', she suggested. Whether it was an attempt to get out of here quicker or genuine worry for hero, the party didn't know.

'No other options', Ignis said, following her gaze, 'Best hurry then'.

'Right', Noctis agreed.

The team of five proceeded down a flight of stairs that lead them to the second floor where an almost identical pathway was laid bare before them. The only difference was there was more rubble and fallen debris but no broken pathways or holes. The balcony was more in ruin than the first floors, which only furthered the question they had that likely will remain unanswered for the remainder of the journey through. No daemons spawned yet, which even Aranea was perturbed by as daemons often sprout out of nowhere in these dungeons.

'So those were the heartless huh?', Aranea asked, looking at Kairi in particular. 'Yeah…how did you know?', she asked. 'That pirate wannabe told me about them', she revealed with a shrug. 'Lot more cartoony than I thought'. 'Empire is pretty interested in them, along with those white freaks, creepy…'.

'Why?', Ignis asked. 'The empire was hoping to harvest them, much like the daemons. But Xigbar said they weren't as compatible like the daemons, so they mostly stuck with them', Aranea said. 'Compatible? Harvest?', Prompto said, confused. 'What are you talking about?'. Aranea gave them all a look before rolling her eyes and said: 'The empire's been capturing and harvesting the blight from the daemons. Turns out, they're making weapons out of them'.

'…like, the magitek soldiers?', Kairi asked worriedly. 'Bingo, they harvest their darkness, put them in the soldiers, machine or…human. Then they become the perfect little soldiers, no need to worry about exhaustion, food, anything', she said, sounding disgusted by the explanation she was giving the team. Kairi herself looked horrified, especially the humans being experimented on. 'And the emperor is, fine with such a thing occurring in his empire?', she asked aghast. Aranea, let out a cold laugh. 'Kiddo, he was the one who ordered the whole ordeal!', she revealed.

'That's…disgusting…', she replied harshly.

'Right with you on that Kai', Prompto hummed in response. Aranea lead them onwards, continuing her talks while they climbed down some stairs. 'The empire hasn't been quite right lately…', she said. 'A lot longer than lately', Noctis corrected. '… *sigh* yeah…can't argue that. Maybe its time I left', Aranea said. 'What would you do if you did leave?', Prompto asked. 'I'd probably go back to mercenary work, maybe gather up some of my men and hunt daemons for cash', she says smirking.

'That's certainly an interesting job occupation to take up', Ignis said thoughtfully. They came to another balcony, but they could see they were getting closer to the ground where the ore was likely awaiting to be mined. The downside was there was no sign of their missing companions, only furthering Kairi's worries for Sora and the other two. A pat on the back from Prompto earned her attention as he smiled. 'Come on, I'm sure those three will be fine. They've been through way worse, right?', he asked.

Kairi smiled in turn, nodding. 'I'm sure they have…', she mused, looking ahead of them to see there was another door much like the one they found on the first floor on the right. When the approached it and opened it, Ignis resumed the conversation. 'What is it about the empire that strikes you as odd?', he asked.

'Aside from Xigbar, the white freaks and heartless?', Aranea replied with sass laced in her tone, 'The emperor and the new high commander, for starters'. 'Ravus?', Noctis asked tone laced with constraint resentment. 'Kinda…guys already a grouch, but ever since he could summon the heartless, he's been more reclusive and broodier', she explained. 'Even the general's afraid of him'. The prince looked at Kairi for an input, who shook her head. That was something Riku would be better suited to explain.

'And then there's that chancellor…can't stand that guy', Aranea groaned with disdain. 'Oh cool! We don't like him either!', Prompto pipped.

The team came to an intersection with two bridges that lead to two directions, one on the left and one straight forward. Standing in the center of the intersection, the group looked ahead of them at the straight path. 'Left and straight forward?', Noctis asked, looking at the others. 'Or we could split up and cover more grounds?', Aranea offered. 'UUUH…last time we split the party it didn't end so well…', Prompto mumbled.

'Pfft, well this time you have me around', the dragoon bragged. "We also had Aqua, Gladiolus, Sora, Donald, and Goofy, look how well that turned out", the prince thought, rolling his eyes at the dragoon's confidence. Kairi stepped forward to the straight path and said: 'Me and Aranea can take this path, you three could see what's on the left'. 'See? Kid's got more guts than all three of you', teased the dragoon. 'Better to be cautious than have our "guts" sprayed all over the floor', Ignis chastised.

'You sure you wanna do that?', Noctis asked, 'I could go with Aranea'.

'Sorry prince, but I feel like your butler would have an aneurysm if we go together', she said with a wink. Kairi rolled her eyes, annoyed by the woman flirting with Noctis. Especially when she was very aware, he was already engaged to the Oracle. Ignis looked to Kairi, who nodded. 'I'll be fine with her, don't worry', she promised. Nodding to the princess, Ignis turned to the younger boys. 'Then we'll take the pathway on the left, and with luck, we'll meet up on the other side'.

Kairi and Aranea walked towards the bridge but when they were halfway across it, it collapsed beneath their feet. Both girls let out yells of surprise as they fell to the next floor. Kairi collapsed on her stomach with Aranea landing on her feet with a grunt, as the debris fell near her and the dragoon. 'Move!', Aranea shouted, grabbing the girl and pulling her just as boulder smashed the spot she laid on.

Kairi looked up to the space that the bridge had been, now nothing connected to the other side of the bridge. 'Girls! You ok!?', Prompto yelled. She sees the men on the edge looking for them, the light from the magical torches helped her see them though faintly given how low they were. Judging how high Ignis and the others were, she had a worrying feeling they fell probably the same level of depth as Sora. She got to her feet and yelled: 'WE'RE OK! BUT THERE'S NO WAY UP!'.

Aranea cupped a hand to her mouth and shouted: 'GO ON AHEAD! WE'LL FIND OUR WAY OUT!'.

It seemed the boys couldn't see them but hearing them was another story. 'OK! BE CAREFUL!', the blonde yelled, making Noctis flinch from being too close to him. Kairi giggled slightly at the act as they walked off, leaving herself with the dragoon.

Kairi turned to her. 'Couldn't you, just jump out?', she asked, remembering her leaping skills back at the base. 'And smash my head on the ceiling?', Aranea asked with a raised brow. '…you can't control how high you can go?', Kairi questioned. 'Can you?', she responded. '…fair point', Kairi conceded with a sigh. Looking around the dark depths using the dragoon's flashlight and Kairi using magic from the keyblade to light up the black. All around the two was rubble and broken pillars, many passages were blocked or caved in by the rubble.

To the right side of the two, there was a doorway that only had a single boulder in the way, but the passage was entirely dark. Approaching the entrance, the two looked deep into it to see if anything stood out or if their eyes had adjusted to the dark. Nothing came out and Kairi couldn't sense any heartless or daemons. 'Looks like this is our only way out', Aranea stated. 'I guess so…'.

The two girls headed into the corridor, keeping close and weapons at the ready for surprises. More so for crumbling floors.

The corridor was longer than the other ones they had ventured through, walls in better condition and had a few torches that were even more dimly lit then the ones from the upper levels, barely illuminating even the walls they were attached too. Kairi kept biting her inner cheek with trepidation as they explored this dark corridor together, mind often wandering back to Sora and the others. This place was home to daemons as well as heartless, and being separated from everyone again, based on previous experiences, wasn't an ideal situation for them to be in.

It didn't help her either that she was alone or stuck with a former ally to the empire. The woman glanced at her and said: 'So having fun tumbling in the dark?'. Kairi rolled her eyes. 'I could live without the constant collapsing floors…', Kairi said, rubbing her knees. 'Aside from that, I kinda am having fun'.

'You're not too shabby for a newbie', Aranea complimented, 'Could still use some polish here and there but hey'. Kairi frowned, considering she's been doing rather well since she came here, and she believed her skills were far more polished than they were before arriving. Plus, could she be called a newbie at this point? 'Thanks…', she muttered.

Aranea smirked at that tone, ruffling the kid's hair, which made Kairi duck her head from it when she tussled her hair. Granted it probably was a mess giving the fall and the amount of dust and grime in it probably made it look atrocious, but still, she wanted to make it look at the very least decent. Her reaction, however, caught the dragoon's attention and in turn, she smirked. 'What? Worried about your hair?', she teased.

'Kinda?', she said, straightening it out with her fingers running through it, brushing off some dust and pebbles too. 'Why? For the kid?', she asked with a cat-like smirk. Kairi blushed softly, before clearing her throat. 'W-Well…I mean, Sora…isn't really, I mean…', she rambled. 'Aww cute, you and he together?', Aranea said as the turned around a corner. '…yes', Kairi said shyly. It was both so wonderful to say yet somehow also embarrassing to talk about it to someone. She truthfully didn't know why telling her was so awkward, it wasn't as if she was embarrassed to be Sora's girlfriend (what lunatic would be?) and she is thanking her stars for it.

Maybe it was because she told someone outside of the team, they were together? Then again, the others knew about their relationship and she hadn't said a word about it to them. Maybe opening being affectionate to Sora tipped them off…

'Can't say I blame you, kid's got skill', she admitted, thinking back to their fights and how he took on Sephiroth. 'Plus, it helps he's easy on the eyes'. 'Oh yeah…', Kairi agreed wholeheartedly, smiling dreamily. 'Those blue eyes, spiky hair, and that damn smile', Aranea listed. 'Yeah…', Kairi mused, already thinking of him.

'Plus, he's pretty athletic, a nice lean body too', she went on, smirking at Kairi. 'Oooooohhh yes~', Kairi cooed.

'Think he's into more mature women?'.

Kairi stopped walking and turned on the woman, her daydreaming ceased, and she just stared at the dragoon. '…beg your pardon?', she asked slowly. Aranea just kept that smug smirk on her face like she was winning a debate between the two. 'Just saying, he's probably the strongest guy right now, bar that oversized sword ass from before, and just saying, bounty hunting gets a bit lonely…', she mused, almost like she was contemplating something.

'A-Are you, do you intend on seducing Sora!?', Kairi asked, horrified mixed with a severe case of rage. 'Why not? I think I've got a chance', Aranea shrugged in response. Kairi glared at her, standing and holding her keyblade up dangerously. 'And what makes you think he'd be interested in you?', she challenged, nearly aiming her keyblade at her as opposed to using words. Kairi wouldn't lie but the idea of smacking this woman on the head with her keyblade sounded like a great idea.

'Well let's see here', she said, gesturing to her body subtly. Kairi felt a nerve when she glanced at the woman's more developed chest. 'W-Well! Sora isn't interested in just looks!', Kairi argued, huffing. 'Hey there's more to me than just the outside~', the dragoon argued. 'Sides, I know a few tricks here and there…'.

She stopped talking when Kairi gave her the most murderous look the sixteen-year-old could muster. 'Utter one more word…and now amount of healing potions will fix what I will do to you', Kairi warned darkly, a dark violet aura surrounded her. Even Aranea wasn't that reckless to test the truth of Kairi's promise. In the end, the dragoon shrugged. 'Yeah, your right…we can finish this after we get out here', she concluded. 'So how about truce? Just until we get out?', she offered, holding her hand out.

Kairi eyed her armored hand before she took it. 'Fine…', Kairi said. Together they walked on, the princess a little more than irked, while Arena was smiling away at the teasing. Least for now she kept the girl focused on the task as opposed to worrying about the others and getting distracted. Looking at Kairi, the dragoon gave her a more friendly smile when she wasn't looking. 'All things considered, you're a lot better than you think', she admitted.

Kairi didn't look at her but she could see the girl's shoulders loosen up and her walk more relaxed and slower. 'I get the impression this is your first time on a journey like this and you're only now learning the real hard stuff?', she asked. Kairi turned to her, begrudgingly nodding. 'Yeah…this is the first time I've ever been on a journey with Sora', she confessed.

'I figured as much', Aranea said, patting her shoulder, 'And let me guess, you're worried about being a liability to him?', she prodded. 'Am I *that* obvious!?', Kairi groaned, rubbing her neck. 'Trust me kiddo, I've trained and met a lot of new guys and gals on the first mission, you get used to seeing the signs of a novice', Aranea said, thinking back to the rest of her previous trainees. 'But hey, you're at the very least ahead of the curve, that dual wield weapon thing? Good stuff', she assured.

Patting her back she walked off. 'But you can't keep letting those doubts get the better of ya kiddo', she said, 'Otherwise that goal of yours to not be a liability to the other kiddo? Ain't gonna happen', she encouraged. As she walked off, Kairi looked at her keyblade in thought, the words of her companion stuck with her as she thought back to the day she did come here.

Looking back, she realized she had come a long way since she was finally able to leave the forest. Even then she didn't believe she had much improved on much of her talents, and with only having a fellow trainee to compare her progress to, she worried that wasn't much to base on.

Heck ever since Sora had taught her the form changes, Aqua teaching her more magic and even taking a few lessons from watching Ignis' footwork, she felt like had improved far more than she did back at the forest. Though she knew she was still far from Riku and Sora's levels, and she didn't even compare herself to Aqua. Closing her eyes, she opened them again after inhale and jogged after the woman, a promise made.

"One day I'll be able to stand beside you as an equal, Sora".

*Lower Levels*

Laying on a bunch of rubble, Sora, Donald, and Goofy looked up the void of darkness that was the ceiling above them. 'Guys?', Sora spoke. 'Yeah?', they both asked. 'I never thought I'd say this…but I wish we just had another avalanche', he groaned, 'WAY softer to fall on'.

'Well Sora, ya know what they say? What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger', Goofy said with cheer. 'Wish I could say the same about my back', Donald whined, rubbing his aching back with both feathered hands.

Sora chuckled as he and Goofy got up and rolled his shoulders, cracking a few joints in the process. Looking up with a whistle, Sora said: 'No way to climb from here'. Even if there were some flat walls for him to run up and granted, he could probably hop his way to the surface again, but that would mean leaving Donald and Goofy behind. That was a no go for the boy. 'Hope the others are ok', Sora said, immediately thinking about Kairi.

'I just hope they don't get separated! That's happening a lot to us lately!', Donald said, looking around their new accommodations. 'Not as much as it happened on our second journey', Goofy remarked, rubbing his aching head, 'I think Sora fought more bad guys on his own with us'.

Sora chuckled at the two's banter, looking back at them before he realized something. 'Hey…have you guys noticed something familiar?', he asked. They stopped their talks and looked to the boy. With a grin, he opened his arms like he was showcasing the room. 'It's just the three of us!', he said. The two members of the King's circle blinked before Donald crossed his arms impatiently. 'Yeah, we've noticed Sora…no Kairi or Noct insight', chastised the duck.

'No ya doofus, I mean, its just the three of us again', he clarified. 'Think about it, ever since we came here, we've had someone else with us. Noct and the others, Aqua and Kairi, Riku. It hasn't been just us three since we came here'. Realization dawned on the duck's face as he uncrossed his arms, Goofy chuckled. 'Wow, I hadn't noticed that', Goofy said, cupping his chin in thought. 'We've been separated a few times sure, but it was never with the three of us'.

'I know, that's so weird to think about huh?', Sora said. 'It's kinda nice'. 'A-Hyuck, yeah. Its like old times', Goofy hummed. 'Kinda weird huh? Usually, it's just the three of us', Donald mused. Sora turned down the pathway ahead of them, and with a smile. 'A trip down memory lane?', he offered. His two longest companion nodded and followed him into a new adventure.

A/N:

YAY, ANOTHER ONE DONE! *Slams head into desk* I'm so tired…

Next time we'll finish off this dungeon with another guest of mischief, then later chapter focusing on Riku and Iris.

Q1: What did you think of Kairi and Aranea having a sister/rival moment? It'll be more sister here on out.

Q2: Should we focus on Sora, Donald, and Goofy in the next chapter?

Q3: Can you guess whose the mischief character?

Q4: Was the pacing acceptable?

Q5: Do you want more fight scenes?

As always please leave your questions in the review and I'll answer them in the next chapter! Thanks for reading, stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	24. Chapter 24

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 24

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

'And…another dead end', Donald bemoaned, slumping at the sight of the wall.

'Aww man…this is like the third time!', Sora groaned, pouting at the wall.

Their search for the ore along with their separated friends hasn't exactly gone well, Sora's impressive navigation skills that somehow ensured they always found their way to their goals had ultimately decided to take a back seat and instead the three were getting lost left and right. Since they resumed their exploration, they unluckily had found themselves in a maze of sorts where everywhere they seemed to go it would either be a complete circle or a dead end, like so.

Running his hand through his spiky locks, Sora looked around for a pathway as opposed to going backwards. The spot they found themselves in was nothing special or particularly different compared to the other parts of the ruins. Most of the architecture was destroyed by monsters and the passage of time, pathways blocked by collapsed ceilings and debris everywhere.

'Gwarsh Sora, what ever happened to your navigation skills?', Goofy asked with a laugh, 'You used to be able guide us through everywhere'.

'Hey come on! They only work when I'm not in a new world that long!', Sora replied, putting his hands behind his head. 'But sure, it would be nice if I knew where the exit was…'.

'We could just blast our way out!', Donald said with an impatient look, staff out and judging from his stance he'd looked ready to commit the act. 'Hold on Donald, if you start using magic like that, you'll bring the whole place down on us!', Goofy said, waving his hands. Looking up at the cracked and crumbly looking ceiling, Sora pursed his lips and hummed in agreement to Goofy's words. Even the duck could see that they'd have a better chance of being crushed than finding an exit through reckless construction work.

'Well what do we do then?', Donald asked, dismissing his staff. 'Maybe we could keep looking around, there's gotta be a way out of this place', Sora offered, gesturing to the path they came from. Seeing no other way, the duck let out a huff before he walked down the path they originated from, Goofy and Sora following him in tow. As they walked Sora's thoughts drifted back to Kairi and the others, an uneasy feeling reeled in his chest. No matter how confident he is in her and the others, there is always that "overprotective" nature in him.

Part of him almost wished she fell with them, then he could have at least kept an eye on during their navigation. Maybe he should just be grateful she's with friends who could at this point handle the heartless, better than being on her own.

Back to the centre of the maze, he sees Donald scorching a spot on the corner where they came from to mark it. After the first time Donald had been making marks distinguishable for them to see that they had come from that path. North and south had been cleared with north only taking them twenty minutes to explore while south a total of ten. 'Which way now? East or west?', Goofy asked, standing in the middle of the two directions.

'Guess we could try east?', Sora said, crossing his arms. 'Better than nothing', Donald said, heading to the east direction. Exploring down the corridor with Donald using his magic to keep the light on for them as the torches from above were far dimmer than the ones higher up. 'I wonder how everyone else is doing', Goofy said. 'I'm sure Noct and the others are ok, they've got Aranea with them', Sora said confidently.

'Oh, I know…but I was thinking more of the King, you know?', clarified Goofy, looking worried. 'I mean, we've got no way to contact them without the ship'. Sora and Donald glanced at each other, sharing the same expression as the captain before Donald said: 'Yeah…he's probably worried about us being gone this long'.

'I'm just hoping Ventus and Axel are ok…I mean, we've only just woke Ventus up and now Aqua's so far from him', Sora lamented, a sense of guilt was creating itself in his heart. Seeing how happy the two of them were after nearly twelve years of being apart, Sora wouldn't even pretend to know how it'd feel if he was separated from Kairi or Riku for that long. 'I wonder how they're doing', he said.

'I'm sure they're looking for anyway to come and bring us back', Goofy said with smile, 'Besides, they're gonna need us to help save the worlds!'. Sora and Donald smiled back in agreement, before Sora grinned cockily. 'I mean, we did save the worlds twice before. Not bad for someone who wasn't picked by the keyblade off the bat and two guys without keyblades', Sora bragged.

'Yeah, you would've blown it without us!', Donald teased. Sora gave the duck a smirk. 'Sorry? Who's the one doing most of the heavy fighting?', he challenged. 'Excuse you, who's the one keeping your sorry butt out of the fire?', Donald retorted. 'Goofy! He's the one with the shield!', he laughed. 'WAK!? I saved your keister plenty of times with my magic!', Donald shouted.

'Who was the one who froze me into a block of ice because *somebody* wasn't looking at where he was aiming?', reminded the boy. 'And who spent *two* hours melting that ice!?', Donald shouted. 'That was me Donald', Goofy said playfully, 'I had to use a hairdryer because you were out of mana'. Donald opened his mouth to argue with that, but nothing came out of his quill but silence. He grumbled and crossed his arms, walking in angry silence. The other two chuckled at him before resuming their walk. Sora looked down at the path his mind wandered back to Aqua and her keyblade. 'Hey guys, is there a way to fix a keyblade?', he asked.

'I dunno buddy, I mean, me and Donald didn't know keyblades could be broken', Goofy hummed. 'The King told me his own wasn't strong enough so he and Riku got new keyblades from Merlin', Donald revealed, 'But he didn't tell me how'.

'Maybe he just changed the keychain to it?', Sora hummed, adding his own two munny. 'But that was the keyblade from the realm of darkness, imagine what they fought to be strong enough to dwarf it', Donald said with a finger wagging. Sora nodded, contesting to that point. 'That keyblade Aqua used though belonged to her master, didn't it?', Goofy asked, looking at Sora. 'Yeah, Kairi told me it belonged to Eraqus…but when she sacrificed her keyblade to save Terra, she had to use it from then on out', Sora explained.

Donald rubbed his chin in thought then he clicked his feathered fingers. 'Hey, did Aqua ever say where she lost her keyblade?', Donald asked, looking at Sora. Sora rubbed his neck to remember if Kairi or Aqua had mentioned it, before he hummed. 'I think she said the last time she fought him was…was back in…', he said, before he grinned. 'Radiant Garden', he said.

The two of the King's friends smiled back at him. 'Then once Cindy fixes our ship, we can take her there and get her keyblade back', Goofy said. 'And her armour!', Sora said, turning to them. 'Remember, she, Ven and Terra had armour with their keyblades too! So, if she lost her key there, then her armour's gotta be there too!'. 'Perfect! Then that'll be the first thing we'll do once Cindy's done', Donald stated. '…after I uh, give her blueprints…'.

Further on, they came to another clearing with fortunately a flight of stairs just a head of them. 'Oh boy oh boy! We found our exit!', Donald said, hopping up in glee. 'Great! Let's go before…', Sora said, but then just before he could finish, flames of darkness appeared in the air before them, seven tall pillars with daemons reaching out from the ground. What transpired from the flames were an old set of heartless the three hadn't seen for a very long time, invisibles.

One of the strongest pure blood heartless, human form with heart shaped holes in their chest with long broad swords. Two reapers spawned from the ground before the trio as a barrier erected behind them and in front of the stairs. 'Looks like we gotta fight our way out!', Sora said, summoning his keyblade. 'Then what are we waiting for?', Donald said, staff at the ready. With his two loyal friends by his side, Sora ran in first as the invisibles swooped to the boy.

He did a front flip over a sword that swept at him, fired three spheres of light at the two soaring to him. The spheres smacked them in their faces, though only one was deterred from the attack being hit twice while the other brushed off his attack like it wasn't anything. The shadowy creature brought down its massive sword on Sora but Goofy intervened in time to repel the strike, barely moving an inch from the force.

Donald casted a spell ironically Sora had taught him, and it was "Balloon". The yellowish orange ball appeared in front of the reappear and then when the skeletal being touched it, it burst into six coloured spheres and then they all charged towards the reaper. Each impact caused it to stagger backwards until the final one slammed into it and finished it off.

The duck turned to the invisible that loomed over him with a yell, just ducking below the sweeping blade, his hat still in the air from the wind of the sweep. Grumbling the duck grabbed his levitating hat and smacked the heartless in the knee before he leapt backwards from another swing. 'Donald!', Sora yelled, turning to the duck with a grin. Seeing that familiar grin, the duck joined his side quickly as they raised their weapons in the air. 'Time for some magic!', the duck announced.

Levitating in the air and spinning around, the two mystic heroes fired off a barrage of fireworks that flew and exploded all around them. The invisibles that were close to their attack were met with colourful rockets that upon impact exploded. The power was great enough to bring one down and severely wound another enough for Goofy to crushed them with his shield and weight.

Back on their feet Sora and Donald split up to take on the rest. The reaper was Sora's next target, running towards as it aimed it's bony hand at the boy, firing a dark blast of magic at him. Sora slides underneath the attack, just missing his hair. He aimed his keyblade at the reaper and fired an electric chain at it, the lighting encasing it in golden chains as it roared in pain.

The invisible nearby swooped in however to catch the boy off guard, firing a barrage of violet dark energy at the boy. Sora quickly leapt and hopped over the attacks, eventually Sora started to even swipe at the attacks deflecting them. The hero hopped over a pile of rubble before he tossed his keyblade at the invisible like a spear. The mystic weapon of light managed to pierce through the invisible's head and strike at the reaper's chest, breaking it apart like a pile of sticks.

Re-summoning the keyblade in hand, Sora turned to see Goofy being ganged up by two invisibles. Sora sprinted towards his friend as an invisible flew to the boy, only for Donald to fire an aero spell in front of Sora, who used this to not only leap over the attacking pure blood, but he was high enough to touch the ceiling above them. Flipping upside down so that his feet touched the ceiling, Sora felt the magic of the ability he gained in the sleeping worlds.

As his body glowed with light, he bounced off the ceiling like a torpedo and dived towards the invisible, spinning around like a drill. His keyblade struck the back of one invisible as he spun into it, destroying the body and then he dived into the ground creating a light-based shockwave that blew the other invisible away from Goody. Giving his buddy a thumbs up in gratitude, Goofy turned to the invisible that staggered in the air before he gave Sora a smile. 'Batter up pal!', he said, spinning his shield with his long finger and then tossing it up in the air.

Taking up a baseball player's stance, Sora swung and smacked the shield directly into the invisible. The power behind Sora's swing and Goofy's shield were more then adequate to slay the invisible as the shield pierced it and struck the wall. Goofy re-called his shield and gave the boy another smile off approval, they together turned to Donald hopping around the two invisible's swords, looking like he was trying to get some distance from them. They ran to the duck but were then blocked by two more portal appearing below them, and slowly spawning from them were jelly like daemons the flans.

The violet creatures hissed at the two, one even enlarged themselves to dwarf the two and lunge forward to try and gobble them up. Quick as lightning Sora and Goofy hopped back from the greedy creature. 'Hey, don't they look like those heartless with fruit?', Sora asked, looking at Goofy quickly. 'They kinda do…just more, ya know, scary', he confessed.

The flans slithered towards them, which Sora struck at them only for his keyblade to sink into the gooey creatures and when he yanked it out the monsters weren't remotely bothered by it. Shaking the goo off his key with disgust, Sora looked to the captain for advice. 'Try magic!', Donald shouted, ducking under another sword. 'Like what?', Sora asked, side stepping another lunge.

'Light maybe!?', Donald yelled again as if that was obvious.

'…oooh!', Sora said.

Raising his keyblade upwards, a swirl of light formed on the tip and then he aimed it at the flans. Sora fired a pure beam of light at the two globs for enemies, piercing them and instantly disintegrating them into nothing as the darkness that surrounded them faded into nothing. They turned back to the duck, using a barrier to protect him from the strikes of the invisibles. 'A little help here!?', he yelled. Sora looked at Goofy who nodded and raised his shield up, and with that Sora jumped onto his shield. From his feet, Goofy rocketed them both into the air, Sora grabbed his hand and with a spin, he flung Goofy towards the invisibles.

'Incoming!', he yelled as he slammed his shield first into the ground, donating a decent sized explosion that the invisibles stood little chance of surviving, the fiery explosion consuming them.

After that, the two barriers that held the three there disappeared as they dismissed their weapons, Sora clapping his hands together to knock off the dust. 'Done, and done', he said cheerfully. His companions looked at him with nods, then turned to the stairway. 'Hope this is the exit, I've had enough of this place', Donald groaned.

Climbing the stairs out of their maze, the trio of experienced world explorers see a luminescent light ahead of them, shinning on the ceiling and the walls ahead of them in the colour blue. 'That light could be the water ceiling…', Sora hummed in thought. '"Water ceiling"?', Donald asked with a raised brow. 'Well what do you call a ceiling that's made of water? A ceiling pool?', Sora asked. 'Do you think you could swim in that?', Goofy asked.

'Maybe?', Sora said, looking thoughtful.

'Why don't you try it out?', Donald said with a smirk, crossing his arms.

Sora rolled his eyes as they reached the top of the stairs at last to see they were indeed beneath the "water ceiling", with a clearing just ahead of them. The ground glowed with the light from above with a long bridge just above the end of the clearing. The three ventured forth, looking around and taking in the visuals while looking out for the other members of their party. 'Gee, we're probably at the bottom of this place', Goofy commented, looking around.

'So, the mythril should be around here, right?', Sora pipped up, looking for the ore in question. Looking further into the clearing, he narrowed his eyes when something sparkled ahead of them from the light above. 'Maybe ahead?', Donald said, walking ahead. Following close by the duck, the three other worlders looked to the bridge and narrowed their eyes when they see a silhouette ahead of them. 'Huh? Hey fellas, do you see that?', Goofy asked, pointing to the bridge.

As he did, a large beast slowly raised its massive wings above it and flapped them to raise above the ground. With a shriek so loud, it forced the three to cover their ears in pain, the beast flew behind them and landed at the entrance, snarling at the trio just as they summoned their weapons. It breathed a breath of lightning at them, making Donald and Goofy run away while Sora leapt into the air to evade the shocks.

While in the air, Sora fired a hailstorm of ice upon it, shards of frozen pikes rained down from his keyblade and covered the beast in a storm. The beast let out a roar as some of the icicles pierced it's body, spreading its wings. The wind howled behind the wings blew the shards away and sent Sora flying off from the force. He flipped in the air and his feet landed upon one of the pillars, which he used to bounce off and fly straight to the monster as it took flight.

'Donald, give me a boost!', he yelled as he charged to the monster.

Donald waved his staff and created a bigger vortex of air for Sora, the moment his feet touched it he was sent even higher into the air just as the monster flew up. Now on the same level of height Sora air-dashed to it and started to wail on it with his keyblade. Three strike on its hardened shell of a skull was enough to make the beast roar in pain as Sora flipped over its head and landed on its neck. He staggered as the monster was thrashing to throw him off, making him grab one of the spikes on its mane.

As it flew around the space with an unwanted passenger on its back, Donald and Goofy looked up at the battle taking place in the skies. The monster then performed a roll in the air, which was enough for Sora to lose his footing and his grip on the spike. As he fell the beast charged towards him with its talons ready to tear him apart.

Goofy threw his shield directly at the beast as Donald shot a bolt of lightning at it. Both attacks luckily managed to strike it hard enough that it started to thrash and zoomed past Sora and smashed into one of the pillars. Destroying it and crashing onto the ground as Sora landed back on his feet and stared down at the beast with his friends. The monster got back up though, likely more furious than hurt from the battle as its body started to cackle and glow with lightning. Lightning burst from it's back and covered the space it occupied with it.

Sparks of lightning raced through the ground towards the trio breaking the ground beneath it wildly, sending the rocks and dirt scattering around the place. Donald aimed his staff at the monster as the lighting charged towards them, glowing in a faint cream coloured light. 'Flare!', he shouted. He fired a large beam of pure heat that rocketed towards the monster, hitting it straight on and consumed it. The lightning dissipated with one more faint cackle.

Then there was a large flame of darkness roared where the monster once stood, an intense heat washed over the three as they held their arms up to protect themselves from the heat as Donald's beam was destroyed.

As the flames vanished, the beast was reborn as a heartless.

Larger than before with wings coated in violet mist with venom dripping from its talons, its blue scales now violet and red with eyes yellow as a shadow's, black mist lingering around its maw as the heartless emblem proudly stamped on its chest glowed with power. Purple lighting danced around its body as its wings flapped again, the wind it created almost knocked the three off their feet. With a cry from its maw, spewing black mist and dark lightning. The combined attack tore the ceiling apart, collapsing near the trio as he flew towards them. 'Look out!', Goofy said, grabbing the two and running to the left in time to be blow by the force of its speed, a shockwave knocking them all aside.

As it soared into the air, it flies around the small space and fires streams of lightning at the trio, making them all run in several directions the violet lightning tore the ground apart. Sora ran up a pillar while the heartless focused on Donald and Goofy, his clothes glowing and once he jumped off the pillar, he cried: 'Here goes!'.

Sora's clothes shined brightly before a burst of power exploded all around him, turning his red and black clothes to green with flame patterns on his pants. On his wrists and feet were icicles shaped like ice skates and greaves. Blitz Form had been awakened once more.

In the air Sora dashed towards the heartless as it turned around to see Sora kicking it in below it's jaws. The force of his kick made the heartless look up, but Sora wasn't finished. He dashed to the left and kicked it in the head again, dashed above its head and performed a stomp on its head with both feet. This time the attack made the heartless stagger and shake its head in pain, flapping its wings insistently to keep itself airborne. The boy dashed away from the head when it tried to munch on him, creating distance from it and them aimed his iced greaves at it, he fired a blizzard spell at it.

Several shards of ice spewed forth from Sora's greaves but the heartless fired a breath of mist that instantly melted the ice and evaporated the waters. Quickly dashing away from the cloud of toxic mist, Sora kept up this dance of moving and evading while below Goofy handed Donald their last ether. 'He can't keep this up for ever Donald!', Goofy said worryingly. Donald rubbed his chin in thought while watching the heartless flutter weakly in the air, before nodding. 'We've gotta bring it down first, we're no good to Sora while its in the air!'.

Donald lifted his staff up and swirled it around, creating a faint blue chilly fog around the tip while concentrating. Goofy looked up to see two faint mists manifesting over the heartless' wings, slowly solidifying into large chunks of ice. Sora must have seen them because he was dashing all over the place in the air, kicking the heartless to keep its eyes focused on him long enough for Donald to finish what he was doing.

With a yell, Donald's staff shined a brilliant blue-ish white and the chunks of ice that were formed quickly fell on the wings of the heartless. The chunked smashed into the wings and the beast fell to the ground with a heavy thud that shook the place while Sora dashed to the ground with it, landing on his feet as Goofy and Donald joined him. 'Nice work!', he praised, 'Now we can take it down for real!'.

However, the heartless raised its head once again, lightning and black mist gathered up around its maw as the pebbles and small broken rocks began to levitate from its power. 'I don't he's going down without a fight…', Goofy gulped, lifting his shield up. 'Sora lend me a hand!', Donald shouted, aiming his staff at the heartless and channelling more ice magic into his staff. Nodding to his idea, Sora placed both his wrists together, the ice skates evaporating and channelled all to his greaves.

Slowly Sora's body glowed in a faint light as he returned to his normal clothes colours as in his palms was a whitish blue magic. Together they both yelled: 'BLIZZAJA!'. Together a beam of magic ice burst from the staff of Donald and hands of Sora, combing into a much larger and denser beam that struck against the mist-lightning attack from the heartless. Despite the initial struggle at first, the combined magical force between Sora and Donald proved to be more than the heartless could contest with, as the beam started to freeze the lightning and turn the poisonous fog into frosty air.

When the beam came into contact with the heartless, it's entire body was slowly being in cased with ice, slowly covering its body an turning it into a perfect ice sculpture. Once the two finished their spell, Goofy finished the job with one more final shield toss. The shield smashed the sculpture into pieces for a few moments before the darkness disintegrated into nothing but smoke.

The trio slumped, panting tiredly as Goofy caught his returning shield, Sora and Donald sitting down, drained from their combined attack. '*Pant* *Pant*…D-Donald…we need to…to…talk about doing that again', Sora panted. 'I'll think on it…once I get some air in my lungs…', Donald wheezed, almost ready to faint. As the darkness disappeared, a crystal heart fluttered from the disappearing ice and disappeared into the sky.

Sora took one more deep breath before exhaling and looked to where the ore was waiting for them. With a nod from his friends, Sora walked to the ore and after some digging, he managed to find the pure pinkish crystal amidst rubble that collapsed from the ceiling. He took out his keyblade and after some whacking, he managed to break a large chunk of ore from the ground and picked it up.

'Sora, we've got guests!', Goofy yelled.

Turning around to the others, to his relief their guests weren't heartless or any more daemons. Instead it was thankfully Noctis and the other two of the retinue. They looked roughened up with some soot marks on their cheeks along bits of their clothes ripped and torn in several parts, even Ignis' glasses were cracked slightly.

'You guys ok?', Noctis asked, looking at the weary looking duck and boy.

'Absolutely…', Donald sighed tiredly, 'But hey, we got the ore'. They looked to see Sora waving at them with the item in his hand, getting smiles and nods from the trio. 'Wonderfully done boys', Ignis praised, 'At least now the yacht will soon be sailing and our journey to Altissia will reach its end'.

Then he frowned when he looked around the area, before looking at the worried keyblade wielder. 'Where's Kairi and Aranea?', Sora asked, looking at the three. 'We got separated from them, much like how we were separated from you three', Ignis said. 'Aww phooey! So where could they be!?', Donald said, getting to his feet. 'We were hoping down here or at the very least they've found you three', Ignis said with huff. 'Then we're not leaving here until we find them', Noctis announced.

'There's gotta be somewhere we didn't look yet'.

*Elsewhere*

With one more strike from her keyblade Kairi brought down the reaper, splitting it's rib cage open and letting it fall backwards, sinking into the darkness from whence it came. Panting to herself, Kairi leaned against a wall for support with one arm against the wall.

'You doing alright, Red?', Aranea asked, kicking a goblin off her spear. 'Never…better', Kairi panted weakly, pushing herself off the wall and dismissing her keyblade when she knew there was no darkness around them. Looking around the corridor they were currently in, seeing the bones of the deceased skeleton and reaper daemons, marks on the wall thanks to her magic hitting them and several debris.

Ever since they walked down this corridor it had been nothing but fighting. Heartless and daemons were plentiful in the corridor, and every time that got further inside the more they would spawn. It had been nothing but walking and fighting since then, it reached a point that Kairi had considered they just turn back and look around for another pathway. Even the dragoon was starting to feel the fatigue of the constant fighting.

Popping what seemed to be her last potion, Aranea downed it and then turned to the girl. 'You need a break?', she asked. 'Nah', Kairi said, standing up and stretching, 'The sooner we get out of here the better'. Looking down the corridor she walked on with the dragoon behind her, Kairi took a breath as she felt the slight ache in her body but ignored it. She had only one hi-potion left and wanted to conserve her magic for battle, last thing they needed was for them to be wounded or in precarious situation requiring some healing.

"Just keep going, find Sora, get the ore, then out of here", she thought to herself, "And maybe a nice hot bath after all this".

'Hey Aranea, how long do you think this corridor is?', she asked, hoping to make some conversation between them to fill the silence and keep her distracted from the ache. When the dragoon didn't respond to her, Kairi turned to her with her mouth opened but paused.

The dragoon was frozen in place in a mid-walk stance, her left foot just about to touch the ground. Kairi looked at her with worry and approached the dragoon. 'Aranea?', she asked softly, waving her hand in front of her face. No response. Not only that but Kairi looked around to see something about the place had drastically changed.

The air was still, the gentle hums of the wind had ceased around her and even her footsteps made no noise. Kairi cupped her chin, looking around as she pondered this change. Curious she summoned her keyblade and after she lifted it up to point at the ceiling, she said: 'STOP!'.

Nothing happened, her magic didn't even appear. Blinking in confusion, Kairi repeated this again and again until she lowered her keyblade and looked at it. 'What's going on? If I didn't cast that spell, what did?'.

'Not what dear, who'.

Kairi turned around to see leaning casually against the wall was Master, looking at her. Kairi let out a gasp before steeling herself and readying for combat. 'Who are you? One of Xigbar's?', she accused, eyeing him. The Master just pushed himself off the wall casually, smirking at the girl. 'Hey now, no need to be so hostile, princess', he said coolly. 'Don't assume every guy you met wearing a black coat is part of Xiggy's groupie, it'll make an ass out of ya'.

'Well how many people have *you* seen wearing that coat outside of the Organization?', Kairi asked. Master raised a finger and wagged it. 'One, but he's not important now', he said casually. He sauntered around the place, the princess never taking her eyes off him and her grip on her keyblade tightened. 'Are you doing this? Stopping time?', Kairi questioned. 'Well sure as heck not your doing now is it?', he asked, his tone was playful and friendly, but it did nothing to assure her worries.

'So you, my dear, might be wondering "who is this guy, why is he sauntering around stopping time and why he's so interested in little ole me?" Well I'll tell you my dear', he said, spreading his arm theatrically. 'I'm here to see if you're more of what I'm looking for, since dear old Noctis didn't exactly live up to my expectations!'.

Kairi lifted her keyblade in a defensive stance, narrowing. 'Why are you after me and Noct?', she questioned. The Master however walked towards her casually, which Kairi in turn stepped backwards from him with a grunt. There was something severely off about this man's presence, it was nothing Kairi had ever sensed before fore it wasn't the purest darkness like Sephiroth or anyone from the Organization, but his light was something alien to her.

'Stay back!', she demanded backing up again when he got closer to her. 'No can-do princess, you're the first princess of light that not only didn't pass on your light but also carry a keyblade', he said, his tone had changed into an analytical one, like a scientist fixated on results regardless of what must be done. The subject's comfort be damned.

With a yell Kairi swung her keyblade at him, but he just raised his hand and suddenly Kairi's arms stopped moving, the momentum disappearing like it never happened and she couldn't move her legs. Panic started to surge within her as she struggled against whatever this paralysis was, her eyes bore both fear and anger. 'If I'm right about you, then how things will play out in the future may not come to pass', he mused as he reached out for her.

'D-Don't touch me!', Kairi screamed, struggling to move her head from his leathered hand. 'Don't worry, princess. If you pass the test, that is', he said.

As his hand reached closer to her, Kairi started to struggle more wildly. When he placed his hand on her head, her vision grew hazy as she felt her body shut down. 'See you soon, princess Kairi', was all she heard before she was swallowed by the darkness…

A/N: …sorry for delay.

I was meant to try and get it done earlier, but after posting two chapters in the space of a day, I burned out. So, I'm gonna take the pace at a slower rate, sorry if that disappoints a few but I'd rather the content be worth the wait as opposed to shilling out garbage.

Next time we're gonna have Riku and Iris, but also Cindy! With Kairi entering the Master's test and see what he has in store for her.

As always please leave your questions and thoughts if you have any, and I'll do my best to respond to them.

Q1: Who do you think was the hardest character to write for in battles? Can you guess mine?

Q2: Did you enjoy the banter with the trio?

Q3: Was Blitz-Form done well? Or did you think I over-dashed it?

Q4: Is there any character you feel like doesn't get enough attention in this story?

Also…if some of you remember, I asked you all who would you ship Aqua with? Well…I have decided who…and you're probably not gonna like it…ah well, maybe you will!

Thanks for reading! Stay awesome but more importantly Stay safe!


	25. Chapter 25

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 25

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

*Cosmos*

'SHITSHITSHIT!', was all that sprouted from Cindy's lips as she couldn't take her eyes off her current predicament. Where once outside the dome she saw the desert canyons, the blue sky with fluffy clouds scattered around the sky and the golden sun beaming down on her.

Now all she could see were stars with several space rocks all around her, huge mountain-like spaces with multiple planet-sized rocks with the sun looking closer and much bigger than it was from home. The woman almost had a full-blown panic attack the moment the ship had FINALLY stopped blasting in top speeds and just mostly remained stationary. Cindy tried to figure out any means of getting back to Eos, but none of the controls were labeled to inform her of, well, anything.

Even the instructions Donald had left for her didn't do much for her, most of them were just the barest of bones of an explanation of how any of this worked. The duck didn't expect her to accidentally make this ship blast off into space.

Credit to him, she certainly didn't expect to do it herself.

'Come on…there's gotta be something to that explains how you fly this thing!', Cindy said to herself, looking at all the buttons and levers this ship had. The monitor that sealed her fate was now just showing what appeared to be readings on the ship's overall systems, the life support, engines and everything else. Luckily for the mechanic, they were all in the green zone so at the very least she didn't have to worry about losing oxygen.

And despite what her Paw-Paw said, aliens do NOT indeed breath oxygen.

Cindy was extremely apprehensive of touching any more buttons, the last thing she wanted was to blast off into a space rock. Strangely enough, when she was in space the ship stopped moving and the previous destination she was about to be taken to had been declined, as something had muddled up the guidance system of the ship. Carefully the woman sat back down on the chair and looked to monitor.

Looking at her seat with a frown. 'Gosh dang it…how much farther can you be from the monitor?', she sighed. Suddenly the seat lurched forward closer to the monitor, Cindy nearly banging her face on the monitor. Sitting back up properly with a gasp, pushing her hat upwards. 'Alrighty, that works', she mused with a huff.

Looking at the monitor and with caution rivaling a sabertusk crossing the road, Cindy touched the monitor screen with what looked to be a map, or star chart, thinking it may explain where she currently was. Once her fingers touched it, the screen showcased the star cluster she, well really Eos, was part of. Her eyes widened with awe when she could her world in planet size despite seeing Insomnia almost equally in size with Niflhiem on the other side of the planet in equal size.

Not only that but she sees other worlds around the cluster, one looking like an academy with a phoenix, another looking like a Halloween themed world, a city beneath the earth, it blew her mind. 'Dang, there's so many places out here', she said, eyes wide. 'Can only imagine how Paw-Paw would react to all this…'.

Cindy then started to go through the logs of the ship, maybe Donald wrote down some instructions for newcomers or something akin to that train of thought. Biting her lip as she scrolled down through the logs, she found nothing relating to the ship's performance or how to fly it, which in turn she closed the log and resumed her nosing search. She pressed on the monitor again and found what looked like contacts.

No faces though or any names added to the contacts. Rolling her eyes, she closed that window as well. There was no sense in contacting a total stranger, for all she knew she might end up calling Sora's mom.

'Come on…there's gotta be something…', she huffed, closing that window. Her gloved finger touched the monitor again, and this time it changed into what looked to be a map history of sorts. Maybe with this, she could have the ship backtrack to Eos she thought as she started to press against the screen again to see if she could confirm her desired destination. Then as she was about to click to Eos, there was something that shined in the distance.

Looking up from the monitor, her eyes widened with shock as what looked to be several oddly shaped space ships that started to surround her ship. 'Oh crap…the aliens found me!', she cried in terror. However upon a closer look, she could see that heartless emblem Sora and company warned her about was plastered all over their ship's bodies, also she could see purple energy channeling around what appeared to be their cannons.

'SHIIIITTT…', she gasped as she started to press every button on the control panels, desperate to find anything that would either blast her away from the heartless or better yet blast them into oblivion. She wasn't going to be picky with the method that would preserve her life. Unfortunately for her, there was nothing that had a clear indication that was what she desired now, and one more glance upwards she sees the cannons of the heartless were to be deployed.

They fired a barrage of purple blasters at her ship and her best response was to duck under the control board in terror. The ship was rocked left and right with alarms blaring as she heard explosions and dents being created from the heartless. She tumbled on her back as the shakes of the ship grew worse and then the monitor started to blare and flashed red. Quickly scampering to her knees to see the monitor, her eyes widened with terror when she sees what damage the state of the ship was now in.

Critical condition.

Before Cindy could say her final prayers as the heartless was starting their next barrage that would very likely do this ship in, next thing she sees was a chain-link of explosions along with the heartless, exploding in sparkles of light that Cindy dropped her jaw at it. Looking outside more, she couldn't believe her eyes when she sees what exactly had caused them to go boom. She could see someone, literally a human, using what looked to be a hoverboard and skating around the cosmos.

'What the heck…?', she gasped but then flinched when she heard another explosion near her that made her fall back. Multiple explosions popped around the control board along with several more alarms warning her the ship was on its very last legs. Then she heard a heavy tap on the glass dome above her, and when she looked up, she sees the hoverboard driver hitting the dome. He was armored predominantly sporting shades of green and gold. The armor on his knee is gold and bears a sharp, upward-pointing hook on the outer side of each one. The helmet has a notably different appeared more squashed and flatter at the top with two prongs on either side of his head which point backward and angle diagonally upward. Sporting steel blue, gold, and black with several red lines decorating it.

He pointed at one of the big buttons on the control panel that wasn't on fire. Following his finger, Cindy threw all caution to the wind and slammed her first on it, next thing she knew the same belts wrapped around her and yanked her back into the chair as the ship sped off once more into the cosmos.

*?*

As the warp drive finished, the GS slammed into what seemed to be an island in the middle of clouds in an endless sunlight. It landed near the edge of the island with a heavy crush, digging up much of the earth with it as it fully died. The dome crookedly opened backward before ultimately the hinges opening it snapped and fell off to the side, the dome cracking. Cindy climbed out of the ship and carefully hopped off it, falling onto the ground.

Taking several deep breaths that helped alleviate some tension that she felt in her back, swallowing pockets of air before she settled on her hands and knees, sweating with nerves racing wildly. She didn't even pay attention to the sounds of something moving in the air and the feet landing on the ground. A flash of light shined ahead of her, based on the light that shined bright enough to reach her from the rim of her hat.

'Wait a second…you're not Aqua…', a voice said. After calming her nerves enough to face her saviour, Cindy looked up to see a young boy who looked very similar to Sora.

He wears a jacket of the Yin and Yang symbol. The collar of the jacket is red and pleated. Underneath this, he wears what appears to be a grey vest with a single button and several white, angular patterns on it. He wears a third layer under this, in the form of a plain, high-necked, black shirt. He also has a chunk of dull green and grey armor on his midsection that appears to be under his vest, and another piece of armor on his left shoulder.

His pants balloon outward slightly before closing about halfway down his legs, like caprice pants. These pants are colored in shades of grey, black, and white. He also wears an ornate, dull green and grey piece of armor on his upper left arm, along with a black and white checkered wristband that is, She sees he wears two crisscrossing straps on his chest, on which he wears a silver emblem, she didn't know what it meant. His resemble an armored version of normal street shoes in shades of dull green and grey.

His hair was golden brown tussled and spiky like the wildest bed hair she had ever seen, with blue eyes breathing youth and innocence. He knelt before her, tilting his head. 'Who are you?', he asked, not at all afraid of her or even suspicious. Cindy slowly got to her feet shakily, but before she could answer him…

'Ven!'.

They both looked to see two people running towards the boy, and just when Cindy didn't think things could get any weirder…

The first one was another human wearing a black coat with black gloves and boots with sleeves close tightly around his arms. Almost like Kairi's hair, his own is shoulder-length, bright red hair styled into slicked-back spikes and emerald-colored eyes.

The other was…a mouse. An anthropomorphic mouse with black fur, round ears of the same color, and a thin, long, black tail. Wearing a short-sleeved jacket with white lining with the top half of this jacket is black, while the bottom half is red, and two yellow straps are dangling in front of it. Red pants and sport a zipper going down the front of each leg. Each leg also has a yellow pouch with a black strap that partially covers the zipper, as well as a blue strap on the outer side of each pant leg.

'There you are! What part of wait did…you…', the man with red hair started before he fell to Cindy, and blinked, confused. He looked behind her seeing the ruined ship, then back to her. 'And who's this?', he said.

'I dunno…never seen her before?', "Ven," said with a shrug. 'But I don't think the others are on board'.

'Gosh, then maybe she knows where they are?', the mouse man said, his voice was hi-pitched. He looked to the now visibly pale mechanic. 'Hi there, I'm Mickey Mouse, what's your name?'.

And the next thing Cindy knew, she was falling backward and losing consciousness, fainting.

*Eos, Cape Caem*

Closing his right arm repeatedly to try feeling any aches or strains, Riku grunted in satisfaction with a smirk. 'Great, no more stains', he hummed, rolling his shoulders. After the team had left Caem, Riku spent at least six hours recuperating until he downed the two potions Aqua had left for him to drink.

As capable as he is when it comes to using magic his variety left much to be desired, mostly when it came to healing. Sure, he had some idea on them during his Mark of Mastery exam, but ever since he passed, he never got to work on practicing on the other tiers of it, unlike Sora and company. Sadly, this had finally came to bite him in the backside. After downing the potions, he was restored to full power.

Stretching to pop his muscles that hadn't been in use, Riku let out a satisfying grunt and tied his boots to finish off getting dressed. Leaving his room and the house entirely the master took in the fresh air of the place with a hint of sea salt, a nostalgic sense washing over him as he leaned on the railings of the house. Folding his arms on the rails, he started to think about what he could do to pass the time for the others to return, seeing as he had no means of transport or traveling, plus he had no clue where they had gone to.

Contacting them wasn't much of an option either, as he tried texting Sora earlier during his recovery to check up on them, but he heard nothing back from the boy, which gave the young man an idea they either must have horrible signals or in a cave. With no means of contacting them, and having neither transport nor idea where they went, Riku had to accept he was stranded. 'So much for getting better and joining up', he sighed, pushing himself off the railing.

Looking around the woods ahead of him he started to debate if he could just do some training while he waits for them to come back until he heard something. Looking to his right he saw Iris planting something in the freshly hoed earth. Curious the silver head walked over to her with a friendly wave when she raised her head to him. 'Hey, you're up', she greeted standing up. 'How are you feeling?'.

'Stiff, but other than that I'm up and going', Riku said, looking at the soil. 'What'cha up to?'. Iris gestured to the soil that he sees some of the soil already had some disturbance in it, showing she may have been at the planting for quite some time. 'Just doing some gardening, one of the guards told me this soil is pretty rich for growing vegetables and other food', she explained. 'I figured we might as well put it to use by planting and hopefully grow our own'.

'Not a bad idea…nothing better than freshly grown food', Riku confessed, recalling back home. 'Need a hand with anything?', he offered, looking at how dirty the girl was. She giggled and explained she was just finishing off the planting and had already hoed the ground, any more work done would only delay the growing or worse halt it altogether. 'It didn't take long, but it's pretty tiring', she said with yawn.

Riku could imagine as he watched her finish off her small task before clapping her hands and brushing the dirt off them. 'And that should do it, hopefully, we'll see something tomorrow', she said. 'So soon?', Riku asked, surprised. He wasn't a farmer but even he knew crops could take weeks, months even to grow produce. 'Yup, the seeds here grow fast and the soil's condition speeds things up with proper water management', Iris said with a smile.

Crossing his arms, Riku smiled at the girl. 'You know your farming, ever done this back at Insomnia?', he asked, making small conversations. 'Nah, mostly flower work. But after staying in Lestallum and seeing how hard everyone works there, I guess I wanted to try my hand at it and be productive', Iris said with clasping her hands behind her back. 'Seeing as everyone else is doing their own thing to help, I wanna try and pitch in, you know?'.

'Yeah, I get it', he nodded with approval. 'But what about you? Ever done something like this back home?', she questioned. Riku could feel his guard rising immediately at the question. After disclosing everything to Noctis and the others he and the others were adamant nobody else knew about their worlds and the other sensitive topics. Despite how much he trusted the girl, she was Gladiolus' sister, after all, he still felt the need to keep her in ignorance.

'Oh, well not farming exactly, but I was mostly taught how to fish back home', he said, picking his words as carefully as possible. Iris raised a brow at him, brown eyes glowing with innocent curiosity. 'Really? Like with nets and all that?', she asked. 'Yeah…well me and Sora anyways', he chuckled, recalling the times they would get caught up in the nets and it took their parents hours to free them. Sora more so would get so caught up in it his mom wandered if he'd use it as a cocoon for napping.

'Our dads taught us a few tricks about wrangling them up, but we never really took up jobs for it', he said. "Our world going to the darkness and then getting involved in a battle between light and darkness certainly took our attention", he thought back. 'What about Kairi?', she asked as they started to walk in no direction. 'Oh Kairi? She was more into crafting than fishes, she couldn't stand the smell', he laughed, 'Have you ever smelled a pile of fish before?'.

'I can't say I haven't had the opportunity', Iris giggled, crinkling her nose at the imaginative smell. 'But what did she make?'. 'Oh, all kinds of stuff. Give her some wood, shells, cotton, and rope, and you're gonna get something awesome', he said with a smile, 'Sheaths for our two swords, toys, miniature ships, and even sailor lucky charms'.

'Whoa, that's neat!', Iris praised.

'Yeah, she had the artist trait between the three of us', Riku said. A part of him wondered if that was one of the reasons Naminé drew a lot. 'Do you plan on doing anything?', Iris asked, looking at him. 'Well if I had transport and any idea where the others went, I'd probably try and go for them but seeing as I have none…', he mused, rubbed the back of neck, 'I guess I'm stuck here until they get back'.

'Least you can take it easy', she suggested, and while he wasn't looking, grinning excitedly. 'I guess…', he concurred hesitantly. 'Just…I've already spent pretty much two days in bed, need to do something'.

Iris hummed before clicking her fingers. 'Well if you're that bored, there's a wood not too far from here', she said, 'Maybe we could go see if there's a royal tomb for Noct or even find some materials for you guys'. Riku hummed in response, appealed. It would certainly be beneficial to the team if there was another royal arm nearby, or they could sell some materials for profit later. However, he narrowed his eyes worriedly. 'Wait… "we"?', he asked.

'Yeah, you and me? You see anybody else here?', she giggled while putting a hand on her hip. 'I know the way, and I can take care of myself'. Riku did not doubt if this girl is Gladiolus' sister then taking care of herself wouldn't be so farfetched, however, he also knew there is a massive difference between being able to take care of yourself and then there's heartless. Not to mention daemons or nobodies, and then the wildlife.

'I dunno about that…what if more of those white monsters show up?', he said, but then her smile turned sweet. 'Well if they do, then you'll protect me, right?', she asked. He opened his mouth, but ultimately relented when she did point out his nature. If the nobodies were just on their own without Xigbar or anyone else, then certainly they'd provide little challenge against him, and keeping Iris safe shouldn't be too taxing on him either.

'Alrighty', he said, smiling tiredly at her, 'Then lead on'.

*Woodlands*

As the day was slowly starting to turn to dusk, Riku and Iris had already started to backtrack to the entrance to the wood where their chocobos awaited them. Their search had ultimately proved fruitless as there was no royal tomb in the area and the materials, they found were enough certainly but nothing that'll compared to likely what the others will bring back.

Yet despite the setbacks, Riku truly did have fun.

It was nice to just be able to explore without worrying, seeing what this world had to offer him. The moment they had arrived here he felt like a small kid again running through the woods, taking in the sights and even having a few races with Iris. For a girl who likely didn't receive training like her brother, she was no greenhorn either. Heck, she won some of the races despite his athletic body and she came close to several races that forced him to try and win.

They found a pond during their explorations, even caught a frog or two before he had to convince her to not adopt one. Gladiolus wasn't joking at all it seemed…

They hung around the pond for a few minutes to take a breather from their reaches, before the girl messed up her footing and almost fell in. Luckily Riku's quick reflexes caught her…only for him to lose his footing and both went into the water together with yells. When they got back to their feet, instead of groaning at the state of their clothes, Iris initiated a water battle between the two, and Riku couldn't remember how long it had been since he had harmless fun like this.

During their walk back to the entrance, while his clothes dried fast thanks to the magic within them, he noticed Iris shivering slightly from the damped clothes. Unfortunately for her, Riku was certain if he attempted to use any magic to warm her up, he may do more than dry her clothes. So, he did the sensible thing, and likely what Ignis would say, gentlemanly. He took off his jacket and slipped it on her, startling her slightly before she smiled in gratitude and thanked him.

He didn't notice that gentle hue of red brushing on her cheeks nor see her tugging the jacket closer to her smaller frame.

As the day grew darker Riku decided it'd be safer if they picked up the speed. He dismissed her Chocobo and when he got on his, he offered his hand to her. The girl took it, not looking at him like a shy schoolgirl, and hopped on board. Unaware of the girl's fantasy of a handsome prince that she once saw with black hair, was now blended with silver instead. They managed to get back to the house with only a few daemons appearing near them that he quickly dispatched with the keyblade.

Arriving back home, they shared some laughs when they entered the house. Neither hungry enough to stay off the tiredness that tugged on their bodies, Iris promising to make pancakes tomorrow as a thank you to the boy. They stood at her door, about to bid each other goodnight. 'Thanks for today, forgot how fun it was to just explore and not worry about monsters', Riku said with a smile. 'No worries hope we can do it again', she said, still wearing his jacket.

She was about to slip out of it but he lifted his hand. 'I'll take it tomorrow, use it for tonight', he offered. Then he tensed up and coughed awkwardly, rubbing his neck. 'I-I mean…its, it's just it's pretty cold tonight, so you could use it stay warm…the-the sheets are pretty light…'. Iris giggled profusely at him, smiling beautifully at him which made the boy freeze. Was it him or did Iris always look so, cute?

She then pecked his cheek, quietly said "goodnight" and then went into her room, leaving a blushing Riku alone in the hall. Placing a hand on his cheek, the boy blew out a breath of "wow" as he zombie walked back to his room. Inside and as he laid on his bed, his mind wandered to the girl, somehow unable to think of anyone or anything else.

'…what have I done?', he asked himself…

*?*

Her eyes shot open when she felt herself being able to move, Kairi almost fell back when she regained control over herself. Looking around her new surroundings she sees she is no longer in the dark corridor, but rather a place she swore she had been to before.

Surrounding her was multiple pipes emitting magical electricity and steams from broken bronze pipes, the darkness was so thick and suffocating she almost forgot to breathe in fear. 'W-Where…is this?', she asked herself, looking around for anything to help her remember this place.

'Sora! Hold on!'.

'No wait!'.

Two familiar voices cried out from behind her, Kairi turned around. To her shock and horror, she saw herself laying down on the ground, asleep but that wasn't all. The Kairi before he is much younger than her wearing familiar clothes, ahead standing before a gateway shaped like a heart with dark red, green and blue colors with lightning crossed into an X, was Donald and Goofy with pure horror and despair in their eyes.

Ahead, just a few steps from her comatose body was Sora, again like her younger and nowhere near as powerful as he is today, holding a keyblade that was black and red. He turned to Donald and Goofy, flashed them a cheesy grin, before turning the keyblade's tip to aim at his heart.

Her own heart sunk as her blood turned ice cold. NOW she remembers this day, the horrible day she was thankfully spared the sight of witnessing the lengths Sora would go for her.

The day, Sora died.

'SORA! NO!', she screamed, a hand reaching out to stop him. But it was too late, Sora pierced his chest with the tip of the key touching and unlocking his heart. As the keyblade broke into nothing with several hearts fluttering free from it, a single heart floated out of him and slowly like a snowflake descended onto Kairi's body. When the sphere touched her, her eyes opened immediately as Sora smiled one more time before those beautiful eyes closed for the final time.

Kairi stood there with tears running down her eyes, shaking on the spot as she watched Sora slowly fall backward as his body glowed in light. The day she awoke from her slumber, the day she finally reunited with the boy so close to her heart and now the first thing to happen is her losing him forever. By the portal she could see Goofy fall to his knees in absolute despair, tears running down as Donald ran to catch Sora, crying/screaming his name.

Younger Kairi slowly got to her feet in time to see her best friend fall, cried his name and racing to catch him she couldn't even touch him one more time before his body evaporated into light. As the light flew the empty black void above them, Kairi could only watch in dismay as her younger self watched in bewilderment and hear Donald desperately crying for Sora to come back.

Kairi fell to her knees, her strength seemingly disappeared, and she couldn't hear anything else as the world around her went dark, even Donald's cries went mute. Shaking her head, tears ran down her cheeks in rivers. She clutched her head and let out a cry in the void falling onto her arms, crying. 'Why…? Why did he do that!? Why!?', she screamed, head pressed against the ground as her tears fell.

'Giving up your heart to save someone else…takes a lot of guts'.

She didn't even raise her head to face the voice, knowing if she did, she would have torn that man's head off. 'To awaken the last princess of heart, her heart must be returned to whence it came, and unfortunately for our hero, the only way to free it was to destroy the cage holding it'. Master sauntered around the fallen princess, almost unaware or worse uncaring, to the fact she just watched her love die for her.

'Heh, it's more tragic when you think about', he said, hands out like he was presenting something. 'If he hadn't done that, most of Ansem's plans would NEVER come through!', he said with glee, 'Sure the princesses would forever be sleeping, but the final keyhole would never have opened, Kingdom Hearts would still have been closed and Sora would still be around, the heartless wouldn't have stood a chance against him'.

Kairi could feel the bile rising in her chest, almost sobbing at this point as more of the Master's words cut her deeper and deeper. In a sense she knew he was right; Sora didn't have to do it if it meant the final keyhole would forever be incomplete and Kingdom Hearts would never have opened. Shaking her head as the words struck her, once more she was used to hurt her lover, he gave up his life for someone who ended up being the final key to their enemies' goal.

'But…he knew that…and still not only did he forsake it, he did so with a smile on his face', the Master said, and unless Kairi was mistaken, she could hear a semblance of respect and remorse in his tone. 'That kid…not chosen by the key, heck wasn't part of the grand scheme…yet this is what we got'.

He turned to Kairi as she finally raised her head to face him. '…and then you brought him back'.

Kairi let out a scream as suddenly the surface she knelt on turned into nothing and down she went into the void, falling and falling.

Next thing she knew as she fell, she was back on her feet as if she had been standing on solid ground the whole time. Looking around once more, she saw Donald and Goofy fighting off the heartless while she stood in front of a shadow, protecting it. 'This time, I'll protect you', she promised. The shadows that surrounded her leaped as she turned and embraced Sora into a protective hug, crying his name.

As the darkness nearly swallowed them, a burst of light blasted the heartless into nothing and now standing with arms around Kairi was Sora. 'Kairi…thank you', he said, softly and warm. Kairi reached out to touch him, almost unbelievingly before Master cut in. 'When somebody loses a heart, they're stuck as a heartless until it and the nobody are both destroyed, yet you somehow purged his heartless state and brought him back to human form', he said.

The world around them changed again as he vanished and Kairi felt as if something had grabbed her and is pulling her somewhere else. Her vision is distorted with places she had never seen or been to, faces unknown to her until she came to a stop.

She rolled and tumbled onto the ground, but instead of the invisible ground, it was dirt belonging to a wasteland. Blinking as she felt and heard the wind, she tried to get to her feet but suddenly her body was in agony, pain shooting up every nerve she had before she fell onto her arms. Looking up to see a blackened sky as rain fell from above in light droplets.

'W-What's going on…?', she gritted. Looking up to see where she is, she bore witness to a living nightmare.

Before her, she saw Aqua being struck down by Terra, his keyblade slashing her and her master fell to him and on her side, lifeless. Donald and Goofy were by a boulder, unmoving and their weapons broken, Axel having a single beam of laser pierced through his chest courtesy of Xemnas, Ventus pinned down by that boy in the mask, King Mickey held up by his neck by Ansem.

Riku losing his heart to Xigbar as his body laid before the man, all the while heartless swarmed over the heroes like a plague. She shook and paled as white as a ghost as she looked to her own body to see she was covered in wounds and marks, ahead her keyblade laid broken into scrap metal. 'T-This…this can't be…this can't be real', she gasped, her voice so fragile and weak it didn't even register to her it was her voice.

'Oh, but it is what think it is, princess', Master said appearing near her. 'The fateful battle between the light and the dark, where the light will falter and be swallowed by the dark'. Kairi struggled to get up, yelling: 'NO! T-That's not true! W-We won't lose!'.

'Is that right kiddo? Well, you've got quite the obstacle ahead of ya', he mused. A pair of boots stood before the princess, and as she slowly raised her head to gaze upon her would-be slayer, her heart broke into pieces. Before her with darker skin, silvery-white hair and yellow eyes, smirking at her with nothing but malice and smugness.

Sora.

'Isn't it amazing? What could have been had Riku, Mickey, and the others not intervened?', Master mused, looking over Sora-Nort like he was a work of art. 'The last vassal, the perfect one in fact…and sure enough from the way the fight went he would've been perfect!'. Shaking his head as Sora raised his keyblade to finish Kairi off, he clicked his fingers. Kairi once again fell into the dark void, not even having the strength to scream this time as she watched Sora-Nort disappearing into nothing but a horrible memory.

She stood upon the ground again, her wounds vanished like they never happened as she now stood in a place she knew from before. The world of the nobodies, a world that was never meant to exist. 'Sora's an interesting case for a lot of reasons, you know. But that strength of his comes from, his friends…', Master's voice lectured on. 'And you know something? He's proven that fact multiple times, heck he beat both the heartless and nobody versions of Xehanort'.

'But I've also seen, it is also his greatest weakness…and way too easy to exploit'.

Kairi finds herself standing on a collapsed building-bridged between two floating rocks, where she saw herself and Riku just walking slowly, but Sora, looking oddly younger than the two was running to them, trying to catch up to them. Yet no matter how fast he ran, he wasn't getting closer to them, and even when he did Kairi and Riku turned to Aqua and Terra.

'So desperate to see his friends again, that strength that spurred him on no matter what came, was so easy to manipulate and bring him to the spot where he would've become the true threat', Master said, standing beside Kairi. As the scene unfolded before the girl, watching Xemnas and Xigbar reveal their plans to the boy, how he would become their final piece to their grand plan, and yet despite it all, Sora remained resolute.

'I know the Keyblade didn't choose me, and I don't care. I'm proud to be a small part of something bigger...the people it did choose. My friends. They are my power!', he said, summoning his keyblade and charging to the two nobodies as they all vanished into nothing.

'Why are you doing this…?', Kairi asked, looking at him, 'Why are you showing me all this!?'.

The master turned to her before the world around them disappeared and changed into the wasteland once again, no Organization member, no Guardian of Light, just her and him. He clapped his hands. 'Sora's strength comes from his friends, Riku's redemption, Aqua…well we'll see soon, won't we? If she can bring back that strength that helped her survive all those years', he explained. Kairi glared at him as she summoned her keyblade.

'Whoa there, what's with that look?', he asked. 'I just showed you what you needed to see!'.

'What I needed to see!?', Kairi shouted, beyond enraged, 'Seeing Sora die for me!? Watching my friends die!? Seeing what those monsters tried to use Sora for!? I needed to see all that!?'. Never had she felt such anger towards someone, not even to Saix all that time ago. This man, whoever he is, had single handily earned her ire so quickly she wanted to hurt a person beyond defending herself. The Master laughed mirthlessly at her, almost amused. 'Jeez kid, read between the lines, would you? What did you learn from what I showed you?'.

Kairi furrowed her brow in thought before she looked at her keyblade and then going back to Sora. 'His strength…their strength…', she said slowly. 'Bingo, those two, and soon enough Aqua, will have that strength for what comes next…but what about you?', he asked. She watched him walk around the field, almost in his little world. 'Where do you draw that strength from? Your friends? Redemptions out since, ya know, and I highly doubt you'll make master any time soon…', he chastised.

Kairi looked down in thought, thinking back to the day she wanted to train, to be helpful. To have the power to protect her friends and not hold them back. Having enough strength to keep him safe…

'You're starting to see what I mean…but here's the problem sweetie', he said, clasping his hands together. 'You're still too weak to even compare to that kid'. Kairi glared at him. 'What are you talking about? I can-

'Keep up with Sora? PFFT! Kid, have you *seen* what he can do? Sure, you've gotten the hang of Form Change, but shocker of the day? So has Riku! Probably Aqua too! Hell, Terra and Ventus could do all that too! What makes you so special?', he asked with a full snarky tone. Kairi gritted her teeth as she started to channel magic, but Master suddenly reappeared before her. 'Nuh-uh kiddo…magic doesn't count either…', he cooed. 'And if you're thinking of attacking me in some vain hope, you're gonna win, let me give you a bittersweet taste of reality'.

With one flick of his finger, Kairi was suddenly blasted away as if she had taken a full punch from a runaway train. She flew a hundred meters off the ground before she bounced and thrashed on the ground, bouncing on her back, shoulders, and sides. Even slammed into a huge boulder that the force was enough to send her through it with such speed the boulder didn't even collapse upon impact and when she fell onto the ground fifty feet from the boulder, it then collapsed.

On her side in complete agony, Kairi couldn't even muster the strength to move at all, it was like every bone in her body was destroyed. Flinching she cracked her eyes open to see Master standing a few feet before her, casually walking over to her. 'Warned you kid', he said cheerily. Kairi whimpered in pain, she heard him sigh. 'Come on kiddo…you can do better than this', he lectured. 'Maybe…we'll try the "sink or swim" tactic'.

He clicked his finger, a faint green light shined around the girl, healing her to an extent but Kairi barely had any strength left in her despite the alleviation of the pain. However, Kairi found herself being swallowed by darkness and slowly started to sink deep within it. Panicking Kairi tried to scamper away but the darkness latched onto her legs and arms, and even one wrapped around her neck.

'So are two endings of this little story kiddo, and lucky you, you get to choose!', he said, folding his arms as Kairi sunk into the dark. 'You can either submit to the darkness, lose your heart and fall into oblivion, leave your loverboy and leave a slot in the seven princesses forever empty', he said. 'Or…you can reach that strength…and see what you're capable of'.

Kairi's final few of the man was him turning away and walking off into the wasteland, her world went dark.

As Kairi sank into darkness, she felt as if she was drowning. No word could escape her mouth, she couldn't even swim. The invisible chains around her dragged her down further as she clutched her neck trying to get some oxygen. Slowly her struggles slowed and lessened as her vision grew darker and hazy, slowly falling deeper into oblivion.

Her thoughts went back to her friends, the journey she had in Eos, her training days with Axel. And more importantly, Sora. 'Sora…', Kairi gasped.

Then, something within her filled her with light.

Her eyes opened wide as she looked up to see one circle of light in the ocean of the darkness, and she could feel her strength returning to her and the chains that held her loosened. With one powerful tug of her right arm, Kairi broke free of the invisible chains. Summon her keyblade, she aimed her keyblade at the circle. A single beam of blue light shined brilliantly upwards to it. What sounded like something unlocking, a light so bright like the sun shined down on her.

The chains disappeared from her form, and no more did she feel like she was sinking into the darkness. She held the keyblade in both hands and pressed her head against it, she let out a cry: 'Rays of Light!'.

Pointing her keyblade upwards, seven rays of light raced from the tip upwards to the circle, swirling and mixing until they all combined into one golden beam of light, piercing the circle. The small circle in the blackened sky expanded and slowly swallowed up the clouds and bathing Kairi and the world below her in light. It was as if she had cleared the dark skies and brought a clear blue sky to her home.

Closing her eyes as she slowly began to drift off, her keyblade disappearing as she descended. As she fell into the light, Kairi heard Master one more time…

'Well done…kiddo'.

*Cave*

'K…ri…'.

'Kairi?'.

'Kairi!'.

Blinking weakly, Kairi slowly opened her eyes to see a very worried Sora, looking down at her. Only when she let out a weak groan did he show finally some sort of relief on his face. 'She's awake!', he said, looking to the others likely.

The girl tried to speak but she felt Sora laying her on the ground while resting her back against a wall. Her vision was still blurry a degree, she felt dizzy and weak but most of all exhausted. A gentle hand was placed on her shoulder, startling her lightly before she could see the familiar spectacled man Ignis gently placing a potion her hand. 'Its an elixir Kairi, please drink it', he said softly.

Weakly and with some assistance from Sora, Kairi weakly consumed the drink and felt every ache and dull pain evaporated instantly. She coughed and accidentally spat out some of her salvia and the potion, almost gagging. Sora immediately took her into his arms to help her as she shuddered weakly into him while Ignis rubbed her back soothingly.

'Take your time', he assured, 'You've just woken up'.

Soon she was assisted back to her feet by Sora while Ignis was watching her. She rubbed her head and let out a breath. 'I…w-what happened?', she asked. Kairi looked to Ignis and Sora before she took note that they were now back at the entrance of the cave. Ahead of them, she saw Noctis with Prompto, Donald and Goofy talking to Aranea. 'How did we…', she whispered before Ignis patted her shoulder. 'After we regrouped with Sora, we found Aranea carrying you during our search for everyone', Ignis explained.

'She said you just suddenly fainted, wouldn't wake up no matter what she did and had to fight off the daemons and heartless', Sora said, not even hiding his worries. 'We carried you up, but you didn't move or make a sound'. Kairi looked down in shame before Sora then enveloped her into a very tight hug. Kairi hugged him even tighter, burying her face into his neck, closing her eyes and just relishing in his warmth. After everything she had seen, just holding him helped push those memories back.

'Ummm…'.

Sora and Ignis looked to see Prompto awkwardly approaching the others with a weak wave. 'What is it Prompto?', Ignis asked, stepping forward to allow Sora and Kairi to have their moment. 'Aranea said Ardyn has told her she's to give us a lift back', he said shyly. Ignis nodded, but then turned Sora, Kairi now paying attention. 'It would seem we have a ride out of here', he said.

'Just as well', Noctis called out, Donald and Goofy joining him as he approached the group. 'We need to get back Lestallum'. 'Why what happened?', Sora asked. 'Holly, one of the technicians from EXINERIS Industries. She just contacted me and said somethings going on at the power plant', Noctis explained.

'Then we need to go and see what we can do to help', Ignis said, looking to Sora. 'If there is indeed a situation regarding the power plan, the damage it could incur would be catastrophic'.

'Right…lets go then!', Sora said.

As they all boarded the airship with the vehicles stored in the ship, Kairi couldn't help but continuously watch Sora as he spoke with Noctis…and question just how much pain she had put him through…

And wonder if she deserved to stand by his side…

A/N: WELL this went on a LOT longer than I thought!

Sorry for only one chapter done so late in the week, but I do intend to try and getting at least another out.

As always, if you have questions ask away!

Q1: Did I go a bit too far with Kairi?

Q2: How was the Master?

Q3: Was Iris and Riku done well or do you think there could have been more?

Q4: Who's happy to see Axel?

Also if anyone has gone back to chapter 18, there is a slight change. The summon charm was removed, due to constantly forgetting it and not having an idea what to do with it.

Next, we're going back to Gladiolus and Aqua. Thanks for reading, as always stay awesome but most importantly stay safe!


	26. Chapter 26

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 26

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

Tempering Grounds

It took time to find the entrance to the grounds, some wildlife interfering with heartless and even taking a few hours to retrace their steps, but in the end, they had finally come to the entrance.

In canyon, in the depths of Taelpar Crag, the two warriors came to the entrance, staring down the path that lied ahead of them. They hadn't said a word to each other since coming here, neither could muster the strength to allow themselves to distract the other with pointless chatter. As much as they would welcome it to put some ease on their minds, their task required them to be at the peak of perfection.

At least that is what Aqua had been telling herself since they started their journey to this sacred ground. According to what Gladiolus recalled from the fallen Marshal, this cave was discovered thirty years ago by the hunters. She presumed the reason for the abandonment of this place was due to daemons or the unorthodox living space. Or very likely, as she would guess, this place is where the legendary swordmaster dwelled.

The Blade Master.

As the two stood at the entrance to the cave, Gladiolus took his phone out and stared at it. 'Yup…no signal…', he said with a grunt. 'Which means once more we're going in silent'.

'As usual…', Aqua replied in a calm collected tone. Shoving his phone back into his back pocket, the shield strode forward with Aqua in tow.

Inside the cave, both warriors slowed their march giving the narrow spaces they were in. It was fortunate for them Gladiolus wasn't too big otherwise only one would be moving forward. The air in this place felt odd to the woman however, yet it wasn't darkness that perturbed her. No, there was a silence and a grim sensation in the air, a stench of death.

Her thoughts confirmed when they walked to a more spacious passage, littered with corpses or likely unfortunate warriors who like them, attempted to face the blade master. On the ground and the walls, swords stabbed deep into their bodies to pin them to the wall, like mounted trophies.

The blue-haired warrior subtly took a deep breath to steel her nerves, not used to seeing remains of the fallen. Least with heartless and nobodies when they fell, there was nothing left of them. 'You gonna be ok?', Gladiolus asked, gesturing the remains, 'This won't be the end of it'. 'I'll be fine, just not used to seeing so much…death, you know?', she said, even her voice sounded heavy. Onwards they went, going down a small hill.

They stopped walking however, their eyes narrowed with suspicion as faint blue wisps floated around the remains, slithering into them. When they disappeared into them, slowly the corpses stretched back to their feet, their unused bones cracked and popped as the clinking and grinding of their rusty armor hummed in the cave.

'They're alive!?', Gladiolus growled, summoning his sword.

'Not for much longer!', Aqua said, ready.

The first of the walking dead ran to Gladiolus, dragging their large sword along the ground and when in range he threw his blade upwards to swing at the shield. Gladiolus evaded its strike by sidestepping out of the way of Aqua. The master aimed both hands at the corpse exposed chest and fired a blast of magic that obliterated it. Aqua cart-wheeled from another sword, evading it and letting Gladiolus cleave it in two via waistline.

'Have you come to prove your might?'.

Gladiolus and Aqua looked up to see nothing as their enemies began to surround them, the shield-less Gladiolus grabbing his blade with both hands while Aqua held up her left hand as icy mist covered it. 'Who's there?', Gladiolus yelled, blocking a sword.

'One of many who haunt these grounds, following our leader in death as did in life'.

Aqua fired a frosty ring of blades at the lingering souls closer to her, hitting them in the chests. The ice began to coat their deceased forms in frost until they were nothing more than the frozen statues. Their momentum caused them to fall and shatter into piles of broken ice as the woman spun around to evade a stabbing motion from the ghouls.

'Naught but our souls remain, clinging to vestiges of our past'.

'Why?', Aqua questioned, summoning a barrier to protect herself from a striking sword.

'To test those who would become the King's Shield and prepare them to inherit the power they pursue'.

Gladiolus kicked one ghoul in its skull when it ducked below his sword swipe, knocking it into a ghoul behind it. He slammed his greatsword down on the two, crushing their dusty bones and ending their temporary revival. Finally, he turned around and tossed his great sword at the ghoul further down their path, striking it straight into its chest which made it stagger backward. Aqua leaps into the air and dive kicked into its neck, breaking the connecting with a loud snap.

Just as they thought victory was theirs, their pathway further into the cave was becoming a littering ground for their enemies as more corpses began to revitalize and taste the life they once had. Gladiolus rushed in first as he re-summoned his greatsword, yelling as he spun around like a wild cyclone, cutting down what remained. His blade tore the walking dead minions asunder like they were made of paper as Aqua jumped into the air and rain down a thunderous storm upon them.

Controlling her lighting to ensure she didn't harm Gladiolus while he wildly yet effectively tore down the enemy, Aqua shocked the ones further from the shield with bluish-white bolts of lighting, leaving nothing but gaping holes in the chests of her enemies or burning them to a crisp. When she landed on her feet from the spell ending, she lifted her right hand and created a Magnega that drew them all into one spot, which Gladiolus immediately took advantage of.

Grabbing his greatsword, he impressively leaped into the air, performed a few turns during his jump before he slammed his sword right upon the pile of the walking dead, destroying them and the spell in hand. Limbs and dust flew from the impact, making Aqua cover her eyes from the force of the man's strength as the battle had reached its conclusion at last. The woman though placed her hands on her knees, panting.

Noticing this, Gladiolus approached her. 'What? Done already?', he teased, 'We're just at the entrance'. However, the woman's glare showed his attempt at humor was not warranted as she took a deep breath. 'I've used too much higher tier magic in the span of two skirmishes', she said, 'And this is the result'.

Gladiolus raised a brow at her while crossing his arms. 'Oh, come on, I've seen you do a hell of a lot more magic than that! You're seriously telling me you're winded already?', he said, disbelieving. Aqua stood up properly, huffing. 'I had a keyblade that wasn't broken, in case you forgot', she responded, in the same tough tone he was displaying. 'I'm drawing mana from anywhere I can, and without the keyblade to help manifest or store, I'll be on fumes at this point'.

At this discovery, his stern look softened with concern as he uncrossed his arms while Aqua's glare simpered away to worry. Shaking her head, she looked to the passage ahead of them and proceeded on. Before she got far, however, Gladiolus caught her shoulder. 'Hang on, sure you don't need to, I dunno, recharge?', he asked, awkwardly. The woman gave him a weird look. 'I mean, can't you just wait for it to replenish? Mana?', he explained.

'Mana doesn't recharge like a battery, Gladio. It's more complicated', she said with a huff. 'If it were the case with me, I'd never have to worry about overuse'. 'With you? What's that supposed to mean?', asked the older man. Aqua let out a small sigh. 'Sora and Kairi don't have to worry about mana as I do, their clothes can absorb magical energies all around us and replenish them. Mine, don't have the capability', she lamented.

'Their…clothes can do that?', he asked, not bewildered or anything shocked, just amused. 'Yes, from what Donald told me', Aqua confessed. Gladiolus chuckled in the end, smirking. 'Sounds like our gear', he said, 'These fatigues give us some benefits too'. Aqua looked impressed by this and nearly turned around fully to look at him until she noticed his hand was still on her shoulder. Not tightly or anything, but rather comfortingly. 'Umm…', she started, eyeing his hand. Noticing this, Gladiolus quickly took his hand off, scratching his neck.

'Sorry, but yeah, the Crownsguard gear has some of the magic Noct's got, supposedly it made us stronger', he said. Though the details were vague as Aqua would have guessed, Gladiolus never gave her the impression magic and mana were something a Shield of the King would ever need to properly comprehend. Looking at her hands though, she frowned when she senses her supply of mana hadn't replenished even a quarter of her pool of magic.

Sensing this, Gladiolus gently patted her back. 'You think you're gonna be up for this?', he asked, his tone was solid but friendly. 'I don't have much of a choice', she sighed, 'I can't go back to the others if I don't fix this'.

As proud of her and as much respect he held for the woman, Gladiolus was beginning to have some severe second thoughts about this whole ordeal of Aqua taking part in this trial. Since her keyblade broke, her confidence had drastically taken a huge blow. Even now he could see just vulnerable the woman is without her weapon if her magic couldn't replenish as fast as Sora and Kairi's. Plus, as far as he knew, Aqua has no real alternatives to fighting back.

Looking back at the battle that took place, fortunately for him he could see one of the remains' blades was in relatively decent condition. He pushed Aqua to the pile and picked up the sword. The blade wasn't in pristine condition absolutely, but the steel was solid and sturdy. He looked at her and handed the woman the sword. Aqua looked at it with apprehension, then looking at the man. 'If you can't use your magic or keyblade, maybe you could use this for a while?', he suggested.

Aqua glanced at the sword with a small frown of doubt. The blade was much longer and no doubt heavy than what she is used to, it more suited Terra's style of weight in weapons than hers, plus she had no way of dismissing it. Yet thinking to what she said prior and Gladiolus' idea seemed like the best option for her. Reluctantly, she nodded and gently gripped the sword. Immediately after he lets go of the weight, the woman almost dropped the *much* heavier weapon to the ground with a startled yelp.

Grabbing the handle with both hands, the woman took a deep breath as she lifted it upwards. Even her stance was too shaky as her arms quivered from holding the blade, and Gladiolus had counted how many things were wrong with her stance. She performed a few test swings with it before letting the sword fall to the ground, tip first.

Shaking her head, Aqua dropped the sword entirely. 'Its no use…it's too heavy and clunky for me', she bemoaned, disappointment clear in her voice. Gladiolus opened his mouth to vainly argue she just needed practice before the woman raised her hand. 'Gladio, forget it…lets just go', she said. Without waiting for him to respond, the master walked further into the cave with more desperation in her steps than earlier. All the while the shield looked at the discarded blade with a forlorn look, and with a huff, he jogged after her.

Further in the cave where it became more ruined the further they went, strange lanterns were left as guides to them, Aqua theorized they may have been left by the souls of those who perished as guiding lights to those who managed to survive long enough to reach this point.

They came to a stream that went downwards deeper into the grounds, which the two glanced at one another before they both nodded and carefully made their way down the stream. It didn't take long for the river to catch them off guard and they slide down the stream until they fell into the main river which thankfully wasn't flowing as fast as it was going downstream. That, however, was the least of their worries.

Launching out of the river with a huge and loud splash that nearly drenched them to the bone, a large serpent the size of an airship landing on its body. It slowly rose up to the face down the two challengers, its forked tongue hissing at them as Gladiolus and Aqua readied themselves for battle.

The serpent launched its forward to the two, making them jump the opposite direction of each other's jump. The serpent slammed its fangs into the river, making the water fly with a huge splash as it quickly snapped towards Aqua. The blue-haired warrior kept jumping back from the serpent was it kept closing its massive mouth around the air where Aqua would stand for a moment. The warrior leaped onto a single rock, looking up at the serpent as it stood tall over her.

Gladiolus took this time to bring down his giant sword on the serpent's slippery body, slamming it into the body of the creature and sinking the steel into it. However, the attack yielded nothing but fury from the beast as the sword didn't cut any deeper into the flesh than striking a stone. The serpent let out a hiss and it sprayed a rainfall of poison from its venomous maws. As the poison-filled rain fell from the air, Aqua quickly dashed across the river and rocks, getting out of the area where the rain fell as Gladiolus retreated from the serpent in tow.

The serpent started to chase Gladiolus, catching Aqua's attention as she diverted her path by sliding into the water to make a sharp turn and then dashed to the serpent. Aqua jumped into the air, channeling the last remnants of her magic into her right hand. With a cry as the air around became frosty, tiny flakes of snow fluttered around it as her hand turned slightly whitish-blue. Once she landed on the head of the snake, she slammed her hand onto its scaly head. 'DEEP FREEZE!', she cried.

A wave of cold washed over the entire area that Gladiolus could see some of the river had frozen despite the vast portion of it was still running normally. The serpent's body was not only slowly being coated in a thick sheen of ice but Aqua created a stalactite that pierced the serpent's skull through its maws. There was silence after the attack as the frozen water melted quickly and the body of the frozen serpent broke apart, leaving Aqua to weakly jump off the fallen monster. She fell into the river with a thud, completely drained of mana.

Gladiolus ran to her and helped sit her up, checking on her. She shook and looked drained, skin pale and she looked barely conscious. Gritting his teeth with worry, Gladiolus pulled out their last hi-ethers and handed it to her. 'Here, that should perk you up', he offered, 'Not like I'm gonna be needing it'. Aqua weakly giggled at this, downing the bitter vial with a grimace as she was helped to her feet by Gladiolus.

Then they looked around and sensed something approaching. The air had grown tense as the area darkened around them, a powerful aura was approaching them. Gladiolus and Aqua looked to the path ahead of them and there he was. Appearing from violet fire, his body formed and slowly approached the two. Immediately they sensed his power was great, possibly even more than Terra despite the missing left arm, while his right carried a long katana, possibly a masamune. Before Aqua could speak, Gladiolus raised his arm in front of her, stopping her. She looked to the shield.

'This is my fight…', he said. She narrowed at his tone, there was no confidence in it like he always displayed but doubt and…fear. Gladiolus proceeded forward to meet the Blademaster while Aqua with reluctance, stepped back enough not to get in the crossfire.

The Blademaster walked to the shield, golden eyes were piercing and inhuman. 'You come to prove yourself worthy of my mantle?', the master questioned, stopping before him.

'I do. I am here to undertake the Trial of Gilgamesh', Gladiolus affirmed strongly, despite his apprehensive stance. The Blademaster's stance hadn't changed but somehow Aqua could sense he was amused by Gladiolus' proclamation. She figured it must have been that long since anyone ever reached this deep into the sanctum. 'And what is it you hope to gleam?', the master asked again, not taking his eyes off the man.

Looking at his left hand, he clenched it into a fist and returned his now steeled gaze to the man before him. 'Power and you're gonna give it to me', he stated, facing down the master. 'Is that right?', he said, almost bemused by the audacity of his statement. To add further concern, he dismissed the katana and summoned a claymore. 'Prove it'.

With that final sentence, the master dashed to the shield with speed even Aqua nearly missed. He shoulder tackled the shield hard enough to knock him back. Digging his heels into the river to stop himself from flying, Gladiolus grunted as he brought his sword to the master with a yell. Yet the master lazily deflected his attack almost like he was swatting a bug from him. His sword brushed Gladiolus' aside like it was nothing.

He swings his sword down on Gladiolus, making him roll to the left of the master. Growling he struck again and managed to hit the master by swinging his sword upwards cutting through him. Yet the master didn't so much as flinch from the strike as he turned and swung his sword in a wide arc the forced Gladiolus to block the attack. The attack was enough to temporary lift Gladiolus off his feet despite his guard, making him nearly lose his footing.

Gladiolus swung back at the master, yet each one was deflected and parried, the master treating his attacks like he was mock sparring with a child. From the sidelines Aqua clenched her fists in worry as she watched helplessly, seeing Gladiolus being treated like he was nothing more than a bragging apprentice. The worst part is even if she could intervene to help Gladiolus, she would far no better, if not worse, than Gladiolus. At the very least he had a weapon to fight him with.

Gladiolus raised his sword against the Blademaster's sword and entered a deadlock with him, but that was being generous. The master almost instantly overpowered the warrior, pressuring Gladiolus to lifting his sword above him and pressed a hand against the flat surface of the blade, but even then he was slowly being pushed to bend his knee. 'Brute force alone does little to impress', the Blademaster lectured, unimpressed by Gladiolus' performance as he pressed down on the sword.

'Only he possess both muscle and mettle of equal caliber deserves the honor of fighting beside the Chosen King as his sworn Shield', the master said, his voice was deep and wise with touch of disappointment. As he lectured him, Gladiolus gritted his teeth with fury and determination mixed into one, his memories flashing back to similar scenarios that had caused the shield to doubt himself more.

Ravus showing him up at the base, and then Terra wiping the floor with him. Two enemies of different groups, both stronger than he had ever dreamt possible. 'Are you saying, I don't deserve that position!?', Gladiolus challenged, bucking his knees straight and nearly stood up again, something the master took note. However, the master quickly broke the deadlock with one more forceful thrust of his blade against the shield, sending Gladiolus to the ground and rolling away until he rolled back onto his feet, glaring at the master while panting.

Aqua quickly ran in and stood before the master, protectively over the shield. The master looked at Aqua then, eyes fixed on this otherworld being. 'And you? Why are you here? To reclaim what you had lost?', he asked. Aqua clenched her fists, looking down at the master with steel. 'I…I am here to, regain what I had lost', she announced. The master looked unimpressed by her, his weapon disappearing. 'Your master's key, correct?', he said.

Aqua looked at him with surprise on her features, her stance lessened and became more lax. 'A broken weapon can be repaired…but is that where your strength lies?', he asked. 'A weapon, no matter the power, the feats it accumulated or the history behind it, is nothing more than a tool'. Aqua stepped forward. 'You don't understand! That keyblade belonged to-

'It matters not who carried the weapon before', he said, cutting her off quickly. 'Your power has long diminished, the darkness that tainted you, obscures the truth'. Aqua's blood ran cold at that sentence, a flash of the "other" Aqua appeared in her mind as a sudden chill wrapped around her form along with a horrible sensation of her heart being tugged by something.

'A great evil threatens the people of your world. It is but the King of Kings and his Shield who can safeguard their people', he warned, turning back to them. 'All those unworthy or unwilling to rise to the task meet their end here, by my blade'.

Growling, Gladiolus got to his feet, joining Aqua's side. 'We aren't meeting our end yet. This trial hasn't even started yet!', Gladiolus said strongly, glaring at the master. Aqua returned her glare to him, eyes burned with questions. 'If neither of you fear death, then go forth with reckless abandon and prove your worth', he encouraged, before he vanished in ethereal energies, leaving the two alone to ponder his words.

Gladiolus looked at his hand before he growls and swung his fist angrily. 'Damnit…he's stronger than the legends say', he grunted, punching his fist into his hand. Aqua, however, placed a hand on her chest over her heart with fear and worry formed on her face. "A darkness that blinds me to the truth…? What does that mean?", she thought to herself, a worry clutched at her heart. "It couldn't be…no, no! When Sora defeated me; the darkness left me…didn't it?".

The two stood there in silence, their internal struggles wrestled with their will to press on, dark thoughts swirled within their thoughts. Gladiolus, however, let out a growl, turning his hardened gaze to the path ahead. 'Come on, we're not gonna get any stronger by standing around', he said, marching on without the woman's thoughts on the matter. Aqua clenched the pendant on her chest in worry, her heart feels smaller and weaker by those thoughts.

Shaking her head feverishly to dismiss those thoughts, she jogged after Gladiolus into the cavern.

The two ventured forth deeper into the cave, their paths guided by the blue and reddish lanterns that laid on the paths, more deceased warriors remained still and lifeless. The Blademaster had likely commanded them to stay down for the two to continue their journey, Aqua presumed the master might have decided to lay off them for now. She had her doubts but wisely decided not to comment on the fact, lest she and Gladiolus face more opposition.

Climbing the tunnel going upwards, they found a Haven but ultimately had decided to opt against resting for now. Downwards they went, coming to an open area where they were blessed by the sunlight once more. Their journey through the grounds was littered with daemons and undead servants of the Blademaster, both fighting tooth, and nail with each encounter, their strengths took a horrible hit.

Without his shield, Gladiolus was strongly overwhelmed by the abundance of enemies that forced the warrior to either dodge awkwardly while unthinkingly raising his free hand to attempt to raise his shield, only because of his quick realizations that helped him retract his arm from the weapons the enemies used. Not perfectly, his arm had taken many hits and scratches, but at the very least he didn't lose a limb.

Aqua fared not much better than him if nothing else she was severely more limited than him. Her magic was her only means of harming the enemies they encountered, and even some quick kicks here and there. Yet all her kicks did was merely knock her enemies away or stagger them enough for her to finish them with a spell. The spells she used were low tier spells that luckily thanks to her power was enough to defeat them.

Unfortunately for them, their struggles did not ease up.

Even after they finished the battle, the two of them panted and nearly fell onto their knees in exhaustion. Gladiolus had to use the last of his potions to patch up his arm, not bothering to ask Aqua to heal him, the last thing he wanted was to be the reason she had no more magic to protect herself with. Looking at the woman as his flesh knits together, he sees the woman rubbing her arms like she was trying to apply heat to them. 'You ok?', he asked.

'I…I'm fine', she breathed out. 'Its…just a chill, that's all'. Nodding to the woman, flexing his left arm to test it out. 'Time to get going then, right?', he said. 'Yeah, let's keep moving', Aqua concurred. Venturing further, Aqua's body felt a chill lurking around her like she was trapped in a freezer and she felt her heart beating quickly like it was almost ready to explode. Subtly taking deep breaths to calm her mind, focusing on the task.

'You're getting closer Aqua…'.

Aqua stopped walking and turned around quickly with a gasp, but all she saw was nothing but the path behind her. 'Come closer to the dark…leave the light. Come, back to where you belong'. Shaking her head through gritted teeth, she marched onwards, the voice pestering her and further taunting her as Gladiolus and she came to what looked to be a sword in the stone, linked by ropes with tattered colored ribbons adorning it.

'What's this…?', Gladiolus asked, looking at her.

'Its…probably a trial chamber', she said, sensing a power behind the curved stone wall. 'Likely, you're first step to gaining power to fight the master'.

Nodding to her words, Gladiolus stepped forward and grabbed the handle of the blade, pulling it upwards to free it from the ground. The blade evaporated into fiery energy as the path cleared of stones, allowing the challenger to enter. To their left, another set of stones disappeared and formed a tunnel leading deeper into the cave. Stepping at the entrance, Aqua peered in to see nothing but darkness. 'It looks like, this is my path', she mused, her voice laced with uncertainty.

Gladiolus was about to approach her before she turned and shook her head. 'Don't worry about me, you have your trial to accomplish, right?', she asked. With a small smile that even then looked to be a façade, she nodded to him and turned, walking down her road. Raising his hand to reach out to the woman, ultimately the shield's words refused to leave his mouth as he dropped his hand. 'Yeah…I do', he said.

Gladiolus entered the chamber, but no sooner did he, his exit was blocked off by the same wall of stone, trapping him within. As the room darkened, a lich daemon materialized before him, raising several skeletons along with it. Smirking at them, Gladiolus summoned his greatsword and rushed in with a roar…

*Aqua*

As she delved deeper into the darkened cavern, Aqua could feel that chill surging around her shoulders, like a shawl of ice wrapping around her. The walls were made of stone with several lanterns scattered around the place to provide even the faintest glimmer of light for her. There were remains of the fallen challengers here she noticed, which should have calmed her, but it only pushed her already on edged nerves to nearly over the edge.

Biting back that shudder as the cold seemingly grew, she pressed on, thinking Gladiolus and she could meet up on the other side.

'All alone again…brings back memories, doesn't it?', the voice taunted.

'Shut up…', she replied tersely, quickening her walk. 'Aww, did I touch a nerve? Do you want me to call Gladiolus to come and hug you? Oh, wait… he's abandoned you'.

Aqua ignored it, walking on as the darkness of the cavern started to shift into a haze of red and purple. Flashes of the past sparked in her mind, ruined remains of worlds that the heartless had destroyed during her absence, monsters of the darkness that hunted and pursued her, and those lonely walks of solitude. Each step felt like she was walking on the spot, the end getting further and further away from her.

'How does it feel Aqua? To know everyone has readily abandoned you?', it further mocked.

'I was NOT abandoned by them!', Aqua shouted, clenching her fists as she looked around her new environment of darkness. Her eyes lost the fire and in turn took on fear and worry, as the darkness started to shift and mold into what looked to be a place, she thought she had escaped. Black rocks with blue veins within them, the murky grey skies above her with the sounds of the shore. 'Really? How certain are you on that?', the voice asked, she could hear the smirk appearing on its face.

Aqua looked at the ground to see she stood no longer on stone but dirty sand, the cave had disappeared and here she was once more, in the one place she fought so hard to escape from. Her prison, her hell. The faint stepping on water caught her ears and when she turned to address her visitor, her body froze as the will that once helped her persist through the darkness turned to nothing but despair and fear.

Anti-Aqua.

Bleached blue with the same yellow eyes Terra-Nort has, and her once-white dress has darkened and become tattered. Her arms and legs are also darkened, and her hands are now black with red fingertips.

Anti-Aqua smiled so evilly, a mockery of what her regular smiles used to be. 'Been a long time since you took a good look in a mirror hasn't? How does it feel I wonder to see what you became? To see just how far you had fallen just when they finally decided you were worth bringing back to that disgusting realm of lies?', she listed, grinning as her yellow eyes held a terrifying gleam in them, sparkling. Aqua stepped back as her throat clogged up, shoulders shook as her skin turned ashen white. Never had she felt so repulsed and horrified by seeing an image of herself be tainted to such a degree.

Anti-Aqua took a step forward to her, continuing her speech: 'I'm surprised you managed to reframe from strangling that rodent of a king when you first saw him again. That little rodent had been keeping your existence from them all, even the boy who carried your brother's heart'. She laughed mirthlessly, looking at her reddened fingertips as Aqua could feel her strength being sapped away from the words.

'Poor Aqua all alone left to rot in the darkness while her "friends" enjoyed their freedom in the light. Her only companion was the dark, wasn't it?', she cooed. Reaching the shore, the darkened figure walked closer to the frozen in place Aqua. 'Sora and Riku didn't even know you existed, Kairi had forgotten you rescuing her, and even that old fool of a sorcerer had barely acknowledge your achievements, not even worthy of mentioning it to those two', she furthered bragged as she got closer and closer to her.

'S-shut up…', Aqua whimpered, clutching her head in dismay in a feeble attempt to block her inner darkness' words. Tearing into her and ripping her heart apart, the memories of the darkness flooded her mind as she could fell her will being sapped away. 'Does it hurt? Knowing you were so insignificant that no one even attempted to find you as soon as you disappeared?', Anti-Aqua sang with glee, reaching the woman.

'Stop it…stop it!', Aqua cried out, feeling the darkness wrap around her heart like it was thrown into a den of snakes. Anti-Aqua laughed gleefully, clapping her hands and her smile turned smug. 'What sort of master weeps in front of her enemy I wonder? Possibly the same one who was rescued by a mistake!', she sang, 'A random kid that wasn't even chosen by the key, yet he's accomplished far more than you've ever done! At the very least he managed to SAVE his friend from the darkness~'.

Aqua let out a wail of anguish, launching herself upon the darkened replica of herself, tackling her onto the ground as she kept laughing at the woman. She suddenly was enveloped in darkness that dragged her underground. Throwing the two of them out of the place where Anti-Aqua was born, and the next thing the master knew, she was back in the Tempering Grounds, likely where she was meant to end of her tunnel.

Landing on her side, Aqua rolled onto her feet as Anti-Aqua stood at the entrance likely at another trial chamber. The dark replica looked at her with no more smiles or smug looks, but disgust. 'I can't believe you; this is what a master is supposed to be? A sniveling weakling who cries when she's reminded of how worthless she is to her "friends"?', she accused. 'Pfft, maybe you were right. Maybe Eraqus did make a bad choice'.

'Don't you dare say my master's name like that!', she shouted, getting to her feet and readied herself to cast magic. The woman of the darkness then lifted her darkened hand up and to the horror of Aqua, manifesting in her hands was Master's Defender, still broken and levitating in her palm. Aqua tried to recall it back to her, but nothing happened. 'No…', she whispered. Laughing maniacally at Aqua's woes, her other self-turned to her with a smirk that looked disgustingly like Xehanort's. 'Oh yes~ Even your master's keyblade knows what a worthless apprentice you are!', she bragged.

Dismissing her keyblade as a dark corridor opened behind her and she turned her back on Aqua. 'I'm disappointed, I expected you to be at the very least worth coming back for…but in the end, you are nothing more than a sham, a failure', she berated. As she entered the corridor, she left Aqua with the final words…

'The light rejects you, and you're not even worthy of the gift Xehanort gave you'.

As the corridor disappeared, Aqua fell to her knees in absolute defeat, falling onto her hands as tears welled up. 'This…this…this can't be real…', she said, never feeling so beaten in her life. 'She's lying…'.

Shaking in her spot, she laid her head on the ground with a choking sob threatening to escape her. Doubt had consumed her confidence; her strength was depleted and her will to push onwards had crumbled to dust. Every word her other self said had cut into her heart, each slash going deeper and deeper until it could bleed no more. Did the King truly think she was so worthless she wasn't even worth bringing up to Sora and Riku?

Was her failures so great that even the old sorcerer would denounce her existence? Did they only save her out of guilt? Or only because she was needed to at least tip the scales in the light's favor?

'Master…I'm so sorry…', she whimpered as her tears fell, her spirit crushed.

'Aqua!'.

Reaching up the ramparts from the other side of the cliff, Gladiolus ran towards her and knelt to her level. 'You ok? Hot damn you got here fast!', he said, jokingly and she heard…relief in his voice. 'What's up? Tired already?', Gladiolus teased. When she didn't respond, the warrior's smirk dimmed as his eyes narrowed with worry. Gently he placed a hand on her shoulder, shaking her. 'Aqua?', he said.

She slowly raised her head to see him, and his heart broke. Tears ran down her face, skin pale from what she had just endured, and she looked completely defeated. Gladiolus had never seen this woman looking so beaten like she just lost the biggest fight of her life, and it crushed her to the core. 'Aqua? What happened?', he said, grabbing both her shoulders and helping her sit up on her knees. 'Who did this? Was it Xigbar?'.

She taken back by the anger in his voice, the level of concern for her wasn't something she knew he took to heart. Aqua knows he saw her as a friend certainly, but there was something in his amber eyes that felt and looked different from just a friendly concerned. 'Gladio…', she whimpered, shaking. 'I…I can't do this…'.

'What the hell are you talking about? We're not even halfway in!', Gladiolus argued, baring his teeth. 'Why are you giving up now? Why are you suddenly saying this bull crap!?'.

'BECAUSE I SCREWED UP!', she cried out.

Her voice rang through the area like a cry from the deepest cave, her eyes shined with despair and anger as she stared into Gladiolus' surprised yet steel solid eyes. 'I failed! I failed my master! Ventus, Terra, everyone! I was left in that place because I'm worthless!', she ranted, pushing him away from her and stood up. 'A master!? I'm lucky to call myself even a wielder of the keyblade! Sora has accomplished so much more than me! I'm a joke! A pathetic excuse for a master!'.

Gladiolus stood there, dumbfounded and completely lost for words at this…

Seeing the anger in her eyes, just tearing into herself as if she was her worst enemy that had done nothing but brought her misery and despair. Yet the more she screamed and ranted, her rage was dwindling and in its place was sorrow and anguish that reminded him of Noctis when he heard of his father's passing, the agony, however, was something else.

When she finished her break down, Aqua's furious eyes dimmed to nothing but sorrow as more tears ran down her cheeks. 'I…I…I failed everyone…and now I can't even, keep my master's keyblade…what does that say about-

Her words were cut off when Gladiolus suddenly wrapped her into a hug, holding her against his chest. She was caught off by the sudden act of physical contact, whatever self-lashing she had prepared herself for was forgotten when the man held her. 'You're no failure, Aqua…if what I've heard from the others, more so Riku and Sora, you are far from it', he said, gruffly yet gentle at once. 'You've been played a shitty hand and did what you could for your brothers. That doesn't sound like a failure to me'.

The blue-haired woman shook in his arms as she sub-consciously wrapped her arms around his waist, whimpering before she finally broke down and cried into him.

*Nightfall*

At a small Haven nearby the next trial, Aqua sat near the fire with her arms wrapped around her knees as she stared into the flames while Gladiolus was prepping their "dinner". After she had broken down into her friend, it took time for him to motivate her and push onwards despite the doubt that was eating at her heart and soul.

Aqua merely adopted the desire to help Gladiolus at least complete his trial, she owed him that. Why should he be punished for her shortcomings, after all, she told herself. Yet somehow, she felt a bit lighter after her cry and hug from the shield. It was almost like Kairi and Sora's, despite where theirs felt like siblings being supporting their older sibling, his hug felt like a genuine, like between good friends.

At least…she's telling herself that.

'I'm…sorry for what happened back there…', she said weakly, a sense of shame crept up her back. Gladiolus said nothing as he glanced at her before he let out a breath. 'You had me startled, I'll give you that', he confessed. 'Don't think I've ever seen you like that'. He turned to her properly. 'So, wanna tell me the story? What happened to you?'. Aqua frowned at this request, but as she closed her eyes and cleared the doubt, she felt this need, this desire to lift some of that weight off her chest.

Keeping those dark days behind, locked away in her deepest memory forever was something she had desperately tried to do. But now her darkness had brought those back full force, it felt like she was back in that despair again. '…it's…a long story', she said.

Then something delicious caught her nose, and when she looked, she sees the shield offering her a cup of noodles, his smile was friendly, like a long-time comrade. 'I've got time, and I think you need getting it off your chest', he offered. Aqua looked to the cup before she smiled in gratitude and took it and the plastic fork with it. 'Are you sure?', she asked one more time, looking at him. Gladiolus nodded, encouraging her to tell her story.

With a deep breath, Aqua said: 'I guess…it all started…'.

A/N:

Part one of Episode Gladiolus and Aqua!

So this was admittedly mostly focused on Aqua and her inner demons, which I wished KH would (hopefully will do in future) go into. Promise Gladiolus will get some development in the next chapter with her, I wanna try and develop their relationship since I don't do much with Gladiolus and I always felt like he always gets the short end of the stick with the four.

So here are my questions for this chapter!

Q1: Do you think I went too far with tormenting Aqua?

Q2: How did you like Anti-Aqua?

Q3: Can you guess how Gladiolus will get a shield again?

Q4: Which character do you enjoy most out of this story and why?

Questions asked:

Guest Isa:

The summons Aqua and Kairi would have gotten has been scrapped, I'm sorry but I kinda feel like the team's strong enough without them. As for Fairy Godmother…well…you'll see.

I like the name, simple and fitting!

My questions for fun: Who is your favourite and least favourite Guardian of Light?

As always, thanks for reading! Massive thanks to Manga124 for beta reading this! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	27. Chapter 27

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 27

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness

*Nightfall*

Laying down on the bedroll staring up into the stars above through the wing curved pillars, Aqua silently watched them twinkle and glow in silence. The silence of the cave brought not apprehension or worry to her, unlike in the realm of darkness where silence was a sign for heartless to prowl around her.

Here in the realm of light, silence was welcoming like a visitor whose company is always pleasant. Hands resting on her stomach as she remained still on her bedroll, her heart feeling lighter like a heavy burden was finally taken off her shoulders, a sense of peace she hadn't felt in so long had returned to her.

The silence was broken when her partner spoke up.

'How does Anti-Aqua work exactly? I mean, Terra I get but if you're here, then who's that?', Gladiolus asked his bedroll next to hers. Aqua herself had been pondering that possibility herself since she started talking about the whole thing. 'I'm not entirely sure…when I was in the realm of darkness, I fought several illusionary versions of myself, trying to drag me further down into the darkness', she explained, restraining that shiver. 'But none of them looked like her, just mirror versions of me'.

Gladiolus hummed in thought, one hand behind his head as the river of information pooled in his mind. The master had told him everything that had occurred from the day she became a master, to falling into the darkness and finally being rescued by Sora. Her trials she faced both in the realms of light and darkness, the adversaries she fought and triumphed, and the losses she had to endure.

The shield's respect for this woman, if possible, had grown further from these tales. Enduring such solitude from everyone she cared for, fighting every day just to preserve herself a little longer in the desperate hope that her friends will find her and bring her home. Hearing her pour out everything that had happened to her, it also fuelled a new hate for the man who did this to her, and while he may still carry that grudge with Terra from before, a new sympathy was planted in his heart for the poor man.

It also made him question more about her master's decisions, not in regards to choosing her as a master, but more on the line of attempting to eliminate Ventus and Terra. His heart twisted for the woman, uncertain how he'd react if his father ever attempted to lay a hand on Noctis and Prompto.

'You said that, when that Ansem guy hit you with the darkness, he managed to plant some of Xehanort's corruption into control your heart right?', he asked, seeking clarity. 'Somewhat, given where I was, sinking into the ocean's dark depths, I had little chance to protect my heart from him', she explained. 'Unlike what happened to Terra, I didn't lose my body or heart to it. The darkness just possessed my negative emotions and without the keyblade to protect myself, I submitted to it'.

'Do you think Xehanort created a clone of that Aqua to screw with you?', he offered. 'If he did…she took her time to show up', Aqua said with a sigh. 'I don't think she's a clone or replica, it is more possible she's my doubts and darkness coming to life. Likely a more powerful heartless'. It was the closest thing that made any semblance of sense to her, and why she was able to summon her keyblade, broken as it may be.

Looking at the woman, at last, Gladiolus asked: 'So what are you going to do about her?'.

Aqua's eyes dimmed as she kept looking at the stars. 'I…I don't know…', she confessed, sitting up and clasping the badge on her straps. 'Not only is my magic still too low to use, but I have no other means of fighting her'. 'But if you don't do something about her, taking your keyblade isn't the last thing she'll do', Gladiolus warned, his tone stern but sympathetic. Aqua nodded as the man started to sit up himself, one knee arched and rested an arm on it.

'I'd offer to help fight her if I knew I stood even a smidge of a chance', Gladiolus huffed. After his battle with Terra, even Gladiolus knows up against a magic user like Aqua it would be a very one-sided battle until he got stronger. 'I know…but what can I do, Gladio? I'm virtually powerless against her at this moment', she lamented. 'And…w-what if she gets into my head again? If I fall to the darkness again…'.

Her eyes darkened with fear and doubt again, a common shade the shield hated to see on a more regular bases with the woman. Wrapping her arms around her knees, she rested her chin on them in doubt. '…I'm scared…scared I'll lose myself to darkness…what if I hurt you? Sora? Or anyone I care about?', she listed, her voice sounded close to breaking down. Gladiolus frowned in disagreement before he spoke.

'Why didn't you give up?'.

She looked at him as the shield gave her the strongest look, she's ever seen from him. 'You said time and time again in that place, you ever gave in to it. You pressed on, fought on, and persevered', he stated, 'What was that driving force? What was it that you held on to, that no matter what comes, you wouldn't lie down and die?'.

Aqua said nothing, but then slowly reached into her pocket and plucked out from pocket her greatest and most valued treasure, her Wayfinder. Gently brushing against the smooth crystal surfaces of the star-shaped charm, she felt a wave of memories flying through her mind, not dark days or times in the darkness, but days of her light and innocence. A gentle hum resonates from her throat as she felt her heart grow lighter and brighter when she looked at it.

'Terra…and Ven…', she whispered, 'I…I wanted to see them again…I knew I hoped, one day, we would come together again and…go home'.

Gently, the man placed a hand on her shoulder and gestured to the charm. 'That charm is a reminder why you can't run from this. Why you can't slink into defeat and let that thing stop you', he said encouragingly. Looking at him, she could see no doubt, no falsehoods of faith, nothing but utter confidence in his amber eyes directed towards her. 'But…I...Eraqus…', she said softly. 'He made you a master for a reason, and maybe that was because you wanted to protect Ven, right?'.

Aqua looked at him, encouraging him to elaborate. 'You said, Xehanort was going to use him somehow to start the keyblade war, and he thought killing him was the answer…yet you and Terra protected him, you hide him away all these years', he said, 'Maybe he made you a master because you would do the right thing, see beyond what Xehanort's goals and think of your friends first?'.

A sense of clarity washed over Aqua, thoughts she never conjured up before began to wash and drown the doubts that were swimming in her mind. Did the master truly see Aqua as a successor like Gladiolus believes? Was it a matter of age and tradition that helped him decide she was worthy? 'How, can you be so sure?', she asked. 'You said in the exam, you needed to keep your darkness under control, right? You did so, and he trusted you enough to make you a master'.

Looking at her charm, then back to the man who spoke with confidence, she let a tear run down her cheeks before she giggled. Quickly wiping that tear away, she faced him with something he hadn't seen from this woman from the moment she lost her master's key to Terra.

She smiled.

*Next Day*

Continuing their journey into the trial, fighting off more wildlife and fallen soldiers with less struggle than yesterday, thanks to Gladiolus growing stronger from the previous trial. The blue master kept using weaker spells to harm the wildlife and left the killing blows to him, maintaining a better pool of mana for herself for the likely upcoming battle ahead of her.

Soon enough they came to another entrance to the trial, were before them was another planted blade with several ropes and ribbons tied to it. This time though when Gladiolus yanked the blade out almost repeating the scene before them, there was no other path for Aqua to take. Looking at one another before they agreed to press on together, figuring the trial itself was further in.

Ahead of them was a long and wide bridge that showed the ground looked to have been raked by giant claws, the earth splitting in several rows while the curved pillars shadowed the ground before them like hawks.

They strode onwards to it, but they stopped when they were halfway across the bridge. A black portal appeared before them and coming out of the blackened swirls was Anti-Aqua, her body cloaked in darkness. Standing in front of them at a good distance, she folded her arms and smirked at Aqua, not even acknowledging the shield. The keyblade master clenched her fists and stared down her shadow as Gladiolus summoned his sword. 'That her?', he asked.

'Yes…', Aqua confirmed. The shield grunted in response, eyeing her curiously and looking to be contemplating a plan of attack. Not that Aqua was blaming his hesitance, she was just as if not more powerful than Terra, even she felt reluctance in combating her. Yet the fear that was wrapped around her heart wasn't as strong as it was the day before, rather it felt like it was desperately yet weakly clutching her heart. The doubt lingered but she didn't feel weakness…

'Heh…what is it with the white hair you guys are so obsessed with…?', Gladiolus joked, smirking at the master. Aqua blinked at him, before registering what he was trying to do. A strange time to be the joker certainly, yet she felt assurance and confidence from it, and truth be told she nearly giggled at it. 'Says the man, along with his brothers, who wear black most of the time', she teased back with a small smile.

Gladiolus gave the woman a mock look of insult, before gesturing his black shirt. 'Because black is the best color!', he argued, 'Are you telling me this doesn't look good?'. Aqua rolled her eyes in response to his jab, 'Coming from the man who's not wearing anything underneath it', she reminded, pointing at his abs. 'And deny the world these pecs and inkwork? What kind of monster do you take me for?'. Aqua snickered at him, before turning to her dark side, now sporting an impatient and irritated look on her face.

'Gladio…', she spoke.

'Yeah, I know. Don't get in your way, right?', he said, knowing her.

'Yes. This is my fight', she admitted. 'You sure you wanna do this?', he asked one more time, giving her a look. Closing her eyes, gently reaching in and gripping her Wayfinder, she opened her eyes to face him. 'Let me face my fears', she pleaded.

With a solemn nod, he turned around to see his trial had arrived. A large bird/wyvern like monster with fire surrounding its body, squawking loudly at the shield. 'Least I've got something to do…', he huffed, walking towards his battle, leaving Aqua to do as she wished. Aqua approached her darkness, eyes steeled and resolute with determination to win this challenge.

'Aww, here I was thinking you'd go hide under a rock after the last time we spoke', taunted her shadow, smugly. Her words though barely registered to the warrior of light, like a minor bug trying to aggravate a lion. The darkness around her foe was strong, yet the fear she had for it was manageable despite her weakened condition. 'What? Did you have a good cry with that muscle-head? Did he hug you and told you "No Aqua, you're strong! You're a great keyblade master", or did he just pet you?', she further taunted.

Standing a few feet from her darkness, Aqua kept her face neutral and stance ready for battle. Slowly the two of them were surrounded by darkness, a large circle around them that created walls and eventually a dome of darkness containing them. Anti-Aqua summoned her own warped and dark keyblade, a mockery of Aqua's original key Stormfall. It was black and grey with dripping violet ooze from the tip, the chain a heartless emblem.

'A perfect key, for the dark master, don't you agree?', she mocked, lifting it to show her counterpart. 'Must infuriate you, that a being of darkness is more worthy of a keyblade than a "master", chosen by Eraqus himself'.

Seeing her old keyblade being tainted like this stoked the fires of her anger indeed, but the woman of light kept her head cool and focused. The last she needed was to give this creature any more chances to corrupt her with the darkness again. When she wasn't getting anything from Aqua though, Anti-Aqua's smug looks shifted to annoyance, like she was insulted. 'What? Nothing to say, huh? Not going to try to convince me or yourself that I'm wrong? My words aren't ringing truth?', she growled.

'There is nothing to say…somethings that your saying have truth in them', Aqua said, not angry nor afraid. Placing a hand on her head, she looked to her shadow. 'I have failed in the past, I couldn't save Terra from Xehanort's grip, I lost my keyblade and armor, and paid for it by spending that long in the realm of darkness'.

'As a master, I should've been better, but what happened in the past, is exactly that. In the past…'. She took out her Wayfinder and held it near her, looking at it longingly. 'Yet despite all that time in there, the loneliness, the emptiness, and fighting…I still held on to that one piece of hope. Hope that one day, I'll reunite with my brothers and friends', she spoke. 'Eraqus has made his mistakes, but he choose me to protect them because he knew no matter what happens, my heart is stronger than you or I say'.

Facing down her darkness, taking secret delight of the look of fury on her face and even that smidgen of fear in her yellow eyes, Aqua held her Wayfinder up high. 'I will see Terra and Ventus again, I'll find a way to free him, and then we came to be together again!', she stated with resolution that she hadn't possessed for so long. Light began to glow around her hand clasped around the Wayfinder, a light so beautiful it made the dark look-alike finch and even lift her hand to protect her eyes.

'I will never fall to the darkness again, I won't let my doubts hold me back from what my heart desires!', she listed. As the light shined brighter, even turning the darkness around them into light itself, Aqua lowered her hand to her side, taking up her stance. 'I am Master Aqua, chosen wielder of the keyblade! And I won't give in to you, Xehanort or anyone from the darkness!'. The light enveloped her hand entirely as it blinded Anti-Aqua, making her cry out.

When it disappeared, the shadow's eyes widened with shock and disbelief as Aqua lifted her new yet familiar keyblade in her hand, Brightcrest. The design of the keyblade was reminiscent of cresting waves, both along the shaft and at the teeth. Aqua's Wayfinder appears at the top of the shaft within a black circle, surrounded by a cresting wave. The hilt has two heart-shaped openings, and the keychain is also Aqua's Wayfinder. The handle and chain are both an ivory color.

Aqua swung her keyblade and readied herself to combat her darkness for the final time as her shadow gritted her teeth in fury, eyes glowed yellow with the darkness cloaking her body with black and violet flames. 'You…you…you can't be! Your light is tainted! You're not a master!', she cursed with pure venom. 'Yet here I stand, a master, while you're nothing more than what I became', Aqua retorted, 'Shadow of my darkness taken shape and form'.

'But here, I'll put my fears and doubts to rest'.

With the final words said and done, Aqua dashed towards her darkness, speed greater than she had ever displayed before and reached her shadow quick enough to land the first strike on her darkness. With a thrust of her keyblade, she struck home into the dark look-alike's stomach and sent her flying backward as a burst of light erupted from the attack.

Anti-Aqua dug her feet into the ground to stop her momentum, breaking the stone beneath her feet as she came to a halt. Gritting her teeth, both in fury and pain she stared down at the master as she held her keyblade high and narrowed her gaze. No more fear or doubt in those crystal blue eyes, there was a fire within them that couldn't be put out.

Anti-Aqua snarled in fury as she swung her keyblade at the denizen of light, a wave of darkness shaped like a blade's edge charged towards Aqua. Only for the master to cartwheel away from the strike and during her flip she fired a pearl at the bleached haired monster. Anti-Aqua swung at the pearl and split it in half, then she ran to the woman once she got to her feet. Their keyblades clashed in the darkness, the light from their sparks shinned brilliantly with each clash.

Both striking at each other with speed and precision yet neither could land any hits save for their steel meeting, despite Anti-Aqua having more strength put into her strikes that would shake even the steadiest of hands. Aqua was resilient however, not losing any ground and she matched Anti-Aqua's strikes blow for blow. When their keyblades were deadlocked, they glared at each other, hate and contempt clashing at one another.

Until Aqua quickly dislodged her keyblade from her enemy in time to backflip over a sweeping keyblade that was aiming for her back. In the air, she flipped again, and air dashed away from there, landing a few feet from the dark version of herself. Unsurprisingly she sees Anti-Aqua had created duplicates of herself, three in total. Outnumbered certainly the master concluded, but far from outmatched.

As the duplicates ran to her, Aqua spun Brightcrest in her hand before she said: 'Give me power!'.

A flash of light shined as her keyblade shifted into a new weapon, the guard shaping into a scythe-shaped blade while the blade of her keyblade turned into chains with her chain becoming a spiky ball-chain with a single spike on it. Aqua's clothes changed into jade-colored with teal ocean waves around her high-collared halter top and her bell sleeves.

Her Blitz-Form.

With the sickle in her left hand she spun the chain quickly in her right hand, she threw the chain at one false Aqua which wrapped around her waist. She pulled her to the woman, leaping onto her with her legs wrapped around her head. Aqua plunged the scythe into her back and flipped herself over the woman with her hands landing on the ground first. She threw the duplicate forward onto her back, the blade piercing her entirely until the blade reaches outside her stomach, killing the false clone and making her vanish into nothing.

A duplicate reached the woman in time to bring down her keyblade on her, but Aqua spun and tossed the chain right into her face, smacking into her forehead and knocking her backward. Aqua performed a few flips while spinning her chain around her, covering enough space that even the clones were forced to back up or evade her chain ball. With one more front flip Aqua, threw her chain straight at the other clone with speed to fast for even them to track.

The spike plunged into the fake's chest and struck the killing blow making them disappear into a cloud of black smoke. The last clone turned to Aqua and fired several barrages of dark firagas at her, only for Aqua to swing the chain around her acting like a whirlwind was shielding her, destroying every fireball that came close to her, she was untouchable. When the last fire was destroyed by the chain, Aqua jumped into the air spinning the sickle around and then threw it at the clone. The blade wrapped around her and stuck into her back, piercing the dark flesh.

Aqua lifted her right leg and wrapped it around the chain, pulling the clone to her with a combined tug of her arms and leg. The clone flew towards the master, and when it got close Aqua performed a devastating hi-spin kick that smacked the clone straight into the jaw, destroying it and allowing the darkness to join its fallen sisters of the dark.

Aqua turned onto Anti-Aqua, now seemingly radiating with darkness as the remaining peach color to herself had finally darkened entirely. Her eyes were glowing violet and she looked closer and closer to become more of a heartless. Even her keyblade looked more corrupted and twisted, it almost more daemon looking.

Aqua remained resolute, still using the chain-sickle and eyed the darkening woman. With a snarl that didn't resemble a human at all, Anti-Aqua dashed to the light version of herself, reaching her in seconds and began a barrage of wild strikes on the woman. Aqua's chain-sickle helped to keep the move devastating strikes off her but she still took on a few hits that certainly hurt. She took hits on her shoulders, hips and even her left leg yet she bore through it, waiting for an opportunity to present itself to her.

Anti-Aqua's keyblade was brought down onto Aqua but the warrior of light managed to throw the chain-ball around the weapon's blade. Quickly she leaped over Anti-Aqua with her chain still wrapped around the mock keyblade, and once she landed on her feet, she quickly wrapped the remaining chain's around Anti-Aqua's neck and tightly tugged on her. Anti-Aqua snarled more ferociously like a wild animal, thrashing around and even trying to bite Aqua's fingers.

She managed to slam her head back into Aqua's forehead, staggering her and making her accidentally make her weapon disappear. Anti-Aqua turned on her as she re-summoned her keyblade. She teleported away from Aqua and re-appeared in the air, aiming her keyblade at Aqua and fired a huge, truck-sized more like, shard of ice at her.

Seeing this coming, Aqua reverted her sickle to her keyblade and aimed hers at the chunk. A ring of fire circled the tip of the key as the whole weapon was bathed in flames. 'Flare!', Aqua yelled. A stream of whitish red blasted forth from the tip of her keyblade, rocketing towards the chunk and colliding with it head-on. The chunk quickly evaporated into water in less than ten seconds as the beam charged towards Anti-Aqua. The beam blasted her, and her cry of pain rang through the dark world around them.

Before she would be consumed by the beam, Anti-Aqua teleported back to the ground, staggering. She faced down Aqua again, eyes baring nothing but complete hate and rage. Aqua, despite her wounds, stood tall and faced down her counterpart, gripping her keyblade with both hands. Their bodies glowed, Anti-Aqua bathed in black embers while Aqua glowed with brilliant light, and then together they dashed forward.

Speed so great they appeared invisible to the naked eye, all that was seen in this dark place were flashes of light, sparks from steel making contact with steel, sounds of blades whistling in the air and the tremors of their strikes could have shaken the very world itself for all they knew.

When they reappeared again, both had taken much more damage than either had predicted. Aqua fell on to her knee in pain, gritting her teeth as she shook from the pain. Her bell sleeves were torn apart, the pink straps were reduced to one barely holding together, the armor on her upper arms was destroyed and reduced to scrap, though the one on her left arm barely held together, even her corset straps were torn and ruined, exposing her sides, finally her cloth around her waist were reduced to rags from the attacks.

She could feel the air sting her opened cuts on her arms, legs and even her cheeks, yet she struggled to get back up. Quickly though, she turned around in time to see Anti-Aqua appear behind her, keyblade swinging down to quick for her to form any plan of counterattack or even to guard it. The keyblade fell upon her face, cutting her.

Aqua let out a cry of pain, the force of the attack caused her to turn her head from the mockery, the horrible pain rushed through her nerves as she felt the blood pour forth from her wound. Yet despite the pain, thoughts of her friends, her brothers, and everyone pushed the pain aside, adrenaline quickly taking over her and numbing the pain. With one final cry, Aqua grabbed her keyblade with both hands, reared her head to Anti-Aqua and with one final thrust, pierced her chest with her keyblade.

They both remained still as silence hung over them both, the winner had been decided.

Anti-Aqua's keyblade dropped from her hands as it faded into nothingness, violet liquid leaked from her mouth as the darkness slowly drained from her skin. Aqua yanked her keyblade from her, leaving a gaping hole that seeped out black smoke from it, like snakes slithering into the air as Anti-Aqua staggered backward, clutching her chest. Not screaming in pain or making much of a sound as weak breathing.

Panting, Aqua slowly got to her feet as her other side collapsed onto her back, darkness slithering from her body as it began to evaporate into nothing. Aqua flinched when she tasted the coppery taste of her blood, placing a hand on her cheek. She winced when she felt the pain, the tender making of a scar. Her left side of her face was now coated in a sheen of red as she stared down her darkness.

'Its…over', she said, looking at her. 'Go back into the darkness…'.

Anti-Aqua laughed ruefully though, smirking at her. 'You…think, this will be the end of me? I am a part of your heart, Aqua', she warned, 'For as long as there is darkness within you, you shall never be rid of me'. '…that's fine', Aqua said. 'Even if you do come back, somehow. I won't face you alone, I never had…and I never will have to'.

Before Anti-Aqua returned to that place where all dark beings go, she could see beside Aqua were her brothers in a beautiful golden light, looking at Anti-Aqua with the same determination and motivation Aqua had. She ruefully smirked as she collapsed completely, disappearing into the darkness. All that was left behind was Master's Defender, still broken.

With her darkness finally evaporated, the dome that surrounded her disappeared into nothing and she found herself back in the Tempering Grounds. Aqua allowed herself to finally relax her posture and allowed her body to finally let the exhaustion take over her along with the pain. Before she collapsed onto the ground, she was caught by Gladiolus in time before her legs finally gave away.

Helping her onto her knees to rest, Gladiolus helped her sit up to check her wounds. She didn't like the grimace on his face. 'Do I…look that bad?', she said with a weak giggle. 'Outside of looking like you just walked through a corridor of knives going by your clothes?', Gladiolus grunted, 'Your face took one for the team'. Worried about the severity of the wound and to show her, Gladiolus took his phone out and used the selfie photo option to show her. Indeed, to her dismay, there was a large cut on her face, a long scar that went from two inches from her eyebrow down to two inches below her cheekbone.

Even after cleaning off the blood from her face, the scar is still very fresh. 'First time I've ever gotten a scar like this…', Aqua said with lament in her tone yet she felt a sense of pride in it. At least it'll be a reminder of her greatest victory yet. 'Welcome to the club', Gladiolus joked, gesturing his scar. Aqua giggled in response to his jest, she stood up with him and raised her keyblade, casting "Curaga" on herself, healing her wounds once more.

As her wounds healed, Aqua placed a hand on her scar and flinched at the sensitivity. It'll likely take more time for this one to heal. Least it wouldn't be agonizing for the rest of the trial, but she sees Gladiolus smirking her new keyblade. Grinning in agreement, Aqua lifted it to show him her newest weapon, practically glowing with joy. 'I got it back!', she said. Gladiolus looked at it with admiration, then paused when he saw the Wayfinder keychain. 'Guess your brothers are your power, huh?', he said.

Aqua smiled and laid the weapon on her hand, fondly looking at it. 'Yes, but more than that. My strength came from wanting to protect them, and be someone worthy of being a master', she mused. Dismissing her weapon, she looked at the shield who nodded. One trial remains for them to fulfill, they turned down to the path leading into the final part of the trials.

Looking at Gladiolus, she asked: 'Are you ready?'. 'Yeah…no turning back now', he said. With a nod, the two weary warriors continued onwards to the final trial.

*Grandmaster's Trial*

The final door after everything they had been through, the smaller trials Gladiolus had conquered without Aqua's help at his insistence. Together they came to the last one, the final door that leads to the Blademaster himself. No weapon to open it this time, however, Aqua stepped forward and summoned Brightcrest. Gripping the weapon with both hands, she aimed her keyblade at the wall and fired a beam of light at it.

No lock for sure but the walls all moved apart and disappeared before them. Once their path was cleared, Aqua and Gladiolus walked in. 'I'm guessing you won't want my help?', she asked, despite knowing his answer already.

'Yeah, this is something I got win alone', he confessed. Looking at his hand, already feeling his newfound strength. However as much as he's improved, the warrior was sadly very aware compared to Aqua now he was still very, VERY much behind her. 'Call me presumptuous or arrogant, but I've got a bad feeling he's not anything like Terra', he grunted. Aqua gave him a surprised look, worried that his statement may not have been too far off from the truth. Even seeing Blademaster in combat, there was a certain difference in power between them.

Gladiolus stopped walking and turned to Aqua as they reached closer to the end. 'What if this won't work? What if winning this fight won't give me that power?', he asked, doubt laced in his tone. Gently taking his hand with hers, Aqua faced him. 'You're going to win, you know that. Strength doesn't come from defeating somebody, it comes', she says, placing one hand on his chest, 'From here'.

Gladiolus looked at her as she gave him an encouraging smile. 'If I can regain my strength after everything that's happened, then that power you're looking for will come in time', she assured. Gladiolus nodded, smirking in response. Together, they climbed down the hill to stand on the bridge where the Blademaster lied in wait. Surrounding the bridge was a grave of swords planted on the sides, ahead of them was what looked to be a monolith of pillars and crystal, a pillar made entirely out of an aura stood before it. In the aura awaits the master.

'I'm here', Gladiolus announced, standing before the master. The master slightly turned his head to address Gladiolus. 'Brandishing your brute force?', he questioned, amusement in his tone. Gladiolus turned to Aqua, who nodded and stepped back enough to be out of range of the battle. She stood on the edge of the graves of swords, crossing her arms and keeping a watchful eye on the battle about to take place.

He could see neither doubt or worries in her eyes, they glowed with faith in him. A surge of will rouse up within the shield, a sensation of confidence unlike anything he's ever felt made him feel more powerful than ever. 'Yeah', he said, turning to the Blademaster, 'Let's see if you can take it!'.

No more words were spoken between the two warriors of the sword as the Blademaster turned to him with his claymore just as Gladiolus summoned his greatsword. Their swords clashed immediately, dust flew from the Blademaster's striking impact when it hits Gladiolus' sword, yet the shield neither bent knew or faltered in his defense.

Gladiolus managed to push him off his sword and swept at him, and then he thrusts his sword after the master stepped back from the sweeping attack. Parrying his attacks, the Blademaster struck at him. Gladiolus rolled to the left, missing the blade in time and when he rolled onto his feet, he struck again with a downward slash on him. The master lifted his sword in that moment to block his attack, but Gladiolus quickly retracted his sword and swung upwards, sending the sword up and out of the way of the master.

Gladiolus finally landed the first strike by bringing his sword downwards in a vertical strike, cutting the master. The Blademaster didn't so much as grunt from the pain, still Aqua could see that strike was not superficial or even minimal. Gladiolus can hurt him; the feat alone was a massive leap compared to their first bout where the shield couldn't even land a blow.

The Blademaster swung his sword upwards repeatedly though, his strikes breaking through Gladiolus' attacks and even when he tried to parry the attacks his sword would be knocked aside, or his guard would be broken entirely. 'You are only delaying the inevitable, O unworthy one', the Blademaster said, taunting him.

Suddenly the Blademaster glowed with red energies surging around him and without warning, he performed a single thrust of his blade that broke Gladiolus' guard and knocked him back, nearly tripping over himself. 'Look how you tremble in fear', he mocked as Gladiolus grunted. Waving his free hand angrily, the warrior stared down the Blademaster with even more determination. 'I ain't afraid of you!', Gladiolus growled, but his voice showed confliction within it.

'Is that so? With each passing moment, the fear in your heart grows!', the Blademaster said, striking at the shield. As his sword clashed with Gladiolus', unrelenting and unforgiving as the shield of the king struggled to even have space to counter or even back up. As they were locked into a deadlock, Gladiolus stared down at the master. 'And what the hell am I supposed to do!? Lay down and die!?', he challenged.

The master chuckled mirthlessly as he pushed the warrior of his sword. 'Yes. Why else have you come to this place other than to join the other lost souls?', the master said as if it was a matter of fact. The master performed the same striking attack from before, but Gladiolus didn't attempt to evade it. He instead stabbed his sword into the ground, three inches of the blade digging into the stone beneath their feet. The Blademaster's sword struck but neither the blade or Gladiolus moved from that spot. With a growl and quick thinking, Gladiolus swung his fist and delivered a straight punch into the Blademaster's face, staggering him and even knocking him backward.

Quickly he yanked his sword out of the ground as he spun around and swung his sword at the master. The enemy leaped backward in time to evade the sword splitting him in half but not entirely escaping the steel cutting into his flesh. The master stepped backward a few feet as Gladiolus held his sword with both hands, panting but gritting his teeth. 'Because unlike those that fell to you in the past, *I' ve* got what it takes to beat you!', he declared.

Gripping the sword with both hands, the sword started to glow in that bluish light that reminded Aqua of Noctis' own Armiger. Gladiolus spun around with his sword, creating a vacuum of air that sucked in the Blademaster's body into it. Even as he blocked and guarded against Gladiolus' attacks, the shield's power still managed to cut into the Blademaster, both steel and the vacuum of the attack carved into him.

'Block this!', Gladiolus shouted as he front-flipped and slammed his sword down on the master. His blade carved through his shoulder to his hip in a vertical way, but still, the Blademaster made almost no sound from it. Back on his feet regardless, Gladiolus struck again only to be parried by the master and fell forward. He manages to catch his footing in time before he falls, turning around to face the master.

'Your blind reliance on your strength alone, reveals the weakness of your will', the Blademaster stated, aiming his sword at him. Looking around his graveyard, he waved his sword around to address them to the two visitors of his trial. 'Countless disappointments have all met their ends here in this place', he warned as Gladiolus looked around him.

'And soon, you shall join them'.

Gladiolus weakly grunted at this, the fear he was speaking about was starting to wear on his confidence and will, the coldness of the dead tugged at him. Looking at the Blademaster and his marks where the blade struck him, he was starting to wonder if he was indeed hurting him or just mildly irritating him. The waver of his will shook him as he felt his sword getting heavier…

One look to Aqua however, he sees her eyes desperately eyeing him. No…he couldn't die here. Remembering that defeat, why he was risking it all to ensure he'd be stronger. Noctis, Ignis, and Prompto immediately filled his mind, along with his new friends. Gripping his sword even tighter until his knuckles went white, he stared down the Blademaster. 'No…I didn't come here to die!', he growled, raising his sword and laying it on his shoulders, he punched his chest with a grunt. 'I came to prove to you I am worthy!'.

Gladiolus rushed into the range of the master, completely catching him off guard with this sudden burst of courage as Gladiolus spun and jumped into the air and brought his sword down on the master. What happened next caught both him and the master off guard, for Gladiolus' attack was not block.

It was caught…by the Blademaster's second arm that he lost.

Catching the empowered sword with a golden-ish fiery arm, the Blademaster released his grip on the sword as Gladiolus himself stepped back from this sudden reappearance of the lost limb. The master looked amused by this, looking at his ethereal arm. 'You are strong…but, so long as fear is binding your heart…', he said.

Then he dismissed his claymore and brought out the masamune again. 'The power you possess within is wasted on you', he finished, grabbing the weapon with both hands and shifting into a proper stance. His body glowed with red and the ground shook with his power raising as the dust flew around him. He lifted his masamune with his ethereal hand tracing down the blunt side of it. Then as the red energies went into him, he swung the sword downwards.

The attack knock only slammed into the ground sending rocks flying but it also created a wave of energy shaped like a blade at Gladiolus. The shield quickly rolled away from the attack as it zoomed past him and Aqua until it collided with a wall, even then, destroying it behind them. Gladiolus turned to see the Blademaster was in the air and diving down towards the shield with his sword coming down upon him.

Gladiolus blocked this attack by raising his sword with both hands, protecting himself as the master came back down to earth and brought the sword down with both hands still gripping the handle. The attack nearly buckled Gladiolus' knees, heck he was sure if he didn't go through the trials before this, he would decimate his legs altogether from the sheer power of the strike. Gladiolus pushed him off and when he tried to strike at him, another blade appeared in his ghostly limb and parried his attack.

Now wielding two of the same swords in his right hand, the Blademaster struck at Gladiolus with speed that the shield struggled against immensely, barley being able to parry one sword long enough to deal with the other. As the Blademaster flipped in the air and brought both swords repeated down on Gladiolus, the shield had to go for broke and went for a desperate attack. In the split second the Blademaster was preparing for another strike Gladiolus swung his sword with all his might the body could provide and struck at him.

His sword cleaved through the ghostly weapon and struck aside the physical one. Then as he tried to hit him with a thrust, the Blademaster parried this desperate strike and broke his guard. Gladiolus looked up in time to see the Blademaster swipe his sword across his face, cutting Gladiolus' forehead and made him spin around, dizzily walking away from him. Quick shaking of that disorientating attack, Gladiolus stared down the master again, a fresh deep cut marked on his forehead, crisscrossing his old one.

Gladiolus was then struck again on the chest, the masamune piercing him with the tip and two inches of the sword into him, almost reaching his heart. With an agonized yell booming from his voice, Gladiolus' eyes went red with fury. 'You're almost reaching the end of your strength…is this all you could muster?', the Blademaster asked, standing a decent foot from the warrior.

'Not…in a chance in hell!', Gladiolus growled, grabbing the sword with one hand and with sweat running down his face with exertion and pain combined, he pushed himself off the sword. Despite the new scar that'll likely mark him, and even with the blood pouring out of him, he refused to let this desolate place become his final resting place.

Gladiolus grabbed his sword again, all the power he managed to save up from the fight imbued the blade with a beautiful light that almost out-shined Noctis' own. The Blademaster looked amused and even readied up his strike, holding the blade with both hands as red energy surged around him and coated his sword.

They both ran at each other, and at once they swung their swords and clashed. The collision of this strike not only blew dust all over them, but it cracked the ground beneath them, demolished the stone pillars around them also. As sparks of blue and red light shined between the two swords, both warriors pushing forward to try and break the other. Gladiolus' body started to glow in a faint light that Aqua swore she had seen before…

With a small flash of light, both warriors suddenly found themselves on the other side where they once stood, blades outward and in the air. Not a sound was made, neither moved and even Aqua herself held her breath, waiting for the outcome.

The result ended with Gladiolus, shaking and staggering to keep himself up, and the Blademaster finally falling to his knee, subdued.

'I KNEEL BEFORE NO MAN!', Gladiolus decreed, refusing to even relent in his stance. When he turned to the Blademaster, panting and shaking with exertion, he finally placed a hand on his newly acquired scar. He flinched and looked at his reddened palm, he let out a chuckle. 'Looks like…our souvenirs are coming in the form of scars', he said, thinking of Aqua's.

Looking at his hand still, his mind wandered back to their first confrontation, to Aqua's doubts, his own, and then back to his fights with Terra and Ravus. All those moments, his losses, his weakness, and his …fear.

'I guess it was better late than never…to figure out what it was', he said. 'You're right…I am afraid'. Dismissing his sword, still looking at his blood with thought. 'I'm not afraid to die…that was never my issue. But the fact I might have had to accept, that I'm not cut out for this job'. Those fears of his doubts, his competence being insufficient. That possibly his king may die because of his shortcomings.

Not only Noctis but Ignis and Prompto, not being strong enough to shield them from the dangers. Clutching his hand, he looked at the Blademaster. 'But even still…even if I'm not the right guy for it, I'm going to keep going', he affirmed. 'I told myself if I can't beat you, then I was never good enough to be their shield'.

He nodded to the master. 'Well…guess I'd better get a move on...', he said, 'I may be just be all muscle with no mettle, but I'm gonna keep protecting them the way I always do'. He turned to Aqua, no longer cross-armed but baring a smile that shined with pride. 'At the very least, I don't have to keep them safe alone', he said.

Without another word, Gladiolus turned to Aqua walking up to him, likely to check on his wounds as he walked.

'Spoken like a true Shield of the King'.

Both turned to the Blademaster as he stood up, as they expected not defeated or likely even severely wounded. 'Fear and doubt beget death alone', he said, looking at them both. 'Those who avert their faults cannot call themselves a shield or a keyblade master. Yet you two, having made peace within yourselves, have proved you are worthy of the mantles you carry'.

He faced Gladiolus. 'The Chosen King should be so fortunate to have a man such as yourself, serving at his side', he said, proud. Gladiolus nodded with gratitude. Then, he turned to Aqua. '…Eraqus would be proud of the master standing before me'. Aqua's eyes widened as Gladiolus stared at him dumbfounded. 'Y-You knew master!?', Aqua asked, stepping forward. 'How!?'.

The Blademaster chuckled lightly before he lifted his hand up and then Master's Defender materialized, levitating in his hand. 'He came here, many years ago to test his mettle against me', he revealed, looking at the keyblade, his voice was softer and nostalgic. 'His strength was impressive, but he didn't fight me to his fullest. As he said before he left, he had far more important things to watch over than his pride'.

Looking at Aqua, he nodded. 'He told me of three apprentices, young and naïve with bright hearts and dreams of becoming masters when we last met. He claimed on the day he would acknowledge them as masters, it would be the proudest moment of his life', he said. Looking at the broken keyblade, slowly the red energy from him swirled and danced around the weapon, in a light that blinded them.

When it diminished, the keyblade was remade before them. He lowered his hand to Aqua. 'Know this, Master Aqua, your master would be proud, infinitely proud, to see what a strong and gentle woman you have become', he promised. Aqua gave the master a grateful bow, smiling at him with unshed tears as she reclaimed her keyblade. Turning to Gladiolus, he lifted his masamune to him. 'With this glaive, I entrust my power to you, Gladiolus Amicitia', he said.

With a nod, Gladiolus stepped forward and claimed the masamune, giving the master a bow of respect and gratitude. 'Go forth, hearts unhinged by fear and doubt. Save guard the future of this world with the King and Chosen one of light', he encouraged.

One final bow to the master, both newly powered warriors finally left the Tempering Grounds. More powerful, than ever.

*Outside*

Reaching outside of the grounds, the two finally took a deep breath as they stared into the rising sun, a new day for them.

Looking at their weapons, reclaimed and obtained, the two glanced at one another. 'So, you gonna go back to that?', Gladiolus asked, gesturing Master's Defender. Aqua looked at it in thought before she shook her head, dismissing it. 'No. I used to depend on it because I lost my keyblade. Now, I must rely on my strength, not master's', she said, firm. 'Besides, I think he'd be happy knowing I don't have to hold on to stand on my own feet'.

Nodding with understanding, Gladiolus dismissed the masamune. 'I get you, gonna need to train with it first', he said. 'Well then, let's go! We've got a king and apprentices to go back to!', Aqua said with newly found cheer.

'Right, let me just call the chocobos and we'll…', he said, reaching into his pocket. However, when he did so, he paused and blinked. Then he checked his other pocket…then his other pocket and final pocket as he started to pat around himself, growing more desperate as Aqua's smile slowly turned to despair. 'Gladio…', she said slowly.

'J-Just give me a second…', he said, quickening his pats.

'Gladio…!', Aqua said again, panic slowly rising.

'I pretty sure I didn't-

'You lost the whistle, didn't you?', she asked.

'…yup', he sighed.

Aqua slapped her forehead loudly as Gladiolus let out a loud groan. 'Of all the things I lost…', he growled. Aqua dragged her hand down her face, allowing herself to groan with him. 'Just great… we're in the middle of nowhere without any signals, my clothes are falling apart, we're wounded, tried and hungry, and now we have no transport!', she listed, sounding more and more deflated with each listing of their problems.

Gladiolus scratched his neck, not even attempting to argue back with the woman. 'Do you think there's a Haven nearby?', she asked, trying to recall one during their searches. 'Yeah, yeah, I think there's one just at least five to ten minutes away', he offered.

'Right…might as well recuperate before we make the journey back to the others, wherever they are', she sighed. As they walked down the pathway, Gladiolus suddenly stopped walking when he looked to the left, his abrupt stop caused Aqua to bump into him. She let out a small yelp of surprise and looked at him annoyed, before following his gaze.

'What in the…?', she asked, approaching what caught their eyes.

A small green carriage rested on top of a tree stump…

A/N:

Longest chapter yet…f*** me…

So Aqua and Gladiolus have completed their training and gained new power and strength and reclaimed some! Meeting the others next time with some angst and fun times!

First off, massive thanks to VashTheSampede0409 for the idea of Aqua using a chain-sickle! They've been supportive and helpful with this story so thanks for this!

Here are the Qs for the story!

Q1: What did you think of Aqua's weapon? I'm trying to stick with a certain theme of weapons for the team!

Q2: The fights, were they ok?

Q3: Did you enjoy how Blademaster was written?

Q4: Wanna take a wild guess how they're gonna get home?

Q5: Can you guess what's gonna happen to Aqua later?

Q6: Was Gladiolus done justice? I always felt like he gets the smallest amount of development compared to the other three.

Out of curiosity, for fun, but if you were a keyblade wielder, what your element be and what would you call it?

As always, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	28. Chapter 28

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 28

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

Lestallum

Upon arrival and after getting the vehicles to a car park, the party of seven immediately headed for the power plant. Night was slowly coming to an according to Ignis, but it was still long enough for the daemons to roam around the plant.

Reaching the power plan, Holly, the worker, informed them that daemons had been seen and running amok in the power plant. Unfortunately for the team, she warned them they only had a total of two hazard suits for the task at hand, which meant only Sora and Noctis were able to go in.

Soon enough once they entered, an hour or two later, they returned unharmed and their numbers increased to three. After this Holly treated their mythril to work for the yacht while she was waiting for the team to complete their tasks for her, as a thanks. Once they removed their suits, they were pleasantly surprised to see their third hunter was none other than Gladiolus.

'Did you miss me?', he asked with a smug look.

'Yeah, dude! We had to let Goofy do all the shielding without you!', Prompto remarked, gesturing to the captain. Goofy bashfully rubbed his neck at the boy's words as Kairi looked at Gladiolus' new scars with worry. 'Goodness, what happened to you?', she asked, pointing at his chest. The shield just shrugged and smiled. 'You should have seen the other guy', Gladiolus laughed in good nature, 'But hey I'm back and better than ever'.

'I sure as hell hope so', Noctis remarked with a smirk. At this the shield ruffled his hair teasingly as the prince grunted in irritation, then Sora spoke up. 'Where's Aqua? Isn't she with you?', he asked. 'She's actually at the hotel, we only got back here an hour before you all showed up', Gladiolus explained, 'I headed out here to see what's going on but when daemons started to pop up I had to lean back till back up arrived'.

'Is she ok?', Kairi asked, crossing her arms with worry. He merely smiled with a nod. 'You'll see when we go there…by the way, where's Riku?', he asked finally noticing their silver-haired companion wasn't among the team. 'Here'.

They all turned to see Riku, Iris, and Dustin, a fellow Crownsguard, approaching them. 'Looks like someone had a rough time, wherever he went', Riku teased, gesturing the scars the shield carried. Gladiolus hugged his sister and gave the boy the finger in response to his jab, confusing the other worlders and getting a frown from Ignis. 'So, what did I miss?', Riku asked without batting an eye at the rude gesture.

'We got the mythril and Holly said it's ready for the yacht', Sora said, grinning. 'That's great to hear, looks like you guys are a step closer to Altissia', Iris said. Looking at Noctis, she said: 'If you want me and Dustin can take the mythril to Cid and he can get started'. Looking at the others, namely Ignis and Gladiolus, who nodded, the prince turned to the girl and handed it to her. 'Sure, tell him thanks for this', he said.

With a nod and a quick hug to the prince and another to Riku that went on a little longer than Gladiolus would have liked, she headed off with Dustin back to Cape Caem. 'Let's go to the hotel then and check on Aqua, then call it a day', Noctis said, stretching out with a yawn, 'Been a long day…'. 'Yeah, sure', Gladiolus said with an eye roll, 'Guess you could go for a nap…'. 'After something to eat, I believe we've earned delicacy', Ignis reminded.

'Wa-hoo! Iggy's cooking!', Prompto cheered with glee. 'With help from Prompto and me?', Sora asked. 'Very generous of you, Sora', Ignis replied with a smug look as Prompto looked disheartened. 'Aww why me?', Prompto whined as they all walked to the hotel. As the group makes some banter to one another, Noctis and Prompto asking Gladiolus about his scars while Ignis informs Riku what has transpired.

All the while Kairi followed in the back of the party, eyes fixed on Sora's back as he made playful banter with Donald and Goofy. Where she should have felt relief to see Gladiolus and Riku were back, joy that their journey to Altissia was about to commence sooner than later, those feelings were replaced with inadequacy and guilt. Looking at Sora, still smiling at his two longest companions, a pain tugged on her heart as memories of what's happened to him sparked in her mind.

Clutching her necklace, brushing her thumb across the smooth stone to calm her nerves, thoughts thundering in her mind. "Have I caused him that much pain?", she asked herself, "Just how much hurt did I cause him these past years?".

Being used to hurt him by their enemies, the lengths he went to save her, all because of her. The Master's words lingered on her thoughts, the battle ahead of them scared her more than ever now. Looking down to keep her eyes hidden from the others, she felt them growing watery and a tightness in her throat. His death replaying repeatedly in her mind, a constant reminder of what the price was for her to see another day.

Just how much is Sora willing to do to keep her safe? That alone was enough for her to train as a wielder of the keyblade, yet despite her progress, she felt as if the gap between her and the others hadn't gotten any smaller. As her doubts grew more and more, and the costs Sora paid before, she truly started to think maybe…she didn't deserve to fight with him anymore. Maybe those little voices in her head telling her she wasn't ready or good enough were telling the truth.

'Kairi?'.

Quickly looking up she saw Noctis looking at her worriedly. 'You alright?', he asked, 'You've been pretty quiet for a while there'. Looking up she sees they had arrived at the hotel with everyone else already inside, her and Noctis the only ones being outside. Kairi gave the prince a nod and a small smile. 'Yeah, sorry. Just, thinking that's all', she promised. Noctis raised a brow and placed a hand on his hip. 'You sure? You weren't up that long since we got out of the ruins', he said, reminding her.

Kairi shrugged. 'Guess I'm just a little off, you know? Still waking up', she assured. Noctis gave her a sigh with a smile. 'I know that feeling', he concurred, gesturing the hotel for her. She entered with him, forcing those feelings back into the darkness. "I can't wait to see Aqua again, hope she's gotten better", she thought to herself, hoping her master was back to that wonderous master they all knew and loved.

After the rooms were paid for, they headed for the room where Gladiolus and Aqua were originally sharing before he was off being the hero. The shield knocked on the door. 'Hey Blue, we've got visitors!', he called out, 'You decent?'.

'Yes, come in!'.

They all entered the room; all the while Gladiolus was smirking away. They all stared in awe when they saw Aqua.

No longer the old gear that she arrived at this world in, she now wears a black turtle neck with two silver straps around her chest crisscrossing with her emblem proudly strapped on them together. On her left arm was armor reminiscent of her old armor, grey and black that entirely covered from shoulder to wrist in steel with the elbow having three curved arcs on them, grey and silver fingerless glove with the emblem printed on the knuckle.

Her right arm was only half-covered with armor to her elbow, except her armor only covered the surface of her arm and there is a single strap around her bicep, on her shoulder was the same yellow gemstone of her old armor while her hand had the same glove. Around her waist was her dark crystal blue cloth as opposed to the lighter blue with two silver straps around her hips mimicking the straps over her chest.

She wears dark leggings that covered her legs with a dark blue pair of shorts. Her boots were black with armor attached. Like her old ones but where the bladed tips were prong like there were smaller and pointing upwards.

Shyly smiling at her friends, she opened her arms to show off her new gear. 'Ta-da?', she said shyly. The two boys of the royal retinue were gobsmacked by the woman, while Riku, Donald, and Goofy looked pleased by her, Ignis himself smiling at her. Sora and Kairi were blown away by this. 'You look fantastic!', Kairi praised, clapping her hands together. 'Yeah! Like a new you!', Sora agreed. 'You look amazing, Aqua', Ignis hummed.

The two gobs smacked boys nodded dumbly as Riku and the other worlders gave her thumbs up of approval. 'Told you', Gladiolus remarked, smugly. Rolling her eyes in response, she smiled back at everyone as her friends approached. 'So, did you…?', Kairi started before faltering, recalling the sensitivity of the topic at hand. Aqua just extended her left arm and summoned Master's Defender, in all its pristine glory. 'Yes, I managed to have this finally repaired', she said. 'And not only that'.

Extending her right arm, she summoned Brightcrest, shocking all seven of the team, even Riku and Ignis looked astounded. 'Whoa! Two keyblades!', Sora said, obvious admiration in his tone. Aqua nodded, dismissing them and clapping her hands. 'Yes, I manage to restore my keyblade, and fix master's', she said, her voice was devoid of that defeated tone and replaced with joy.

'That's wonderful!', Kairi said, hugging her, 'It's so good to have you guys back!'. Hugging her apprentice equally in strength, Aqua's smile turned softer and more refined as she gently petted Kairi. 'What exactly happened to you in that place?', Riku asked, 'And where'd you get the new clothes?'. Aqua relinquished her hugs on Kairi and turned to the others. 'Well, after we completed the trials, we…were stranded', she started, before mock glaring at the shield. 'Because SOMEONE lost the chocobo whistle'.

Gladiolus awkwardly scratched his neck as all eyes fell on to him. 'In my defense, I was somewhat busy dealing with the guy who could kick my ass fifteen different ways from Saturday…', he said lamely. 'Which brings us to the situation of having no transport, my clothes were ruined from my trial, no ways to contact any of you, etcetera', Aqua said, sitting on the bed while some got comfortable as Ignis and his two helpers readied dinner. 'Then how did you guys get from over there to here?', Donald asked.

'That's…where it got weirder…', Gladiolus said as they started to regale the team their story…

*After telling the Trials*

'What in the worlds?', Aqua asked, looking at the miniature carriage with the shield. 'This is new…,' Gladiolus said.

Aqua warily touched the carriage, feeling the smooth yet tough surface. It reminded her of a pumpkin except it was white-ish silvery. A strange yet harmless magic was resonating from it, something familiar. As she touched it, Gladiolus could see tiny flecks of blue lights shinning around them, twinkling like stars. The lights all began to dive into the carriage, which Gladiolus grabbed Aqua's arm and yanked her away from it as the light began to glow so bright it caused them to turn away from it.

'I'm getting sick of light blinding us!', Gladiolus growled. 'You and me both', Aqua said, arms raised to block it. When the light fades, a gentle voice spoke: 'Hello my dear'. When they lowered their arms, in the place of the carriage and stump was a rotund, elderly woman with grey hair, pale skin. Dressed in a lavender cloak with a hood and a pink interior. She also wears a pink bow just under her neck and has a pleasant smile on her face.

'It's wonderful to see you again, Aqua', she greeted kindly. Aqua's face lit up upon recognition, relaxing her posture. 'Fairy Godmother, what are you doing here?', she asked, friendly and warm. Gladiolus looked between the two on utter bafflement, almost trying to convince himself he wasn't in some dream. A fairy godmother. That sounded like a term for a fairy tale…

'I've been traveling my dear, with Cinderella having her happy end I'm just enjoying my time, exploring worlds. That was until old Merlin, the sweetheart, had informed me of you and your friends had gone missing', she explained. 'The two of us had been searching for you two, but when I arrived at Eos my magic needed some rest, as you could see'.

The two looked to see a more confused Gladiolus looking ready to pass out from all this, a hand placed on his forehead. 'Oh my, and who is this dear?', Fairy Godmother asked, looking at the shield with curiosity and gentleness. 'He's a friend of mine, he and his prince have been helping us adapt to this world', Aqua explained. Aqua then gestured to Gladiolus. 'This is Gladiolus, and Gladio, this is Fairy Godmother'.

'Uh…yeah…nice to meet…you', he said. Fairy Godmother giggled lightly before turning to Aqua with a frown. 'My dear, whatever happened to you? You almost remind me of Cinderella before the Ball', she said, looking worriedly at her ruined clothes. Aqua looked at herself before shyly giggling. 'Sorry I'm not very presentable now, I uh, a fight took a lot out of me', she explained lamely. The old woman placed both hands on her hips, like a grandmother lecturing her granddaughter.

'A-Anyway', Aqua said, clearing her throat and hoping to change that stern disappointed grandma look to something else less…intimidating. 'If you can tell his majesty we're on a world called "Eos", and we're currently helping them stop the Organization', she explained. 'Of course, dear', Fairy Godmother said with a gentle nod, 'I am sorry I can't teleport you and the others back home so soon'.

Gladiolus suddenly felt a surge of guilt from this old woman…and he did not like it.

Aqua, however, smiled kindly. 'It wouldn't have mattered, we wouldn't be leaving here until our friends are safe', she said, looking at the shield. He nodded in gratitude with a smirk. 'But if it's possible, could you teleport us to a place called "Lestallum"? We're hoping to meet up with Sora and the others there', Aqua asked hopefully. 'Yeah, we'd be grateful if you could do that', Gladiolus added, 'We're, heh, kinda stranded here'.

'Of dear, but I will not send you on your in rags', she said sternly yet motherly at once, wagging her finger. Aqua frowned in response as the blue head looked at her admittedly rag worthy gear, though she was positive she could fix the cloth herself in time. 'I…sure I can pick something up in the town…', she said with some hesitation. 'Nonsense dearie, I can give you something before you venture on', promised the old woman.

'Oh, you mean something like Sora and Kairi's?', Gladiolus asked, remembering their conversation. The old woman nodded warmly. 'Yes dear, just a little more traditional', she said with a touch of mystery. Aqua felt a little apprehensive about that but she followed the gesture of the old woman and stood a few feet away from her and Gladiolus. 'Now then…wait a moment…where did I put my wand?', she said to herself, checking her sleeves and even her hood, which made the blue-haired master giggle lightly. 'Oh, that's right. I put it away', she said with a giggle.

The next thing they saw was her dragging her thumb and finger pinched together down. Along the trail was a long wand that she held. Gladiolus mouthed "whoa" while Aqua stared in quiet awe. 'Now then dear, are you ready?', she asked. 'Yes, Fairy Godmother'. With a wave of her wand, tiny sparkles of light danced around it and then she uttered the ever-famous words: 'Bibbidi bobbidi boo!'.

Magic swirls around Aqua she glowed with light, arms out open as she felt the change while Gladiolus, realizing the woman was changing before him, quickly averted his eyes. When the spell was done, Aqua was now donning her new clothes, admiring them with wide eyes and smiles, turning her body to see what the woman had done for her. 'There you go my dear, a magical set of clothes fit for a master', she praised.

Aqua smiled warmly at the godmother and bowed. 'Thank you so much, Fairy Godmother', she said. Then she looked to her left and spotted a large dark blue suitcase beside her. 'I understand those clothes carry significance to you dear, so I thought you could repair them when you return home', the godmother said warmly. Nodding once more, Aqua picked up her case as Gladiolus joined her, patting her armored shoulder. 'You look great', he praised.

This brought a small hue of red to her cheeks as Aqua ducked her head shyly yet smiling at the words. Fairy Godmother took note of this exchange, smiling warmly when she sensed the words carried more significance than just a kind compliment. 'Shall I commence?', she asked, deciding to spare Aqua the embarrassment. The two warriors nodded at her and she waved her wand, but not before saying: 'I shall contact his majesty immediately, be safe dears!'.

'Bibbidi bobbidi boo!'.

The white swirls wrapped around the two before the light and they disappeared into the night. With her work done, the old woman merely sighed before fading away into light to report this incident to the king…

*Present time*

'After we were transported here, we opted to wait for you all to return', Aqua explained, 'I got the hotel for us and Gladio went to the power plant after Holly gave out the warning about daemons'.

As the party ate and listened to their stories there were questions asked and some answered, but now with new information on their situation. 'Do you think the King has a way to collect us?', Goofy asked, finishing up his meal. 'If it involves a ship, I hope they figured out what's exactly causing them to go nuts', Riku commented, 'Unless they wanna tag along with us'.

'I think we've enough party members!', Prompto said with a laugh, 'Anymore and we're gonna have to get another car!'.

There was a collective chuckle amongst the team as Sora and Ignis collected the dishes for Donald and Goofy to wash. 'Well now that we have everyone again and it won't take much longer for Cid to get the yacht, we're on our way to Altissia!', the blonde cheered. 'Not yet Prompto…', Ignis corrected as he opened his notebook. 'We've still three more royal arms to collect'. 'Oh yeah, we've still got that one that was stolen right?', Sora asked as he sat back down on a chair.

'Correct, along with two others we've yet discover', Ignis said, pushing up his glasses. Prompto let out a groan as Noctis huffed. 'Aww man…', Prompto groaned. 'Come on, better to get Noct all powered up and ready for the empire', Riku chuckled, 'Sides, there's still plenty to see before we head to the city of water'.

'Plenty of opportunities for photos too', Aqua encouraged. Prompto grinned at this, his dismays forgotten within seconds. 'That's great…but not today', Noctis yawned. 'As future king, I order this to be our day off'. 'Abuse of power!', Prompto teased, earning giggles from the girls. 'But not unwarranted', Ignis said, clapping his hands. 'After everything we have all been through, a reprieve is certainly in order'.

'Great! I have consent from Ignis, therefore all further arguments are dismissed and/or ignored!', Noctis announced, hopping off the chair and making a bee-line to his room, telling everyone he is not to be disturbed unless its either for dinner or Umbra making a visit. Once he was out of the room, everyone else had already decided what their plans were. 'If you guys need us, me and Donald are gonna go look around the town', Goofy said as he and Donald headed out of the room.

'Splendid, I'll head for the marketplace and see what they have in stock, I've been meaning to see if they have that red spice', Ignis said. 'Mind if I tag along? Wanna see what the market's got to offer', Riku asked as the two walked off. 'Me too!', Prompto said, chasing them.

Aqua smiled at the three left, she had already decided she would be doing some training outside the town and perhaps even see what other forms her keyblade could do. That was until Gladiolus grabbed her shoulder with a grin. Wordlessly he led the two of them out, bidding Sora and Kairi a "See you guys later". Which just left the two of them alone in the room, to that Sora grinned at Kairi and said: 'Well, just the two of us! What do you wanna do?'.

'I…I think I might just head to our room and relax…', Kairi said, slowly and shyly as she got off the bed. Blinking, Sora watched her go before he stood up. 'Are you ok?', he asked as her hand grabbed the doorknob. She stilled for a moment, further worrying Sora as the silence between them felt unnatural, almost foreign to him. '…Kairi? What's wrong?', he asked, hesitatingly approaching her. When he got close enough to place his hand on her shoulder, she turned to him with dimmed eyes. Without a word she opened the door and took him by his hand and led him out to their room.

Inside their sanctuary, Kairi released her grip on Sora and turned to him. 'Kai? What's going on?', he persisted. 'Off', was all she said. Sora blinked in confusion, then blinked again before opening his mouth to likely ask what she was asking of him but then she gestured his jacket and t-shirt. 'Off, everything on the top', she requested. Blushing softly, but trusting her, Sora removed his t-shirt and jacket. With nothing but his chain, he stood before her bare-chested.

Kairi gently placed a hand on his heart, a frown etched its way onto her beautiful face. 'I feel magic…', she said, looking at him. This caused Sora to take a face that was on alert and slight panic, as he opened his mouth but once again Kairi cut him off. 'No, please. Whatever it is, I want you to dispel it', she said. 'Kairi…', he started but one look in her eyes told him any attempts to argue with her would be futile.

With reluctance, Sora snapped his fingers and a mirage-like veil shined around his form before ultimately disappearing and revealing what he was hiding. Kairi couldn't even hold back that gasp when she saw the purpose of that spell.

Adorned Sora's body were several jagged and lines of silvery scars that marked him, his chest, sides, shoulders, and arms. Those weren't what truly tore into her heart though as she had no doubt her body was home to many scars of her own, their lifestyle was guaranteed to leave its marks on them. No, what truly struck her was the scar that would forever remind her of the day she had lost him.

A horrible gnash of a scar was upon his chest, slightly faded yet it had the mark of a keyblade's teeth. It was deep like Gladiolus' scar on his chest but deeper and more severe. Seeing it face to face, a horrible mark that will forever remind her that it was there because of her. Because of her, for all, she knew all those scars might have been him trying to save her. It wasn't fair, not him. He didn't deserve to have those horrible scars, lethal or otherwise because of her, he shouldn't have had to die because of her.

She…didn't deserve him.

As those thoughts weighed on her mind her heart broke as tears ran down her cheeks. 'Kairi!', Sora said, quickly grabbing her shoulders. 'What's wrong!? W-Why are you crying?', he pleaded for an answer. Kairi could hold her sobs back and finally collapsed into him, crying into his arms as they fell to the floor on their knees, the girl buried into him as her tears ran down. Knowing she couldn't respond to him the boy gently stroked her back soothingly while holding her to him.

He kept hearing her mumble something, but it was incoherent due to her sobs and being so close to him. Sora rested his chin on top of her forehead, letting her cry out whatever this feeling was doing to her.

After a few minutes, he hears her words at least with clarity. 'I'm sorry…I'm so sorry', she whimpered. Sora broke their hug apart to look at her, puffy red eyes with tear stains on her cheeks. 'Sorry? For what?', he asked, desperately racking his brain for whatever she could have possibly done to him, yet he couldn't recall anything. Gently, she pressed her hand on his chest where the scar is, her answer to his question.

Sora's own eyes dimmed, remembering that day where he had died. An experience he'd never be able to describe or want to feel again, even to this day he still had nightmares of it. Yet looking at the girl in his arms, he gave her the same worried looks. 'W-What about this?', he asked, despite a part of his heart telling him he knew why she was crying. 'That…that was because of me…', she said as tears ran down, 'If it wasn't for me…you'd never would have…would have…'.

She couldn't even get the last piece of that sentence out before her sobs took over her voice, having the image of him stabbing himself with that cruel keyblade. Sora looked at his mark and placed his hand over hers, gently pressing on it. 'Kairi…that, was a long time ago…', he said but she shook her head. 'Sora, how can you be…how can you act like its not a big deal?', she asked. 'Because…because to me…it means how much *you* mean to me', he said.

Shaking her head, she looked at him. 'I'm not worth losing your heart like that! If you had just left me like that…', but before she could continue, Sora grabbed her shoulders and stared deep into her eyes, intensely. 'Then it wouldn't be worth it!', he said. 'Do you think I wasn't scared? I knew what I was going to do would be the last thing I'll ever do! I was terrified, but do you know what scared me more than that!?'. Kairi shook her head, lips quivering.

His intense gaze softened as his eyes went watery and tears of his own began to shed. 'Living in a world…without you', he said finally. 'Seeing you like that, forever sleeping…never living your life, heck…e-even thinking of moving on without you…it scared me more than anything else…'.

Shaking his head, he gave her a watery smile. 'That's why I did it…because you mean that much to me…more than anything else in the world…'.

'Because…I love you'.

'W-W-What did you say?', she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

'I love you…', Sora affirmed. 'I love you so much I…'.

Kairi tackled him into the tightest hug she had ever given him, crying into him again but not with sadness. With complete and utter joy in her cries, cuddling him as he held her tightly. When they finally calmed down and wiped their tears away, they stood up still locked together in an embrace. Gesturing his scar, he said: 'Look at this not with guilt or remorse, but as a symbol of how important you are to me, ok?'.

Kairi nodded, before kissing it. Placing a hand on his cheeks, she relished in this embrace and cherished this boy being hers. 'Still wanna go to bed early?', he asked, gesturing the sun was starting to set. 'Nah…maybe we could just watch a few movies on the tv?', Kairi suggested, pointing at the device. 'Sounds good to me', he concurred. Breaking their embrace for Sora to pick up the remote and switch on the movie channel, he looked to see Kairi picking up his jacket and t-shirt.

Thinking she was going to hand them over, he offered his hand to receive them…only for her to throw them in the bathroom and closed the door. 'Uhh…Kairi?', he asked slowly when she turned around to him with an innocent expression on her face. 'Yes?', she said sweetly. 'Why did you throw my stuff in the bathroom?', he asked.

'What stuff?', she asked, tilting her head. 'My jacket and t-shirt?', he said, not sure if she was just messing with him or deliberately acting ignorant of her random disregard for his clothes. Kairi still had her innocent expression on her face before she walked over to him and pushed him onto his back. Laying beside him and snuggling into his bare chest, she sighed contently as the film of the day played.

'…You're not gonna let me change back into them for the rest of the night, are you?', he asked exasperatedly.

'Nope', Kairi confessed, smiling. 'Now shush and let me and enjoy this~'.

Rolling his eyes, he wrapped his arms around her and held her was the film played.

*Bar*

Aqua couldn't believe she was doing this…

As the day turned to night, Gladiolus for the most part just had the two of them walk around the town until six pm rolled by and then he took them to a bar. A bar of all places.

Aqua already felt uncomfortable being in a place like this the moment she had sat down at a table and was welcomed by the smells of the place. Not unpleasant per se like those seedy bars master had warned her about in the past for sure, she was sickened by the horrible stink of smoke or cheap booze that would churn her stomach.

Instead, the place seemed rather well established and even welcoming, a slow jazz song played on the radios with a few patrons coming and going, some more or less already indulged in the fine drinks this place had to offer it seemed. Aqua mostly waited for the man to come back with their drinks at his insistence as she plucked away the nachos the place offered. Not hungry enough for a meal after Ignis' cooking, but a snack was welcomed.

'Miss me?', Gladiolus said, sitting down and placing both their drinks on the table with a soft "clink" from them. Aqua already frowned at the bottles before them, the size alone made her uneasy. 'Gladio…', she warned when he popped one open and poured a glass for her and himself. 'Easy Blue, its nothing like whiskey or scotch', he promised. 'Doesn't change that its alcohol…', she sighed as he slid one over to her.

The liquid was golden with foam at the top, and she could smell something akin to cider. It wasn't unpleasant, rather invitingly delicious but she also knew the risks of such a drink. 'A Lestallum favorite, made from the farms around the region and with little bit of wheat', he explained. 'Have you had any experience with this?', she asked with a raised brow. 'Only after we got here the first time', he said.

'Can I ask why you decided to drag me out here?', she asked, deciding to get to the point. Gladiolus smirked at her and gestured her clothes. 'Think of it as a celebration between us. You got new clothes and a keyblade, I got the Blademaster's sword and more power', he said, grinning. 'So why not celebrate our victories over a nice drink?'.

Although she couldn't exactly fault that logic since truthfully, he is right They had achieved far more than they had hoped for, not only regaining their strength and confidence but more. Plus, she was rather smitten by her new gear too and felt like a master in this. Still, looking at the drink in front of her made her feel uneasy, as this was her first-time tasting alcohol. Yet here she was, drinking with Gladiolus like they were two old friends.

Deciding since he did pay, she might as well experience this with someone she trusted. Taking her glass, she gently tapped his with hers. Gladiolus drank his while Aqua was slower, lifting the heavy drink to her lips. The moment she tasted the cider-like drink she thought she'd get sick yet strangely she relished how tasty it was. She felt the bubbles pop around her mouth and dance on her tongue, electing a wonderous taste for her taste buds.

Slowly she lifted the glass up to consume it, gulping it until she sub-consciously drank the whole thing. Blinking when she looked at her empty glass, she blushed. 'Oops…', she giggled shyly, surprised by the taste being so delicious. The shield raised a brow at her before chuckling and opening the other one. 'Guess we found your first beer', he chuckled. 'Guess so', she concurred, taking a refill.

After taking one gulp of her second glass, the woman felt a warmth within her stomach as a sense of serenity washed over her, her nerves relaxed and feeling more at peace. 'This…is nice', she mused quietly. 'I'm telling ya, the best way to clear your head is to kick back and grab a cold one', Gladiolus remarked with a grin of his own. 'Clearing your mind? Isn't there an old saying that goes: "A drunk man's words are a sober man's thoughts"?', she asked.

'Depends on what's on that man's mind', Gladiolus said with a smile. Smiling in agreement and just enjoying herself, Aqua finished her as Gladiolus downed his. Looking at the bottle after, Aqua looked at it with curiosity and hummed in response. 'Maybe I could bring some of this home…', she said to herself. Then she looked to Gladiolus. 'What about you? What kind of drinks do you enjoy?', she inquired.

'Oh ho, slow down there Blue, mine's pretty heavy stuff', he said. She, however, raised a brow at this, almost like he was bragging about the drink. 'Oh really? Is it that good?', she asked. 'Lucian brew, the best drink I could ask for', Gladiolus shrugged. Aqua smiled in response and nodded. 'Well, let's share a drink then', she offered. Before the shield could stop her, she got up and ordered two bottles of the substance for them.

Minutes later, she brought them over and handed one to him and poured herself a glass. 'Whoa Blue, you're not gonna-

His words ceased when Aqua took a tasting sip of her glass and then downed the whole thing in seconds. With a satisfying gasp, she placed her glass down and grinned. 'Whoa…you're right, …it was delicious!', she said. Gladiolus could only look at her with awe, whistling lowly at her. Then he smirked and took his glass and downed it. 'Well…may as while enjoy it while we can, tomorrow we're back to royal arm hunting', he said, feeling warm himself.

Aqua poured them both a glass each and held hers up high. 'To finding the royal arms, and keeping our friends safe', she said. 'To keeping his royal brat's ass safe and kicking everyone else's ass on the way', Gladiolus grunted. They clinked their drinks and downed them together.

And then they downed their third glasses…and then their fourth…and their fifth…and so on…

*Night*

'PFFT! Nononono…no way!', Aqua giggled profusely as she and Gladiolus struggled to walk in a straight line to their room. 'Y-Y-You…*giggle* you did not!', she slurred, face pink and looking like she was in the middle of bursting into a fit of giggles like a schoolgirl keeping a secret. The shield was already plastered, for the most part, grinning like an absolute idiot while his face was flushed red.

'Yeah, I fricking…freaking… f-ing did! I kicked that ass behemoth's!', he slurred, his sentences mixed up and completely non-sensible. As they tried clumsily to make their way to their room after forgetting which floor they were on and after Aqua managed to count back from three hundred to two hundred and ninety-nine, she recalled (miraculously) they were on the second floor.

'You did not!', said Aqua as she slumped against the door clumsily, trying to reach for the keys to the room. 'D-Did so! Ya weren't there!', he argued back, laying against the wall. 'Wow…', he sighed, 'Wall feels so slick and cool to sleep…'.

'Gladio you…doofus…walls aren't beds!', Aqua argued, fumbling the keys to open the door. 'They're…they're um, …err…walls! Yes, walls!'. Aqua opened the door and tumbled through the entrance, landing on her side while still giggling profusely at something. 'Gladio! The door's opened!', she said while rolling onto her back. 'My house key worked!'.

'W-Why didn't, *snicker* you use your key-sword?', he asked, staggering into the bedroom somehow not stepping on Aqua. 'Because! *giggling* It's too big! Too big for the door's keyholes!', she laughed, as if she just told the funniest joke in the world. Gladiolus must have taken the joke to another place because he roared with laughter, nearly collapsing on the table. Luckily Aqua accidentally kicked the door shut so the other occupants were luckily spared of their laughter.

As their laughter died down, Gladiolus managed to shake off some of his dizziness and looked at the still giggling woman on the floor, looking up at him with those beautiful blue eyes that were foggy with drunkenness yet still retaining some semblance of awareness. 'Aqua, you can't sleep on the floor', he lectured, wagging his finger for added effect.

'But Gladio~', she whined, 'It's so comfy!'.

Rolling his eyes, he helped the woman up to her feet, though he almost lost his balance when he suddenly hoisted her up to stand. He staggered backward as Aqua fell into him, his back against the wall near the bathroom. They froze for a moment and stared at each other, both flushed but whether that was from the alcohol or their closeness was up for debate. Staring down at the woman who was a foot shorter than him, her blue eyes were sparkling to him and her breathing was slow and soothing.

Gently he brushed her hair as Aqua placed her hands on his cheeks, brushing against his rough stubble. Slowly, they leaned in and connected their lips. A gentle moan escaped Aqua's lips as Gladiolus' hands pressed on her lower back, pressing her against him as the woman wrapped her arms around his neck.

Her taste was something he couldn't put into words other than she felt out of this world, while she explored his lips with her own, tasting him. Gladiolus' hand ran through her impressively soft blue locks, the woman pulling him closer to her as her tongue prodded against his lips.

'Gladio…', she whispered when they broke apart for oxygen, staring deep into his amber-colored eyes. 'Aqua…', he gasped…

Suddenly two loud knocks on the door broke them apart as Aqua pulled away from Gladiolus as if he was made of fire and slammed into the wall behind them with a gasp.

'WILL YOU TWO KEEP IT DOWN!? PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO SLEEP!'.

They couldn't exactly decipher who it was they disturbed, but when they didn't respond the angry voice muttered something they couldn't hear before they angrily left, leaving the two in silence. Neither had spoken a word to each other, both trying to put together what had just happened between them and yet having no clue to put it into words.

'Aqua, I…I'm sorry, I…I don't know…', he fumbled, not sure if what he was saying was him trying to apologize or his drunken state trying to figure out what he just did.

'I-its…lets just, go to bed…', she murmured.

Without a word Aqua immediately headed for her bed, they got a two-bedroom anyways and after removing her armor, boots, and gloves, she wordlessly threw the covers over herself and laid there in silence. Following her idea, the shield did the same and switched off the light.

Both eventually fell to the lure of sleep, but not before asking themselves just what they had done…

A/N: Again, one day it took me from scratch…oi vey…

So the teams reunited, some angst and fluff with a touch of drama, joys of it all!

Questions!

Q1: What did you think of Aqua's new outfit?

Q2: Who was that told them to shut up?

Q3: Which royal arm should we go do next?

Q4: Do you wanna see Luna in the next chapter?

The Fairy Godmother appearing was suggested by Guest Isa, massive thanks for the support and recommendations to fix the mistakes!

Random question: If you were going on an adventure in the KH worlds, who would be your four companions and why?

As always everyone, thanks for reading, stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	29. Chapter 29

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 29

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

As the sun's beams pierced through the thin curtains, gently filling the room with light of the new day, Kairi shifted and squinted her eyes before she slowly opened them with a small yawn escaping her lips.

Blinking to rid herself of the sleepiness, Kairi lets out a small sigh when she feels the warmth of something soft against her, slowly looking up. She sees Sora's still sleeping form, content and relaxed, then she remembers he was still shirtless.

Grinning madly, Kairi rested her head on his chest after carefully shifting him to lay on his back, relishing in his strong chest and the gentle beat of his heart, the heart that belonged to her. She couldn't shake off that giddiness and joy that was running through her body, the words Sora had said to her yesterday, those words she had been waiting to hear for so many years had finally come from his mouth.

Letting out a dreamy sigh, she threw one arm around his toned stomach and allowed herself to relax despite the sun's beams persisting them to wake up and face the day. But the bad guys could wait a little longer right? Then as the arm around herself was pulling her closer into him, making her grin when she glanced up to see a lazy smile and still waking eyes. 'Morning', he yawned, looking at his girlfriend.

'Hello~', she said with a grin.

Sora shifted to sit up with his back against the headboard of the bed with Kairi moving to the rest her head against his shoulder, still looking up at him with innocence and serenity. Sora gently ran a hand through her red hair, making her sigh in delight as her arm draped around his waist, enjoying the warmth from him. 'What time is it?', she asked lazily. Grabbing his phone from the stand nearest to them, Sora hummed something about it being earlier than they usually wake up.

Kairi slowly, regretfully, sat up on her knees and let out one more yawn before stretching. 'Do you think Ignis got up already?', she inquired. 'Knowing him? Probably already on his third ebony', Sora said playfully before pulling a face. 'I dunno how he drinks that stuff, it's so bitter'. 'I happen to like it, actually', she teased with a smirk, 'I dunno why but when I finish, I feel more energy'.

'Didn't know you liked bitter drinks', Sora confessed, often recalling she had an affinity for sweeter things. Kairi rolled her eyes in response before she ran both hands through her hair to puff it out and rid some of the bed hair. 'Believe or not, Axel used to bring every time we start training', she explained, 'Says it's a good way to help wake you up'. At the mention of the pyro, Kairi's face turned into a frown as she sat against the headboard, thinking of her partner in training.

'You miss him?', Sora asked.

'Yeah…I guess', she mused, 'We just, gotten close during our training, you know?'. Sora nodded in understanding as he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. 'I hope he's doing okay…I mean, I know we were about to quote unquote finish our training, but after all this, I feel like it was subpar…', she said with a deeper frown. 'Well maybe he's training with Ven? Aqua did say he was the least experience between the three of them', Sora offered. 'Yeah, I hope so'.

Then Sora kissed her cheek, earning a little squeak from the girl. 'Can you imagine how Axel's gonna react to your new powers? He'll flip out when he sees your form changes!', Sora said excitedly. Smiling back with equal smugness, Kairi nodded, 'True! Bet he wouldn't expect that from me so soon~'.

Deciding not to worry about her friend, she deduced she had a golden opportunity at her doorstep. Sora was still shirtless; they were on their own without any chances of Prompto interrupting (she memorized his sleeping patterns for this one moment) and likely excluding Ignis they were the only ones up at this moment. Kairi shifted to place each leg on Sora's side, resting on his knees, she placed her hands on his shoulders.

She leaned in and kissed him full on the lips, the boy blushed before he succumbs to the wonderous sensation she was pouring into him and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close against his body as their eyes went shut. Making out on the bed, tasting each other while memorizing it, Sora's warm body against her thin white shirt and his strong arms around her made her swoon with delight.

Kissing her jawline then her cheeks as Kairi giggled at him, she ran her hands through his wonderous soft spiky locks. They eventually started to lie down again with the girl resting on top of Sora as they kissed, his hands firmly resting on her hips.

Breaking their kiss for air, they stared at each other, eyes glowed from love and that wonderous connection of theirs. Her face was flushed and red with a bit of pink reaching her ears, hair an absolute mess but to Sora she looked radiant, stunning even.

Then before they dove in for another round of making out, there was a gentle knock on the door. 'Guys, you awake?', called a voice sounding like Noctis. They both held their groans in spite, before giggling quietly. Rolling off Sora, Kairi said: 'Yeah we're awake'. As she and Sora got out of bed and the latter heading into the bathroom to grab his discarded gear while Kairi dressed properly into her gear. Once they were presentable, they answered the door to see indeed Noctis at the entrance.

'Morning Noct', Kairi greeted, but then glanced down and spotted Umbra by the prince's boots, wagging his tail at the girl excitedly. Smiling, she crouched and petted his furry head. 'And good morning to you too, Umbra', she cooed.

'Luna sent another letter?', Sora asked with a friendly smile. 'Yeah, I've just finished with mine and Umbra here wanted to deliver one more to Kairi', Noctis explained, gesturing the pup in question. Allowing the prince and dog to enter their room, Kairi took the letter for her from the pup and read it aloud for the boys to hear.

"Greetings, Princess Kairi

My deepest apologizes for the delay of this letter, much has transpired since last we spoke to each other. I am grateful to you for your words of caution regarding my brother Ravus. I wish I had more uplifting news or word he has renounced the darkness that man in black has given him, but alas he remains as stubborn as a dog with a bone (don't tell Umbra I said that).

I shan't give up on him though, I know there is a chance to make him see what the cost will be should he exploit the power of darkness.

I do not intend on this letter being full of dreaded news or worries, as I am certain your own battles and struggles have brought you your own troubles. It is refreshing to speak with someone else, especially one who understands what power of light requests from us.

If possible, could you perhaps tell me more of this "beloved" of yours? Forgive me if this seems too personal, but I'm curious myself about him. In turn I could offer you insight to Prince Noctis. And yes, I have given Umbra extra tummy rubs as per your request.

May your heart be your guiding Key, my dear

Lunafreya".

Smiling at the letter although saddened by the news of her brother's stubbornness, Kairi gave Umbra a few scratches around his neck before she went to work on her reply while Sora and Noctis sat on the bed, conversing on today's ventures.

'So, we've got three royal arms left, where do we start?', Sora asked as Umbra hopped onto the bed with Noctis. The prince petted the pup while looking at Sora. 'I've asked Specs what's first and he said the closest one here is near the Vesperpool, hidden somewhere in the wooded region', he explained. 'Weren't we there the day before yesterday? How come we didn't go grab it?', Sora asked. Noctis shrugged in reply. 'Figured we've already had the party shortened to seven and we were in a hurry to get the mythril, must have slipped'.

'At least we know where it is', Kairi said as she wrote her letter, 'And the woods didn't look that far from what I remembered'.

'Nah, just north from the Haven at the entrance, we're gonna go on foot when we get there', Noctis said with a sigh, 'More mucking through the mud'. Sora laughed in response to the prince's laziness just as the door opened, revealing Ignis. 'Everyone alright?', he asked. 'Yeah, just going over the plan with these two lazy brats', Noctis said with a smirk. 'Excuse you!', Kairi said, turning around to the prince, 'We're not the ones who slept in until twelve in the afternoon!'. 'Hey, I was exhausted!'.

'Noct, you slept in until one in the afternoon after doing nothing the day before', Ignis reminded with a subtle smirk. The prince grunted in annoyance at the betrayal of his advisor while Sora and Kairi giggled. When he saw Umbra, Ignis glanced at Kairi and asked: 'Has the Oracle wrote to you again?'. Kairi nodded and after finishing her last paragraph, she turned in her seat and said: 'Yes, and she says Ravus hasn't stopped using the darkness'.

Noctis frowned at this information before scoffing. 'Well that's his loss, if Luna's warning him not to then he's got only himself to blame', he said gruffly. Kairi frowned in response to the prince but before she spoke up, Ignis intervened. 'Kairi, have asked the Oracle about Xigbar, or perhaps anything on the imperial army? Perhaps she heard something about them?', Ignis questioned. 'MMM…no, I haven't', Kairi said shaking her head, 'I've just told her what's been happening to us and a few friendly chats here and there'.

'No sense in overwhelming her either', Noctis said with an agreeing nod. Ignis hummed in response despite his own inquires. Kairi placed the letter into envelope and placed it into Umbra's pouch and gave him a few more belly rubs and scratches before the dog yipped in gratitude and skedaddled out of the room off to do his task.

Kairi watched the pup disappear into the hallway with a dreamy sigh. '…Sora, when this is all over, I'm getting a puppy', she announced. Sora rolled his eyes before Noctis and Ignis chuckled in response. 'Is everyone else up and ready to go?', Noctis asked, looking at the older man. Ignis let out a sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose. 'Mostly, excluding Gladiolus and Aqua', he said.

'Huh? Why?', Sora asked, remembering Aqua was the second person who got up after Ignis. The man turned to the boy. 'I'm not entirely certain, Prompto went to get them but all he got from them was groans…his words were, and I quote: "Groans that sounded like dying sabertusks".

The three laughed at the comparison as Ignis smiled at his own report. 'Do you think they're sick?', Sora asked after his laughter ceased. 'I doubt it', Ignis said with a shake of his head. 'Gladio is as healthy as a chocobo and Aqua likely has a high tolerance to being sick'. Kairi got off her chair. 'I'll go check on them and see if they need some healing magic, maybe they're just sore from the trial?', she offered.

'That would good of you', Ignis said gratefully, 'We've a long drive ahead of us'. Nodding and giving Sora a quick peck on the cheeks, Kairi left the room and headed for her master's.

Recalling they were a floor up from memory, she proceeded to take the stairs up while smiling at the other hotel guests and walking at a slow pace to enjoy the peace and quiet before the adventure would commence. Arriving at their room, she gently knocked on the door and called their names. Like Prompto she got a response that sounded like dying cows and swears she heard Gladiolus gruffly telling her to "leave them alone to die in peace".

Now she was worried and after checking the coast was clear she summoned her keyblade and unlocked the door and quickly entered it. Inside she sees the curtains were still closed and the room was dimly lit with their curtains being thicker and only from the bottom could the light enter their room. Kairi quietly approached the two beds and sees Gladiolus' head was currently sheltered by a pillow while Aqua had her sheets over herself entirely and looked to be curled up in a ball.

'Guys?', the princess asked softly as she lowered closer to Aqua. 'What happened? Are you guys alright?'.

She heard Gladiolus groan under his pillow and uttered something. 'Kairi…do me a favour?', he asked with his voice sounding so tired and agonized at once. 'W-What Gladio?', she asked. 'Take my sword…and just smash my head in and put me out of my misery…'.

'Do me next please…', Aqua whined from her cocoon of sheets.

Kairi frowned with worry before she grabbed the sheets and took them off Aqua to reveal her master looking as if she had just barely survived a touch of death. Aqua whined when the light hit her, hap hazardously grabbing for a pillow to block the light from her. 'Kairi, give my quilt back', pleaded the master. 'Guys what exactly did you two do last night?', Kairi asked, no longer worried but more curious than anything else.

'Making a mistake…', Gladiolus informed her. 'A big one…'.

'What does that mean?', Kairi asked exasperatedly. She leaned into to check Aqua but then backed away with a groan. 'Ugh Aqua, you reek!', she groaned, pinching her nose. Aqua huffed in response before grabbing her pillow and slamming it on her head. Kairi glared at Gladiolus, no doubt smelling the same as her master. The smell wasn't anything she had smelled before, and it wasn't the worst either, but it was enough for her stomach to churn.

'Well? Care to explain why you both stink?', Kairi asked, her voice was louder than before. This caused them both to flinch in pain and groan. 'Kairi, indoor voice please!', Aqua begged. Kairi looked to Aqua, confused. However, she summoned her keyblade and lifted it up and uttered softly "Curaga". Enveloping the two in a green light with florals and greenery, the two let out breaths of relief as Aqua removed her pillow and blinked a few moments, no longer looking like death. She rolled onto her side to see Kairi dismissing her keyblade.

'Thanks…oh god my stomach', Aqua whimpered, rubbing her stomach. 'Now will you tell me what happened? Why did you guys look so sick and what was that smell?', Kairi asked. At this, Aqua looked down in shame before sighing. 'We…well, we went out to…for a few drinks', she explained weakly. Kairi's eyes widened with surprise. 'W-Wait, you mean, you got drunk last night?', she asked, genuinely surprised. 'Regretfully…yes', confessed Aqua.

'Which is why we both smelled like we just walked out a brewery that caught fire', Gladiolus said a grunt, rubbing his neck awkwardly. Kairi looked between both with sympathy, now knowing just what it was that pained them so. Despite never indulging in things like that she heard of the horror stories of alcohol and the agonizing pain that was what most referred to as "hangovers". "Note to self, do not take a sip of alcohol", she thought to herself as Aqua slowly brought her feet to the ground with a grunt.

'Sorry for this, Kairi', Aqua apologized, shame laced in her tone. Kairi frowned and patted her master's back. 'Its ok. I mean, after everything you've been through you've kinda earned it, right?', Kairi said kindly in an assuring manner. 'Didn't mean I shouldn't have been hungover and have my student care for me', Aqua said in response. Kairi giggled and smiled warmly. 'A master shouldn't also have to make sure her student doesn't go world hopping with a magic object she didn't know how to use right?', Kairi said with a small tease.

Aqua looked back at her with a frown that broke into a small smile, nodding. 'True', she mused, 'Thanks Kairi'. Kairi's smile widened warmly as her master stood up and rolled her shoulders. 'I'd hug you…but serious Aqua, you smell…really badly', Kairi said, hands raised in her defence. Aqua frowned at her but said nothing, probably knew it herself. 'We'll clean ourselves up and meet you guys down in the lobby', Gladiolus said as he rubbed his face.

'Sure', Kairi said with a nod, 'See you guys later'. With that Kairi left the bedroom and once the door closed, there was nothing but an awkward silence between the two. Aqua quietly headed for the bathroom to clean herself up, not even glancing at Gladiolus while the latter kept his face fixed on the ground.

Inside the shower after folding her clothes onto the sink, knowing the magic would clean them itself, she hopped into the shower and allowed the hot water to rain down on her. All the while Aqua glanced at herself in the mirror after casting a spell to keep the steam from fogging it up. She placed a hand on her scar, seeing it has finally healed into a proper scar that forever reminded her of where and why she got it.

A mark of a warrior Terra once said she recalled.

Yet even as she tried to think on other subjects her mind went back to last night as she gently placed two fingers on her lips in thought, eyes downcast. As many gaps as there were in her memory of the previous night, she remembered enough to know what she did.

Kissing…Gladiolus.

Even the mere thought made her cheeks rosy and heartbeat quicken. Romance was something, is something, she has so little experience in it was borderline insane. Even when that warrior asked her for a date, she was lucky she didn't swallow her tongue and came up with an excuse to decline his offer.

The only experience she had with men was with just with Terra and Ven, but she sees them as best friends or brothers at this point. With Noctis and company she saw them as good friends, now with Gladiolus she wasn't so sure about it. The man had been a great pillar of support for her during their trial together, their talks had done much for her confidence and faith in herself felt like it was slowly being reconstructed within her heart.

Together fighting their way through the grounds, each regaining themselves and strength they never knew could be summoned, she started to see him different then, no more a companion but a good friend, someone she could confine in. A treasured brother in arms.

Except…she didn't.

Instead she started to look at him differently than any other man she had met, not as a friend but more of someone she had come to care for more than just a friendly concern. Getting drunk with him had opened her eyes to all sorts of things she never knew she was missing out on, and excluding the hangover she endured this morning, she had a blast. Aqua felt like she wasn't being a master with him, she didn't have to worry about anything aside from how many beverages she was going to consume (which she failed miserably at) and just enjoy his company.

During their drinks she told him stories of her own childhood during her years as Eraqus' apprentice, how she met Ven and Terra, growing up with dreams of becoming a master and all kinds of mischief her brothers caused with her getting roped along with. The shield told her his own tales of youth and how he trained to be Noctis' shield, how he went from begrudgingly serving him to becoming his brother in arms.

She remembers nothing but them talking about just about anything of their tasks at hand, how they dealt with the stress, the expectations of themselves and their charges, and how much this journey had changed them. All the while he spoke Aqua knew she was taking in him unashamedly, slowly realizing just how attractive he was to her. Sure, he was more muscular than she'd like but that was part of his charm, she could imagine being wrapped into his arms and feel like nothing could harm her.

His tattoos were also impressive, and they added to his appeal, the bird on his chest she understood was an Amicitia tradition amongst them to get a tattoo of a bird. Not only was he physically attractive to her, but he was in spirit too. Sure, he can be a smart-aleck and a bit of a hard-ass on Noctis, but she knows that's because he has high expectations of the prince and knows he's better than he lets on. Plus, he's protective of their friends, and is aware he'd go to any lengths to shield them all from whatever comes their way.

She kept it close to herself though, this wasn't the time for her to start looking for a boyfriend in a time like this. Between their battle with empire and soon hers and the others battle with Xehanort, hooking up shouldn't be on her list of priorities. Yet when she was intoxicated with enough idea to know what she was doing, she still kissed him. And not only did she enjoy it…

She loved it.

Having him against her body, those arms around her frame pulling her close to him as their kiss grew warmer and heated, it was a feeling she couldn't put into any other way than…magical.

She grunted and pressed her head against the wall, frustrated. 'You idiot…why did you do that?', she berated herself. Now that she's done it, this awkwardness between them had begun to construct and likely it'll remain there until she or he finally address it. Which means she'd have to explain how she felt about him…and she didn't even know if this was just an infatuation due to their journey that will possibly disappear into the wind like nothing happened. Or worse…she'd fall for him.

'You can't fall in love with him…not now…not…ever', she sighed.

Looking at herself in the mirror again, she looked away and finished her shower…

Outside the bathroom, Gladiolus was laying on the bed in deep thought staring at the ceiling with a look on his face. Try as he might to think of anything that could occupy his thoughts, maybe his thoughts on the fight with the Blademaster, how he felt better than ever after that battle, or maybe even ask Sora or Riku for a sparring session to see how strong he got. Heck maybe even give Iris a call and ask her how things are back at Cape Caem.

But no, he couldn't even do that. All his thought went back to that woman in blue, and how conflicted he was. Grunting frustratedly, he turned on his side and tried to stop thinking about her yet every time he did conjure up a different subject it'd only trace back to her and the whole inner struggle would start anew. It was like she had taken over his mind.

"Damn it Amicitia! You're not a damn lovestruck teenager! You're the freaking shield to the prince!", he lashed inwardly. Yet still the woman still dominated most of his thoughts as the man sighed in defeat and laid on his back, like he just gave up a long fight he knew he couldn't win. That kiss, that damn kiss he stupidly allowed himself to submit to hadn't left his mind at all even during his hungover.

He was no stranger to women; he's had plenty of experiences in the fields of relationships for certain. But none of them were serious, being a shield to the prince doesn't offer a lot of free time to allow relationships to flourish and develop. He knew this back in school years and his education as a shield, hence why any relationship he had ever were fleeting and mostly just once offs. And for a while he used to think it would be the same with Aqua.

Sadly no. Instead the woman went from this other world ally to a close friend of his to someone he has nothing but the highest respect for and admiration. She had endured nearly twelve years of solitude, trapped in a place full of darkness and monsters, taunted and tormented by illusions of her inner demons and failings yet she persevered, all to make sure one day she'd see her friends again. The level of protection she'd do for her apprentice, that big sister concern reminded him of how he and Iris were as kids.

She'd make a good shield for Noctis if anything were to happen to him, that he had absolutely no doubt on. Yet now where he once looked at her as a comrade, he couldn't see her like that anymore. The woman had somehow become more important to him, like a part his heart was etched by hers. It also didn't help him that he found her to be this exotic beauty that could only exist in some of the books he's read in the past.

Her blue hair was so exotic to him, her clothes gave her this other world aura around her, how she handled herself in battle with grace of a dancer yet the strength of a behemoth. Her eyes, damn it her eyes, he couldn't even describe how beautiful they were to him. Sure, blue eyes were a common set most Lucians had, heck even Noctis has some pretty ones but Aqua's ones were something else entirely.

That trial did more than help them grow stronger, he knew it helped bring them closer as friends, seeing her at her lowest point as well as his own, both building support to help the other to rise to challenge their demons. And now that kiss, he knew he couldn't look at her the same way as he used to anymore. He knew he shouldn't have done it, and he will forever take that responsibility but when she kissed him, suddenly he didn't want to stop.

He's kissed plenty of women but where's that was all lust and just flirty, this one felt more than that. It felt like genuine passion for each other, like this wasn't just for physical cravings or anything smutty, just…for a lack of a better word, pure.

"You can't do that to her! You're the shield of the Chosen King! And she's a master!", he chastised, "You really think you and her could make that work out!?".

Gritting his teeth, he was starting to get angry at *himself* for pointing out that crucial flaw, like he just wanted to shut himself up. Before he did something less stupid than potentially lead Aqua on, said woman came out of the bathroom, dressed in her gear and ready for the day. Quietly she clutched her hand and cleared her throat, signalling him that she was done. With a nod and a soft "thanks" escaping his mouth, the shield entered the bathroom.

As Aqua waited for him to be done and Gladiolus let the water wash away last night's scent, both thought the same thing.

"I'm in love…".

*Later*

As the cars were packed up with supplies, good mornings were given and after some discussion on the location, everyone had gotten ready to venture forth. The royal retinue would use the Regalia while Aqua took the keyblade wielders in her own car now dubbed by Prompto as "Wayfinder II", (she didn't argue with it, thinking it'd be perfect) and Donald and Goofy would take the Chocobos since the woodlands wasn't too far from Lestallum.

However, before Gladiolus hopped into the car, he was approached by Sora and Goofy. 'Hey, Noct told us you don't have a shield anymore', Sora said, smiling at the shield. 'Yeah…been meaning to pick one up from the hunters later', Gladiolus said, recalling his lack of a shield. 'Actually, Goofy's got one for you', the boy said.

The captain showed Gladiolus a colourful but impressively made shield before him. A large, circular shield with a triangular bump on the top, bottom, and sides. The border of the shield has a very thin, yellow outline and is mainly blue, except for the areas near the bumps, which are sky blue. The most prominent feature of the shield is the massive, black canine head protruding from the centre.

The head sports long ears, circular, pupil-less, pale yellow eyes (as well as a similar eye on its forehead), and a snarling mouth filled with long, sharp teeth. The head's tongue seems to be blue and it wears a silver, spiked collar around its neck.

'Holy crap…what kind of shield is this?', Gladiolus asked, amazed. 'This is the Defender', Goofy said, handing it to the man, 'One of the heartless using this shield dropped it years ago, helped us a lot back in the day'. Gladiolus gave the two a very cautious look, looking at the weapon with a glare. 'Its…not gonna corrupt me is it?', he asked, knowing how risky using darkness is. 'Don't worry', Sora promised, 'When the heartless dropped it the darkness around it disappeared, its just a regular shield now'.

Equipping the shield with some hesitance, Gladiolus lifted it up and after some swings, he smirks in approval. 'Its light…', he commented. He punched the air with it and after a few more swings with it, he nods in approval and dismisses it into the armiger pocket dimension. 'Thanks, Goofy', he said with genuine gratitude. 'No worries pal, what's a shield of a king without a shield?', Goofy said with a good-natured smile.

Gladiolus smirked back but then he glanced at Aqua who was looking at the map Ignis had and showed her the directions to the Vesperpool. The blue haired woman looked up at him for a moment, but then awkwardly returned her eyes back to the map. His smirk faded into disappointment, which did not go unnoticed by Sora and Goofy, who looked at Aqua and back to Gladiolus. 'Hey, you and Aqua ok?', Sora asked.

'...yeah, we're uh, yeah', Gladiolus said, distractedly, and without another word he headed for the Regalia. Leaving the two friends, Goofy and Sora looked at each other with worry but before they could chase the shield, Riku had called them to get ready.

After everyone readies themselves, Ignis drives off with Aqua following behind them, all the while their friends watched the shield and master with worry.

Somehow the reunion of having everyone together again had been tainted by doubt…

*Altissia*

Sitting out on the balcony as the sun beamed down on the city of water, Lunafreya sipped her tea in peace while her guest sat on one of the chairs looking around in the city in wonder and peace. A blond haired that drapes across her left shoulder, rosy cheeks, and pale, pink lips. She wears a white dress that ends at her thighs in an embroidered lace pattern and light blue sandals decorated with yellow flowers. Naminé, in her ethereal form watched the people pass them by in their own littles worlds and going about their days.

'Are you certain you do not wish for anything?', Lunafreya asked, looking at her ghostly friend, 'The imperials wouldn't question why I'm requesting a larger pot'. Naminé smiled gently at her and shook her head. 'I'm afraid you'd be wasting your time. Besides I'm not thirsty', assured the blonde. Lunafreya frowned at this but nodded with a sigh as she lowered her cup onto the small plate. She smiled softly at her. 'Well, hopefully soon Sora will find a way to fix this', she said. 'That way, we can have our tea together'.

Naminé's smile turned more gentle and warmer at the mention of the boy. 'Knowing him? Possibly', she mused warmly. Lunafreya's own smile turned playful and she said: 'He must be quite special if you speak so fondly of him'. Naminé giggled at her and said: 'I can assure you in comparison to Kairi, I'm merely saying he's sweetheart'. 'I cannot wait to meet those two', Lunafreya said.

Naminé nodded in agreement as she watched the city on her left, watching the people. 'If you wish, I can attempt to have my brother to be an escort for us', Lunafreya offered. Naminé shook her head with her smile falling from her face. 'I wish I could take up your offer, but I fear your brother may be strongly against that', she lamented. Ordinarily Lunafreya would have argued with Naminé about her brother, but with her brother diving deeper into the darkness she feared what could potentially happen with him.

Ever since he had returned from that base, he had begun to "train" in mastering his dark powers and obtain even more of it. It had been several days since they last spoke, and every time she had spoke with a soldier to deliver a letter to him or even inquire about him, she was met with silence or her letters would never arrive. There was no doubt in her mind that Ardyn or more likely that man Xigbar had been further tempting him to exploit more of it.

And now that she was practically under house arrest, she couldn't even leave the room without being swarmed by the nobodies or soldiers. 'You're worried about him', Naminé pointed out. 'Yes', Lunafreya confessed, 'My brother, however flawed he may be, has always had his heart in the right place'. Picking up her teacup to sip it, she looked at Naminé. 'Is there anything else you can tell me about the use of the darkness? I understand one of Sora's friends has…experience with such a thing', she said.

Naminé shook her head. 'I'm sorry, but that is something that Riku needs to tell you himself', she stated, 'That is his own story to tell'. Nodding with understanding, the Oracle placed her cup down. 'But what I can tell you, is that if Ravus continues to use the darkness with little concern for his heart then the heartless will swallow his heart'. 'But even if he ceases, the darkness will still linger within his heart, yes? The chances of losing his heart will still be great', Lunafreya commented with thought.

'But I wonder, if I could heal the Blight from daemons, I may be able to push the darkness back and give him time to heal', she mused, brows furrowed in contemplation. 'It is possible…you're the first one I've known who could heal such darkness like the Blight', Naminé praised, 'Then again nobody has ever tried to heal the darkness within the hearts of those who've been using it'.

Naminé then giggled softly. 'But then again, how many Oracles knew about other worlds and the Order?', she teased. Lunafreya smiled coyly in response, giggling in reply to her. 'Not many I'm certain, I shall forever be grateful to his majesty for blessing me with such delicate information', Lunafreya said. 'But also thank you for informing me of Nobodies and Xigbar'. Naminé nodded kindly but then they both turned to hear the door opening.

Much to her dismay it was Xigbar, followed by six imperial soldiers. Luckily for the Oracle, Naminé was only visible to her. Still sitting down on her chair quietly sipping her tea, she calmly turned to the former nobody. 'Greetings Xigbar, is there something you need?', she asked, cordially and coolly. The scarred one-eyed man just smirked at the Oracle and leaned approached her but not close enough to be within arms reach of her.

Even Xigbar wouldn't risk harming her, and not for the reason the imperials behind him may think.

'Hate to bother your lonely tea-party your grace, but you've been summoned by his grace, the emperor', he said. 'Ahh…has he in need of my healing? Or have you filled his mind with more ridiculous stories of ruling the world with the nobodies?', she asked, sipping her tea and not budging from her spot.

'Oh, nothing like that…it involves your brother', Xigbar said, his smirk turning more sinisterly. This got her attention fully and she lowered her teacup with more force than she would have done, nearly breaking the plate beneath it. With her blue eyes carrying fire within them, she glared at the man of the dark. 'What about Ravus?', she asked, even her voice was restraint. Xigbar shrugged innocently and gestured his entourage. 'You'd have to ask his reverence, these guys aren't up for a lot of conversation, you know?'.

Reluctantly she got up from her chair and approached her room before Xigbar stood closer to her. 'I'd be on your best behaviour, your holiness, the emperor has been in a bad mood since the loss of his airship and bases', Xigbar revealed, 'And not to rock the boat here, but he's been more upset with Ravus'. Lunafreya didn't move from where she stood just at the entrance of her room with Xigbar beside her facing the city. 'High-Commander and empowered by the darkness…yet he still screwed up. Not only mistaking that other world kid for Noctis, but he also got his ass handed to him'.

Smirking, he said: 'Losing to a fake and losing a base in one day? Not exactly a good look for him now is it?'. Lunafreya did nothing but stare ahead of her, while Naminé glared heatedly at the scarred man, and if Lunafreya knew the girl well as she believe she would have poured the entire pot of boiling tea down his collar. Lunafreya herself not far from committing such an act unfit for an Oracle and more so for an immature child.

Never had she ever wanted to bring out that immaturity to full malice. But she could perform some malice.

Without a word the Oracle placed a hand on Xigbar's shoulder, glowing in that faint gold light. Xigbar hissed and gritted his teeth as he felt the burning sensation of her light, torching his darkness within him. 'Thank you for informing me of such important matters', Lunafreya said tersely, not even facing him as her light burned his darkness that was practically his blood at this point. 'As thanks for delivering such news about my brother, please accept my light as some…comfort'. Xigbar eventually pulled away from her grasp, staggering back and clutching his shoulder.

Lunafreya followed her imperial guards out of the room with a growling Xigbar trailing behind her, his face contorting into restraint anger while Naminé followed behind them. In the hallway, the smaller blond quickly ran to Lunafreya's side and the Oracle subtly glanced at her. 'Xigbar, where is Ravus currently?', she asked, not facing him. 'I'm meeting him after we escort you…your grace', he said, spitting out the last part. 'Very well', she mused.

She gave Naminé a subtle nod, entrusting her with this task. Arriving to the room where his grace would be waiting for her, the Oracle and the entourage entered without Xigbar. Once she was gone, Xigbar grunted in pain before muttering something profound of the Oracle. 'Can't wait to make you into a heartless…', he promised darkly. With a grunt, he marched down the corridor, unaware of his little tag along.

A/N: Here we go! Another chapter done!

So there's trouble in paradise with Aqua and Gladiolus, and the team knows something is up, can they help these two figure it out? Also, what's happened to Ravus? What does Xigbar have planned for the Oracle? Find out…ehhhhh sometime in the future?

This is the last downtime chapter for a while, next we're gonna be hunting for the royal arms!

Questions:

Q1: Was the Aqua and Gladiolus scene done right?

Q2: What did you think of Gladiolus' new shield?

Q3: How was Lunafreya and Naminé?

Q4: Should Goofy's son be referenced when it comes to Noct and his dad?

Q5: Is there anyone among the royal retinue who needs more attention?

The name of the car was suggested by Guest Isa, which does sound simple, but it fits so thanks for the help!

My random questions:

If you were stuck in a room with any KH character, who would it be?

If your hand got stuck in the vending machine who would you call for help and why?

As always, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	30. Chapter 30

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 30

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

Nearing Vesperpool

'Ugh, so much for the good weather', Noctis said with an obvious grimace in his tone as he watched their world be bathed in rainwater.

'Unfortunate as it is, we've still a way to our location. Perhaps the weather will clear up upon arrival?', Ignis suggested hopefully as he turned down to the road leading to the hunter's HQ. 'I hope so…', Prompto sighed as he leaned against the door of his seat, 'Imagine going through all the mud and waters…'.

'We've endured far worse places than merely swamp waters Prompto', Ignis reminded, 'If I recall, we had to explore sewers at one point'. 'Courtesy of your Goddess of Gears', Noctis added with a smirk. Prompto blushed and looked away with a pout, huffing in response to the harmless banter. Leaning back into his seat, Noctis glanced at Gladiolus on his right to see the man just staring into the window and watching their world pass them by.

With a frown, the prince sat up and carefully studied him. Ever since they left Lestallum his shield hadn't said much other than agreeing with what the plan would be, answering questions with distracted tones likely without knowing what the questions were. He hadn't even joined in on their chats and banters, which perturbed the prince since the man would never miss a chance to take a jab at the future king.

When he was sure Ignis and Prompto were enraptured with their conversation, he gently nudged the shield with a prod to his side. Gladiolus lightly jumped in response to this, turning to Noctis. 'What's up?', he asked, looking at him. 'You alright? You've been pretty quiet since we left', Noctis pointed out, eyeing him. Gladiolus just nodded and said: 'Yeah, just still waking up, that's all'. 'You sure about that? Kairi told me you and Aqua were hungover before she healed you two', the prince said.

Gladiolus let out a huff and just rested his elbow on the side of the door and his head against his propped fist. 'Yeah…', he said. Noctis rolled his eyes and just settled back into his seat, this conversation was not going anywhere soon it seemed. 'Specs, what do you know about this royal tomb?', he asked to fill the silence.

Clearing his throat, Ignis explained the tomb was dedicated to the supposedly first queen of Insomnia. However, unlike the future rulers, she despised being seen in public and most of her life she spent them working behind the scenes, enacting her rule from the shadows. 'Jeez, she sounds more like an assassin than a queen', Prompto said with a small gulp. 'Yet during her rule the kingdom prospered, perhaps she did far better as a queen who worked in the dark than she did in the light', Ignis suggested.

'…ya know that sounds a lot more sinister now with the heartless and darkness thing…', Noctis chuckled. He got a laugh from Prompto and a hum from Ignis but like before Gladiolus had said nothing. This time he earned Prompto's attention and likely concern. 'Hey, big guy? You sure you're good?', he said, turning around to face him despite Ignis' constant reminder of the proper sitting position. 'I'm fine buddy…', Gladiolus said distractedly.

'…I can date Iris then right?'.

'Yeah sure…', Gladiolus said. Then frowned when he thought about Prompto's words, then looked shocked and turned to him with a: 'Wait what did you say!?'.

'You just gave him your consent to court your little sister', Ignis revealed with a chuckle, 'This is what happens when you don't pay attention to what you're saying'. Gladiolus growled as the laughter grew among the three, eyeing Prompto while he is contemplating throwing him out on the road. He heaved a deep sigh of frustration and slumped back into his seat, back to staring outside as the laughter slowly died down.

'Sheesh, somebody's not all here today!', teased the blond with a cheeky smile. Gladiolus huffed in response, clenching his fist. 'You're lucky the others like you enough to keep around…', he warned darkly. 'That and Aqua could kick your butt if you tried to harm me~', Prompto taunted. Gladiolus' gruff look softened and looked more distracted as he didn't speak again or even give the blond some blunt response. Instead, he sighed and kept looking outside the window.

Blinking at the man's lack of a verbal response, Prompto shrugged and decided not to push his luck with the man's patience. He slinked back into his seat to resume a chat with Ignis about what's lunch going to be this time, leaving the prince and shield in silence.

Noctis kept an eye on his friend regardless, something was off…

*Wayfinder II*

In the car with Riku in the passenger side and the two islanders in the back, Aqua had the radio on with Riku's gummi phone connected to listen to their music. Kairi was laying her head on Sora's laps while he rested his head against the door, both asleep. Riku was tuning into the music playing. Aqua was grateful for the younger keyblade wielders being quiet and content, it allowed her to think.

Driving in silence with Riku's jazz music playing was helping her concentrate on the road despite the heavy rain. Downside to all this, she could think about herself and Gladiolus, and still come up with no answer for her current situation.

'Never knew you had a penchant for drinking'.

Aqua's thoughts were broken as she glanced slightly to Riku, eyeing her. 'Kairi told me this morning', he revealed, 'Said you were both hungover when she found you'.

Aqua groaned quietly as she nearly slammed her head against the wheel of the car. The last thing she needed, to look like an irresponsible teacher to her students and fellow master. And having Riku calling her out on her night did nothing to help her. With a deep exhale, she said: 'Gladiolus and I, against my better judgment, decided to celebrate our results'. She made a turn to follow Ignis and they drove past the small outpost of the hunter's town.

'Hey, don't get me wrong, I'm not against you two having some fun', Riku said with a smirk. 'Heck I almost wish I joined you'. 'Well I wouldn't have had you tag along, you're still too young for that', Aqua said firmly. 'Pfft, you do know there's only a year between us now, right?'. Aqua's frown shifted slightly to a smirk and a little giggle escaped her, he wasn't entirely wrong. Granted she was the same age when she first met them to this day, and now Riku is just a year younger than her.

One benefit of the dark realm you don't necessarily age there, something they had discovered after they checked her for any traces of Xehanort's darkness within her. Aqua was sure how she was meant to feel that she didn't age, but Kairi teased her the next birthday she'll have she'll turn twenty-nine.

'Still, I didn't see you as a drinker, never gave me the impression you enjoy beer', Riku said casually. 'I'm not. Up to that point, I've never even taken a sip of wine', Aqua explained. 'Oh, that explains the hangover…', Riku hummed with a chuckle. 'Word of advice, master to master, do not overindulge', Aqua warned, shuddering. 'The pain…never before did I wish the darkness would take over the world…'.

'I'll…keep that in mind', Riku said wearily. Through the tunnel and a reprieve from the rain, Riku sat up in his seat to look at her properly. '…so…you and Gladio?'. Aqua froze at the question, her face contorting into discomfort and awkwardness, which Riku immediately picked up. 'Did, something happen to you guys last night?', he asked. Aqua tapped her wheel, biting her inner cheek in thought, contemplating her response before she peered back slightly to see her apprentice and friend was still asleep.

'…it happened after we got back to our room…I, remember being very intoxicated, as was he, and remember mostly us acting like idiots and laughing like a pack of hyenas', she started, already sounding embarrassed by her recollection. Riku nodded, not speaking but encouraging her to continue her tale. 'Then, I fell to the ground, he picked me up but slipped against the wall…and then, we just stared into each other's eyes…next thing I knew…we…we kissed'.

Riku's eyes widened with surprise as Aqua's cheeks went red, looking anywhere but at him. It was bad enough her first kiss was taken while she was drunk but confessing it to a fellow master was almost as bad. She dreaded telling Terra and Ven this…already imaging what the older man was going to say, or worse, tease her with. Riku folded his arms and leaned into the seat, putting the information together and humming.

'…is that why you two have been acting so awkward?', he asked, looking at her. 'Yeah…ever since we kissed…it's like, I can't even look at him without feeling… *sigh* I don't know…', Aqua said as the car exited the tunnel.

'…do you like Gladio that way?', he asked, not looking at her. Aqua blushed softly at the rightly asked question, looking down on the road slightly. 'I…don't know', she said. 'What do you mean? You're saying you don't see him that way?', he asked. 'N-No! I mean…', Aqua said, but groaned. 'Its complicated, Riku'. 'Doesn't look like it to me. You guys didn't even talk about it did you?', he asked. 'Waking up with a hangover and smelling like you just walked out of a barrel full of beer doesn't offer a lot of time to talk, Riku', Aqua said.

'Ok I'll give you that one', Riku conceded with a nod, 'But when are you gonna talk to him about it?'. Aqua turned the car, following Ignis down a slope to where the Haven was located as the day began to brighten up. 'I don't even know how I feel about it Riku', she sighed, 'I…I've never, you know, had any form of relationships with a man before'.

'Really? Not even with Terra?', he asked, genuinely surprised. Aqua made a face of disgust. 'No, he's like my brother!', she said, shuddering. Riku laughed at her response before raising his hands. 'Ok, ok! Sorry! Haha!'. Settling down, he asked: 'But with Gladio…how do you feel about him?'. Aqua pursed her lips and pondered, taking her time to put her feelings into words. Truly she had tried to put them together during her shower, and even during the drive before him speaking, she couldn't describe them.

'…I don't know, Riku', she confessed. She frowned in disappointment of herself before she felt a nudge by the boy. 'Maybe, a certain redhead could help you?', he offered, gesturing to the sleeping beauty. As he finished, they arrived at their destination and parked just behind the Regalia and near the Haven. The two younger keyblade wielders were woken up by the master while Aqua checked on Donald and Goofy, drying themselves off thanks to Donald's magic as the retinue joined them.

'Everyone ready to get going?', Noctis asked as the team gathered up.

'Sooner we find the tomb we can leave, looks like the rain has only stopped temporarily', Ignis said, gesturing the dark clouds gathering up from the south. He pulled out a map from his pocket and after he unfolded it, he showed the party the location would be located at least west from the dungeon they explored for the mythril. 'Doesn't look too far, let's get going then', Kairi said a smile. 'Stay alert for the wildlife', Ignis warned.

The ten proceeded to head into the wooded area, sticking mostly on the beaten path and steering clear of the lake itself after Ignis reminded everyone of the large wildlife with the maws as long a sword with the equal snapping force of Gladiolus.

Most of the walk was peaceful since the team stayed away from the wildlife and kept following Ignis as he leads them into the thicket. Along their travels, Aqua had been walking slower than the others to the point where she was sticking in the back of the trail of people, head down as she was still trying to wrap her mind around these feelings for the shield. Slowly walking until she reached her side, Kairi gently nudged her master.

'You ok?', she asked quietly.

Looking at her apprentice then a glance to Gladiolus, the master let out a sigh as she crossed her arms. 'Kairi, could I ask you something personal?', she inquired. 'Sure, what's up?', assured Kairi. '…when did you start to fall for Sora?', the master asked. At this, the redhead blushed softly, slowly turning her gaze to Sora as he and Prompto were talking animatedly about something, likely the blond was talking about places they hadn't taken the other worlders yet.

She placed a hand on her heart and smiled. 'I always had a different feeling towards Sora, even when we were kids', she said warmly. 'When I fell in love with him…I guess it on the day before our islands disappeared'. Aqua smiled at her as she let out a small sigh of delight, clasping her hands behind her back as they walked on. 'And as time went on, the year apart from each other, reuniting again just strengthened that connection…then all this happened', she said.

Then she gave her a wide grin and leaned into her ear and whispered: 'Yesterday…he said he loves me'. Aqua's face brightened with joy as Kairi hugged herself and allowed a little squeal of delight from her. Looking at her master with the brightest eyes she ever seen, Kairi said: 'You have no idea how wonderful it is to be able to say and hear it between us. It is like having a quick way to reach cloud nine!'.

Aqua couldn't help but smile wonderfully at the girl as she giggled girlishly with the widest smile Sora would be proud of. Then she frowned at her master and lowered her arms. 'Why are you asking me though?', she questioned. Her master's smile slipped into a worried look as she and Kairi turned their heads back to the walk. 'Its…complicated…', she started. 'Riku did say something on those lines, did something happen between you and Gladio last night?', Kairi asked. Aqua rubbed her neck and with red slowly coloring her cheeks.

Blinking innocently, the redhead glanced at Gladio, then back to Aqua before her eyes grew wide as her mouth opened with a silent gasp. 'D-Did, did you two…?', she gasped. 'We kissed…', Aqua groaned out, 'Nothing more!'. Kairi covered her mouth to hold back a squeak of delight and looked rather pleased by this. 'That's wonderful! I didn't know you and Gladio had a thing between you two!', she said with obvious excitement.

Aqua shook her head which turned Kairi's excited look to disappointment. 'That's the thing Kairi…I, I don't know how I feel about him', she revealed. 'I mean, he's a good man, strong, brave and-

'Handsome?', Kairi offered with a wiggle of her eyebrows. Aqua gave her a blunt look before she sighed: 'Yes, he's handsome as well'. 'And…I think his tattoos are…attractive…'. Kairi grinned impishly at the woman's discomfort. Aqua felt like she was part of a gossip group and the fact she might have a thing for a man was like a high school girl having a crush on someone for the first time. Which in some sense she wasn't entirely wrong giving the fact this was the first man she felt this way towards.

'Okay, so Gladio's hot, and your type. But you also like his personality?', Kairi asked. 'Yeah…I mean he can be a smartass, and he does have a bit of issues when it comes patience and Noctis are the subject, but he's a good man. Braver than most, loyal to his friends and…', Aqua listed, smiling softly as she did so while looking at him dreamily. This did not go unnoticed by Kairi, who upon glancing back at her she was now carrying a cat-like grin. 'Yup, you like him~', she teased.

Aqua's dusty red went dark red, her voice disappearing along with whatever responses she would have had for her apprentice. 'I-I…', Aqua gasped before reluctantly she huffed in defeat. 'Let's say I… like him, Kairi…it wouldn't matter', she said with regret, lowering her arms to her side. Kairi's smile disappeared into a frown as they got closer to what looked like a cave within the density of the woodland ahead. 'Why? What if Gladio likes you the same way you like him?', Kairi offers.

'…because we're from different worlds…I can't stay here nor could I ask him to leave Eos…or Noct for that matter', she revealed. 'Even if we did replicate the same feelings, we can't be together if we're dedicating to our tasks, him as Noct's shield and I a keyblade master'. Somehow saying that despite the logic and crucial part of the problem, it hurt Aqua's heart. It was as though the words from her very lips cut her heartstrings and she mustered enough strength to keep that pain from tainting her voice.

It was at moments like this she truly envied Kairi and Noctis for having that special other within their world, Lunafreya with Eos and Sora with Destiny Islands. It would be so much easier this way, had she and Gladiolus come from the same world but no, she was a master that would be fated to protect the worlds from the heartless while he would be by his king's side as his protector. To have such a long distance between them, and even then, they may not even see each other for days, months even.

'But…why should that matter?', Kairi asked, warm and kindly, 'If you guys like each other, then distance shouldn't be a factor right?'. Aqua glanced at her as Kairi took out her GP and held it out. 'Even if you're physically apart, there's ways to connect, phones for example'.

Then she stopped her walking and placed a hand on her heart. 'What does your heart say?', she asked. Aqua placed her hand upon her chest over her heart, pondering her apprentice's words and looking back on her feelings and experience with the shield. She looked to the others, Gladiolus standing by the entrance with Goofy and Riku talking, leaning against the wall and his face showed he was deep in thought. He turned to the others before his eyes fell to Aqua, both locked in a gaze for a moment before he gave her a wave.

Smiling back, Aqua waved shyly back. All the while Kairi was smiling in satisfaction before they all ventured deeper into the cave.

In the cave, there was an abundance of flora and fauna to make the place resemble more of a jungle, though there was a slight miasma that while it didn't necessarily cause their visions trouble it certainly didn't encourage them to split the party up. The faint noises of animals and wild beasts kept them all on their toes, mostly in case the wildlife decided to strike.

Ignis in front to guide the group and Sora with Riku in the back to cover the rearguard in case of ambushes. Throughout their search for the royal tomb, the occasional skirmishes with the wildlife known as the mandrakes or giant insects that wanted to taste their flesh.

Slapping his bare arm to smack a mosquito, Prompto groaned. 'Ugh, I think I've got bitten by the bugs here more then I took hits from Gladio!', he said. 'Tell me about it', Kairi agreed, smacking a bug from her, 'Least they're not heartless bugs'. There was a collective chuckle among the group as they journeyed down a narrowed passageway, which leads them to two separate pathways for them to explore.

'Blast…', Ignis commented, cupping his chin. 'So much for not splitting up', Noctis added with a sigh. Looking between the two, the party had ultimately decided to cover more ground they would split up and as soon as one group found the tomb, they'd contact each other immediately. Luckily for them, there was service down here, faint but enough for a quick text to inform the other party.

Taking the left was Sora's group consisting of himself, Kairi, Donald, Goofy, and Prompto while the rest followed Noctis. Carrying onwards the other party of five proceeded to the right, climbing up a steeper hill with Ignis and Riku ahead, the latter just in case a heartless attack. The passage is much darker than the entrance with the mandrakes prowling around in the dark, again keeping themselves away from the humans.

Along the way Noctis was making some of their magic flask bombs, having stored so many elements inside himself he figured it wouldn't be a problem if his friends had some magic of their own. He's made at least six so far and handed two to Gladiolus and four to Ignis out of consideration, namely because Ignis was more proficient with magic like this.

They reached the summit of their march and came to see before them is a small area with water submerging the land with one lone tree in the middle of the small lake. Behind it and further into this small space was to their delight a royal tomb waiting for the prince to plunder it.

'Guess Iggy was right…', Riku commented with a shake of his head.

'When am I ever not?', Ignis said smugly, pushing his glasses up his nose. 'But best we inform Sora and the others, let them know we've found it'. Before anyone could contact them, Gladiolus raised his hand, stopping them. 'May wanna hold off on calling…or making a loud noise', he said, voice lowered and gruff. 'Because it looks like that tomb's got itself a guardian'. They looked, following the shield's gaze and like he said there lumbering around the lake and tree was a large beast.

Crouched down near the cliff of the summit, the team looked at the wild animal while it just prowled around the single tree. 'What is that?', Riku whispered, glancing at the strategist. 'That…is a creature known as a "treant" … they are mandrakes that have grown and matured into far more deadly beasts', he explained, pushing his glasses up. 'This could be a problem'.

'How? We've got the numbers and strength', Noctis asked, standing up. 'Noct-

Before Ignis could finish the prince, warp struck the treant into its large back, earning a roar from the beast as it reeled back and stood on his hind legs. It shook the prince off its back and started to flail its long arms wildly and angrily. Noctis stepped back from the animal as it turned to the prince, baring its large maw and teeth at him, its tail suddenly lunged to him with a quick strike. Noctis used his magic to evade the strike with a quick sidestep, his body coated in the blue light.

He summoned his revolver and took shots at the beast, but the tough thick skin of the beast was too much for the bullets to pierce through and merely bounce off it. The treant charged to the prince, swinging its arms at him as Noctis quickly warped to the tree and narrowly dodged the attack just as the beast's claw swiped at him. Re-appearing to the tree and standing in front of it, the prince summoned Blade of the Mystic and readied another warp strike.

As the treant turned to the prince, a large bolt of white lightning struck it on its back, forcing it onto its stomach as the antler-like horns on its body singed and nearly caught fire. Aqua and Riku jumped down from the summit and stood in the waters in front of the beast just as Gladiolus and Ignis joined in from running down the hills to the team, weapons drawn. The treant spun around, its tail sweeping on the ground and headed for the two keyblade masters. Riku erected a barrier around himself to hold his ground, making the tail recoil painfully from the barrier and flailed in the air, which Gladiolus took the chance to attack.

He brought his great sword down onto the back of the treant, cutting one of the antlers in half and drawing blood from the beast, it roared and thrashed around, swiping at Gladiolus. The shield stepped back from its claws, raising Defender to block the attack. Not only did the attack did nothing to the shield but repelled it to make the arm recoil.

Ignis tossed his two daggers at the beast when it leaped at them before he sprinted away from the monster landing zone. The two daggers bounced off its chest like he was throwing rubber at it, meaning its hide was still too thick for normal means of harm. The treant landed on the spot where the two stood before it let out a very loud roar that shook the ground and made some of the team cover their ears.

However loud noises were the least of their worries as Aqua turned to Riku and Noctis, looking rather dizzy and extremely confused. They started to haphazardly swing their weapons around like drunkards, waltzing away and nearly hitting each other. Aqua glanced at Ignis and Gladiolus, both sharing dismayed looks. 'Shit, that roar must've done something to them!', Gladiolus cursed, hitting back a claw from tearing him a new one.

Aqua jumped from the claw aiming for her, landing near Gladiolus. 'Keep it off Noct and Riku, I'll deal with them!', Ignis ordered, running to the two boys leaving Aqua and Gladiolus to fend off the treant. As it starts to snarl and slam its claws onto the ground which made small tremors that made the two stagger a bit. 'Okay, so its hide is too tough for normal strikes…', Gladiolus said with a grunt, 'Got any ideas?'.

'If we can't hurt it with normal means, then we'll just have to use magic!', Aqua declared, channeling her magic to summon fire. The treant however charged at her, slamming its claws down onto the woman, luckily Gladiolus quickly stepped in front of them and with his shield raised high, he blocked the attack and held it there. 'How do you need!?', he yelled back, throwing the beast off him. 'Just a few seconds!', Aqua assured, keyblade's tip glowing golden red.

Gladiolus nodded as he started to swing his sword at the treant's arms when it swung against him, when it leaps at him he'd throw his sword at the treant, and when it tried to roar at him to likely induce the same state of mind as Noctis and Riku, Gladiolus would throw his shield directly at the beast's head.

He ducked under its swinging claws and parried them when he stood his ground. Gladiolus managed to hit its claws and even the body of the treant, but like previous attacks, it just bounced off or just left dents in its thickened body.

Aqua spun her keyblade around in her hand and aimed it at the breast just as it started to stand on its hind legs again, likely attempting to crush Gladiolus beneath its weight. Grabbing her keyblade with both hands as it glowed golden-red as the tip sported a swirling sphere of flames. 'Firaza!', she yelled. A torch sized ball of fire flew to the treant but the moment it impacted it, it then exploded into a huge dome of flames.

The fire so hot and great it evaporated some of the smaller pools of water in seconds, scorched the earth into a black and incarnated the greenery around them. The treant itself was reduced to nothing but charred remains of the beast, the antlers crackling with embers in them and breaking apart with smaller embers burning its hide.

From the explosion itself, Gladiolus raised his shield high enough to protect himself from the attack, and only when he didn't feel the intense volcano rivaling heatwave from Aqua's magic, he lowered his shield with a breath of relief. Looking at the woman, wiping the sweat off her forehead with a smile, he nodded to her in approval. Then Aqua's eyes fell to his shield and gave it a curious look, she approached it. 'Gladio, look at the front', she instructed, gesturing it.

Worried the fire may have damaged it or worse, the man turned his shield to face it and his brows went up with surprise. The yellow eyes had shifted into a glowing red color, and somehow it felt different than just a color change. 'That's new', he mused. Aqua crossed her arms in thought, looking back and forth between the shield and the charred remains of the treant, putting two and two together with a quick nod. 'I have an idea…could you aim your shield…that way?', she said, pointing to the clear space behind him.

Following her instructions and holding his shield upwards, she then asked him to punch the shield. Worried but willingly to see where this was going, Gladiolus did so, and the result was not what he expected. The moment his fist punched the flat surface of his shield, the face blast a fireball from it that flew faster than a gunshot and smashed through one tree and smashed into the wall with a small explosion.

Not only was the tree broken in half with small embers remaining on both ends but there was also destruction left on the wall before them.

Both looked at the shield, gobsmacked and completely in awe before Gladiolus sported the largest grin she had ever seen appear on his face. 'I can shoot fireballs from my shield!', he cried, lifting it over his head like a child getting a new Christmas present. 'Ha! I owe Goofy for this!'. Aqua smiled happily at him, but then when he glanced at her, their smiles left, and they locked eyes. Gladiolus lowered his shield as Aqua dismissed her keyblade, not taking her eyes off him.

Both opened their mouths to speak but then they awkwardly paced in place, attempted to start a conversation about their awkward situation, the woman clasping her hands around her stomach and the shield rubbing his neck.

'Aqua…I uh', he starts but then Ignis called to them. Looking at the man they see Riku and Noctis rubbing their heads as the older man handed them each a potion. They approached the three, conversations left for another time to check on them. 'Are you two ok?', Aqua asked, looking at them. 'Other than feeling like there's a fog in my head? Peachy', Riku groaned, shaking his head. 'What the hell was that?'.

'A strange ailment that leaves the victim confused and disorientated', Ignis explained, patting his shoulder, 'Luckily the potion and smelling salts will clear up your minds'. 'Shame there's no magic for that kind of stuff huh?', Noctis said with a shake of his head, smirking at Aqua. The woman thought crossed her arms and gave a thoughtful look. 'I swear there was some basic spells for healing…I just can't remember what it was called…', she hummed.

Chuckling, Riku waved his hand. 'Either way, nice work with that treant thing', he praised before turning to the prince, 'Time to add another weapon to your collection buddy'. Nodding with a smirk and with a nod from Ignis, the prince jogged to the tomb just as Riku sent a text to Sora and the others to inform them of their findings.

Once Noctis acquired the next arm, which turned out to be a large ninja-like star, Riku informed the group Sora and the others had found a Haven near a decently large waterfall with a pond. Looking up to see the skies darkened, the group decided they would use the Haven to rest for the night then proceed back to collecting the last two arms.

*Nightfall*

By the time Noctis' party arrived, Sora's group had already started to make the camp, tents were already put up with Kairi and Prompto getting the chairs ready. Donald and Goofy had Ignis' cooking station ready for him at his instance since he had little fighting done and was more than able for dinner tonight.

Plus, he was eager to try out a new recipeh~

The only thing that wasn't going was the fire for the campfire. Sora said he was just waiting for the others to arrive before he got the fire going by collecting some firewood first. Gladiolus, however, took that task unto himself, claiming he needed something to do while he waited for dinner. As he walked off though, he sees Aqua following him and when she joined his side, she says it was just in case heartless or daemons ambushed him.

They headed back to where the royal tomb was since that was the closest to the campsite and there was plenty of good wood to be used for tonight. The entire walk there, however, was laced with awkwardness and silence between the usually chatty duo, neither had made so much as a "peep" to each other. The blue head was rubbing her arm shyly as she desperately tried to muster up the courage to speak about that night.

As they returned to the summit overlooking the royal tomb with the moon shining down on them, Gladiolus made the attempt to walk down the hill with Aqua in tow, before she inhaled and said: 'Gladio'. He stopped walking but didn't turn to face her, face still looking down the hill as Aqua composed herself. 'We…we need to talk', she started, cringing at that cliched line. Gladiolus turned to her with a serious look on his face, then he joined her at the top of the hill.

They looked at each other as if waiting for the other to break the ice between them but neither having the courage to address the elephant in the room. Aqua, however, refused to let this come between them, having grown weary of this awkwardness between them and missing just being able to speak normally with him. Taking one quiet breath, she opened her mouth to speak.

'I-

'I'm sorry'.

Aqua blinked, tilting her head when she saw Gladiolus' serious look shifted into a look of shame as he placed a hand on his hip. 'That night…I should've been more careful with you and the booze. I knew you hadn't tried it before and instead of taking it slow and not letting you indulge, I go ahead and do the exact opposite it', he said with guilt and frustration in his voice. Guilt for letting her get drunk and frustration as his lack of consideration.

'G-Gladio…', Aqua started, clearing her throat, 'Me getting drunk wasn't your fault. I'm not a child I should've known better myself'. 'Doesn't mean I shouldn't have done jack…', he argued back. Aqua frowned before she said: 'Well…I, don't regret it'. He gave her a surprised look as she shifted in place. 'I mean, don't mistake my words, I have no plans to get drunk every we do go out again, but for that one night…I liked it'.

She smiled. 'It was nice, just having to share a drink or…five, with you. Not talking about heartless, the fighting, or lamenting on my shortcomings. It was a wonderful escape', she explained. 'And maybe, we could do it again?'. Gladiolus opened his mouth before he sighed and chuckled at her. 'You are being way too forgiving; you know that?', he said with a smirk. Deciding to add some mirth to this, Aqua cheekily said: 'How about you make it up to me and pay the next time?'.

'What? Do you know how much I paid the last time?', Gladiolus asked incredulously yet his eyes were alit with mirth and smirk was as friendly as ever. 'Nope, and I don't intend to find out~ If you feel *that* bad~', she teased. 'Pfft, whatever', Gladiolus said with a wave of his hand. Aqua giggled as the shield rolled his eyes. In silence, they stared at each other before coming to the main topic of this halt, the real reason she wanted to speak.

Clasping her hands, she mustered her courage to look at him. 'I wanted, to also talk about…the…', she said lamely before her friend beat her to the punch. 'Kiss?', he huffed. 'Yes…that', she hummed. Gladiolus' face softened with remorse before he said: 'About that…I, I really, I didn't mean to'. Somehow that felt like a slap to Aqua's heart despite, rightfully so, she should have no reason to feel that, but Gladiolus face shifted into a look of alarm. 'Shit no, that sounded horrible…I didn't mean, I…*groan*'.

Aqua would have laughed at how clumsy and awkward he was acting if she wasn't trying to try and wrap her mind around the whole ordeal. Deciding to go for broke and spare this man the agony of embarrassment, she said: 'Did you like it?'.

Gladiolus rambles stopped when she asked that question, a small look of conflict etched its way onto his face before he turned it into genuine curiosity. 'Did you?', he asked simply. Frowning at the turn-around question, Aqua placed a hand on her chest and said: '…yes'.

He wasn't expecting her to have liked it because he gave the woman a look that was taken back by the confession. 'I have no experience with men, I grew up with my brothers as you know, so romance is something as alien to me as other worlds were to you', she confessed, 'Even when I asked out on a date years ago, I was so bashful and terrified I was literally thinking of every single excuse in the book to get out of it'.

She earned a snicker from the man, least he found her bashfulness amusing. Looking at him, she continued. 'I thought about that kiss, maybe I was overanalyzing it or reading too deep into it. And maybe, I'm being naïve but I…believe I know what I'm feeling'. Blushing, she looked at him. 'A-A-And you?'.

Gladiolus looked away for a moment, closing his eyes and taken a deep breath before he opened them and turned to her. '…I don't regret kissing you if that's what you're worried about', he confessed. Approaching her, he said: 'But…let's say we had certain feelings for each other, maybe its more than just an infatuation with the other…do you see it working out between us?'.

'That's…a good question…', she said with a frown, 'I know our occupations will require so much from us…and likely, we won't see each other as often as Sora and Kairi or Noct and Lunafreya'. That would be the hardest part for them to endure should this relationship go forward, yet still…

She gave him a heartfelt stare and said: 'I dunno if it could work but…I…I want to try'. The shield said nothing, his amber eyes staring into her blue ones to search for doubt but found nothing other than courage and something he couldn't describe. He thought to his task as the shield of the king, her as a master of the keyblade. Two different occupations that would take so much from them, likely their chances of meeting would be few and far between them.

However, even if he felt this connection to her was nothing than just a friend's affection…the idea of letting her slip through his fingers sounded so…wrong. Seeing her this determined to try this, how could he deprive her of this?

'Then…if you're willing to give it a go…then so am I', he said, going with it. Aqua gave him a smile that felt and looked so different than her regular smiles. It felt like it was something only he would have gotten to see. 'Great, that's great!', she said excitedly. Noticing this though she cleared her throat and nodded, 'I-I mean…very good', she muttered softly.

Gladiolus chuckled. 'Cute', he mused. Her cheeks flushed and she made some small noises out of shyness, making him chuckle. 'Come on, we've still got that firewood to get', he said, turning to go. 'G-Gladio…', Aqua said, catching his attention. He turned to see her rubbing her arm, shyly smiling. 'C-Could, could we…kiss again?', she asked. Wordlessly the shield approached her and took the master into his arms, letting her reach her own over his neck and shoulders and then slowly they leaned into each other's lips until they connected.

Both shut their eyes as this new sensation of warmth washed over their bodies, sparks rushing down their spines as they clutched each other tightly. She tasted so exotically to the shield, unlike any other girl he had been with, he wanted more. Holding her against his chest as he brushed her blue locks from her face, Aqua gently moaning from this wondrous sensation.

Then they heard something fall to the ground, breaking their kissing and alerting them to turned and identify their intruder.

Prompto just stood there, jaw to the ground as from his stance he looked to be holding something, and one glance down to the ground they saw his camera planted between his feet. Here was silence between the three of them, the only noise was the wind and sounds of the water behind the two new couple. Aqua's face was red while Gladiolus looked between desperately trying come up with an explanation and flat out murdering Prompto.

Wordlessly and almost robotically, Prompto picked up his camera and walked back down the hill and to the Haven, leaving the two alone in the now ruined moment. '…I'm gonna kill him', Gladiolus promised. '…please do', Aqua squeaked.

*Later…*

Collecting some firewood and returning to the Haven, there was a silence the moment they arrived as all eyes suddenly fell upon them.

Aqua and Gladiolus handed the firewood to Sora who quietly started the fire. Aqua glanced at everyone subtly as Gladiolus started to ask what Iggy had planned for dinner and other mundane questions. The woman glanced at Kairi who was sporting the biggest cat grin she had ever seen, practically beside herself with glee as Prompto gave the poor woman a look that could only be described as "I wanna be dead right now".

'I…think I'm going to turn in early', Aqua said, nodding to Ignis. He nodded in response, whether he was aware of the change in relationships of the team or not she wasn't entirely sure. She was going to just go to bed and hopefully, everyone would leave it at that.

Gladiolus…had other ideas.

'Just a sec, Blue', he said, turning to her.

Before she could do anything, he cupped her chin and kissed her, earning a small noise of surprise from the woman. When he was done, he said proudly: 'Goodnight'. Then he walked off to chat up Ignis, looking at him with bewilderment as Aqua stood there, blushing madly. Everyone else stared at the scene that unfolded, excluding Kairi and Prompto, jaws to the ground and eyes wide as dinner plates.

Quietly and quickly Aqua retreated to her tent before the others could ask her what just happened. No sooner did she enter her bedroll, she heard the voices of everyone asking Gladiolus what just happened, how long were they together and other questions she was much happier to have Gladiolus answer.

'SEE! I CALLED IT! WA-HOO!', Kairi cheered.

'I'm going to kill that girl…', Aqua muttered. As she laid on her side, drowning out the voices of her companions, she smiled as she drifted off to sleep.

A/N: …how did I go from having this too short to longer than most chapters…?

Anyways, we've resolved Aqua and Gladiolus's relationship and now that's done! Sorry, there wasn't a lot of action here, I just wanted to focus on these two and resolve the issue now than drag it on. Next time its Costlemark Tower! If any of you have played this game, then you know what you're in for!

Big thanks to VashTheStampede0409 for the shield idea, they've come up with more ideas for it which will be explored in the next chapter!

Questions:

Q1: What do you enjoy most of this story?

Q2: Is there any character bar Ardyn you wanna see more of?

Q3: Should there be a chapter of the team visiting the Chocobo ranch?

Q4: What is your favorite episode of the chocobros?

Q5: Who do you enjoy the most from this story?

Q6: Your favorite royal arm?

Random Questions:

You're a keyblade wielder in training, who would you have as a master, a fellow student, and rival?

If you were part of the Crownsguard, what would your weapon and talent be?

As always everyone, thanks for reading this! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	31. Chapter 31

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 31

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

*Fallgrove, later afternoon*

Parking their cars nearest to the royal tomb that was pillaged by a daemon, the party often had already been informed by the hunters nearby about the potential location of where the daemon that took the weapon had fled to.

According to them, there was a ruin not too far from this royal tomb that is most likely where the daemon had run off to with its bounty. Some searches later and after a few minor skirmishes with the wildlife, Goofy and Riku found the ruins. When they arrived, they could see it almost resembled a coliseum with several large walls ringing around the tower, many of them in ruins as many stood the test of time.

'This must be where that daemon ran off to', Ignis said, looking at the marvelous set of ruins before them. 'There aren't any other ruins near the tomb, and likely the daemon could be using this place as a habitat', Aqua added with a thoughtful glance.

Turning to Riku and Goofy, Ignis asked: 'Did you two happen to find an entrance to this tower?'. 'We think so…', Riku said slowly, leading them into the ruins. Across the stone bridge, they came to a flight of stairs that went down to a solid wall before them. 'Gonna go on a limb here and say this should have been the entrance but…', he explained while crossing his arms, 'There's, not door or anything here'.

'And we looked around this place to see if there any other entrances but all we found were dead ends', Goofy said with a frown. 'Couldn't we just, bust the door down?', Noctis asked, looking to the keyblade wielders. 'We may end up caving the entire passage in', Aqua replied with worry, 'And the last thing we need to start a dig site'.

Kairi tapped her cheek in thought as she looked around the ruins before turning to Ignis. 'Hey, do you think maybe this place works the same way as the dungeon in the Vesperpool?', she asked. 'I remember Aranea saying that the ruins only opened up when it was night'. The spectacled man raised a brow at the girl, who clasped both hands behind her back. 'She told me this when we got separated', she revealed.

'Wait…does that mean we have to wait around…until night?', Prompto gulped, turning pale at the thought of daemons. 'Guess we are', Donald said with a huff and crossing his arms, 'It won't take much longer'.

The duck's words did nothing to calm the blond as he gulped and look ready to call his gun. 'How much longer do we have to wait until night?', Sora asked, looking at the men. 'If I'm correct, we should only have to wait three more hours until nightfall', Ignis replied, phone out. With a nod, he pocketed his phone and nodded to confirm the time.

With this everyone opted to start doing their own thing with Aqua taking Gladiolus to experiment more with his shield, Ignis taking Donald and Goofy to search the area for ingredients, leaving the five younger members to their own devices. 'Guess we've got time to kill…', Kairi sighed, looking at the still high sun. 'What do you wanna do?', Sora asked, looking to everyone. 'King's Knight Noct?', Prompto suggested.

'Oh hell yeah, you're on!', Noctis stated excitedly. 'Hey, mind if I join ya?', Riku asked, showing his phone, 'Prom's got me hooked on it too'.

' "King's Knight"?', Kairi asked, tilting her head. 'What's that?'. The two boys grinned…

*Nightfall*

As the moonlight shined down upon the tower, like Kairi had said, the ruins began to wake up. Some of them out on the walls had long lines of red-light runes glowing on them, signaling their passage in had been opened and the journey had begun. They proceeded back to the stairs and after climbing down it they saw on their right another flight of stairs. Cautiously they ventured down further the stairs until they were underground and came to an empty corridor, up ahead they see the same lanterns from the Vesperpool dungeon.

'Be on your guard, remember places like these often homes for daemons', Ignis warned. 'And heartless, don't forget the heartless', Riku said with a chuckle.

Coming from the corridor and entre a cylinder-shaped space with only one entrance on the left, but before the team could make their way, six pools of blight appeared before them and out climbed the flan daemons.

'Hey look, daemons…', the prince groaned, 'And it's the mushy dessert kind…'.

As the team summoned their weapons, Kairi looked to her keyblade, recalling a certain spell she had learned the last time she was in a place like this. And if these monsters are indeed filled with darkness, then this may make the team's lives easier. Grasping the keyblade in both hands, she aimed upwards and cried: 'Rays of Light!'. Six beams of light rocketed off her keyblade and spiraled into the air before they charged down upon the flans like missiles.

The six rays each struck the flans, consuming them in small pillars of light so bright it lit the entire room in a soft yet powerful light. When it was done, the flans were no more, and the path was clear. Kairi smiled and looked to her keyblade with admiration before dismissing it. 'There we go, problem solved!', she said cheerfully. When nobody responded to her, she turned to see everyone bar Ignis stare at her.

'…what?', she asked nervously.

'When were you able to do that!?', Donald bellowed. 'Yeah, that just destroyed the daemons!', Prompto concurred while gesturing the space where the daemons were. Kairi sheepishly scratched her cheek as she bashfully said: 'I…I learned it when I was…asleep?'. 'You're telling me you can just make up instant kill attacks while you sleep?', Gladiolus said incredulously, laying his sword on his shoulder.

Kairi giggled weakly, realizing the wording. 'No, I meant…at the Vesperpool I…', she started, but then faltered when the memories of what the Master had showed her and the potential future that could occur. Her smile dimmed and Sora picked it up almost instantly and quickly joined in. 'Aww well! You can tell us later! Least we won't have to worry so much about the daemons further in!'. 'Sora's right', Noctis agreed, dismissing his weapon, 'No sense in looking a gift horse in the mouth'.

There were some hums of agreements and some just chalking it up to keyblade related stuff, with that they moved on with Sora giving a warm smile to the girl before he jogged with Riku. Kairi glanced at Noctis who shared the same look of concern she did. He gave her an understanding nod before they walked off to join the others while keeping a small distance from the main group. 'Was that new attack from your little trip with that "Master" dickhead?', he asked.

Rolling her eyes at the dirty insult, she said: 'Yes…he said he wanted to test me'. 'Did he say why?', Noctis asked. 'He said he wanted to see my true strength…but I'm not even sure if I did find that strength, he was so keen I had', Kairi explained. Shaking her head, doing her very best not to think about the nightmare worthy vision that man had forced her to endure. As happy as she was that she could address and make peace with Sora's scar, the less she thought on that day the better for her.

'Just who is that guy anyway?', Noctis asked. 'Is he with Xigbar?'. 'No…at least, he didn't seem to be in league with him', Kairi hummed, 'He didn't seem remotely interested in Xigbar's plans'. 'So, he's what? Acting on his own?'.

'I don't know…all I know is…he's dangerous', Kairi said with a frown. Rubbing her arm as a chill ran down her spine, thinking back to her "fight" with the man. And calling it a fight to her felt like she was trying to save her pride over the fact she was flicked away like a pesky bug. The power behind him was nothing she had ever felt before, even Sephiroth's power was nothing more than a fledgling keyblade wielder compared to him.

Kairi turned to him with worry. 'What about you? Did you have to fight him?'. Noctis shook his head. 'Lucky for me, I didn't. What he put me through was…something else', he mused. The prince's head went down as his expression darkened with a severe forlorn look on his face. Whatever the vision was must have been severe to the young king, Kairi gently placed a hand on his shoulder, comforting him. He gave her a grateful smile in response to her, nodding. 'Thanks…', he mused.

With that conversation stored for later, they re-joined the group, exiting the corridor and coming to a large cleared space.

Ignis made some observations that walls down here have fared much better than above, and the lanterns were still glowing with obvious magic still fuelling them. Further into the ruins with several cleared spots starting to look the same, they came to a much wide and spacious room with rubble and collapsed pillars around them. Much of the pathways had been destroyed likely from collapsed ceilings or just grown withered from time itself.

'This place looks ready to collapse altogether…', Riku muttered, looking at one of the fallen pillars. 'Let's try and not have a repeat of last time we explored a ruin', Ignis said, looking at the ruined ground. Some exploration, they found there was no other way done other than jumping down some pits. Aqua and Gladiolus headed down first in case of ambushes, and sure enough, they indeed encountered a daemon rising from the pool of blight.

A yojimbo rose up to face them, Gladiolus yelled out for the others to stay put until they deal with the daemon. He did this because the was little space for everyone to join in the fight, and the yojimbo's katana covered a lot of range.

The yojimbo immediately performed a quick draw at Aqua, only for the man to quickly intervene and parry the attack easily, deflecting the black blade. Aqua leaped over Gladiolus and dashed to the yojimbo, swinging her keyblade at it. Because of its weapon was deflected and being caught off guard, the woman had all the body of the daemon to strike at, and with its violet skin chest exposed, she plunged the keyblade into it and charged a blast of light into its chest.

The light pierced through the daemon's chest and left a hole in it. She flipped over it after she retracted the keyblade and landed on her feet as the daemon slowly sunk back into the pool of blight. Dismissing her keyblade as Gladiolus smirked at her before he called the others to join them. 'You two ok?', Goofy asked. 'Yeah, nothing to worry about, just not enough room for everyone', the shield said, gesturing the lack of space that was now more prominent with the others joining.

Deeper into the dungeon, the team crawled through a collapsed tunnel and upon reaching another cylinder-shaped room were above them there was another floor, a curved slope leading up to the next floor. More daemons had spawned before them, a cluster of violet bombs fluttering around them and grinning at the team. 'I got this!', Riku said, summoning Brave Heart and vanishing into the air.

He held the keyblade low, almost in the same manner of a samurai about to quick draw his sword, and then in a flash of light, he suddenly reappeared behind the bombs. Keyblade dismissed with a flick of his wrist as the bombs suddenly split in half and then vanished into the darkness. He smirked at the others as the joined up with him, 'Moving on then?', he asked casually. 'Pfft, show off', Kairi teased with a roll of her eyes. The others just nodded and proceeded up the slope.

Coming to a round walkway with one exit, they found themselves in a room resembling the room before falling into this level. No one commented and proceeded forth, climbing down a flight of stairs. There were two paths to choose from, forward and right before the team, which Gladiolus took the left to check out and found a door waiting for them. However, he decided against opening it, believing it'd be another dead end and their reward for the team's curiosity would be more daemons.

Heading for the straight path ahead of them, they see a clearing and further in was a room exactly like this one. Except before they all walked in, Ignis stopped the team by raising his hand, halting their movement. Narrowing his eyes, he took out one of the flasks Noctis made for him and told everyone to hold back for a moment. Next thing they knew Ignis suddenly ran into the and once he was a few steps from the doorway, he flung the flask at the wall on the right.

The explosion was a blizzard that covered the wall and most of the floor into a flurry of frost and ice as a blustering wind raced past the team and even made some of the lighter clothed members rub their arms with a chill. Running from the explosions were five bussemands, larger and bulkier cousins to the goblins, their violet skins taken a sheen of white frosting.

Quick as a bullet Ignis flung his spear at one and pierced its chest just as the daemons turned to see the instigator. Two of them skipped to the man, brandishing their large metal fists. Ignis summoned his twin daggers and slides around one of them when it took a swing to him, slicing its side during his slide. Using one dagger to parry the second bussemand's fist and then plunged the other dagger into its neck quickly and cleanly, Ignis flung the dagger in his left hand to the bussemand that tried to sneak up at him.

Like a professional dart player, his managed strike right between the eyes of the daemon, killing it instantly and then he tossed the melting daemon off himself. The final bussemand was in the air and tried to bring down its fits on Ignis, only for the man to recall his spear and with a single thrust, he struck the daemon in the chest, piercing it.

Dismissing his weapons and shaking his hands to rid himself of the shakes, he turned to the others. Some applaud while others cheered for him. Kairi cheekily elbowed Riku, 'Style and class~', she said. Riku pushed her playfully as she giggled, smirking at the man. 'And she calls me a show-off', he huffs. Ignis, however, pushed his glasses up, smirking at the boy in response. 'And is she wrong I wonder?'. Riku rolled his eyes, begrudgingly accepting the man's got a point.

They carried on their exploration, coming to another long slope that descended further into the tower. 'Jeez…how deep does this place go?', Prompto complained, looking at the slope. 'Just how deep underground have we gone?', Aqua asked, cupping her chin and looking at the ceiling in thought, 'Feels like we're much far down than the mines'. 'And likely we've still quite the ways to go', Ignis added with a small sigh escaping his lips.

Sora approached the railing and hopped up to peer the ground. Unfortunately, he couldn't even see the ground, implying the ground was still away to reach. 'Hey guys, how far do you think the ground floor is?', Sora asked casually. 'Farther than any of us would have liked', Gladiolus said with a huff, looking down at the slope, already dreading the daemons that would be waiting for them. 'Heh, if you're that curious, why not jump and find out?', Noctis said in a joking manner. He got a stern glare from Aqua and Ignis before he lifted his hands in defense.

'Hey, not a bad idea Noct!', Sora said.

'Yeah, thanks…WAIT WHAT!?', Noctis said, before his eyes widened in horror. The team turned to see Sora standing on the ledge and then before anyone could stop him, he jumped off and dived. 'SORA!', Kairi, Donald and Goofy cried out, reaching the ledge to see him disappear into the dark. 'YOU IDIOT!', Riku yelled, joining their side.

They searched for him but nothing. As the group stood there in shock, all but Kairi's eyes turned to Noctis with fury, even his royal retinue. 'Good going Noct!', Gladiolus said sarcastically. 'How was I supposed to know he'd do it!? I know Riku calls him an idiot, but I didn't think he meant he was an idiot!', argued back the prince. Even Noctis sounded close to panicking over the potential fact he may have just gotten one of their strongest members killed as Prompto started to pace in place and Ignis looked ready to tear his hair out.

'H-He can survive that right!? RIGHT!?', Prompto asked, looking to Aqua who was looking like she was gonna have a full-on panic attack. 'I, I don't know!'. Kairi got off the railing and stood still for a moment as all eyes slowly turned to her. She turned her head to Noctis with the most murderous look the team had ever seen, eyes red with fire and there was a menacing fiery aura surrounding her entire body as if she had become a literal angel of fiery death.

Noctis paled when she summoned her keyblade, also covered in golden flames. 'K-Kairi…I know I messed up here b-b-but', he stammered, completely afraid of her now. Even Ignis couldn't strike such fear into his heart. Kairi nearly lunged at him before Donald and Goofy lurched forward to grab her and struggle to hold her in place. 'I'M GONNA KILL HIM! I'LL KILL HIM I SWEAR TO RAMUH! LUNAFREYA I'M SORRY BUT YOU'RE GONNA BE A WIDOW!'.

'Kairi! Calm down!', Goofy pleaded, struggling to hold her back via shoulder hold while Donald struggled to keep her legs in place. 'Yeah, you can't kill the prince!', the duck said. 'THE LUCIS BLOODLINE ENDS WITH NOCTIS!', Kairi declared. Gladiolus wisely kept Noctis behind him and raised his shield in the likely case Kairi breaks free from her friend's desperate grip. Even Prompto looked like he was readying for his gun to keep himself safe.

'Oh, he's ok', Riku announced.

They all turned to him on his GP, showing everyone a selfie of Sora showing the bottom floor with the text: "Holy moly is it deep! On my way back up! :D".

When the message was read by everyone, Kairi's fiery aura disappeared as her keyblade. Sensing she calmed down and her desire to end the Lucis line had passed, the two released her as she looked at her GP to see the same message for her. 'Oh, thank goodness', she breathed in relief. ' "I'm sorry I nearly attempted to murder you Noct",', the prince said with a snarky tone, ' "No its cool Kairi, I get it",'.

'Oh, good then you understand why I was going to harm you', Kairi said with a cheek and a smirk, 'Glad we're on the same page Noct!'. Noctis grumbled angrily at her as they started to hear rapid footsteps coming from the ledge. They turned to see Sora suddenly step on top of the railing and beamed at the others, looking sweaty but none the least bit exhausted. 'It's pretty far down, but I think we can use it as a short cut!', Sora said, panting a little.

'Wait…you're not suggesting we…jump down, are you?', Gladiolus said, eyeing the boy. He hopped off the railing and said: 'Well we can take the longer and more violent pathway if you guys want'. Everyone looked at each other before Aqua hummed. 'Hang on…maybe there is a safe way down…', she said. 'If me and Donald can create a more powerful Aero spell that could not only slow our descent but also create a soft landing for us…'.

'Uhh…you two *sure* that'll work? And uh, heh, not get us killed?', Prompto asked, backstepping away from the two. 'With enough magic combined, it should work', Donald said with a hum. 'But maybe it'd be a good idea if someone goes down there first and create one'. They all glanced at each other before Sora raised his hand to volunteer, grinning stupidly. 'I can go down first!', he said with a smile. Aqua, however, crossed her arms. 'Sora, I don't think your magic will be enough to create an Aero that large', she said with concern.

'Oh! Don't worry, I'll bring Kairi with me!', he said, 'Her magic will be more than enough!'. Kairi suddenly turned white as a sheet as all eyes fell to her. Nerves on alert as she began to sweat, Kairi weakly smiled and waved her hands. 'Heh…heh…. NOPE!', Kairi said, nearly dashing back to the entrance but her jacket was caught by Gladiolus as she ran on the spot. 'Nope, you're not getting out of this kiddo', Gladiolus remarked.

'Aqua! Your boyfriend is bullying me!', Kairi said, increasing her running. 'Gladio dear, please hand her over to Sora so they may make their descent', Aqua said with a cheeky smirk. 'Yes sweetheart', Gladiolus said with a malicious grin. He hoisted Kairi over his shoulder as she struggled against him like a wild animal, flailing her arms and legs as she let out yells of protest. When the shield got close with Sora standing on the railing, he handed her to him.

'Sora! Don't even think about jumping!', she ordered as he shifted his grip on her. 'Kairi, relax~', he said calmly, 'I won't jump'. 'Good…!', Kairi sighed in relief as he held her bridal style. 'We're just gonna drop off'.

'WHAT!?', was the last word Kairi could cry out before both teens plummeted down the ground, her yells of terror echoing throughout the dungeon. As the wind rushed against her face and through her hair Kairi shut her eyes and buried her face into Sora's chest, still screaming in terror.

Sora then performed a few flips and then he placed his feet against the tower when they nearly reached the end of the tower. He bounced off the wall and leaped into the air with one final flip before he landed on his feet. Once he and Kairi were on the ground, he glanced at the girl still face buried into her boyfriend's chest, shaking her. 'Ok, we're here', he said calmly. Kairi slowly peered from her hiding and looked to see indeed they were on the ground floor again, then let out a deep sigh and slumped into his arms.

'See? That wasn't so bad!', he said grinning. 'If I wasn't to relived not be become a splat on the ground…I'd slap you for scaring the heck out of me…', Kairi said. Sora laughed in kind, gently smiling at her. 'Didn't you trust me to keep you safe?', he asked with a playful smile. Kairi frowned at him. 'You never told me you could fall from that height and come out unscathed!', she argued. 'I thought you…just didn't think it through…'. She lowered her gaze before Sora pecked her forehead. 'Sorry about that, I forgot you didn't know Flowmotion', he apologized, placing her back on her feet.

'Flow…what?', she asked. 'Flowmotion! Riku and I learned it while we were taking the exam', he explained, 'It's a trick that uses some magic that helps us traverse around the environment'. To show her, Sora ran to the wall and once he started to run up it, she sees his body was coated in blue light as he scaled the tower, before he jumped off it with a backflip and while summoning his keyblade, he dived back to the ground.

He slammed the keyblade into the ground a few feet from Kairi, blasting a blue wave of magic from the striking point. He gave her a grin as she looked at him with awe before he dismissed his keyblade. 'See? It makes getting around the place easier and it's useful against the heartless', Sora said with a smile. Kairi applauded his demonstration, smiling at him. 'You're gonna have to teach me that next', she said. 'Absolutely! Imagine how strong you'll be, and with your magic, you'd be untouchable!', he said encouragingly. Kairi bashfully smile as she ducks her head to hide her blush, having Sora praising her still has that wondrous feeling.

After the afterglow of Sora's praises, she took in their surroundings. The place had a blue-grey hue to it, there were four squares of strange stone platforms around them in a corner with several built monoliths of stone.

'Where, are we supposed to go next?', Kairi asked, noticing there was no other exit or passageway for them. 'I dunno, I didn't look around when I first came down here, maybe Iggy or Aqua would know what to do', Sora said. Kairi turned to him as he texted Riku that they had arrived at the ground floor. 'Okie Dokie, time to get started', he said, summoning his keyblade. Nodding, Kairi did the same and together they combined their magic to create a powerful gust of wind in the space between them.

Above they could see the rest of their team falling to them, some screaming and some cursing profusely while Goofy screamed that usual scream of his. Thanks to Kairi and Sora's combined magic and with Aqua creating her vortex of wind, their fall was slower than Sora's and upon reaching the vortex they created, they all landed safely onto the vortex and after one bounce up, they each landed on their feet.

'HOLY SHIT THAT WAS TERRIFYING!', Prompto yelled, falling onto his knees, 'Promise me we're NEVER doing that again!'.

'Yeah…gonna side with Prom on this one…', Gladiolus said, shaking his head, 'How the hell do you guys do this so casually?'. 'Plenty of practice to get used to it', Sora laughed, thinking back to all those times he fell from crazy heights. He turned back to Ignis, 'But we've got a problem, there's no way to go on'. Taking in their surroundings, the strategist frowned when true to Sora's word there was indeed nowhere else to go. 'Was there anything out of the ordinary?', he asked, turning to the boy. 'Well, there are those weird-looking stones over there', Sora said, pointing to them.

The team approached the white floor with blue lights, but when they all stepped on them, suddenly the floor began to descend. 'Whoa!', Donald said, nearly losing his footing. 'Guess we're going down', Riku said with indifference, looking around them as they went below the floor. The floor stopped going down but then it started to slide into the wall, leaving a gap that grew larger and larger until the team eventually all jumped down to the next floor.

'Oooh, this feels so clustered', Kairi said with a shudder, not at all enjoying how little space they all had between them. 'Feels like we're being stuffed in a shoebox…', Gladiolus said, nearly elbowing Riku in the jaw with how little room he had. Noctis approached the wall that had the same blue light and stone as the floor and pressed his hand against it. The wall began to slide to the left into the way, exposing another path for them.

They stood on the spot with the same floor from above but there was another on the wall. Noctis again pressed it. They kept repeating this for some time, they would press on the strange walls or floors, fight some daemons in tight spaces and so on until they finally free themselves from this random puzzling spot. The walls around them were darkish grey but no more of the blue lights. Down the path was another one on their left, leading them into a very long and empty corridor.

'Looks like we're done with those puzzle blocks…', Sora said. 'Least now we don't have to worry about getting squished', Aqua said with relief.

They walked down the corridor and then came to a large open space, but their troubles were far from over. Several pools of blight began to form ahead of them, flans spewing forth while three iron giants spawned near them along with one naga, slithering up to face them.

The team immediately drew their weapons as the daemons readied for the attack. 'You have got to be kidding…', Noctis said, looking at the horde of monsters. 'Well, it's either a bunch of daemons…or we try our luck at real-life Tetris', Gladiolus remarked. As he finished that sentence however, black portals appeared near the daemons and put came a variety of heartless poured forth from them along with black flames appearing near the golems.

Six Invisibles, three defenders that were colored red as opposed to the usual colored ones, four dual blade heartless and finally two metal trolls that rival in size to the daemon golems. '…can we go back to the moving blocks?', Prompto squeaked, gun aimed at pretty much everything in front of them. 'I'm inclined to agree with Prompto here', Aqua said with a grunt, looking at the horde of monsters for them.

'No turning back now!', Noctis said, warp-striking at the horde. Sora turned to the other world heroes, who nodded and then all six of them ran into the fray, followed closely by the other royal retinue.

The prince stabbed into the chest of an iron giant, plunged his sword into it. The giant attempted to grab the prince only for Noctis to leap off it with the sword still embedded into it, summoning a royal arm, Axe of the Conquer. He warped struck into its stomach with the force of a speeding train, making it stagger back before one more warp just above its head and brought down the axe right on the skull.

The axe crushed the head of the daemon and slowly it melted back into the pool of the blight, allowing Noctis to warp at the other monsters, arms returned. As he eyed another golem, the prince barely had the chance to evade the strikes from an invisible that flew to him and thrust its sword at him. Noctis flipped in the air before he warped back down to the ground, drawing his engine blade and met with the invisible's sword.

Riku and Ignis took on one of the metal trolls as it swung its axe at them and used the free empty hand to punch the ground where they stood. The advisor slides over the sweeping axe, getting close enough to the legs and then he plunged one dagger inside its ankle. With the troll in pain and distracted, Riku charged his left arm with darkness until it coated his greave entirely in black flames. With a roar he aimed his palm at the troll and fired a large violet and black ball of fire at the troll, igniting it upon the explosive impact.

The troll now possessed a gaping hole in its chest with embers dancing around the edge of the hole before it disappeared into nothing, a single heart fluttering into the sky. The two warriors gave each other a nod before they separated and ran to aid the others. Ignis performed a large jump with spear in hand and leaped into the air, and upon seeing Goofy was being swarmed by two dual blades and one red defender, he pounced upon the defender.

His spear landed right between the back of its shoulder blades and pierced through it and stuck in the ground, the heartless disappearing instantly. The dual blades turned to the man, drawing his twin daggers and staring them down.

Kairi had busied herself with the flans, jumping in the air and dancing around the sludge monsters with far superior mobility and speed against their dragging movement. Keeping her magic reserved and occasionally striking them when they got to close to her, she managed to obtain enough magical energy to change into Strike-Form and shift her keyblade into Dual-Blade, which not only helped cut them all easily but she decided it was time to see if her magic would change.

Spinning the weapon in her hands, she chanted ice magic and then her twin blades were coated with frost and mist. She swung her weapon sideways which created a disc-shaped beam of ice that soared at the flans. Three that were hit were almost instantly turned into frozen popsicles, making short work of them. Kairi next used fire magic, spinning her blades until that turned into literal blades of fire before she swung the top and bottom blades in arcs, sending waves of blade-shaped fire at the flans, burning most of them into hot sludge.

Grinning to herself that she was making short work of the flans and taking the odds into their favor, Kairi was just ready to finish off the rest, until she turned around in time to just guard against two sneaking invisibles bringing both their swords down on her, making the poor girl nearly lose her footing thanks to the combined might of the two strongest pure blood heartless. Kairi staggered backward as she fended off the two larger blades against hers, parrying and deflecting them.

On the other side of the princess' battlefield, Prompto was ducking and rolling from the large sweeping blade of the iron giant while Donald was firing ice and lightning magic at the giant. Their attacks, unfortunately, did little but provoke the monster though as its dense armor was too much for Donald's magic and Prompto's bullets bounced off it like he was just shooting a wall of steel. When the giant slammed its sword upon the ground just when the two split off from the attack, Prompto took a chance to use his RPG from the pocket dimension and aimed.

As the giant turned to the boy and likely would have used its fist to crush him, Donald quacked: 'STOPGA!'. Glyphs of clocks appeared around the giant moving before coming to a complete halt, freezing the giant entirely. Taking this chance to do some real damage, Prompto aimed and fired one rocket at the head of the daemon, exploding the moment it landed. Donald's spell ended just as the smoke cleared from the explosion, and the daemon was no more, sinking into the blighted pool.

The two gave each other thumbs up before Prompto was then struck by a dual blade, slashing his back and throwing him onto his stomach. With a yell before he fell, Prompto shook in pain as his RPG fell and slides away from the gunner as the heartless stood over him, readying the final blow. Donald suddenly leaped onto the heartless with staff in hand, smashing the top right onto the head of the bladed monster.

It recoils from the damage, giving Donald time to turn to Prompto and give him healing magic, healing his wound. The very moment the pain disappeared, Prompto turned onto his back, revolver in both hands, and fired one bullet at the attacker. The bullet struck into the chest which made it fall onto its back, which Donald finished it with a bolt of lightning from above.

Near the pathway where they came from, Aqua was dancing around three invisibles and dual blades weapons, parrying their swords and evading them at once. One invisible lunged its blade at her, making the master strike it and send the sword upwards and with a spin and step forward, she slashed its chest and cleaved it in half. As she took her exit out of the mosh pit of heartless, Aqua changed into Blitz-Form, shifting her keyblade into the Blade and Sickle form.

Spinning the sickle in hand quickly, Aqua tossed the sickle at the invisible and luckily wrapped the chain around it. She quickly made a sharp tug on the weapon, which caused the sickle to bury itself into the invisible's chest. As the other invisible dashed towards her, Aqua threw her leg over the chain holding the other invisible, wrapping it around her leg and then pulled it. The powerful pull she managed to bring over the invisible into the crossfire and made a collision with the charging invisible, both bashing into each other.

The dual blade leaps into the air over the bundle of invisibles and dived towards the woman. Aqua spun the ball-chain and flung it toward it in a straight line, the ball colliding with the head of the dual blade with a loud *clang*. The bladed heartless fell to the ground, disorientated and vulnerable for a kill. Aqua spun the ball again, but before she could finish it off, she was then grabbed by an iron giant's fist.

Lifted into the air, Aqua struggled to break free from it as the daemon tightened its grip on the woman, earning a yell of pain from the master. The dual blade heartless recovered and leaped onto the giant's shoulders, running towards the woman to claim her head. As Aqua fought against being crushed, the heartless didn't get much closer to her, instead, it was blasted by a raging ball of fire that knocked it off the giant's shoulders and burnt to ash.

Aqua looked to see Gladiolus leaping into the air, the masamune sword in both hands as he brought it down onto the giant's arm with a roar. The sword cleanly severed the giant's hand, freeing Aqua as the two warriors of light landed back on their feet, the giant grasping the severed wrist in utter agony. Aqua then re-summoned her sickle and chain, nodding to Gladiolus in gratitude before she gathered up energy.

Her weapon glowed into a shining light as it shifted into a brand-new weapon for her. The sickle changed into a straight but shorter katana like weapons while the chain and ball melded into three star-shaped shurikens. Even her clothes changed slightly, now she dons a dark jaded face mask covering her jaw to below her nose while her armor shifted in to make her look more akin to a ninja. She glanced at Gladiolus, who stared at her with awe before whistling. 'Nice touch', he compliment, gesturing the mask.

If only the mask could have covered her cheeks to hide the blush…

Before she could reply, hopefully, in equal flirt, Gladiolus raised his shield up. 'Mind if I borrow some magic?', he asked. Behind her mask, she smirked as she sees him eyeing the invisibles evilly. Placing her wakizashi upon the face of the shield, she instilled a large portion of her magic, mostly elemental based. 'Have fun experimenting!', she said, turning to the giant and dashing towards it. Gladiolus laughed in kind, lifting the shield as the invisibles stared down at him, though he sees one was hunched over.

Stabbing his sword into the ground, Gladiolus lifted his shield as the eyes turned into dark blue. The warrior punched his shield and in turn, fired a stream of icy mist at the invisibles with a speed too great for them to evade in time, covering them in a fog of cold. Their forms were frozen solid as Gladiolus placed a hand on the flat surface of his shield and somehow changed it from blue eyes to yellow eyes. He then ran at the helpless invisibles, lowering his shield as lighting sparked from the mouth and the moment, he got close enough, he let out a roar and punched the invisibles with a shield covered in lightning.

To say he demolished the heartless would have been a massive understatement.

Aqua dashed towards the iron giant that lost its hand, wakizashi sheathed on her lower back, her speed greater than it had ever been as it helpless tried to strike her with its sword to no avail. She seemingly could not be touched by the blade despite how much space it covered, it as if she was the air. In quick succession that rivaled a machine gun, the master tossed the shurikens at the golem's body, each charged with light magic.

The light blessed weapons pierced the golem's chest while one struck its right shoulder.

Jumping into the air as she charged to the giant, Aqua drew her blade.

In a flash of light, Aqua landed behind the giant on one knee, slowly sheathing her weapon behind her as flashes of light boomed around the giant's body. It slowly sunk to its knees and then disappeared like its brethren before it. Aqua re-summoned her shurikens before vanishing to hunt for more.

Sora sliced through a defender, shield and all before he ran to the iron troll. The hero changed into his Element-Form with a keyblade from a world with a girl with long hair, he changed the weapon into a staff.

The troll swung its massive mechanical axe at the boy but when it hits Sora it merely went through him as if it didn't hit him at all. Above it was another Sora firing a rainfall of light at it, on the left was ANOTHER Sora blasting it with light magic. The real Sora was already in front of it, sliding on the ground as if he was riding a skateboard, swerving around the giant's feet and using the staff to strike at it with physical strikes as opposed to his illusionary Sora's attacking with magic or distracting it.

The troll stood little chance against his enemy on his own, now Sora was merely hastening its demise. The four Sora forces fired a barrage of light magic at the troll, bathing in holy light before destroying it entirely. Sliding on the ground as his clones disappeared, Sora turned to see Noctis being struck by an invisible's blade, cutting him from shoulder to left hip and making the prince fly back from the force.

Grunting, Sora undid his form change and quickly air dashed to the prince just in time to block a second attack from the invisible. He pushed the dark blade aside and stabbed it right into its stomach, killing the fallen angel like heartless. Turning to the prince, with his clothes torn from the strike and flesh glistening with red, Sora quickly knelt and handed him a hi-potion. 'This should help', he said comfortingly. The prince took the item from him and quickly downed it, healing himself. 'How many more of these things are there?', he grunted.

'Not much more, we're…', Sora said, but his words were quickly cut short when he was blasted by a ball of flames that threw him into a wall. Noctis turned to the direction of the fireball to see a new kind of invisible looming over them, black flames cloaking its left hand. It was much taller and slimmer than its kind, but with more jagged line for wings with flames dancing around them, the swords they used floating around it, counting to seven all together including the one in hand. A crystal red heartless emblem stamped onto its chest.

The horns melded to create a heartless emblem from them, its tail end was shaped like a guillotine blade, the blight manifesting from its's body as it raised its sword to the prince. Noctis turned to Sora on his side, his clothes were still licked by embers as he tried to get back up onto his feet. The daemon heartless dashed to the boy for the kill, only for Noctis to interrupt its charge and warp-tackle it, using a shield instead of his sword to slam the cross-bred.

The heartless pushed him off the prince, now turning its attention on the future king. Noctis quickly unleashed his Armiger, growling. 'You're gonna regret that', he promised before he jumped with his weapons.

Ignis parried and blocked the dual blades wild and coordinated strikes, sparks flying off both blades, but the heartless had managed to nick and scratch the man's body, clothes nicked in several parts. The heartless' blade lurched forward to the man's face, causing Ignis to quickly lean his head back but the blade cut the bridge between his glasses, causing them to fall off his face.

The glasses fell to the ground with one breaking and the other cracking. Ignis stared at the broken spectacles, before turning onto the heartless with restraint fury. 'That…was a very poor decision', Ignis said darkly. The heartless struck again but the man was quicker than the beast, his right hand flew up like a bullet and sliced the blade in half, then he kicked the heartless in the chest and pushed it back from him.

When it regained its footing, it looked at the man, now in his hand was a magic flask. Ignis crushed it between his palms, instead of exploding his arms were now covered in both flames and lighting, daggers re-appearing in his hand. Coldly, Ignis ran to the heartless, swinging his blades so quick they appeared as blurs to even a superior monster. The heartless tried to block even one attack of his, but Ignis sliced and diced the being like someone tossed it into a blender.

There was silence when Ignis finished, walking away from the heartless before its body was covered in fire and lightning, then mercifully disappearing to nothing. Scoffing at his lack of spectacles, the man turned to Goofy pressing his shield against the final defender, seemingly in a deadlock. Taking this chance to aid his ally, Ignis ran to the defender and jumped. He brought both daggers down into the defender's back, plunging the hilt of the dagger deep into the heartless. The heartless' stance was ruined by the surprise attack and it loses the strength to go against Goofy.

The captain of the guard reeled his shield back and then tackled the heartless when it raised the shield, smacking into his chest and pushing it onto its back. Goofy then slammed the shield edged first into the head of the heartless, killing it.

The other world hero panted tiredly, looking at Ignis who shared the same sentiment of exhaustion before he turned to their companions, seeing Noctis fighting off a new breed of heartless with Sora trying to get back to his feet. 'I'll tend to Sora, go help the others!', he ordered, sprinting off to the boy.

Riku sidestepped the large blade from the giant, narrowly missing his feet as he flipped over the sword and fired another dark firaga at it. The attack exploded upon hitting its shoulders but did nothing more. The giant swung its fist into the ground, creating a tremor that shook the ground beneath Riku's feet and the shockwaves threw him off his feet and onto his back. Rolling backward onto his feet, the boy raised his keyblade and turned into his Guardian-Form, bring out his sword and shield.

Rushing into the fray at the daemon sweeps its sword towards him Riku threw his shield at the daemon's head, smacking right between where its eyes presumably are and making it recoil in pain. Grabbing his sword in both hands, he channeled the darkness within him into it until it grew larger into Gladiolus sized in a violet light. With a yell and jumped into the air just as the daemon swung its sword at him. Riku spun around and cleaved the daemon's sword in half and then with a front flip, brought the violet blade down onto the daemon, cutting it in half.

As it started to descend back into the blight it split in two.

His sword returning to normal as he recalled his shield, grunting with weariness before he looked to see Kairi still fighting off two invisibles. Taking in some deep breaths, he ran to her.

As Riku ran to her, suddenly he blocked by the naga, slamming its body before him. He stepped back to look at the human-faced monster, its fork tongue hissing at him as it hissed. Gritting his teeth, he raised the shield up as he slowly walked around as it eyed him, planning to strike him. The daemon lunged forward with its massive maw opened to munch on him, Riku jumped to the left, evading it while swinging his sword at it.

The naga turned on him and spewed a violet mist at him too quick for him to get out. He accidentally inhaled it, and then instantly his body had frozen entirely while it became too hard to breathe and finally, he felt sick from it.

He fell onto his knee as his strength evaporated and his body grew heavy, just barely enough strength to keep his head up as the naga leered at him like he was a tasty morsel. It leaned back and then with a lunge it dove to the boy. Before Riku would have become its dinner, the naga was stricken by a tackling Gladiolus with his shield, hitting it with shoulder and shield combined and knocking the naga forward. As the snake beast tumbled onto its body, Gladiolus stood near it with sword and shield ready.

'Riku!'.

The boy was then tended by Prompto, holding a golden-ish bottle in his hand. He uncorked it and held it beneath his nose and the moment he sniffed it his body awakened and that paralysis had been cured. He fell onto his hands and hacked, groaning and sounding close to vomiting. 'Hold on a bit buddy', Prompto said, handing him a light-colored bottle. Riku took it and downed it, his body being purged from the poison and whatever ailments that plagued his body. He gave the blonde a nod of thanks as Gladiolus struck at the naga, cutting its snake tail.

The naga hissed in fury at the shield, reeling its head back just as he struck again, missing the neck. It slammed into Gladiolus and smashed him into the ground with a loud crack resonating through the room, his roars of pain accompanying the sounds. 'Gladio!', Prompto shouted, turning on the naga. He ran in and took out his machine gun and began to fire at it, which thankfully kept it off the shield. Riku got to his feet, shaking and still feeling lightly ill before he turned on the serpent, and then with his weapons, he activated the second form.

His shield turned into two black long axe blades as his sword turned into a polearm of silver, as tall as Gladiolus. Grabbing the weapon in both hands, he ran forward to the naga as it hissed and lunged at Prompto, the latter shooting at it and keeping himself at a distance. This obsession with killing the blonde was perfect for Riku as he ran at the naga with full speed and with a loud cry, he swung the axe right at its mid-section and the axe ate through the middle of the naga, splitting it in half as the upper torso was thrown into the air.

Spinning around after his cleaving, Riku threw the axe right at the naga's face, the blade plunged deep into its forehead and sending it flying across the battlefield. When the torso fell with a heavy thud, its body evaporated into nothingness as Riku reclaimed his axe, panting tiredly before the weapon shifted back into his keyblade, exhaustion taking its toll on the boy before he collapsed onto his knee. He waved Prompto off, gesturing the struggling to stand shield with a grunt.

Kairi pushed back one invisible before she swung at the other, cutting its shoulder mid-swing. She turned around to the other one but before she could do anything to attack it, she felt an explosive pain in her back that tossed her onto her stomach with a heavy thud. She grunted in pain, feeling the intense heat burn into her back as she turned to the invisibles looming over her. Quickly she rolled away from their blades and flipped back onto her feet.

The princess spun her weapon above her head as light began to shine around it. 'Rays of Light!', she cried. From the rotating blades, six beams of light flew from them and into the air before they dived to the invisibles. The purebloods flew over the field, the light rays chasing them like missiles in the air as Kairi managed to cast her last cure spell over herself and a little bit of an icy fog to douse any embers on her back.

To her misfortune, the rays were unable to hit the invisibles as they evaded them and/or slashed them to nothing with their corrupted swords. With her magic low and strength waning, Kairi looked to her weapon and nodded when she felt the magic energy needed was within her. Spinning it in one hand, she aimed it high and cried out: 'Here goes!'. As her weapon glowed in a light unlike the other keyblade wielders, power resonated within her as she was bathed in a light that shined and brightened the entire room.

The invisibles charged towards the light, but only one was wise enough to steer from getting within the princess' range because the next thing they saw were spinning blades of light that sliced through the invisible that was too close for comfort, splitting it into before it spun back to Kairi.

Now in the princess' hand was a Crossed-Pike, a weapon in the shape of a star with two pikes combined into a star, the blade beautiful white with the poles red and gold, her pearl necklace being in the centerpiece that acts as a lock to keep them together. The princess of light grabbed the weapon with both hands as the pearl shined in an X pattern, unlocking the weapon into two pikes, a blade on each end.

Kairi ran at the invisible, throwing one pike at it that soared like an arrow, and when she jumped into the air, she spun her weapon in her hand and turned onto the final flan that had evaded her wrath for too long. As the blades were caked with flames, she swung the weapon creating two arcs of flames at the flan, incinerating it into nothing as the weapon she threw struck the invisible's weapon out of its hand. Kairi dove to the final invisible and plunged her pike right into its torso, finishing off the last of the invisibles.

When the body disappeared, Kairi fell onto the ground with a thud, her weapon reverting into Destiny's Embrace as she laid there, exhausted and sore.

With the prince and hero, Noctis kept up with the daemon-heartless' speed with his armiger going at it wildly, sparks flew across the field as Noctis flew in the air, his ethereal weapons taking as much space as they could whilst fending off the weapons the cross-bred possessed. The prince had taken several hits during their skirmish as much as he gave the monster, his clothes torn asunder and even his jacket was barely holding itself together.

Ignis arrived at Sora and handed him a hi-potion, healing his wounds to manageable levels. The boy nodded and thanked the man, turning to Noctis as the prince flipped backward. His armiger state ending and leaving the prince too winded to do more than weakly use what was left of his mana to phase through the attacks. 'I'll give him a hand, go check on the others!', Sora said, re-summoning his keyblade and running to the older boy.

Sora jumped between the cross-bred and Noctis, keyblade in hand as he quickly swung it around the swords, parrying them all to give his friend breathing space. As his body started to glow with magic energy, Sora's keyblade shined brilliantly before he started to swipe at the daemon quickly whilst being levitated into the air. In quick succession Sora strikes the five weapons, his keyblade utterly shattering them into nothing but shards, then he aimed his keyblade at the daemon.

Glyphs appeared in front of the keyblade and then Sora cried out: 'RAGNAROK!'. Twenty golden-red rays of power flew from it and charged towards the cross-bred, striking it repeatedly with small explosions of fire, but it wasn't complete. Quickly taking this chance, behind the hero Noctis warped above them and threw his two magic flasks at the daemon just as the last two beams struck it. They instead hit the two flasks and then caused a massive explosion that nearly lit up the entire room.

Sora and Noctis were both blown back from this attack, landing on their backs with heavy thuds and grunts emitted from their mouths. When sat up quickly to see if their joint attack did enough to put this battle to an end, and by the luck of the Astrals, there was no sight of the cross-bred. Both slumped onto their backs, panting and chuckling together. 'That…was rough', Noctis huffed tiredly, looking at his friend. 'Yeah…but we won', Sora said, grinning tiredly.

The two weakly got back to their feet as the others re-joined them, not much better looking than them. Many of their gears were burnt, torn or damaged, their wounds concerning as some of them were leaning on each other to keep them up. Sora frowned with worry when he sees Kairi is being supported by Aqua and Riku by Prompto.

Luckily Donald and Goofy didn't seem to be in worse condition, but the exhaustion on their faces showed how much the battle took out of them. The Crownsguard looked no worse than the keyblade wielders but far from better. 'Is everyone ok?', Sora asked, eyeing everyone. 'We're in less than favorable conditions, that much is clear', Ignis said with a sigh, plucking out another pair of glasses from his breast pocket.

'And we still haven't found the royal arm…', Gladiolus grunted.

As he said this, they all looked down to the only other corridor before them and in wait was what looked to be an elevator. 'What are the chances that this is where we gotta go to?', Riku grunted out with a wary glance. With no more potions on hand, and their mana depleted, the team reluctantly proceeded on. However, upon reaching the elevator, Aqua stated that herself, Sora and Noctis would go on alone.

As she was the least wounded or exhausted, she needed Sora to back her up and Noctis being the only one who can touch the arms, there was no reason to drag their wounded team further into danger. Despite protests, Noctis himself ordered them to stay behind and rest. The three descended the elevator and sure enough, as they feared, they found the daemon that had stolen the arm of Noctis' ancestors.

'Terrific…suppose it was too much to ask for it to die from starvation…', Noctis groaned out. 'Stand back…', Aqua said, raising her arm. 'I'll deal with it'. Before either boy could stop her, Aqua ran into the fight, keyblade glowing immensely and they felt the power radiating from it. As the daemon roared at her, Aqua stood before it and aimed her weapon at the daemon with both hands on the keyblade.

'NEO ULTIMA!'.

Aqua's entire body was coated in a dark blue light as her keyblade formed a small greenish-black sphere from the tip, the light from her all trailed to her keyblade until it all manifested into the sphere as it flew off her weapon. The sphere struck the daemon, and then it created a massive dome of greenish-black that utterly condensed smaller and smaller until the explosion almost covered the entire place, the wind rushing past the two boys as they struggled to keep their stance.

As the dust settled and the wind calmed, they looked to see where the daemon stood was nothing more than ruins, the ground looked to have been beating into a pulp, the walls were no more as the red lights that powered the room were gone, cackles of lighting sparked here and there.

Aqua stood there, keyblade aimed at the daemon's original spot. Her hands shook as she dropped the keyblade and fell forward with a thud, completely out. 'AQUA!', the two cried, running to her side, kneeling to her. She was unconscious, breathing slowly and her complexion was pale. 'W-What kind of spell was that!?', Noctis asked, looking at the boy. 'I dunno! I've never seen her do that before!', he said back.

Grunting with worry, the prince turned to see the royal arm awaiting him, unharmed by the spell. He got up and reached the weapon, allowing it to float into the air, turn into a crystal form of itself before impaling the prince. Absorbing the crystal and adding it to his arsenal, Noctis nodded with confirmation. 'Come on, let's get the hell out of here', he said as Sora picked Aqua up, her keyblade disappearing.

Nodding, the two returned to the elevator and arriving to see their friends looking even more worried when they saw their sleeping friend. 'What the hell happened to her?', Gladiolus asked, approaching them. 'Other than her killing the daemon on her own?', Noctis said with a scoff, 'She used some spell that took a lot out of her'.

'She called it "Neo Ultima",', Sora said, looking at Donald. 'Do you know what that is?'. 'That's a very powerful spell, even the King can't cast it without wearing himself…wait, did you say "Neo"?', the duck said, turning his tone into a questioning one. Sora nodded as he handed her to Gladiolus. 'Oh boy…that's not good, she's gonna be out like a light for hours', Donald sighed. 'Hate to sound like Prompto whenever we go dungeon exploring but I think we're all nearing the end of our ropes, Donald', Noctis sighed.

'And we've still gotta fight our way back up that tower…', Riku sighed, 'And we're all running on fumes'.

While they all contemplated their predicament, Goofy stopped walking when he saw that bronze and red platform. 'Hey fellas, doesn't that look familiar?', he said, pointing at the strange platform. The rest of the party looked at it before Ignis hummed. 'Yes, we saw that on our way in at the entrance to the stairs', he said. 'Maybe its an exit?', Noctis offered hopefully.

'Or a way to a new level of hell', Gladiolus countered with a grunt. 'We're gonna be fighting our way through hell, either way, may as well see if this can help us out', Riku said with a huff. As they all hesitantly approached the platform, when they all stood on it, it started to glow red and then the next thing they all knew they were teleported.

As their views weren't obscured by magic anymore, they all let out breaths of pure relief when they see the night sky above them. 'Oh thank all that is good…', Ignis sighed with content.

They all climbed the stairs out of the ruins and immediately headed for the Haven nearest to them, far too exhausted to drive. Reaching it, they set camp and just bid each other a good night as they all headed for their bedrolls. Aqua was placed in the same tent with Gladiolus just in case she woke up, Kairi shared a tent with the boys and Noctis took Donald and Goofy into their own.

Only one arm remained…

A/N: It happened again…no idea what to do and yet this is the longest one YET!

So, this was the most diverse action I've done, and consider a hint of what's to come. WHEW! Next time we'll be taking a little break from the heroes, and see what Ardyn and company have been up to, and see if Naminé and Luna can do something about their goals~

Big thanks to VashTheStampede0409 for helping me out of a corner, they were the ones who suggested the tower diving! As always, thanks so much for the support!

Q1: What did you think of the new weapons Aqua and company have?

Q2: Did you enjoy the fight, or did you find it too long?

Q3: What's your favorite dungeon?

Q4: What are you looking forward most from this story?

Random Questions:

If you had to pick a mentor among the four brothers, who would it be?

Among all the Kingdom Hearts games, which your favorite?

Thanks for reading this LONG chapter, stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	32. Chapter 32

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 32

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

Thommel's Glade.

The final royal arm, the last task to be done before they make their ways to Altissia. Looking out the window of the Regalia, Noctis stared as the world passed them by as the sun slowly rose up from the mountains in the distance. Night had finally passed them without any daemons hassling them or the heartless to suddenly appear.

Courtesy of Sora and Riku using their keyblades as beacons of light to ward off any daemons and with Ignis taking short cuts left and right to arrive faster to their target. With only four of the main party remaining on this journey, the prince had been very uncertain to drive to the last tomb with such a small number, but his advisor explained to them that the tomb in question was much like the very first one, in the open.

At the encouragement of his advisor and with the assistance from Sora and Riku, the prince agreed to take this chance to finally be done with the royal arm hunting.

When the sun finally blessed the world with its golden rays of light Sora and Riku dismissed their keyblades and finally sat back down on the seats, groaning tiredly. 'Who would have thought becoming flashlights was this exhausting? Never felt so drained…', Riku joked tiredly, resting his head in his hand. 'Tell me about…even sparring with Aqua isn't that tiring', Sora yawned, looking close to dozing off.

'We're almost there now boys, you can take a nap if you wish', Ignis offered, stifling a yawn of his own. The two grunted in response before ultimately taking his advice and quickly fell into slumber. 'Think the others will be alright without you?', Noctis said with a tired smile, 'I mean remember Prompto's attempts at an oatmeal?'.

'I remember', Ignis chuckled lowly and softly, 'Kairi had to freeze it entirely to put out the fires'. A few weeks ago, when Ignis was too weary to cook, the blonde Crownsguard tried his hand at something he claimed seeing Ignis doing so many times it was imprinted in his memory. However, as the boy learned that day seeing and doing were two very different things and he neglected to watch the temperature and watch how long he left it cooking. The pot caught fire and while some were panicking, Kairi took it a whole level of worry.

She froze it entirely into a block of ice and nearly froze the entire stove in turn. The pot sadly, clear from the ice block, the burns ruined the bottom and likely the ice would have made it too brittle, plus Ignis feared any attempts to use magic to melt the ice would have likely resulted in disaster.

He softly chuckled at the memory, the poor redhead had spent all morning apologizing to him and promising to make it up to her. Ignis assured the poor girl it was not the first pot he lost to his companions' negligence, but he was pleasantly surprised that she managed to buy him a new one with some cooking knives as an apology.

'However I trust Gladiolus enough to cook something of substance for the others', Ignis continued as he parked the car on the side of the road. 'If he can be pried away from Aqua long enough', Noctis chuckled, getting out of the car as Ignis had the roof put up, 'Can't believe those two are a thing'.

'It would seem their trials did more than just help with their confidence', Ignis mused thoughtfully, closing the door.

As the man had said, the royal tomb was indeed out in the open, nary a daemon, heartless or any wildlife insight for them. When they reached the steps to the tomb Noctis went ahead to unlock the door and obtain the last royal arm in the region. Exiting it, he and Ignis walked back to the Regalia. Along the way, the man glanced at Noctis. 'Noct, before we return, might I have a word?', he said. 'Sure, what's on your mind specs?', the prince said, turning and stopping to him.

'I'm wondering if you had any thoughts of these circumstances that we find ourselves in, regarding Sora and his company', Ignis stated, pushing his glasses up. 'What do you mean?', he asked. 'I'm merely curious to your thoughts on the matter. Otherworlds, the light, darkness, heartless, to start with', he elaborated. Letting an "ahh" escape his mouth, Noctis crossed his arms and gave the man a pondering look, before he shrugged his shoulders. 'Well first, if you had told me this before meeting them, I would have thought you've lost your mind', Noctis chuckled.

'You and the others have certainly put my mental fortitude to the test, make no mistake', Ignis chastised playfully with a smirk. Then his smirk disappeared and in its place was a small frown. 'Noct, in all seriousness, what do you think?'. The prince's stance relaxed as he rubbed his neck. 'I dunno about other worlds Ig, I mean, most of my life was back in Insomnia, but the light they're talking about? I…', he said, but then froze.

Slowly he looked back at the Regalia to see the two younger boys still sleeping before he looked down and sighed. 'Somehow…I kinda feel like its…at its weakest', Noctis said. 'At its weakest? Whatever do you mean by that?', the spectacled man asked with worry. 'Like…they're not ready for whatever Xehanort has in store for them…that, this great fight of theirs? It's one-sided'.

'Noct…', Ignis said softly, surprised by the man's honesty and genuine doubt in his companions, 'Where is this doubt coming from?'. Noctis looked at him and then with a sigh, said: 'I just…don't have a good feeling at their chances'.

As he turned to walk away, Ignis grasps his shoulder, 'Forgive my imprudence, but that is not a sufficient answer, and disregarding their feats and strength is not like you, Noct', Ignis argued. Noctis glanced back his advisor, before shrugging off his hand. Without a word, Noctis walked back to Regalia. Behind him Ignis frowned at his king, huffing in disappointment as he joined his king.

What could have possibly put that much doubt within Noctis?

Altissia

There were, and still are, few moments in Lunafreya's life where she could take subtle satisfaction from one's frustrations and fury. This was one such moment as she secretly relished in delight to see his radiance emperor Iedolas Aldercap, on the chair within the meeting room with his two other infuriated members of his inner circle.

Caligo is mostly going on about the other worlders becoming a legit threat to the empire's goals as well as Loqi arguing about plans to quickly subdue Noctis and his companions. Lunafreya at her seat with Ardyn merely standing against a pillar, listening without making so much as a sigh as this argument reached a bleak conclusion.

'We should have sent those white daemons to the fortress a long time ago! They would have finished off the prince!', Caligo argued, slamming his fist onto the table. 'If that bastard of a man Xigbar would relinquish control over them to us, we'd be unstoppable!'.

'Don't be any more of a fool than you're already making yourself out to be old man!', Loqi scoffed, 'We shouldn't have relied on him to start with! He's made promises but has yet to fulfill them to our empire!'.

As interestingly amusing as it was to watch these to bicker and whine like children, Lunafreya quietly watched the emperor in the vain hope his patience would dwindle, and he'd silence those bickering buffoons.

She didn't have to wait very long.

'SILENCE!', he bellowed, slamming his hands down on his seat and nearly raising. Darkness cloaked his body in a purplish light, alerting the Oracle immediately. This darkness…it was nearly the same as the one that plagued Ravus' own heart, but here it was different. The scent was a horrible blend of the blight and the darkness radiating from the heartless and Xigbar. How much of this evil has spread amongst the imperials, and just how much of this was the doing of the chancellor?

Iedolas' darkness receded into him as he settled back down into his seat, eyes staring down his two generals with contempt. 'That man has accomplished much for my empire, alone he could match those foolish warriors of the king', he seethed, his voice sounding closer to a snake than a man, filled with venom and lies. 'You two have failed me on numerous occasions, between falling for that duplicate and letting all our outposts be taken!'.

It was quite the challenge for the Oracle not to smirk at their discomfort and failings. Iedolas growled as he turned to the Oracle, her face still neutral. With a scoff, he turned back to Ardyn. 'And what of this Xigbar's reports? Has he finished with his project?', he demanded. With a saunter and courteous bow, the red-haired man said: 'Nearly completed, your radiance. He assures me that by the time Noctis and his troublesome ilk arrive in this city, he shall be more than prepared for even their mightiest warrior'.

'And the nobodies?', he growled.

'He says his "boss" has permitted him for more than just nobodies, your radiance', Ardyn assured with coy. Iedolas hummed gruffly looking to the Oracle. 'And you will have no qualms fulfilling the rite? Lady Fleuret?', he said. 'I will perform my tasks to the demands of the god, no more than that, you excellence', she assured, her tone polite but devoid of anything else warm. A tone she had reserved for her captors. 'However, I must inquire about my brother. Xigbar said there is a matter that concerns him'.

'The commander has been put in charge of the military forces during the rite', Iedolas said off handily, like she just asked about the weather, 'He is no longer to be your escort'. 'And dare I ask, who may take his place?', the Oracle questioned, 'Forgive my bluntness but there a few competent men among your forces to keep me safe'.

'Ahh my dear Oracle, I feared this would come up', Ardyn said so wistfully and charmingly it sent shivers down her spine. 'I had taken it upon myself to find a suitable, if not more capable, replacement for your brother'. As he finished, the door opened to reveal Terra entering the room, eyes devoid of any emotion other than contempt. Lunafreya restrained herself to gasp, a part of her felt foolish for not thinking Xigbar may have had a hand in her replacement.

'And who is this!?', Caligo demanded, turning to Ardyn. 'Why, this man here is quite possibly your strongest warrior', Ardyn said with a gasp, mock shocked. 'Have you not heard? This man had not only defeated the shield of the prince easily', he listed, walking around his other world friend, smiling sinisterly. 'But he destroyed one of those keyblades and swiftly defeated a master…'. Then he gave everyone the coldest smile Lunafreya had ever seen.

'But he killed the Immortal, too'.

To prove this, Terra reached out his arm and summoned the katana of Cor, broken in half before he stabbed it into the table. All eyes fell to the broken weapon in disbelief, even the Oracle's famous poker face had broken as her eyes were glued to the weapon. 'Now tell me your grace, has anyone among have such a feat as he?', Ardyn questioned innocently. 'I for one couldn't make this story up if I tried'.

Iedolas nodded, his grin appearing and twisted. 'No, chancellor, I can't say we do', he submitted. 'Then I think we're all in agreement that next to our wonderous commander, our Oracle will be in no safer hands than Terra', he sang, looking at the Oracle and the generals. Begrudgingly the two nodded with scowls as Lunafreya reluctantly nodded in tow. 'Splendid, now if that is all we need to discuss?', Ardyn asked, looking at his emperor. Iedolas nodded and gave his group permission to leave the room.

'Return the Oracle to her room', he ordered, 'You two, prepare the men for the rite. On that day, the false king shall finally join his father'.

"Not if we have anything to say about that", Lunafreya thought to herself as she rose from her chair. Exiting the room with Terra and Ardyn, the Oracle followed Terra quiet as a mouse, watching him closely. When the trio reached her room, Terra gestured her to enter it as Ardyn bid her a good day. 'Chancellor', she said, not facing him as he was nearly down the corridor. She heard his footsteps stopping.

'Yes, your grace?', he asked with obvious contempt in his voice, 'Is there something amiss?'.

'Among my brother?', she asked coldly, turning to him whilst he faced her. No more was there the neutral look on her face, now facing him was a look of fire within her eyes and willpower that not even the empire could shake. 'The darkness that's been spreading amongst the generals and even Aldercap, and now the blight too?', she questioned, 'Isn't the darkness enough poison?'.

Ardyn shrugged in response to her, his sickening smile still glued onto his face. 'Come now your grace, surely you don't presume it to be my fault his radiance's heart is filled with the darkness?', he said wistfully. 'After all, there is darkness within every heart'. 'And yet it is those with silvery tongues that entices weak hearted men to the darkness', Lunafreya accused, 'And who else here has the silver tongue of a snake?'.

Ardyn clasped his heart mockingly, stepping backward as she had struck him. Oh by the gods she would have done more than struck him where she had the chance. 'My dear Oracle, such accusations wound me', he gasped, theatrically. 'I would ask you of some of the wondrous light to heal my wounded heart, but I couldn't ask such a thing'.

'No, chancellor', she said, 'I wouldn't dream of leaving a man in such agony if I can help'. Raising her hand as it glowed with that golden light and warmth, she even boldly took a step closer to him. 'Please come closer', she encouraged. Ardyn's theatrics ceased as that coy playful smirk degraded into a cold and empty one, a smile that was a literal mockery of it. 'Careful your grace…you never know what you might catch from me', he warned.

'A darkness such as your own?', Lunafreya challenged, 'I do not fear it'. Lowering her hand as the light disappeared. 'But you know that no matter what it is or how powerful you make it, my heart shan't falter to it, nor submit', she boasted. Turning to her room she grasped the doorknob as Ardyn sauntered away. 'My dear Oracle's courage is inspiring but entirely fruitless, for as I have seen first-hand', Ardyn said as he walked down the corridor.

'It's not always the darkness that steals someone's light…'.

With that said, he disappeared down the corridor, leaving only Terra and Lunafreya to enter her room. The Oracle entered it in silence as Terra stood guard by the door, arms crossed and stance like a statue, unwavering and unmoving.

As the Oracle sat down at her small table, she closed her eyes and exhaled. "Naminé…please find my brother".

*Underground*

Following number II of the Organization, Naminé stayed close to him as the man seemingly took his time to waltz around the underground passages, whistling to himself. The blonde girl kept her distance, ducking behind things like barrels, walls, pillars and some crates as well.

Truthfully while Naminé was unable to be seen by anyone bar Lunafreya, there were two parts of her urging caution over recklessness. Even she wasn't entirely sure how much of her essence wasn't able to be detected by those who were touched by such darkness like his own, despite she should have darkness akin to his. And for her friend's brother's whereabouts, she was better off this way.

The second part? She was having some fun with it.

Being within Kairi's heart for so long since she became one with her again, there was very little freedom for her to explore and do anything other than watch the world through her eyes, go through some memories of her and dealing with her constant fantasying of Sora. Ever since Noctis however, she connected to Lunafreya's heart. Being able to walk around Altissia and heck just being able to walk around room freely despite the limitations of it being an ethereal being.

Also, it didn't help that she couldn't eat either, lord did she miss food.

Xigbar stopped walking when he reached a door, making the girl stop in her chase, sub-consciously leaping behind some crates. Xigbar leaned against the door before flicking out a phone from his pocket and sent a text to likely Ardyn, Naminé had some doubts he had a lot of friends on his phone. 'You done with that old fool yet?', he asked impatiently. He nodded with an "uh-huh" before hanging up and enter the room.

Quickly the blonde former nobody ran and phased through the door just as it shuts, following Xigbar down a flight of stairs with only faint lighting being their guide through the dark. Following him with four steps behind, Naminé trailed after him quietly as they reached the bottom of the stairs. Through another door, she found herself in what looked to be a laboratory.

How the heck the empire managed to smuggle all this and set everything up without anyone finding out is beyond her as she looked around. The place had a very bleak blue to it, several beeps and sounds of machines running whatever tests or processes they were built for. There were rows of violet filled test tubes that reminded her of the incubators she had to use to restore Sora and his company's memories all that time ago.

Inside the test tubes were daemon infected subjects, whether they were the magitek soldiers she's seen around the place or some poor souls that caught the blight she couldn't say, but what truly sent fear racing down her spine were the fact the heartless emblem was "proudly" labeled on the top of the tube.

Her blue eyes followed Xigbar as he walked up a flight of stairs that leads to another room but unlike the lab, she found herself in, two berserker nobodies were standing by the entrance. Quickly following him as he entered, she phased through the wall and nearly tripped over herself when she finally entered.

If she could vomit in horror…then for the first time since she regained mobility, she was she could not eat.

'Hot damn Ravus, you've seen better days', Xigbar remarked with any hint of remorse or semblance of guilt in his tone. The brother of the Oracle is on his knees, bare chest with his arms chained by violet chains, head down as the darkness cloaked around his body. The room stunk of that horrible darkness that Naminé had become accustomed to from her imprisonment of the Organization, but this sickening stench of the blight lingered in the air.

'Gotta say, buddy, I wasn't expecting you to survive this process', Xigbar hummed with a shake of his head, 'Hell, I'd say even Riku wouldn't have lasted this long without something going wrong with the process'.

'This…is nothing…', Ravus growled, fists clenched as the chains rattled. Naminé clasped her mouth to reframe from making sound, his voice didn't even resemble Ravus. As she backed to the wall, Ardyn sauntered in the room. 'Took your sweet time', Xigbar remarked casually. 'The Oracle was being rather inquisitive, I had to assure her grace', Ardyn said with disdain camouflaged in courtesy. Ardyn glanced at Ravus before he knelt to him with curiosity. 'How long has he been like this?', he questioned.

Xigbar shrugged. 'I dunno…a week? Bossman said it'd be impressive if his heart survived more than an hour from this ordeal', Xigbar remarked. Then he clicked his fingers and the chains disappeared into air, yet Ravus didn't fall forward as his arms fell to his side. 'Stand up, boy', Xigbar ordered. Doing so whilst swallowing his pride, Ravus stood up properly to face the two dealers of the darkness as with shaky limbs he stood up.

Looking at his prosthetic arm, before glancing to Ardyn and Xigbar, both nodding, Ravus reached for the connections. After several clicks, a stream of steam hissed from the joints before the arm collapsed onto the ground with a heavy thud.

'Now, call on your new power, reclaim what the light stole from you', Ardyn encouraged. Ravus gritted his teeth as the darkness that cloaked him surged wildly as if he was suddenly encased in flames, violet and dark green fire surged around his left shoulder. Naminé could see the inhuman amount of pain contorting on his face yet the only sounds he made were grunts, growls, and hisses of agony, sweat running down his forehead with veins popping on his neck and forehead.

As the flames slithered down to the length of his right arm, Ravus fell to a knee, punching the ground to conceal his agony. The force of his punch shook the room and left a dent and several cracks extending around the floor. The flames darkened, washing over his torso as with a roar that rivaled or could have been mistaken for a behemoth, Ravus threw the fiery impersonating limb into air as the fires solidified.

Naminé gasped in utter disbelief and horror when Ravus showed his new arm, a pure black limb with dark red vein-like lines running down from shoulder to knuckles, clawed fingers as the darkness inked to his chest, showing the heartless emblem on his heart. Even his neck and jaw were coated with the dark ink-like substance with red lines connected to the emblem. When she saw his eyes, they no longer bore two colors but were now violet and dark. Standing up, Ravus looked at his new appendage and clenched his fist to test it out.

'There you go, Commander', Xigbar said with smugness. 'How's it feel?'.

Ravus turned to them both, smirking. 'I feel…reborn', he revealed, lifting his limb as black lighting danced around it. 'With this, not even the keyblade wielders could stop me', he bragged. From the sheer essence of his power alone even Naminé couldn't call it overconfidence, this darkness was new to her and somehow even more sinister than the former leader of the Organization. 'With the darkness of the heartless, and the blight infused in your blood, you will be unstoppable', Ardyn mused with suave, 'I dare say, even Noctis would be no more than a child against you'. 'All the better', Ravus growled.

Looking at his limb, Ravus clenched it and the lightning. 'On the day of the rite, on my name as Nox Fleuret, I will end the Lucis bloodline'.

This was enough for Naminé, being in this room suffocated her and the horror of seeing what those spawns of the dark had done to someone from the realm of light was nightmarish. Lunafreya most know…

As silent as a wraith, Naminé ran from that hell…unaware of Xigbar's cold smile.

*Later*

Standing outside the altar of the Tidemother underneath the night sky, Ardyn hummed in thought as Xigbar was constantly turning a card in his hands, the red-haired man could hear him muttering something about his co-worker "cheating" or "smug bastard", and his favorite line, "Why did you have to come back to life".

Hearing how so many people just die and come back somehow made him feel less special.

'Alrighty, so you want to go over the terms of our arrangement?', Ardyn asked indifferently, looking at the night sky. 'What? Having second thoughts already, chancellor?', Xigbar asked with a smirk, flicking the card away into the fountain. 'Getting cold feet when you're oh so close to your grand revenge?'.

Ardyn chuckled mirthlessly, taking off his fedora. 'Far from it, but there are some…concerns of mine that I feel we should renegotiate', he explained, 'Unless…you're the one having doubts'. Xigbar scoffed before he dramatically shrugged, arms up for effect. 'Fine, fine. What's eating ya?', he sighed. Ardyn turned to him. 'The plan of yours…truly is it possible?', he asked. Xigbar gave him a raised brow with a coy smirk. 'Come on old-timer, you think I'd be risking my neck if there was any doubt in the plan?', he accused.

Waltzing up to him, he said: 'All we have to do is make the Oracle is unharmed during the rite, she summons the goddess of the seas and presto, we've half the work cut out for us, and that's before the heartless show up'. Ardyn felt the plan was solid enough absolutely, between the idiot emperor doing whatever it took to get that worthless ring and killing Noctis with one stone and the heartless running amok the battlefield, it'd be absolute chaos and there they'll be taking advantage of it all.

'Once the goddess arrives, prince charming will be too busy fighting it to worry about the city', Xigbar said, 'The empire keeps Sora and the others busy, then if his majesty wins, then…you go for the kill if ya want'.

Ardyn, however, glowered at him. 'No, not until I see the rest of your plan bear fruit', he warned, 'After all, hasn't Sora proven to be more…capable than you and your master had foreseen in the past?'. Smirking cruelly, he gestured Xigbar's heart. 'I specifically recall he is the reason you are no longer a nobody, though his methods were less than…gentle'. Xigbar scoffed but the man of no consequences could see beneath the thick his words touched very sensitive topics.

'Fine, whatever. Kill the brat or don't, I don't care either way', dismissed Xigbar. 'But'. Ardyn raised a brow at his sudden change of tone as if something crucial had just been uncovered. Xigbar's yellow eye was no longer playful and conniving, rather it was dead serious as if the fate of all worlds rested upon this final tidbit of information.

'The Oracle is to be unharmed, at all costs'.

This…Ardyn truly despised and for the first time in so long, his face contorted into fury. 'Excuse me?', he questioned. 'You head me, chancellor. That Oracle is to be unharmed. Neither by you, the empire or heartless, you got it?', Xigbar reminded. The man showed his teeth as Xigbar's glare intensified, knowing this was an argument about to boil over. 'And dare I ask why I should contest to that wish of yours?', he asked.

'No. You don't have to know', Xigbar denounced quick and short.

Ardyn gave him a smug look as he said: 'I wish I could comply, but accidents tend to happen on the battlefield you know? Especially when things get chaotic'. The very next thing the man knew his chin was pushed upwards slightly as he felt something sharp and pointy pressed below his head as Xigbar's cold look turned darker. He knew he drew those over-sized blasters of his, and while he knew that they wouldn't do anything but delay the man, they certainly hurt him enough to exercise caution.

'You better watch yourself then, I'd hate to see this wonderful partnership crumble because *somebody* can't keep his end of the bargain', warned the one-eyed man. Ardyn gave Xigbar a friendly yet malicious smirk. 'Xigbar, where is this distrust coming from? I merely suggested things could go wrong', he said wily. 'And please put that away dear friend, I fear you may give someone the wrong idea'.

Pressing the weapon at him to make him clear his throat awkwardly, Xigbar's smug look returned. 'What? I thought this is how your empire shows concern and wishes for peace?', he taunted. 'Oh, my friend, his radiance has a peculiar way of expressing concern, but I can assure you *I* have nothing but the best of wishes for our plans', the man assured. His smile twisted into malice. 'Besides, I'd truly hate for something to happen to you so soon with our plans coming ever so close to fruition'.

Behind the former nobody was a sword that levitated in the air, covered in red crystal. The tip was inches away from Xigbar's neck and unlike Ardyn, one pierce would do in this man.

Both stood there at a standstill, yet none had moved at all, eyes locked to see what ulterior motives the other possess. 'Keep the Oracle alive, and I can promise you, you'll get more than your revenge', conceded Xigbar at last. 'You do that, and one other thing, I'll give you something even better'. Ardyn raised a brow at this as their weapons disappeared, Xigbar walking away as a dark corridor opened before him. 'Quite the promise Xigbar, and you're asking a lot from me', Ardyn challenged, 'What could you give me?'.

Xigbar turned to face him with a wicked grin. 'Your rightful place, your majesty', he said with a bow. 'In return, you make sure they're in the right spot, the right time and the right…condition'. Ardyn grinned and with a curt nod, turned to walk around the city, leaving Xigbar to enter the portal.

*Lunafreya's Room*

Clutching her hands over her heart as dismay washed over her, the Oracle lowered her head. 'This…cannot be', she whispered. 'It is!', insisted Naminé, kneeling before her friend, 'Ardyn and Xigbar have slowly turned Ravus in a heartless and mixed his own blood with the blight!'.

Lunafreya raised her head to the girl, eyes darken with sorrow and fear as Naminé gently placed her ethereal hands-on hers despite having no physical contact. 'Luna…I'm sorry, but Ravus' heart is…', she whispered but froze, unable to finish that sentence. Looking down in defeat, Naminé sniffled sadly. 'I'm sorry…I…I couldn't do anything…'.

Gently the Oracle attempts to comfort the girl into a hug, a shell of one. Deep in her heart, she prayed and hoped her brother would see the folly behind his pursuit of power. Instead, he fell to the temptations, lured by Ardyn and Xigbar's words and lies. Now more than ever her thoughts went back to Noctis and his company, there will be no way to convince her brother to stay his blade and work with the future king.

And so soon the rite comes, it'll be a battle that could end in many ways but all leading to tragedy.

Looking up at her friend, Naminé whispered: 'What are we going to do?'. Lunafreya closed her eyes as she stroked her friend's hair, pondering their next course of action. She let out a sigh of remorse before she looked to Naminé. 'We must place our faith in Noctis and Sora, their friends, that they may be able to perform a miracle'.

Naminé nodded with uncertainty before together they got up and approached the table, Kairi's letter opened. Picking it up, it reads:

"Lady Lunafreya

Believe me, when I say I'm perfectly content to wait for your letters, given the situation you're in I can imagine how limiting your contact with those outside the empire must be. Your letters often perk up our days, mostly for Noctis. I've never seen him smile so sweetly when he reads your letters, it's like a giddy schoolboy writing to his crush.

I'm wishing for the best for you and your brother, please for his sake and your own you convince to stay away from Ardyn and Xigbar. The darkness will bring him nothing but despair and loss of not just his heart.

I have no trouble speaking about my beloved, in fact, I've some stories of him that I think you'll find delight in! I hope we can discuss more about our lovers in person, but for now, I shall simply say he is my what Noctis is to you, my heart. We've recently entered a relationship that I'd wager almost everyone saw coming, but I have never been happier. He is like the sun to my storms, a constant source of strength and (forgive me for gushing) the sweetest boyfriend a girl can ask for!

I'm sure Noctis will be just as sweet for you!

We're nearly finished with collecting the royal arms and soon we'll make voyage to Altissia. I'm eager to finally meet you face to face (and share some stories of our misadventures too)

More belly rubs for Umbra, please! He's so cute and fluffy!

May your heart be your guiding Key, your grace

Kairi".

Smiling softly together, Lunafreya turned to the girl with a small smile that glowed with hope. 'We cannot lose faith in our friends, I know somehow, they'll make things right', the Oracle said. 'Knowing Sora?', Naminé said with affection, she nodded, 'Yes'.

Together they wrote back to Kairi and once Umbra set off to deliver the message, they stared into the rising sun on the balcony…

It was drawing near…

A/N:

Sorry, this took all week to do, things happened.

I wanted to try and build up what's going to happen in Altissia while giving Luna and co some character. I know I didn't do much with the empire's gang but…lets face it is anyone gonna be upset if I ignore most of them? And a little tease of how Noctis know about the final battle~

…setting myself up for repercussions here…

ANYWAYS! QUESTIONS!

Q1: What do you think of Naminé and Lunafreya's relationship?

Q2: Ardyn and Xigbar, were they ok?

Q3: Can you guess what Xigbar is promising Ardyn?

Q4: What do you guys think of Ravus' state?

Q5: Excited for Altissia?

Random Questions:

If you were dared to drink the last ebony, how would you plead to Ignis?

Who would win in a staring contest, Donald or Ignis?

A fight between Final form Sora vs Armiger unleashed Noctis, who would win?

As always, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	33. Chapter 33

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 33

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

'Come on, couldn't you add a little more herb?', whined Prompto, watching the princess stirring the soup in the large pot. With a roll of her eyes, Kairi merely pointed the large spoon at the older boy. 'Nuh-uh mister, Ignis trusted me to not screw up this simple meal and I intend to follow his instructions to the letter!', argued Kairi, turning quickly back to the soup.

After the arrangements of party heading for the final royal arm, Kairi was left one of Ignis' recipe books to make some soup for everyone. Considering she was by far the least likely candidate to burn the entire camp down; she was entrusted to make something for the party. At first, she would have suggested Gladiolus, but the man hadn't left Aqua's side since they woke up, so she took the role as food provider for the group.

As far as she was concerned, she wasn't going to risk overpowering the flavor of the soup despite the insistence of Prompto. The blonde had been trying to encourage the girl to add more herbs and spices to the bland looking golden cooked soup, and while Kairi herself admitted it didn't look the most appetizing meal she had made, there was no chance she was going to take the word of a blonde who burnt an oatmeal over a master chef.

'Ugh! Its gonna be so bland!', the gunner groaned, slouching in his seat.

'Oh, come on, there's no chance of that! I'm following Ignis' instructions and he always makes delicious meals!', Kairi argued back. 'Besides, I added at least four scoops of garlic and basil, any more and we may as well eat basil itself'. Prompto dramatically groaned but mercifully his whining ceased as he just went through his camera, leaving the princess to happily resume her watch on breakfast/lunch.

Donald and Goofy had took it upon themselves to clean out Aqua's car since they hadn't gotten around to clean it since they first acquired it. Plus Kairi was sure the paper wraps of food and snacks they had during the long travels probably have grown into piles of it by that point.

And Kairi had a feeling most of those piles were hers.

Within the tent, Aqua had still yet to regain her strength despite waking up an hour earlier. Donald checked her using his magic, he assured them that the woman was merely suffering from what he referred to as depletion of mana. In short and simple terms for non-magic users, she used a great amount of magic to cast such a high-level spell that normally would have killed the user. But in Aqua's case, being one of the most powerful, likely second to Xehanort, all it did was drain her magic entirely.

After a few more minutes and one quick test taste, Kairi nodded in approval and started to scoop some for the master and shield. 'Prompto, call Donald and Goofy for me, I'm just giving the first helping to Gladio and Aqua', Kairi said, pouring soup into the ceramic white bowl. The gunner responded with mirth as Kairi approached the tent and carefully entered it.

Inside she sees her master still in the bedroll, sleeping soundly while Gladiolus was sitting next to her, book in hand. He looked up to the princess, hand outstretched with one bowl of soup for him. Nodding with gratitude, he took his and Aqua's, placing it at distance from the woman. 'How is she?', Kairi whispered, looking at the peaceful woman. 'She's been out since Donald's check-up, didn't have much energy to stay awake so I told her to go back to sleep', Gladiolus explained.

'That's fine', Kairi assured, 'I'm sure after that spell she'll need all the rest she's gonna get'. Gladiolus nodded in agreement as he placed his book down and started to eat his soup as Kairi left the tent to ensure Prompto didn't sneak herbs into her soup. Outside she spots the three remaining friends of hers eating around the doused campfire, though Donald gave Kairi a small glare. '…sooo…how bad was the car?', she asked sheepishly, approaching her pot.

'Six piles of candy wrappers, courtesy of her highness' sweet tooth!', Donald chastised, 'How the heck did you keep your teeth so clean and white!?'.

'Brushing them after every meal~', she replied with cheek. 'And the supposed weight gain? I think we all know how I keep fit'.

'Maybe everybody should go on quest like this', Goofy said with a chuckle, 'Does wonders for weight loss!'.

Pouring her bowl of soup after checking the amount for the others, Kairi joined them all and engaged in friendly banter. 'Hope Noct and the others are ok', Kairi said as she scooped up her soup. 'Iggy said this tomb wasn't in a dungeon or anything like that, so it probably was smooth sailing', Prompto said with a grin, 'Sides with Riku and Sora, they'll be fine!'.

Kairi nodded, her worries put to rest as the blonde went on about the trip itself to Altissia. 'What's Altissia like?', Goofy asked, looking at the blonde. 'Well its mostly on the water, so that's why everyone calls it the city of water', explained Prompto, 'But it's got probably the best food in Eos!'. 'Impossible, Ignis isn't from Altissia is he?', Kairi argued. Prompto gave her a thoughtful look as suddenly everyone was starting to question it.

'Gee…that's a good question…', Goofy mused as Donald crossed his arms in thought. 'We could just compare the food…', Donald thoughtfully hummed. '…a cook-off between Altissia's best chef vs Ignis…the ultimate cook-off', Kairi said with a grin.

Just as they were all contemplating the idea, they turned to see the Regalia parking near the Haven. The four stood up as the other four exited the car, looking rested and relived the final arm had been claimed. They joined the others at the Haven, Kairi immediately hugging Sora upon arrival. 'Welcome back', she greeted, pecking him on the cheek. The hero smiled back warmly at her as she guided him to chairs.

'How did it go?', Donald asked, looking at the prince. 'Done and done, no harm, no monsters, just me and the arm', Noctis said with a yawn. He showed the others the Shield of the Just, earning strong approval from Goofy as Ignis poured everyone else soup. The spectacled man was rather pleased by Kairi's meal upon a taste test, least now he had someone else to cook should need arise. And more importantly, she didn't cave to Prompto's encouragement of additional herbs or spices.

Once breakfast/lunch was finished, Ignis had been on the phone to Cid and received word that the yacht was nearly completed, but it'd be another two days before they'd finally set sail for the city of water. Which means the group had some time to kill before arriving. 'So, what's the agenda for today?', Noctis asked, looking at the others for inputs. 'Well, we could go on a hunt or two for funds?', Kairi offered.

'Not necessarily Kairi', Ignis replied, sipping his coffee, 'With all the materials we've acquired, we should be finically secured once we sell them'. 'Yeah, I think we could fill a truck with all the stuff we found', Riku joked. There were some chuckles amongst the group. 'So, we don't need to go hunting, or exploring daemon infested dungeons, so we've got nothing to do', Noctis said as he finished his meal. 'We could always take it easy and just chill?', Kairi suggested, 'I mean, we haven't taken a break since we reunited with Gladio and Aqua'.

There was a collective hum of agreement amongst the team as everyone glanced at each, each sporting contemplative looks. 'Well, I dunno about you guys but the princess has a point. We've been going at it all for a while now, and when we get to Altissia, likely we'll be up to our necks with the empire, heartless, daemons and whatever the hell else there's gonna be', Noctis stated. 'I'm all up for doing nothing'.

'Or we could go to the Chocobo ranch!', Prompto suggested with glee. 'Chocobo ranch?', the three islanders asked, to which Ignis and Noctis shared a look of "here we go again". 'Yeah! It's Chocobo heaven! Plenty of them to ride and explore, plus there's probably another race going on!'. At the mention of the race, Sora and Riku's eyes sparkled with competition. 'A race huh?', Riku said, immediately eyeing Sora.

'Is that a challenge, Riku?', Sora taunted. 'For you maybe, me? It's just a casual jog', bragged the boy. Kairi only rolled her eyes at this, the old rivalry she had hoped had quelled since their first-time leaving home had unfortunately returned with a vengeance. 'Sounds like we've made our decision unless anyone objects?', Ignis offered. He got on complaints from Noctis, Donald, and Goofy, though Kairi didn't exactly show any delight in going to a ranch if means she'd had to watch her boys compete.

'Plus, there's probably baby Chocobo chicks too~', Prompto said.

'…I'm in!', Kairi said with glee.

*Chocobo Post*

Arriving at the ranch within the hour, the team had parked their respective cars and Donald and Goofy allowed their chocobos to run off to play with their brethren. Gladiolus had driven Aqua's car despite her waking up but she was in the less than ideal condition to drive the Wayfinder II.

There were plenty of chocobos as they would have guessed, many of the golden feathery creatures trotting and chirping at the visitors, some more at the party. Likely because of Prompto being a regular visitor. Walking around the ranch, most of the group had already split up to their own thing with Aqua example deciding to finally be lazy and just take it easy by resting at the caravan with Gladiolus. He was very behind in his book reading and wanted to catch up.

'So many chocobos…', Kairi mused, looking at them all. 'Is this the only ranch for chocobos?'. 'Indeed', Ignis confirmed as they walked in. 'Recent influx of tenacious wildlife have sent the birds fleeing left and right, nearly exterminating them. Luckily Wiz, the owner, had created this ranch to protect them'.

'That was good of him', Riku complimented, 'Can't imagine these feather heads lasting long against something like a pack of sabertusks'.

Reaching the stables, the party split off to do their own thing, Noctis agreeing to race Riku and Sora while Donald and Goofy decided to look around the place and maybe grab a bite to eat. Ignis had caught up to the owner, Wiz himself, to chat about the latest news while Prompto took Kairi to the chocobos.

While the smell was slightly unpleasant, the girl was enraptured by the large feathered beings. Since they weren't here for riding immediately, she finally had the chance to appreciate them. One of them leaned its head to her, chirping. She gently scratched its mane, amazing by how soft the feathers felt. Kairi giggled when in nudged its head into her, apparently approving of her scratches. 'So feathery~', she giggled, 'Who's a good bird?'. The Chocobo chirped happily.

'I think he likes you', Prompto teased, smiling at the interaction. 'He's certainly a friendly birdie', Kairi giggled. Once she was finished cooing the bird, she followed Prompto to meet the other birds, though she was never told their names as she met them all. During the walk however near the railing, Kairi heard a little chirp near her. Blinking she turned to see three tiny Chocobo chicks following her on the railing, chirping at her.

Stopping to look at them as they stood before her on said railing, one of the little chicks chirped and attempted to fly in the air by fluttering madly. It fluttered so much it lifted itself off the railing and tried to fly to Kairi, but the poor thing's wings simply were not meant to lift, and the little bird was starting to show exhaustion. Quickly the princess cupped her hands and caught the little thing.

The little chick chirped at her as its brothers/sisters chirped. Kairi giggled at them as she placed the poor but brave little bird back with its siblings. The birds chirped, the two hopped onto her hand when she was close and started to flutter around her, one even managed to land onto her shoulders. Kairi giggled profusely with its little feet tickling her shoulders, and to make her day more interesting, the third bird fluttered up to the top of her head. The birds were a little older than the first one since they fluttered higher and longer.

The bird on her head chirped and rested on her, Kairi giggled when it tickled her. A flash of light nearly spooked her and when she looked to the source, it was Prompto taking pictures of the literal bird lady. 'Looks like you're making friends left and right!', he laughed, snapping a few more pics of Kairi and her friends. Kairi laughed at the boy as the birds started to chirp around her excitedly. 'They're so small and cute~', she cooed.

Reluctantly she plucked them off her and placed them back to the railing as their mama Chocobo came up to Kairi. The Chocobo must have seen them playing with the visitors and upon the princess placing them on the railing. 'Go back to your mama kiddies', Kairi said as they all fluttered up to the bird's mane. The mama chirped before trotting off to join her brethren. 'Just as well she came back for them', Kairi said, watching them.

'Why? Worried they may have left a mess?', Prompto chuckled, elbowing her side. '…yeah, that', Kairi said with a shudder, 'But…if she hadn't…I probably would have taken one home'. Prompto laughed in merriment, patting her back as they watched the birds.

*Race Tracks*

'How are you two winning!?', demanded Noctis, getting off his ride as the two islanders patted their respective birds. 'Simple, we're just awesome', Riku bragged. Sora laughed as he placed both hands behind his head with a grin.

Noctis had many regrets, but none of them compared to agreeing to race these two. To say it was agonizing to constantly come third every time was saying adding salt to an open wound was a minor tickle. No matter what he and his Chocobo did Sora and Riku would seemingly outpace, outwit and outrun the prince. Bad enough that they restricted themselves to use only the bird and their wits, but the fact it was as if their chocobos were themselves in Chocobo form, the prince's only saving grace was his friends didn't see this.

As far as the racing wins were, Sora and Riku were tied with three wins each while Noctis had…no wins. 'Best three out of five?', challenged Riku, eyeing Sora. 'You're on!', Sora said confidently. Noctis rolled his eyes and decided to save what little bit of pride he had left, he decided to retire from this seemingly impossible race and just watch this time.

Leaning on the railing as the two keyblade rivals rode their birds off, the prince took this time to finally take in the peace of the woods as the sun beamed down on them without a cloud in the sky. Inhaling the clear air through his nose and pushing any negative thoughts of what is to come he started to think of just how far they had come since they met Sora and company. Stronger than ever, probably even more than his father was, having his world expanded and horizons grew, it was an experience for sure.

Soon he'll be in Altissia with them, then possibly face the goddess of the sea along with whatever the hell Ardyn and Xigbar will throw at them along with the empire. The thought chilled him, they'd be in a complete warzone, and Lunafreya would be caught in the crossfire. Looking at his hand, thoughts going back to the Master again, and the experience he had to endure from it. His talks with Kairi helped shed some light on the event yet there were plenty of answers obscured by the shadows of his questions.

Shaking his head, he pushed those thoughts aside, turning back to Sora and Riku, today was a day for relaxation, not worried about the bad guys or monster to deal with. 'Hey, Noct'.

The prince jumped slightly and when he turned around, he sees Iris casually walking up to him. With a friendly wave and grin, the prince returned her smiles with his own. 'Heya, how'd you get here?', he asked as she joined him. She gestured behind her there was an old bike nearby the Regalia and Wayfinder II, well cared for if a bit old fashioned. 'One of the guards loaned me it after I showed them my license and assurances that I'd be visiting you guys', the girl assured.

'You drive?', Noctis asked, surprised. 'Yup, Jared taught me a little when we were waiting on you guys', she explained. 'And before you ask, I texted Gladio where you guys where and he gave me directions to here'.

Figures, the prince thought.

Noctis watched the race quickly ending, seeing Riku in the lead as Sora was an inch behind him. Then subtly he glanced back at Iris when Riku was in view, noticing a familiar glimmer within her amber-colored eyes. That glimmer that he used to receive from her, those adorable eyes that showed a one-sided love. Now he noticed that whenever she looks at him it was more friendly and causal than it was loving and affectionate, kinda like Kairi shows Sora.

As the two islanders finished their race, Riku just barely passing the line by what Noctis assumed was a nano-second, the sounds of a victorious yell followed by a loud groan of defeat. 'Yes! Suck it Sora!', Riku gloated as he threw his fist into the air. Sora grumbled as he petted his feathery stead, praising him for doing his best none the less. Least he's a humble loser.

They both got off their birds and then fist-bumped before they turned to Iris and Noctis. 'Iris? Heya! When'd you get here?', Sora said with a great big smile. Riku, however, straightened up at the girl, suddenly clearing his throat as Sora walked over to her and Noctis. This caught Noctis' attention, blinking as he glanced between his two friends. 'Just a few minutes ago, heard you were in the area so I came to say hi', she explained, smiling friendly to Sora. Then she glanced at Riku and to the future king's surprise, he saw that old look again.

"She's…oh no…oooooohhh no…", Noctis thought to himself, putting two and two together when Riku shyly smiled back with a wave. 'Hey Iris, good to see you', he greeted, it sounded like he was trying to be casual but even Noctis heard the shot nerves in his voice. 'Same here', Iris replied with a smile. 'You two racing?'.

'We were, but Riku won the last one, so I'm buying the ice cream', Sora sighed, 'Made a bet before we started the fourth race'. Iris rolled her eyes at them playfully, before she smirked. 'A race? Wanna go around with me?', she asked, looking at Riku. Riku raised a brow at her before Sora grinned excitedly. 'You ride chocobos too?', Sora inquired. 'Yup! And I'm a good racer too!', she boasted. Riku looked at Noctis, who grinned in response. 'Go for it, a race for the title!', he said encouragingly.

When all eyes fell to the silver-haired master, he raised his hands in defeat. 'Alright then, let's race', he conceded.

Sora hopped over the railings to grab the cold treats, yelling at them to wait before racing. As Riku readied his Chocobo at the starting point, Iris prodded his shoulder, earning his attention. She held her hands behind her back with a sneaky grin. 'You and Sora made a bet before the race, right?', she asked. He nodded in response, somewhat worried about that grin. 'How's about we make one too?', she asked, 'You win, I'll let you ride my bike'.

Riku looked at the machine and could already imagine himself using it, sides it looked awesome and given how he used one back in that computer world before he was curious to see what one with wheels on an actual road would be like. 'Ok…I'm game', he said, turning back to her, 'But if I lose?'. 'You, have to take me out on a date!', Iris declared. Riku blinked before he mustered all his will to push back the blood attempting to rise to his cheeks.

'I…uh, er…y-yeah! Sure! Deal!', he said quickly, shaking her hand. 'Great!', Iris said, hopping onto her bird. Quietly gulping to himself, Riku climbed back onto his bird as Sora returned, handing Noctis his own before sitting on the railing. 'On your marks!', Sora announced.

'GET SET!'.

'GO!'.

And off they went, birds trotting quickly as Riku instantly took the lead, Iris trailing behind slightly with her bird. Eyes set on the finishing line, Riku didn't even care about winning the bike anymore as he and the bird made a tight turn and leaped over one of the obstacles in their way.

"Gotta win! Gotta win!", he repeated several times in his mind as he and his bird kept themselves at a good distance from Iris.

It wasn't as if he isn't interested in the girl, rather he had become fond of her and enjoyed their activities together. She brought out that inner teen in him that he was certain much of had passed since he left the islands, unlike Sora who retained so much of his youthful optimism and cheer. Maybe it was because for once he wasn't on some task to complete but taking the time to explore the world with her was thrilling.

And that was why he couldn't afford to lose.

As he rounded another corner, he was bypassed by a golden blur that seemed to have rocketed past him. Even startling his bird. Riku looked to see Iris trotting ahead of him with greater speeds as she and her Chocobo raced ahead of him. Grunting in annoyance, he and his bird charged forth, catching up to the girl almost instantly. Both chocobos were neck to neck in the race as they passed the finish line together, one lap down.

Sora and Noctis both cheering for them, the former standing on the railings and waving madly at them as their race grew more intense and energetic.

The second lap ended when Riku dashed forth with a burst of speed from his noble stead, five feet from Iris. He patted his bird with approval and praised it for the burst of second wind, leaping over more obstacles and jumped through a hoop too.

With the sun slowly setting as the race drew close to an end, Riku and his bird were just a few meters away from passing that line, he could feel the adrenaline of victory rush through his veins as his bird trotted quicker to the line. 'Come on bud, we're almost there!', he encouraged as his bird leaps over another obstacle.

But this victory was not to be Riku's.

The master sees the world slowly passing him by instead of the high speed his Chocobo displayed earlier, and he didn't feel the wind rushing through him as much as he did before. Looking at his bird, the poor thing was starting to lose its speed and energy, likely from all the running they put it through today. Realizing his bird was practically running on fumes at this point and any further pushing would very likely put it out, Riku swallowed this defeat and ushered his ride to slow down.

This proved to be his undoing for the moment his bird slowed down to a light trot, Iris blazed past him and crossed the win with a cheer. Throwing her arms up in the air with cries of victory as her ride jumped in place spinning around. Sora and Noctis cheered for them, more so for Iris' victory over the supposed master of birds. If Riku wasn't preoccupied with his bird and how he just promised taking this girl on a date, he would've retorted to them.

'Good race guys! Didn't know you could race like that Iris!', Sora praised as he handed her long-awaited treat. 'Learned a few tricks here and there', she explained, 'But hey, they paid off!'. As Riku joined them, he notices the girl was smiling at him excitedly before they all headed back to the ranch, giving the young man time to think about his predicament.

And figure out why he was so happy to have lost…

*Caravan*

Laying on her back with a small grunt, Aqua glanced at Gladiolus still reading at the end of the bed, nose deep into the dark green book. Since she arrived here, she had been mostly napping throughout the day, resting in this surprisingly comfortable bed as the day passed them by in peace. With her metal armor removed and neatly placed by the kitchen section of the caravan, she was able to sleep more comfortably.

Aqua couldn't remember the last time she had just taken a day to do absolutely nothing and enjoy the lazy peace that came with it. Most days she'd be doing something, whether it be training, helping the others, or ensuring something or other went well. Yet when she arrived at the ranch, she was still feeling the aftereffects of the spell and felt like she could have done a "Noctis" and stayed sleeping the car all day without a care in the world.

Genuinely she felt so much better and rested after her long nap, yet she didn't even feel like getting up yet. She knew it was late in the afternoon, slowly shifting to evening yet she was happy to just lay down and laze about for today. Plus having Gladiolus in here with her was comforting and allowed her to breath easy, knowing he was here in case she was off, or something happened. Still, though she occasionally would peek at his book and ponder what it was that kept him invested.

There was nothing on the cover detailing what he was reading at all, it was just green with some symbols on it, not even the author's name was on those books. Looking at his books made her consider picking a few up in Altissia or maybe Lestallum if they would return there, she missed reading her old books back at home.

Her curiosity started to get the better of her as she sat up and crawled to Gladiolus. 'What are you reading?', she asked, peering over his shoulder to get a better look at the text. Gladiolus merely smirked at her with an eye roll. 'A book, what's it looking like?', he teased. Slapping him playfully on the back of his head with a giggle, she leaned onto him resting her chin on his shoulder. 'Well I figured as much, I mean what's the content of the book?', she rephrased.

'Just some history about Insomnia and a bit on the land, that's all. Boring stuff', he said, turning a page. Aqua frowned in doubt, there was something about that sentence that didn't sit with her. Gladiolus could be anything but boring, and the history of their hometown was certainly more akin to Ignis' preferences. While she appreciated the history of a place of interest, even she couldn't exactly call herself a lover of historical novels.

'Then tell me something about', she offered, trying to get a better look at the words. Yet Gladiolus would shrug her off and turn himself slightly the hide the book from her. 'You wouldn't be interested, its all pretty wordy and a little…ya know, dull', he lamely said, though it sounded like an excuse to the woman. 'Try me, I happen to like history', she said, on her knees now trying to peek at the book. Again, he refused to show her, which only deepened her curiosity to see the mysterious book.

She pouted when her…boyfriend, was pushing her away from reading it. Then, a surge of childishness swam in her heart as she recalled the numerous times and ideas Ven had used before the gain hers and Terra's attention when he wanted to.

To be a brat~.

Aqua hopped up and reached over the shield to pluck the book from his hands, saying: 'YOINK!', and quickly sprinted across the caravan. 'Now then! Let's see what historic secrets you're hiding from me?', she said with childish glee. Gladiolus scrambled to his feet and chased her, the woman ducking and evading his grabs as she reads out the words of the page, giggling.

'"B-But Vaan, our love is forbidden! You know this never be accepted", princess Ashe says, her heart crying out in pain', Aqua described, ducking underneath Gladiolus' arms as she read out: '"I don't care what the council says! I love you Ashe, and I will always be yours!", Vaan decrees with utter confidence and passion, swelling up within his chest!'.

'Aqua!', Gladiolus growled, his cheeks sporting a dusty hue of red as the blue-haired woman giggled profusely at the story. '"Oh my Vaan, please, take me to our chambers, so that we may consolidate our bond," Ashe says, her fears washed away like a wave of assurance washed over', Aqua snickered. '"I shall Ashe, and together on this night, our bond shall be made!" Vaan promises, taking her hand and letting himself be guided to her chambers!'.

Before she could get to the smutty part of this tale, in her invested reading Aqua was scooped into Gladiolus' arms, laughing happily and squealing in delight. He huffed and threw her on to the bed like she was a child acting like a brat. Aqua attempted to scamper away to continue reading out more of those cheesy lines but Gladiolus pinned her there, grabbing her wrists and placing them both above her head and snatched the book from her.

The woman was still laughing profusely even as he tossed the book on the counter near them, laughing until tears formed in her eyes. 'HAHAHA! H-History! Oh, my goodness!', she laughed, shaking her head in utter delight. Gladiolus growled and glared at her, which only caused her to laugh even more. His supposed threatening glare was made more hilarious thanks to his blush like he was caught doing something embarrassing. 'You brat of a woman…', he grunted, his voice tainted by embarrassment.

Aqua's laughter slowly dwindled to giggles, looking up at her boyfriend with smiles as he kept glaring at her. There is silence among them, the childish fun ceasing as she started to realize she was in a rather compromised position. He towered over her, her arms were held by his stronger hand and she had her legs between his knees. Staring at him as her shyness started to combat the wild energy she had earlier, Aqua was surprised when he released his grip on her wrists and placed his hands near her head to support himself.

Smiling softly as a surge of courage raced through her chest, Aqua placed her hands on his cheeks. Feeling the scratchiness of his stubble and softness of his cheeks, she pulled him down to kiss him. Both closing their eyes as they started to kiss, gently embracing the other. Electricity went down her spine as she tasted her boyfriend, shifting to allow him to wrap her into his arms. Security and warmth radiated from his grasp.

Aqua let out a small moan of approval when Gladiolus started to kiss her jaw, trailing down to her neck and gently suck it. She blushed but arched her head back to allow him more access to her flesh, arms wrapped around him to pull him closer to her. She felt his strong hand run through her hair, making her nearly purr with approval of that gesture, it was loving and gentle at once. When he stopped sucking her neck, he raised himself to look at her flushed face. 'Liking the service?', he teased.

'Absolutely', she giggled, placing a hand on his cheek, 'Having my boyfriend doing this to me, it's wonderful'. Gladiolus chuckled as he rolled onto his back, letting her lay on top of her and relax with him, resting her head on his chest. 'Hmm…I could get used to this…', Gladiolus hummed, stroking her arm soothingly. 'You and me both', Aqua sighed in peace. As their moment of peace washed over them, Aqua nuzzled into his chest as he wrapped an arm around her waist, both content to just stay here all day in peace.

*Knock* *Knock*

'Aqua? Gladio? Are you two awake?'.

The two sat up upon hearing Kairi's voice through the door. 'Nap time's over', Gladiolus grunted. 'Darn, and I starting to doze off', Aqua giggled, hopping off the bed. 'Yes Kairi, we're awake, just a second!'.

After throwing on his leather coat and the master putting her armor back on, they answered the door to see Kairi. 'Everything ok?', Aqua asked. 'Oh yeah, we're just heading off there', Kairi explained, gesturing the others behind her. 'We're going to the Galdin Quay for dinner'. Gladiolus smirked with approval and said: 'Sweet, haven't had anything there in months now'. 'I assume it's a restaurant?', Aqua asked as they left the caravan with Kairi jogging on ahead.

'If Ignis ever opened up a restaurant, the Galdin Quay would be the place', Gladiolus said with a wide grin, 'And trust me, that's a compliment we don't give out to any restaurant!'. Aqua smiled back coyly as they walked. 'Well now you've set my expectations high, I'm looking forward to having my taste buds experiencing mana from the heavens!', she said.

Gladiolus laughed in reply as they looked to the vehicles, surprised to see Iris there chatting up with Riku again. Before the shield could open his mouth and call her, the girl then pecked Riku on his cheek before skipping to her bike, leaving dazed Riku in her leave. Gladiolus blinked in disbelief as Aqua just stared at the display. Riku shook his head and quickly entered the Regalia as Donald and Goofy took the chocobos.

'What…just happened?', Aqua asked, looking at Gladiolus, 'Do Riku and Iris have something between them?'. Gladiolus didn't answer but his frown strongly implied he didn't know either. '…I'll talk to him tomorrow', Gladiolus promised, heading for Wayfinder II as Kairi and Sora hopped in. Aqua smiled softly though, as she got into the driver's seat.

Together the party of eleven sped off the to Galdin Quay as the day turned to night. Their last few days of peace…

A/N: So the chill chapter is here! Well, part one anyway.

So originally this was supposed to be a one-shot chapter but I figured after everything that's gonna happen in Altissia, you all deserve to see the team have a few moments of peace. Part two will be fun I promise!

Questions:

Q1: Did you enjoy the Chocobo ranch?

Q2: What pairing do you want to be focused on more in the next chapter?

Q3: Does anyone know who Vaan and Ashe are? If so, you've good taste in games!

Q4: Do you wanna see Aranea in the next chapter?

Q5: Wanna see Noctis and Sora face their greatest challenge that is the Anglers Nightmare?

So, this is a question a lot of people have asked this question, Sora's Final Form and Ultima Keyblade, why he doesn't have it or why not give it to him soon. The reason is simple, I don't want Sora to be the "Goku" of the group and let's be fair here, he kinda is. He's easily the strongest member of the group and giving him FF would just make all the fights predictable and less fun to write.

I do plan on Sora getting them later, but for now he's sticking with what he has…which too be fair a reviewer DID point out I'm kinda nerfing him so hopefully, in future chapters, I'll make up for it.

As always everyone, feel free to ask any questions if you have any! Thanks for reading, stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	34. Chapter 34

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 34

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

*Galdin Quay, night*

The sea salt scent of the ocean immediately brought a sense of nostalgia to Kairi, leaning on the window to see the quay in all its lunar glory. With the light used by the keyblade wielders and keeping everyone close, they had no troubles on their journey here, allowing them all to for once enjoy the beauty of the night.

The place where they were going had already won over Kairi when the chef of the party had regaled her in stories of heavenly dishes, she was already salivating at the thought of the crab dishes. Tonight, she took in how serene and beautiful the place is with the night, clear skies that allowed the stars to be seen from above and in the ocean, twinkling beautifully with the moon reflected in the ocean. The restaurant's lights alit and welcoming with many locals taking moonlit walks.

Arriving at the car park and after giving their birds come greens, the party headed into the restaurant with a reservation thanks to Ignis once again.

Inside they were guided to their table, a large round family one, the princess enjoying the warm and friendly atmosphere the restaurant provided. The place felt extravagant certainly but there was none of that rich entitled kind, it was homely in a sense. Sitting between Iris and Goofy, Riku being next to the girl, the latter in a discussion with Ignis about his proposition of him taking a spin of the Regalia one day despite the captain's hesitance, Iris was chatting up Aqua about some of the dungeons they explored.

Across from her, she spots Prompto showing Aqua and Donald a few snapshots of their adventures, from the impressed looks from master and the surprised one from Donald she had a feeling those photos weren't anything short of spectacular. Finally, she looked to Noctis having a slight argument with Gladiolus conversing with the girl. From what she managed to hear over the other voices, they were having a debate on who had the most kills during their last dungeon, with the prince bragging his kill took both him and Sora together so it counted as more than one.

Kairi smugly thought to herself that if her boyfriend wanted to, he could've taken out all the daemons and heartless there.

Speaking of her boyfriend, she peered to her left to see Sora was looking at her a gentle smile, before winking at her. She blushed but giggled at him just as their orders were brought out. Kairi's nearly teared up at the sight of her meal, it was simply; perfection.

Steamed Crab with Rock Salt.

Clapping her hands together and uttering a quick "thank you", she eats her meal, her taste buds dancing with glee. She tuned into the conversations amongst the others, adding her thoughts to them or making small talk with those across the table. There were jokes made, reflections on their journey so far, Ignis even saying he would be able to replicate the recipes, to the utter delight of the party. Kairi adding in some of hers and Prompto's adventures in the mines, to which Prompto teased Kairi's lack of technical knowledge.

She challenged his own with a reminder of the burnt oatmeal that she ended up freezing, earn several laughs from the party as Ignis also added with salt to Prompto's wound that Kairi was the one who ultimately paid the price for his negligence.

There some jeers and a few cheeky comments at the boy's expense, but all good-natured. Sora even started telling them about their islands back home with Riku and Kairi joining in, the races they had with Kairi often teasing the boys they couldn't decide on anything without it being a contest. True to her tease both boys confessed they couldn't without one of them challenging the other, and given it was a tie regularly or even matchups.

Noctis spoke up saying one time he wanted to see how his warp power worked and tried it when he was a child. At this Ignis rubbed his temples with a chuckle as he revealed Noctis has warped to the highest chandelier in the palace and spent four hours up there. There was a choir of laughter amongst the party, Iris saying she remembered Gladiolus and the entire guard were panicking at the sudden disappearance of his majesty they searched pretty much every nook and cranny of the place until Ignis revealed his location.

Simply by standing below the chandelier and pointing up at it, and then the king himself nearly had a heart attack from the act. He warped himself up then to rescue his son and the prince was so terrified he wouldn't let go of his dad for two hours straight. As more of the party were sharing stories, Aqua taking a spoonful of her Sea's Bounty Risotto before she glanced at Gladiolus, staring daggers at Riku and Iris. Curious, the woman glanced at them to see what was making the shield glare.

Riku was chatting up Iris about their adventures, mostly talking about the dungeons they explored and the fights while the girl hung to every word that came from his mouth. Tilting her head in puzzlement, seeing nothing glare worthy of the shield and glanced back to said shield. 'What's wrong?', she whispered before putting her food in her mouth. '…is it me or they are getting along too well?', he glowered so quietly Aqua could feel the tremor in his voice. Looking at the two teens again and she could see they were getting along swimmingly.

'Yes? Is that a problem?', she asked, 'Would you prefer if they were at each other's throats?'. Gladiolus huffed and took a large bite out of his dinner, roughly chewing it like a behemoth. Shrugging, Aqua resumed her dinner before taking a sip of her water. Doing so she tried to watch Iris and Riku's interaction, curious as to what Gladiolus was so concerned about yet there was no antagonizing amongst the two, they're sharing stories and they seem happy together.

Her brows furrowed however when she subtly glanced at Kairi and Sora…then back to the master and younger sister of Gladiolus, seeing although carefully hidden similar affections for each other. Slowly she lowered her glass as Iris giggled cutely at what Riku said, a joke or something that had happened to them on their journeys. That giggle almost sounded like Kairi's when Sora did something cutesy or cheesy…

'…OH…now I see why you're annoyed…', she whispered.

'…you know I'm gonna kill him if he tries anything, right?', he warned.

'Please don't, we need him alive for the battle', she pleaded.

Gladiolus huffed again, deciding this was a conversation for later as he drank his beer. Aqua deciding to follow suit and finish hers.

After dinner the party had all retired to their rooms, the usual group with Noctis and his Crownsguard, Sora with Riku, Donald, and Goofy with the girls sharing a room.

In the room of other worlders, they were already turning in for the night while in Noctis' room they were up playing some cards. In the room with the girls, Aqua was in the bathroom taking a shower before turning in, leaving Kairi and Iris the only two up to talk away the night. Outside on the patio enjoying the cool summer breeze as they sat down on the two chairs with sodas between them. As they enjoyed this sense of peace, Kairi took a sip of her drink as Iris asked: 'So how long have you and Sora been together?'.

'Hmm…about two months now?', Kairi said with a thoughtful look, trying to recall the calendar of this world. It was amazing that they've been on this world for so long, what felt like just a few days turned to months. 'He and I had our first kiss after we finally caught up to him and the others'. A smile graced her lips as she thought back to that day, though he didn't say those beautiful three words at first just kissing him alone was worth the wait.

'That's so cute~', Iris cooed. Kairi smiled back, then frowned when Iris stirred her drink with her straw, looking conflicted like she was hoping to ask a question. 'You ok?', Kairi asked, 'You look like you wanna ask something?'. Iris bit her inner cheek and sighed: 'Well…do you think…what do you think of Riku?'. Blinking like an owl, Kairi pursed her lips and tapped her chin with one finger, not exactly used to having someone ask about her thoughts on Riku.

'I guess…he's like my big brother, you know?', Kairi said with a small shrug, 'He's kinda been the one teaching me right and wrong, he was the oldest between us so…I guess I see him as a brother'. Iris nodded, smiling. '…so, does that mean you don't have an issue with me asking him out?', Iris asked as Kairi took a sip of her drink.

Bad timing.

Kairi spluttered out her drink in shock, spraying the patio's wooden floors with a mixture of her saliva and soda. She coughed and tried to clear her throat as Iris patted her back. After, Kairi wiped her mouth with a napkin, looking back at Iris, now sporting a sheepish smile. 'I'm guessing that's a no?', she said. Kairi giggled after she cleared her throat, smiling comfortingly. 'Sorry, you just caught me off guard with that', she explained, 'If you think you've got a thing for him, then go for it!'.

Iris gave her a toothy grin as they hugged each other. The princess looked behind Iris to see Aqua, in a white dressing gown, looking at them with a bemused look with one hand on her hip. Kairi smiled at her master innocently as the latter shook her head. Mouthing "goodnight" to the girl, Aqua retired to her bed as Kairi and Iris stayed up most of the night discussing their love lives.

And when Iris mentioned the date, Kairi gave her the widest smile she could muster…

*Next Day*

With a beautiful sky-blue day and after taking some downtime to chill out to enjoy the summer day, most of the party had taken to the beach. Everyone had changed into proper beach attire and some in their swim gear. Prompto was on the with Donald, Gladiolus and Goofy playing volleyball with each other, Ignis being the referee for the team while he was reading while Riku was settled beneath one of the trees, lazing about in the shade.

In the ocean Kairi and the girls were playing together, the two younger teens were mostly teasing Aqua and splashing her, teasing her and taunting her to chase them. The woman loudly declaring her namesake will likely be their undoing, chasing the two girls in the ocean. Nearby on the docks, Sora and Noctis were standing on the edge of the pier, his fishing kit beside him. He was on a mission, fishing rod clenched in hand as he stared into the crystal blue waters ahead of him.

Inhaling the sea salt air as he steeled his nerves, rod equipped with the best lure and lines, Noctis rolled his shoulders and loosened up his joints. Today would be the day he would partake in his greatest battle, his reputation as a fisher was on the line.

Today…he would catch the "Devil of the Cygillan".

'You ready for this?', Sora asked, looking at the future king. 'Totally', Noctis stated confidently. With a flick of his rod, Noctis threw the line into the waters, and once it plopped into the waters he began to wait with Sora by his side.

With the volleyball match, the white ball dived down to the field, but before it could reach the sandy ground Donald tripped on his own long feet in his attempts to catch it. Luckily the mage's head proved to be the perfect thing to bounce off and the ball flew into the air for Gladiolus to take the offense. As the ball was right above the net, Gladiolus jumped into the air, yelling as he hit the ball with a lot of power.

A spike shot that would have likely created a hole in the ground had Goofy not been standing there to block the ball. The ball smashed right onto his head as if an anvil had been dropped onto the poor captain's head and then bounced off him. Goofy staggered in left and right, drunkenly before he collapsed onto the ground, out cold. Gladiolus' face spoke for the entire group partaking in the game as Ignis immediately rushed to the captain with a potion in hand.

Although Gladiolus swore, he heard Donald grumble something on the lines of "not again…". As the ball bounced away from the group, now tending to the fallen captain, Gladiolus worried he might have cracked his skull. Surprisingly Goofy opened his eyes and rubbed his head with a small groan. 'Gwarsh Gladio, you sure take your volleyball seriously…', Goofy said, dizzy and jolly. 'Sorry bout that Goof', Gladiolus apologized, offering a hand to the dogman.

'Looks like you're all having a good time'.

They looked to see Aranea standing at the edge of the volleyball game, the ball under her arm looking at the team. Instead of wearing her usual dragoon armor she was wearing a dark grey bikini with her hair loose, a pair of sunglasses resting on her fringe and free like the wind and a pair of sandals. She tossed the ball back to them, Prompto catching it as the others stood up. 'Aranea, it's been a while', Ignis greeted with courtesy.

'Oh, so that's the jump woman Kairi mentioned…', Riku mused as Prompto gawked at the woman's choice of clothing. The dragoon turned to Riku, blinking at the silver head. 'And you are?', she asked, 'Don't remember you'. 'Name's Riku, and you're Aranea, the commodore?', he answered with a fold of his arms. 'Ex-commodore actually', she said with a scoff, 'Officially retired from the Niflhiem empire'.

'Ahh, you followed through your decision than', Ignis hummed with approval in his tone as she joined the group. 'After all the crap they've pulled I'm glad they didn't try and put me in those experiments', Aranea huffed, 'Now I'm back to the mercenary life at long last'. As she finished this, she peered over to see the other girls in the ocean turning to her, a small frown appeared on Kairi's face. Aranea gave the girl a smirk and waved at her.

'Long time no see red!', she greeted. Kairi gave her a half-hearted smile and waved back. The dragoon gave the guys a nod before heading to the ocean shores to chat with the girls as they joined her at the ocean, the guys resuming their game after Goofy assured them he was fine.

The silver head turned to Aqua with a curious look, brows raised. 'You her master or something?', she asked, crossing her arms. 'Yes, I'm Aqua', the master stated, eyeing the woman. 'You helped them out during the hunt for the Mythril, right?'. Aranea shrugged. 'Eh, more so keeping your apprentice alive. That Sora kid found it before we did', she explained with a scoff. 'Speaking of Sora…'.

She turned with the girls to see the boy watching Noctis hand Sora another fish to throw in their ever-growing basket of fishes. The prince casting the line once again into the ocean with Sora throwing off his t-shirt and tossing it on the floor near him before he leaned against the shed again. Kairi was grinning madly at the sight of Sora's toned chest, before she turned on Aranea, sporting a wolfish grin. 'Do not even consider it…', Kairi warned. 'What? Just appreciating the bounty', Aranea teased, smirking.

'Wait…are you thinking of seducing Sora?', Aqua asked. 'Hmm, maybe. If Red here doesn't step up~'. Kairi growled at her and if Iris hadn't been close to her she would've grabbed Aranea and dunked her into the ocean. Then before she could see if she would make great shark bait, Aqua stepped in and placed a hand on her shoulder. 'Don't let her get the better of you, Kairi. I think we all know who owns that boy's heart', she said caringly, 'Besides, if push came to shove do you seriously think, he'd pick anyone else over you?'.

Kairi's temper died down as she nodded, smiling back in gratitude. Aranea rolled her eyes playfully, 'Blech, if you're as sappy as him then you can have him!', Aranea joked. 'Your loss~', Kairi bragged, 'You won't find a man like him anywhere else!'. 'I'm sure Lunafreya would argue with that', Aqua teased playfully. 'She's entitled to her own opinion', Kairi replied confidently.

Aranea whistled in approval and Iris giggled. 'Well now that you're here, wanna go for a swim?', Kairi asked, gesturing the ocean. Aranea raised a brow at the girl, before Iris grabbed her wrist with Kairi, dragging her into the waters. Laughing lightly, Aqua followed suit to partake in their little games.

As the day slowly shifted to the afternoon, most of the party had already packed up their things to prepare for the journey to Lestallum. More so as a pit stop before they go back to Cape Caem, pick up some items and enjoy their last nights in peace. Waiting by the two cars Ignis and Aqua had finished refueling their vehicles as the others packed their things from the rooms and paid.

'Might I ask what you intend on doing with your vehicle once your ship is repaired?', Ignis asked as he closed the hood of the Regalia. 'I haven't thought of it…', Aqua confessed as she returned the pump, 'Truth be told I was thinking of handing it back to Cindy after everything was said and done'.

'Not thinking of taking it with you?', he asked, surprised. Aqua giggled and shook her head. 'We tend to only stay in other worlds for short periods, never long enough to require transportations', she said, 'Besides for the most part we're able to get around on our own'. Ignis nodded in understanding, looking to see Aranea approaching the two with a tray carrying two cups of coffee while another in her hand.

'Figured you guys could do with a caffeine fix', she shrugged, 'Ebony regular and one with milk'. She handed them each their drinks, earning "thanks" from the two. Leaning against the Wayfinder II, Aqua sipped her beverage with a content sigh. 'MMM, it's sweet', she mused. 'Asked for cream and a bit of sugar', Aranea revealed, sipping her own. Aqua smiles in response, adding the extra ingredient to her memory.

'Heading to Lestallum next?', Aranea questioned, looking at the man. 'Yes, we've a few things to pick up before we head to Altissia tomorrow. Plus give everyone one more night of peace', Ignis explained. 'Probably for the best', the dragoon nodded with a huff. 'Would you like to tag along to Lestallum?', Ignis offered. She shook her head with a smirk. 'Tempting offer Four-Eyes, but I've got a job to do in an hour', she said, 'And it'll be some ways from Lestallum, so unless your car can fly, I've got my ride'.

'So, you came here for a break?', Aqua asked. 'Nah, heard word the prince's car was nearby and wanted to see how Red was doing before she goes off with her boy to Altissia', Aranea confessed, draining her coffee. At this Aqua smirked at the woman, raising a brow in a coy manner, irking the silver-haired woman. With a scoff and dismissive wave of her hand, she said: Wipe that look off your face Bluie-Locks…I'm just making sure she's fine after her nearly giving me a heart attack'.

'OH? I wasn't aware you were that worried about her', Aqua teased. ', Aqua, when we found them, she was carrying the girl', Ignis added, 'And her next words were: "Give this girl a god damn potion or so help me I'll mug you for it".

Aranea glared at him as Aqua's smirk widened. In the end, the woman scoffed before tossing her mug into the trash bin. 'Yeah, you rub it in…smug brat…', she growled. 'I'll be sure to tell Kairi she had a very worried Aranea asking for her', Aqua said in a sweet tone. 'You breathe a word of this to her', she warned, summoning her spear, 'And I'm gonna shove this somewhere where the sun ain't gonna shine'.

Aqua's smirk turned confident as her keyblade materialized in her free hand. 'I'm up for a quick spar if that is what you're suggesting', the master said. Sparks flew between their eyes as the man of the royal retinue kept his voice behind his closed mouth, curious to see if they indeed would partake in a fight. Aqua just kept her confident smile as Aranea formed a smirk of her own, then she dismissed her weapon with a laugh.

'Maybe next time, not wasting my only day off fighting a so-called "Master". If you're anything like that kid anyways', Aranea said. 'Wise choice why waste your free day?', Aqua agreed, dismissing her weapon. Aranea turned to leave but then stopped and turned back to Aqua. 'Hey, for real, she ok?', Aranea asked. Aqua's face shifted into assurance and nodded. 'Yeah, she woke up just as we left the dungeon, and nothing's happened to her since then', she explained.

'By chance, could you tell us what exactly happened to Kairi?', Ignis asked. 'She told us she just lost consciousness'. Aranea shook her head with a sigh. 'Can't say anything else other than what happened. One moment we were just making some small talk, next thing I knew she was face first in the dirt', Aranea explained, 'But she wasn't hurt or had anything a potion couldn't fix, so I dunno what the story was'.

The two "parental" figures glanced at each other before turning to Aranea with a nod of gratitude before she bid them both a "see ya around" and headed off to her airship likely. Left to ponder Kairi's situation from the past, the older woman lets out a small hum of concern. 'Do you think it's a keyblade situation? Or a princess of light condition?', Ignis asked as he finished his coffee. 'One the first part, no. I've never heard anyone fainting randomly like that unless its an illness', Aqua said with a firm tone. 'The princess of light is another matter…'.

*Pier*

After packing up with Gladiolus and Iris, Kairi took a small walk to the beach to inform Sora and Noctis about their plans to finally move on to Lestallum. Back in her adventuring gear excluding her boots, she transported them to their pocket dimension so she could walk barefoot on the shores of the beach.

She sees Noctis and Sora still looking into the ocean with obvious impatience and irritation in their stances, more so with the prince as he chucked another fish back into the waters. Looking near Sora's feet she could see the basket of fish had grown quite considerably larger than earlier, nearly overfilling the thing. Walking onto the pier and getting a wave from Sora, she joined the prince. 'Hey guys, just here to let you both know Iggy said it's nearly time to get going', she said with a smile.

'I don't think Noct's going anywhere, Kai', Sora answered with a tired smile. 'NOT UNTIL I CATCH THAT SLIPPERY FISHY BASTARD!', cursed the prince.

Kairi blinked in alarm at the swearing as Sora chuckled. 'Noct, you've caught dozens of fishes today, what's this one?', she asked. 'It's the legendary fish! The Devil of the Cygillan!', Noctis said adamantly, 'And I swore I saw it swimming around here today!'. Kairi placed her hands on her hips with an eye roll as the prince resumed his fishing, albeit with more tension in his shoulders. 'You do know we're heading out soon? I don't think the others will be waiting for you to catch a supposed legendary fish', Kairi said warningly.

'I'll sleep here if I have to!', Noctis assured. The worrying thing is Kairi was certain he'd do it if his sleeping prowess was anything to go by. One more glance to Sora in a vain hope to get his help, Sora reluctantly shrugged. Kairi sighed tiredly as she turned back to Noctis. 'Noct, I'm sure that fish isn't going anywhere if nobody had caught it yet, besides it's our last night before we have to go to Altissia', she reminded.

When she received no response from the prince, she pouted and stepped forward to get his attention. She snatched the fishing rod out of his hands, earning a "hey" from him but she kept it out of arms reach of the prince with a look. 'Noct, we need to get going', she said again, unaware that the rod was being tugged. Sora however noticed and opened his mouth to speak but just before he could, Kairi was suddenly tugged roughly from the rod that earned a yell of surprise from her and she nearly went into the waters.

Quick reflexes helped Sora to immediately catch her and hold her as she clutched the rod in both hands. The line reeled rapidly as the rod bends repeatedly, the two keyblade wielders struggling to keep themselves on the pier with Noctis looking at the line. There hidden the thin veil of water it was, the famed devil of the sea, fighting against the fishers. 'THERE IT IS!', Noctis declared, pointing at it. When the two islanders saw it, their eyes widened, and jaws fell. 'Holy crap! Look at the SIZE of that thing!', Sora said as he held Kairi.

'Kairi! Don't you dare let go of that rod!', Noctis ordered. 'Tell Sora to not let *me* go!', Kairi shouted as she started to fight against the fish's pull and struggle. It was a long battle indeed, between Noctis coaching Kairi about when to reel and where to pull, Sora struggling to hold her and not take the fight into the fish's turf, and Kairi fighting back against the weight of the oversized aquatic being.

Even as the line was getting close to snapping, the sounds of the rod getting closer and closer to snapping in two, Kairi managed to pull the fish close enough to the docks, literally beneath her feet. Red in the face with effort to hold the fish in place as the sweat ran down her forehead, Kairi turned to the prince, summoning one of his spears. 'Going for the kill!', he declared. 'Please hurry, I think my arms are about to fall off!', she said.

Noctis plunged his spear into the large being with one thrust, piercing it. It struggled for a while before going still, dead in the water. When she no longer felt it tugging or resisting her, Kairi relaxed her arms, lowering the rod as they all stared at the bounty with large grins.

Back at the carpark, the others were waiting for the trio to arrive as Iris allowed Riku to ride with her so that they could just use only one Chocobo for the trip. As everyone settled in, Goofy called out to them, pointing at the beach. They all joined him by the entrance to see Sora, Noctis, and Kairi carrying the Devil of the seas to them, sporting victorious grins.

'Iggy, we've got a legendary ingredient for you!', Sora said with a grin.

Wordlessly, Ignis immediately took out his notebook and set up a new recipe. A legendary dish was in the works…

*Lestallum, nightfall*

As night fell just when the team arrived at the car park, everyone had already decided on what their activities were going to be. Donald and Goofy were going to do the item shopping with a few lists while Ignis would be heading to the late-night market for the ingredients of the journey and promised the others he'd do the devil fish soon after they left Altissia.

Sora and Kairi had decided to go explore Lestallum to see what it would be like at night while Prompto and Noctis retired to the Leville for a long night of King's Knight, Aqua saying she had something planned for tonight before heading into the town. At the town entrance, Riku had written down the name of the place he and Iris were to meet for their date, the silver head still trying to wrap his mind around it as the girl gave him a peck on the cheek. 'See you soon', she promised, before heading off.

Standing there as he registered the second peck on his cheek, Riku looked down as conflict rose up within his chest. "Just how serious was she taking this date" was all he could ask himself as he shoved his hands into his pockets in deep thought. Sure, it wasn't his first date since he did have some experiences back home when they returned from Sora's second journey, but they weren't what he'd define as dates since they were one-timers and mostly meetups with friends.

This felt different, and Iris is different. He then threw his head back and exhaled. '…you're gonna murder me, aren't you?', he said, feeling the heated glare of the shield behind him. 'Perceptive…and not entirely wrong', Gladiolus growled.

Riku turned to address the man, now having the most passive-aggressive stance he could muster while at the same time holding back. How he did it is beyond Riku. The islander opened his mouth to defend himself, but the shield spoke first: 'Look before you say a word, I just want to know one thing about this "date" of yours'. Even saying the word date, the shield looked like he just swallowed something bitter and nasty, but he soldiered on.

'How serious, are you about it?'.

The ultimate question Riku himself had no clear answer to as he ran a hand through his hair. 'I'm hoping it'll be a once-off, you know?', he stated, 'Maybe this date won't be what she's expecting, or she'll figure out I'm not her type?'. These, even to Riku, sounded like excuses. From those moments with her Riku knew Iris wasn't expecting prince charming or something ridiculously unreasonable, she wasn't like those shallowed girls he's seen around the town, and if he wasn't her type, she would've deduced that months ago.

Gladiolus lets himself exhale deeply, not buying Riku's half-assed excuses any more than him. 'You can't bull your way out of this one, kid', he warned, 'I've dealt with Noct all my life and I've got plenty of experiences of him trying to bull his way out of training'. 'Something tells me it doesn't often?', the silver head joked. To his credit, he got a small twinge of a smile from the shield before he narrowed his eyes.

Riku, in turn, gave him an annoyed look. 'Look if you're not up for me dating her, that's fine, your opinion but that's up to Iris', he said calmly. Gladiolus grunted with irritation before he threw a hand in the air. 'I'm not saying you can't date her, I'm not THAT overprotective of her, and I know ya enough to trust you', he said begrudgingly. 'What I am concerned is this: let's say you both hit it off, and maybe you two start taking this seriously, do you think it's gonna work out?'.

The question that had also made itself at home in Riku's mind, the subject he truly hadn't thought too hard on. With a sigh, he shook his head. 'Well she's still unaware that I'm not from Eos, and likely when we do have to go, it'll be a long time before I come back', he listed. Gladiolus crossed his arms, not saying a word as he sees the young man had truly spent time considering the options and the risks of entering a relationship with someone from another world.

Riku groaned and threw his arms in the air. 'Damnit…this is gonna be harder than I thought!', he chuckled tiredly. 'Just don't do anything stupid', Gladiolus sighed with a tired smirk. 'At least, if you're thinking of dating her, she deserves to know about the other world, alright?'. Riku nodded in agreement, figuring if they indeed decide to enter a serious relationship, he'd disclose the information to her.

Before he left to go to the meeting point, his shoulder was grasped by the shield. Turning to him, he sees a smile that was ANYTHING but friendly. It had a darkness within it along with a worrisome gleam in the eyes, and for a moment Riku could have sworn he just saw a heartless behind Gladiolus. 'Break her heart, Riku, and there's going to be hell to pay, you got it?', he said in such a threatening manner Riku felt for a moment his heart-stopping.

Not trusting his voice, he nodded slowly. Gladiolus patted his shoulder before heading to the hotel, leaving an ashen Riku on the spot.

'…I'm doomed…'.

Leaving Riku there and deciding he's entitled to being lazy, Gladiolus returned to his shared room. Once he was inside, he threw off his jacket and threw on his tank top and laid on the bed. At the very least Noctis would be in his room with Prompto all night, there were no daemons that'll randomly pop out of nowhere and the empire wouldn't be visiting them.

The only thing that could make this night better would be if he had his significant other and a good drink by his side.

*Knock* *Knock*

Gladiolus looked up to see the door opening and Aqua walking in with a bag in her hand. She smiled at the shield as he sat upon the bed with a smirk. 'Hey there, where'd you go?', he asked as she placed the bag on the table. 'Shopping', she answered mysteriously. 'I was thinking about going around the town, maybe check up on a few things with the others or purchase some items, but then I thought of something else'.

'And that would be?', he asked, getting off the bed. When Aqua turned around, she showed she was carrying two bottles of Lucian Brew. Surprised, he looked at Aqua who was smiling at him. 'You're serious?', he asked, smirking at her as she placed both bottles on the table. 'Yup, after last time I wanted to do this again with some bonuses', she explained, popping a cork and pouring into the glasses she bought.

'What's that?', he asked, taking her offered glass. 'For one thing, I've some potions that will instantly cure our hangovers', Aqua said with a grin, then with red coating her cheeks, said: 'And…my first time drinking with my boyfriend?'. His smirk turned into a genuine warm smile as he clinked his glass with hers. 'To our first time drinking as boyfriend and girlfriend', Gladiolus christened.

It was gonna be a good night after all…

*Meanwhile*

There was a serenity that night had brought that had gone over Riku's head numerous times, and only when he wasn't fighting for his life, exploring worlds or being a hero in the making did he finally take in just how peaceful it could be.

Maybe it was the safety in knowing the daemons couldn't spawn in a town full of light that helped soothe his mind and wrapped in his assurance. Perhaps it was his confidence as a master that helped bolster him, knowing anything the daemons threw at him would be nothing to worry about.

Or likely, it was the fact he had his arm held onto by a girl. Probably that.

Together the two teens waltzed through the town at a slow pace, taking their time to enjoy this moment of peace between them. Not worried about their friends' safety, not afraid of being attacked by monsters and without Riku being wounded, they were safe. The date had gone much, MUCH better than Riku had expected. The food was delicious, not Ignis delicious but passable delicious at the very least, the music played was fine enough, not his taste but tolerable. What made the date fun, was Iris herself.

They chatted throughout most of their dinners, sharing stories about their youths, friends and what sort of events happened since Insomnia fell. Riku had been extremely careful with his choice of words, keeping other worlds a mystery to the girl as best as he could whilst sprinkling details of his own home to her. As the night went on and after their food, she took him to the dance floor and danced with him as the techno music played.

The girl is far more outgoing then he had thought, and she had the dance moves to back up her confidence too. Dare he say it he was hypnotized by her dancing, almost like a siren luring a sailor into her trap. He was positive he danced like a drunk man who was born with two left feet, yet she made him feel comfortable and at ease. When she got closer to him, his body acted on its own as he held her, both swaying to the music.

The way her eyes shined in the restaurant's lights, how brilliant she smiled at him and her laughter was such a wondrous piece of music that he wished he could hear again and again. Which only made things harder for him as he tried to muster up the courage to finally tell her the truth about his origins, the fact he wasn't from this world and put that relationship that is slowly but certainly building up between them.

'Wanna take a break?', Iris asked, gesturing the fountain near the hotel. Riku nodded, a break from his thoughts would be nice. Sitting down on the edge of the fountain, they glanced up at the night sky. He felt Iris slowly wrap her hand around his, making him slightly turn red in the face before he shyly clenched hers in response. Looking down, he could feel his internal struggle growing more persistent, his heart-tugging in pain.

Even if he chickened out and kept other worlds a secret, who knows how long it'll be before he sees her again after tonight? Keeping her in that predicament, a tease of what they may never be able to have, a relationship that could ultimately fall apart. Even if he couldn't stay here, Iris didn't deserve to cling on to that false hope, to be led on like that.

'Iris…I uh, there's something I gotta tell you', he said, rubbing his neck. 'Did Gladio threaten you?', she asked exasperatedly. '…yes and no?', Riku said weakly. 'But he's, provided a good point that could determine something'. Iris turned to face Riku as he mustered his courage, and decided if Aqua could spill the beans about other worlds, then he, a much more reckless master, can too. 'I'm-

'From another world'.

'-From another wor-wahaha what?', Riku stuttered and stumbled as his eyes shot open. Iris was sporting a smug grin. 'What? Did you think I didn't know?', she teased, poking his nose. Riku stammered and blinked as his brain suddenly went dead and coherent sentences were not an option for him. How did she figure them out? Replaying every memory he had with her he knew for a fact he didn't once slip about other worlds or any other sensitive information.

'H-How did you, how did you know?', he asked.

At this, Iris sheepishly looked away without turning her head as she turned pink. 'W-Well…remember when you all came back after Kairi got sick?', she asked slowly. 'Yeah…?', Riku said, pressing her to continue. 'And…when you guys said you had some important things to talk about? That nobody outside your group could know about?'. 'Yeah, but what's that…got…to…', he said slowly before the puzzle puts itself together in his mind.

'You were eavesdropping on us?', he accused.

'…maybe?', she squeaked. 'So you're telling me, ever since that day…you knew about other worlds…about me and the others, and the keyblade?', Riku listed, staring at her. '…yes?'. The only sound between them was the rushing water from the fountain as Iris played with her thumbs as Riku leaned back and rubbed his temples. '…Do you know how freaking anxious I was to bring this subject up?', he sighed.

'Probably anxious', Iris pipped cheerfully. Riku lowered his hand and huffed. '…Iris, tell me something. Do you, what do you want from this?', he asked. Iris clapped her hands together, frowning as she stared at the ground. Neither said a word, both trying to figure out the right way to explain this feeling between the two, the desires they had for this potential relationship flourishing. Knowing Riku and the other's duty, with the knowledge he'll have to leave this world in time.

'Maybe I'm being too hopeful but…I feel like it could work', Iris hummed, 'I mean, I know you won't be around all the time, but even if it's for a few days I could deal with it'. "Deal with it" didn't sit well with the master, that sounded like a massive compromise for them. Looking down at his feet, Riku heaved a deep sigh. 'You know that, and you still think we can make that work?', he asked. 'You don't think so?', Iris asked.

'Can't say I've tried a relationship with someone from another world', Riku joked with a slight smirk. Looking up at the sky before he breathed through his nose, he glanced back at her. 'But you know, it's gonna be a while before I do have to go…so if you wanna try it out, see how this goes…', he offered, taking out his GP and said: 'Least we can practice with these, right?'.

Iris smiled wonderfully at him with a nod, before she hugged him, catching him off guard. Blinking, Riku ultimately smiled and hugged her back. Maybe he was being too hopeful for this to work, but then again stranger miracles have happened.

For once, he was going to follow Sora's example, and follow his heart.

* Leville*

Down to the third bottle between the two of them, Aqua and Gladiolus sat at the table near the patio as they shared laughter and drinks. Aqua had regaled Gladiolus in some stories of her training days of being an apprentice/mother to her brother Ventus and her rivalry with Terra.

The shield also divulged some tales from his years during his training to become the shield, making each other laugh heartily with giggles and even spitting out their drinks in merriment. 'A-And then, *snicker* T-Terra, challenged Master Eraqus to a match, saying he could take him on blindfolded!', the blue head explained. 'So to prove it! He stole one of my ribbons, tied it around his eyes and charged at master!'.

'That idiot…', Gladiolus chuckled, 'What happened to him?'. Aqua snickered as she placed her glass down, 'H-He, he ran at him with his keyblade in hand, and then tripped down the stairs! To the main entrance! A-A-And then! He just shouts, "WE'LL CALL IT A DRAW"!'. Both warriors burst into laughter as Gladiolus slammed his fist onto the table while the woman held her stomach. Laughing together as Aqua wiped the tears from her eyes while Gladiolus shook his head. 'That frigging legend of a man! Even I wasn't brave enough to commit to fighting Cor blindfolded!'.

'I can promise you, if Eraqus wasn't such a softie, he would have punished him far more severely for his arrogance', Aqua said with a smile. 'After that, he made Terra clean the entire castle for a week…but to add insult to injury, he made him wear a pink apron to rub it in!'. Gladiolus chuckled deeply before he drank his next glass. 'Oh man, that's just cruel', Gladiolus said. 'And that makes him a softie?'. 'Well he didn't make him wear a blindfold to clean up', Aqua argued back.

Gladiolus shrugged in agreement with a thoughtful hum, grabbing the next bottle and pouring them another glass. 'I remember the first time we brought Prompto to train with us. Kid was so frigging nervous I was worried he'd have a heart attack if we so much as said pick a weapon', he explained. Aqua leaned onto her elbows, listening intently to her boyfriend's story, grinning at his grin. 'So he picks up one of the guns, we used rubber bullets for, well "no shit" reasons, and it was me with another guard against him and Noct'.

Gladiolus snickered as he tried to finish the tale, making Aqua giggle profusely along with him. 'S-S-So, during the fight, the other guy was going straight for Noct, Prompto turned around and took the shot, he claims he was aiming for his chest…but…he aimed a bit too low'.

'No', Aqua gasped, grinning.

'So the bullet went a little bit more south', Gladiolus teased.

'He didn't', Aqua giggled.

'He shot the poor bastard right between the legs!'.

Together they roared with laughter, both nearly falling out of their chairs. Aqua was in hysterics as Gladiolus tried to regain control over himself, failing miserably at it. 'Oh my god! That poor man!', Aqua laughed, 'I never Prompto's tactics included shooting below the belt!'.

'You can imagine we had to bring Iggy with us to train him…after we warned him to wear a cup!'. Aqua snickered, like a giddy school girl. As their laughter ceased, they shared the final bottle between them and allowed themselves to take in the quiet, allowing their thoughts to wander. Aqua looked up to the stars, mulling over something as she swirled the liquid in her glass. 'Something on your mind?', Gladiolus asked, quietly.

'Yeah…I was thinking back to Sora and Riku's exam, the Mark of Mastery', she said. 'What about it?'. Aqua looked at him with guilt. 'Sora…he would've have been made a master if Xehanort hadn't interrupted and diverted his path', she said, 'I know he says he's happy for Riku, and from what the others told me, he was humble about failing'. Looking down at the glass as she clasped both hands around it, she continued: 'I trusted Master Yen Sid's words about his shortcoming back then…yet with everything he's accomplished, he's displayed…I, I feel like we've given him little chances to make up for it…'.

Gladiolus hummed in thought as he drank his glass. 'It's been on my mind for some time since we came here. I wonder if, perhaps, the master was being to harsh on him, and not allowing him to try again…'.

Gladiolus then slammed his glass down, making her jump slightly and look at him. He gave her a stern look…as stern as the flush would allow him. 'So, he was a keyblade master, that Pen Cid guy, right?'. '…Yen Sid, but yes? He was a former master', Aqua corrected. 'But you're a master too…and you've seen what that kid can do', Gladiolus said. 'Yes? Where are you going with this?', Aqua answered, raising a brow.

Slamming his hand down on the table, he said: 'Well you're a god damn master too! So you can god damn see what he can do! Then, goddamnit *you* could judge him and put him through the exam as well!'. Aqua blinked and said: 'B-But Gladio-

'NO! You don't pull the whole "I'm not qualified master" crap! You've done your share of heroics right? You've beaten dozens of monsters right?', he asked. Aqua paused and looked at her glass, frowning. 'Yeah…I did…', she mused. 'And who was the one who delayed Xehanort's plans and beaten Terra-Nort on her OWN!?', he questioned. 'I did!', Aqua said, looking at him. 'AND WHO THE HELL WAS THE ONE WHO SURVIVED TWELVE GOD DAMN YEARS IN THE REALM OF DARKNESS!? ALONE!?'.

' *I* damn well did!', Aqua shouted, slamming her fist on the table. 'Damn straight you did! So if there's anyone who's got the GOD DAMN right to decide if Sora is ready to be a master, I'm looking at her!', he declared. 'You're god damn right!', Aqua said, 'I *am* a master! And if I want, I'LL supervise his exam!', Aqua stated with utter drunken confidence. She stood up, glass up high as Gladiolus joined her, grinning at her with pride.

'As a keyblade master! I swear on my name, I will make Sora a master! And if anyone has a complaint, they can take a hike!', Aqua declared. Grinning at her boyfriend, they clinked glasses, proclaiming: 'TO MAKING A MASTER!'.

They chugged their drinks down instantly, then slammed the empty glasses on the table. As wild energy rushed through Aqua, she was panting from the extreme proclamation as Gladiolus gave her a wonderous look.

'…do you realize how hot you look right now?', he asked. Aqua panted, grinning at him before she suddenly tackled him to the bed, laughing away.

Least now they had energy to burn off…

*Powerplant*

Running up the building, covering in a faint pinkish light, Kairi jumped off the building's roof once her foot touched the edge of the roof. Leaping to one of the long power towers, she ran up it until she reached the top of it. Taking one more breath when she closed her eyes, she leaps off the tower and dived down towards the ground.

Kairi could feel the magic coursing around her, her mana grew, and power surged within her as she dived down. She then started to run down the tower, the pink light glowing more prominently before he leaped off the tower with a front flip and landed on her feet, planting her hand on the flat surface and blasted a wave of magical energies that covered ten feet. Kairi stood up and turned to see Sora leaping from the rooftop and landing right in front of her.

He gave her a massive smile of approval as he clapped his hand. 'See? I knew you'd get immediately!', he praised with glee. Kairi smiled back in equal giddiness as she hugged him, thanking him for giving her late-night lessons. Since him showing her Flowmotion, the two teens had finally some time and plenty of buildings to practice it. It took time, of course, some falls, trips and of course some collision issues that had Sora not been healing and carrying potions, the girl would probably be hospitalized.

Finally, after some tumbles and missteps, she managed to grasp the power and not only could she perform it to near perfection but she managed to absorb some of the magic to replenish some of her own. When they broke the hug, Sora gestured she follow him before he sprinted off using the Flowmotion. Chasing him with her own, the two were like beacons of light within the darkness of the town, bodies covered in blue and pink as they danced over the buildings, the town their playground.

They managed to reach their room on the second floor with them leaping through their window and rolling onto the floor.

After, they both laid in bed together, tired and ready to sleep. Wrapping his girl into a loving embrace, no longer shy about being this close in bed with her, he kissed her forehead. Kairi looked up at him lovingly, his thumb gently brushing against her cheek. 'You never cease to amaze me, Kai', he said lovingly. She giggled as her cheeks turned red, snuggling into him as she wrapped her arms and legs around him.

'I'm going to miss this…', she mused, 'Being able to sleep this peacefully with you'. Gently Sora cupped her chin and raised it to look at him. 'Don't say that I'm not going anywhere', he promised. 'We're gonna win this, save Lunafreya, and help Noct reclaim his throne'. The confidence in his voice brought a wonderful smile to her face, her fears subsided into the corner as she kissed him on the lips.

As the light of the room faded and slumber slowly took them, she uttered one more sentence before sleep to them.

'I love you…'.

A/N:

The final chill chapter before Altissia…oooh boy this took time.

Next time we see our heroes, they're making their ways to the city of water, what sort of plans does the empire have for them? Can they fulfill their promises to each other? One way to find out~

Questions!

Q1: Did you enjoy the chill chapters?

Q2: How did you find the couples in this chapter?

Q3: Excited for Altissia?

Q4: Can you guys guess how they're gonna sort out the yacht size issue?

Q5: Did you enjoy Sora and Kairi's moments in this one?

Thanks for reading, as always stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	35. Chapter 35

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 35

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

*Lestallum, morning*

'She knew about other worlds?', Gladiolus huffed, a mixture of surprise and amusement in his tone as he pushed in the last crate of supplies into the trunk Wayfinder II.

'Yup, apparently eavesdropping is a thing with her', Riku remarked, running a hand through his silvery locks, 'And there I was thinking we were doing a good job keeping it all a secret'.

As the morning sun rose up, the party had arisen early to prepare for the journey to Cape Caem after organizing the supplies. Ignis on the phone with Cid near the Regalia to inquire more about the yacht among other things that may need addressing while Sora and Noctis were packing up the car with what'll they'll be needing to keep in the car or within their shared pocket dimension.

Aqua, with Prompto and Kairi, is cleaning out the Wayfinder II for any wrappers or messes they might have made. With their next bit of the journey is mostly taken care of for now they decided to give the car a good clean out before they would leave it with Iris and the group. 'I'm going to miss her', Aqua said, giving the hood a gentle rub, 'She's served us well the past few months'. It was odd she had grown so attached to the vehicle, but strangely it was like her keyblade to her. An ally that's helped her out and provided some comfort to their journeys.

A part of her truly pondered if she could just buy this off Cindy at this point.

'Hey fellas, I've just been wondering but uh, do you think the King's vassal is gonna be big enough to hold everybody?', Goofy asked, looking at the prince in question. This made Noctis frown in thought when he did a headcount and realized the captain had a very good point. Yet Sora just grinned. 'Don't worry, I think I got an idea for that', he assured as he closed the trunk. 'Of course, you do…', Noctis muttered with an eye roll.

'I believe everything is in order then?', Ignis asked, putting his phone away. A choir of "yes" and "uh-huh" was the response, with that everyone got into their respective vehicles, everyone wishing a safe journey to everyone while Sora and Kairi hopped on their chocobos, opting to give Donald and Goofy a break from constantly riding the birds. Iris had to leave much earlier in the morning, saying she had something important to take care of before they sailed.

Together the party of ten drove off to leave behind Lestallum for the final time…

*Cape Caem, mid-afternoon*

Arriving at the lighthouse, much more work was being done upon arrival.

Firstly, a near tearful farewell to the chocobos from Prompto and Kairi, ruffling their feathers and thanking them for all their hard work proving traveling for the group. Both making promises to visit them when they returned and Kairi swearing to bring more of those greens they like to eat. Next Aqua handed over the keys to Dustin, the Crownsguard watching over Iris and company, with the assurance that the car will be returned to her when they return from the city of water.

Once they had their transports taken care of with the Regalia being parked outside their base of operations, the party had gone to the lighthouse. The old engineer Cid was waiting for them, waving at the group before getting up from his chair. 'Hope ya'll are ready to get your feet wet, it's gonna be a long drive there', he warned. Noctis nodded with a scoff, 'Better now than never'. Cid smirked at him but before they ventured down to the tower, Aqua stepped up. 'Cid, before we go down, I would like to ask if your daughter has said anymore word about the ship?', she inquired.

Cid looked at the blue head for a moment before she said: 'It is just, we haven't heard a word from her since we agreed to the payments, that's all'. Cid chuckled lightly, adjusting his hat before he said: 'Well darling, I've got good news and some bad news for ya'll'. The group looked at one another with mixtures of worry and apprehension before Donald crossed his arms and looked at the man. 'And what are they?', he questioned.

'Good news got your ship working again', he revealed. There was a collective cheer and sighs of relief from the group, more so from Donald, lowering his arms as he slumped in relief. Then Goofy frowned. 'But if she fixed the ship, then what's the bad news?', he asked.

'Oh simple, she and the ship are gone'.

'…what?', Aqua whispered, eyes wide as everyone gave Cid a look that just screamed: "we're screwed". 'Yup, according to one of her workers, on their way to check on her, they saw your ship taking off and leaving this place. Likely my daughter got a bit too curious with the ship and pressed a few buttons your feathered friend over there told her not to touch'.

'S-So…what you're saying is…Cindy accidentally blasted off into space…and left us stranded here', Riku said calmly. 'In a nutshell, aye', Cid said with a sigh. 'Well, that's the situation at any rate, when ya'll manage to pick your jaws off the ground come on down and we'll get ya set up for the ride'. Without another word, Cid turned and proceeded to use the elevator to go down, leaving the team to stand there in complete dismay and shock.

'WE'RE STRANDED!?', Donald bellowed, grabbing his head and hopping up and down in fury, 'WAK! I knew we shouldn't have trusted that woman to fix our ship!'.

Sora gave Riku and Kairi an equally worried glance as the redhead clasped her pearl necklace and Riku crossed his arms, baffled. 'This just keeps getting better and better…', he muttered. 'So, what's gonna happen now?', Gladiolus asked, looking at the six, 'You guys have a backup plan?'. Riku shook his head as did Aqua. 'Not unless Cindy finds a way to guide the others to this world, we're trapped here', she explained. 'What about the Star Shard?', Noctis suggested, 'Or did you even start again to fix it?'.

'I…gave it up', confessed the woman with a sigh. 'I hate to say it but, unless Cindy does get into contact with the others, we're not going leaving this world any time soon'. With one more heavy sigh, Aqua tiredly chuckled, 'I guess it doesn't matter now, we've still got to help with Xigbar anyway'.

'Yeah', Riku agreed with a nod, 'Maybe once we settle things with him, we'll figure out a way back home'. 'I sure as heck hope that Xehanort guy can wait…', Prompto said with a weak chuckle. The team of other worlders looked at him, before malicious smirking. 'Hey look, a silver lining! Wasting Xehanort's time!', Kairi giggled. A collective chuckle among the group, lightening up their situation before they all journeyed down the elevator.

As the old machine roared to life and descended, the team took the time to ponder how far their journey had taken them, now realizing they were one step closer to reuniting Lunafreya with Noctis. Many thoughts ran through their minds, some thinking of the experiences they had from this journey good and bad, some thinking of what they learned and how they grew from this experience. Some even taking note of finding another to find comfort with, to share stories with and new friends that found themselves a special place within their hearts.

Sora looked around at the team, the biggest group he's ever been a part of, the adventures here will forever hold a place in his heart. But with joy comes pain, and deep within he knew on the day he and the others finally find their way off this world, saying goodbye to Noctis and his company would be harder than any other world he had to leave, possibly more so than he did back at Twilight City.

He felt a warmth in his hand and when he looked, he sees Kairi smiling at him, comfortingly. His smile came back as he held her closer to him, taking notice of how this journey had brought them closer than ever. A sense of confidence he had for her that he knew wasn't entirely set in stone before all this, now he sees her standing by him as a fellow wielder of the keyblade. Warmth spreading from his heart when he thought back to those nights with her, holding her close, sharing stories and going on this adventure with her, something they wished for so long ago.

Gently he wrapped one arm around her, allowing her to rest against him and close her eyes. Glancing at everyone else, he sees Donald and Goofy giving the boy approving smiles and nods, his two longest companions knew this was coming for a long time he guessed.

When the elevator arrived, they all exited it except for Sora and Kairi, the girl smiling at him and planting a kiss on his cheek. 'Time to make sail, Captain Sora', she teased, recalling their raft. He laughed happily and with her hand intertwined with his larger one, the two walked out of the elevator.

The room they found themselves in was quaint and there docked was the royal vassal waiting to take the prince to the watery city. Cid was standing by the sliding doors leading to the vassal, nodding to the party as they all gathered up. Looking at the transport, more than ever Goofy's words about space had certainly gained more weight. Even if they were just transporting themselves over, the spaces were minimal and likely uncomfortable.

Ignis hoped Sora had a plan for it.

'Ship's all ready to get going, anyone of you can drive a yacht?', Cid asked, looking at the advisor. Everyone glanced at the man, who nodded. 'I've the basic understandings of the vehicle, we'll manage', he assured. 'Good, because we worked our asses off fixing her', Cid warned, tossing him the keys.

Ignis smirked in response to the warnings, then Prompto patted his back. 'No worries Cid, Iggy here will treat that yacht-like the Regalia, his baby!', he promised. Cid chuckled lightly, but then Kairi stepped forward. 'Cid…about Cindy…', she started, wringing her hands nervously. 'We're sorry we-

Cid held his hand up, stopping the princess. 'Little lady, apologizing ain't gonna magically bring her back down to earth', he said. Kairi opened her mouth but quietly closed it as he adjusted his hat. 'My daughter's a smart one, she'll figure out something. Who knows, maybe she'll find a world with ships like yours'. This made everyone glance at each other worriedly, before Kairi turned back to Cid to see a smug look on his face. 'Surprised I know about other worlds?'.

'Y-You knew?', Kairi said.

'Aye young lady, I knew the moment I looked at ye, and no, not those two', he said, gesturing Donald and Goofy. The two gave everyone a sheepish look, in hindsight, it was a miracle nobody questioned them, to begin with. 'Then how did you know we weren't from around here?', Riku asked. Cid shrugged, 'None of your business'. With a smirk, the mechanic nodded to them and headed up back to the surface, leaving the gang to their devices.

Once the elevator went up, the group frowned with the shield muttering something unwholesome about Cid. 'Sheesh, we're really screwing up on the whole Order thing we're trying to keep safe', Riku huffed. 'First you guys, then Iris, and now Cid?'. 'To be fair', Ignis butted in, 'You told us, I feel like we don't count in that regard'. Sora gave everyone bar Donald and Goofy a grin. 'And you were worried *we'd* spill the beans!'. Donald and Goofy snickered as Riku glared at the boy, Kairi, however, flicked the older teen's ear. 'He's got a point, Riku', she teased playfully.

'Oh? I don't think you're in any position to tease Riku', Aqua said with a smile, 'Remind me Kairi, how exactly did we get to this world?'. Kairi opened her mouth but then upon recollection of how they did, she wisely closed her mouth and cleared her throat, a hue of red coating her cheeks. 'Smart girl', Aqua praised with sass, then she turned to the yacht, then to Ignis. 'Are you sure you know how to drive it?'.

'I'm sure I can manage it', he promised, 'All we're doing is just going to Altissia, nowhere else'. 'Right, but uh, how we gonna fit everyone else on board?', Gladiolus said, glancing back at the boat.

Sora just grinned.

*Later*

Out on the ocean with the yacht, by the fishing pier beneath the long bridge, the other worlders were standing on the pier while Noctis and the royal retinue were waiting on the ship. 'So, remind me', Noctis yelled, 'What was Sora's plan?'.

'I think he said he's got something for us!', Riku yelled back. 'Do you think he'll use those teacups as dinghies?', Prompto asked, cupping his hands to his mouth. The keyblade wielders blinked and looked to the two members of the King's court. 'Long story', Donald said with a shrug. Kairi frowned and crossed her arms with a pout. 'How come Sora can do all that we can't?', she pouted. Aqua smiled at her and amused look. 'Are you complaining that Sora can magically summon teacups?', she questioned with mirth.

'Yes! I wanna summon magical cups of tea too!', Kairi said. 'I…don't think its what you think is Kairi…', Riku said slowly. 'Would you put it past Sora if he could do it?', she asked. '…fair enough', submitted the master. Now suddenly in the mood for tea.

On the yacht, Gladiolus was sitting down on the couch reading again, but when he glanced up, he dropped his book in disbelief. 'Hey guys?', he said slowly. 'Yeah Gladio?', Noctis asked. 'I think Sora's back'.

All eyes fell to the large old pirate ship that just suddenly appeared from below the bridge, sailing gracefully and quickly to the yacht, the party excluding Donald and Goofy had their eyes widened and mouths opened in awe. As the ship stopped moving with the anchor falling into the ocean, Sora approaching the railings of the ship with a wave.

'A-HOY Mates!', Sora yelled, waving at the stunned party, grinning happily at them all with giddiness of a ten-year-old. Noctis looked at the ship and the boy before he just shook his head and went below the yacht without a word. Prompto, however, busied himself with taking as many photos of this ship as he could, snapping away while Gladiolus just laughed at the whole thing, at this point these strange happenstances of Sora were becoming the norm at this very point.

Ignis, more reserved and calmer, said: 'I do hope you know that ship won't fit through the passages to Altissia'. Sora replied: 'We'll figure it out! Maybe we can hop on the yacht when we get there!'. It would be a tight space for sure but luckily it wouldn't be that long. Nodding in agreement, the advisor sat in the pilot's seat and waited for the other worlders to hop on their transport. On the land, the three keyblade wielders just stared at Sora, Kairi more so.

'My boyfriend owns a pirate ship…', she mused. She then grinned before she leaped onto the yacht and then bounced off it to jump onto the ship's railings. Sora looked at her, grinning at her with a bow and extended his hand. 'Your vassal my lady', he said. Giggling at the gesture, the princess took his hand and gently hopped off the railing. 'Thank you', she cooed, kissing his cheek. The others hopped on board after, Prompto using his phone to communicate with the others as they sailed.

'Set sail for Altissia!', Sora cheered, grabbing the helm of the ship.

Together, the two vessels sailed forth to the seas…

*Lighthouse*

Overlooking the two vessels set sail for, resting against the railing, Cid let out a small grunt. 'You sure this is how you wanna do it?', he asked, not turning to face his company, 'Bet they'd be really glad to see you made it out of there'.

'The prince is in better hands now, he no longer needs an old warrior to watch over him and his brothers', Cor said sombrely, standing near Cid. The Marshal, no longer wearing his Glaive uniform, sported several new scars on his face along with his right even permanently closed due to a long gnash, his left arm severed and reduced to a stump. He wears a brown leather jacket with a black vest within it, a pair of faded blue jeans with combat boots.

'As I am now, I'm of no use to his majesty in battle, and with the state of the guard, any military plans are suicidal', Cor explained. With a shake of his head, he leaned on the railing with his arm, watching the future king and his company fade into the horizon. 'My death served a motivation to them to press onward, a loss to show them the price of victory. And if that helps his majesty, then exiling myself is a small price to pay', the former marshal said with pride.

Cid huffed in response, smiling gruffly. 'Old Reggie would be proud of you, and I'd say flattered you're doing this for his boy', Cid praised, respectfully. They both pushed themselves off the railing and shook hands for the last time. 'So, where you gonna go?', Cid asked, 'Nowhere near Lucis I'm guessing?'.

Cor chuckled ruefully. 'No, I'll head off to Galahd. Heard it's not so populated with the empire, might retire there', he revealed, 'Plus, I've a friend over there'. Cid nodded in agreement as they walked to the road, where his escort awaited him in a regular car. As Cor entered it, he gave the man a final nod and said: 'Best of luck to you, and your daughter'. Cid saluted him using the Glaive's salute as he entered the car and watched it speed off into the tunnel.

Running a hand through his old hair, Cid looked to the skies with a faint old smile. 'Hope you're watching over your kid, Reggie. He's gonna need it'.

*Ocean*

With the party using Riku's GP to communicate between the two ships, most of the party were taking some relaxation during the trip, Prompto happily exclaiming about wanting to take a trip like this for a while now as he snapped some photos of their area. 'I mean seriously, back home you wouldn't be able to things like this!', he said with awe, snapping a few photos of the ocean being kissed by the sun's rays and light. 'Out here is just us and the horizon! It's amazing! Life-changing!'.

'Yeah…totally a spectacle', Riku murmured with a yawn, leaning on the railing of Leviathan. 'Nothing but water, the horizon, water, barely anything else and oh yeah, water'.

'Dude, you could pretend to be a little excited!', Prompto said with a huff. Riku looked at the blonde boy with a raised brow. 'When you lived all your life on an island surrounded by water, come back and tell me how great this is', he challenged. Prompto huffed dramatically, saying he just doesn't appreciate nature as he does.

'Better get used to him gushing to his heart's content, Riku. It's still quite a ways from Altissia', warned Ignis, sipping an ebony. Next to him, Noctis was looking at the slowly growing land they were approaching, bouncing on his feet and rubbing his arms, nervous and anxious. Soon they'll set foot on the city of water, soon they'll be facing all manner of enemies there including the Hydraean, but most importantly, he'll reunite with Lunafreya.

Entering Altissia with it still being part of the empire, which meant walking in enemy territory despite it having its government. How much protection they could give to her and Noctis is unknown, but he had a gut feeling very little could be done for them. Not that in the end, it'd matter, if he had to take Lunafreya from the empire by fighting then Astrals help those who stood in their way. Still, he felt confident in this approach, at the very least the team would be ready for it.

'When we step off this boat, we'll be in foreign country', Prompto said with excitement and add of suspense in his tone. Saying that made Sora hummed thoughtfully. 'First times for us too when you think about it…', he said, 'I mean for the most part in every world we're always in one country…'.

'Well, this is gonna be a good experience!', Goofy said, 'First time for everything!'. 'And to think that's where we were heading when this road trip started', Gladiolus remarked, looking at the others. 'Little did you guys know you'd get caught in a whole another bag of trouble', Aqua teased, smiling at him. 'Yeah, bet none of us expected to be fighting alongside warriors from other worlds, fight monsters feeding off hearts, or the literal physical manifestation of darkness', the shield laughed.

Everyone else chuckled alongside him, Kairi saying: 'And I betcha a hundred Gil none of you expected us to carry magical keys as weapons!'. Gladiolus pointed at her with a nod, 'Nope, last thing on the mind!', chuckling.

'We've been through a lot, huh?', Noctis mused with a light smile on his face, calling back to the day he first met the boy and his friends. The good times and bad times, an experience he once believed you could never experience outside of a story. 'And there will still be more to come', Ignis reminded with a raised hand. 'Yeah, next up is Leviathan', Prompto said, turning to the driver.

'So, she's an astral, right?', Kairi asked, standing near Sora.

A few days ago, after they left Costlemark, Ignis took the time to explain the astrals to the others and their previous experiences with them. Titan and Ramuh for example, and how the rites had commenced long before they arrived in this world. Kairi and Sora having some experience with witnessing what power the possessed a long while back. 'Correct. A serpent who embodies the roar and rage of the sea', Ignis explained, 'She is both revered and feared by her people'.

'Sounds like a real pain in the neck', Donald remarked, 'And Lunafreya has to summon her?'. 'Only the Oracle can communicate with the gods, it falls to her to beseech the Tidemother to awaken from her slumber like all the astrals before her', Ignis confirmed.

'Bet loverboy here is ecstatic to see her', Gladiolus teased with a smirk. Noctis turned to him with a glare as everyone else bar the drivers of the ship. 'Come on buddy, we all know you're giddy to hold her in your arms~', Prompto said with a smirk, 'Bet you guys he's trying to figure out what to say to her first chance he sees her!'.

'Gonna have to make sure she's fine before anything else first', he said strongly, looking back to the land in the distance. 'Noct's right', Aqua agreed, 'She well-being is our top priority'. Then she lets out a sigh as she sat down on the stairs of the ship. 'It's a shame this fight is going to take place on the empire's land'.

'Do you think Lunafreya is in danger with the empire over there?', Goofy asked worriedly. 'If the empire invaded Insomnia for the ring, then very likely they will not stop short of harming the Oracle for their ambition', Ignis said with disdain. Kairi looked at the others with a frown. 'The ring of the Lucii right?'.

'Yes', Ignis confirmed, 'An item of legend that was passed down from generations of the Lucis family bloodline'. 'It allows the user to channel the power of crystal we kept in our homeland'.

'So, without the ring, the crystal is just a big rock?', Donald asked skeptically. 'In a nutshell, little buddy', Gladiolus said with huff. 'And how did Lunafreya get her hands on it?', Riku asked, 'Sounds like something the king should have right?'. 'Then maybe when Insomnia was invaded, the king must have given it to her for safekeeping for Noct', Goofy added astutely. 'That explains why the empire doesn't have it, right?'.

'Then she must have held on to that ring this whole time, all the way to Altissia', Gladiolus said with admiration. 'Just to wait for the day she can give it back to Noct', Aqua added. 'Imagine that, underneath the watchful eyes of the empire, keeping the one thing that could help them conquer the world. In her hands this whole time'.

'Between that and awakening the astrals? Man, that must have taken a toll on her', Riku said with worry. 'The ring's important, and so Leviathan…but Luna comes first and foremost', Noctis said firmly, looking at everyone. They nodded in agreement, but then as they got closer to the land Sora spoke up: 'What about Ravus? Isn't he her brother? Do you think we'll see him in Altissia too?'.

'He'd be foolish not to come', Ignis said, 'If his sister truly intends on summoning the Tidemother with the empire biting at her ankles'. 'You know you have to give him credit, for all his faults, he truly does care about Luna', Kairi said kindly, 'At least she has someone'. Riku frowned however as he crossed his arms. 'I'm not so sure on that…keep in mind he's using the darkness and it looks like he's still carrying a grudge to Noct', the silver head mentioned.

'Maybe Luna convinced him to stop using it?', Kairi suggested. 'With people like Xigbar around him likely manipulating him and using Lunafreya as leverage?', Riku asked with a scowl, 'Hardly'. Gladiolus looked to the boy and asked: 'How strong was he when he used the darkness?'. 'Let's just say it was a long while since I had to fight seriously', Riku revealed, 'And that was a while ago'. 'Likely, if we're correct, he's grown much stronger with the darkness within him. Further tempered by Xigbar's influence', Aqua said worriedly.

'He has also taken to brandishing his majesty's sword', Ignis added with a scoff. 'My dad's?', Noctis said with a growl, facing the man. 'Yes, the very same, Noct'.

'Wait a second, I thought a royal arm could only be used by Noct', Donald said looking at the group, 'How the heck is he wielding that thing!?'. 'Likely because his dad's weapon wasn't absorbed by Noct, probably looted it after he passed', Riku said with a shrug. 'But he can't use it like Noct, right?'. 'Doubtful, no matter how strong the user is. If not of the royal blood, it is no more than an ornamental at best', Ignis hummed.

'Or maybe a glorified club', Gladiolus commented.

'I wonder why he's showing it off though', Goofy said, tapping his head, pondering. 'Likely bragging?', Sora offered with a shrug, 'Maybe he's saying his strength is as strong as the power of kings?'.

'If it means gloating over the defeat of Insomnia and conquering it, then it would make a good show for the empire's military prowess', Ignis said with a curt tone. 'Hope he enjoys it while it lasts, cause after we save Luna, he's gonna give it back', Noctis promised. There was a collective noise of agreement between the party and then Aqua said: 'I have a question, did the empire try anything during the previous rites?'.

'The first one, definitely', Gladiolus confirmed, 'They tried to bring down Titan before he could give Noct his blessing, damn near succeeded too'. 'When we went for Ramuh, we got lucky and managed to avoid them catching on', Prompto said as he sat down on the outdoor couches. 'They felled a god to stop Noct from receiving its blessings, it will be a guarantee they'll strike the goddess', Ignis concurred.

'How did you guys manage to do that?', Kairi asked, 'It seems like the empire should have had a head start on crashing the party'.

'That my dear was thanks to our "guide", the chancellor', Ignis said. Kairi immediately shivered at the mention of the man as the other worlders bar the two who haven't met him frowned in distaste. 'That creep?', Donald cursed, 'What's the big idea? Isn't he supposed to be against us?'. 'While he may side with empire Donald, it seems he has an agenda of his own', Ignis remarks warily. 'Well, whatever he's after it helped us before, like calling off the army when we met Titan', pipped the blonde gunner. 'Doesn't make him any less of a creep', Noctis scoffed.

'And it feels like he's after something else…just don't know what', Gladiolus added with a growl. 'Whatever he's after it involves Noct, and ensuring he survives and reaches Altissia must play a part in his goals', Aqua says wisely. 'But let's not forget, its likely Xigbar might be in league with his schemes'. 'Think we'll see the two of them in Altissia?', Prompto asked, casually looking at the horizon.

'Wish I could say yes but given our numerous encounters with that man, it is likely he'll be there. And likely Xigbar too', Ignis said. 'What do you think Xigbar's end game is though? I mean he's stayed in this world almost as long as we have', Sora asked. 'Not sure. Perhaps Ardyn might be helping him reach a goal of his own?', Riku asked, 'But then again if Xehanort knows about this, I'm wondering if we'll end up fighting him too'.

'Or maybe he's just making sure in some screwed-up way, you guys make it off this world so that keyblade war goes through?', Noctis offers with some consideration. 'It is a possibility, given how long we've remained here, but I'm not entirely certain that's the case', Aqua argued with a degree of caution. 'Then again, even before he was a nobody, Xigbar as a human always had his own agenda'. 'Yeah, if that giant nobody was anything to go by, not to mention throwing Terra at me and Aqua', Gladiolus huffed.

He gave the woman an apologetic look when he realized his choice of words, yet she smiled back to him understandingly as she folded her arms. 'I wonder if Terra is going to be there too', she mused sadly. Everyone glanced at her with sympathy, fully aware of her history with her brother and the last time they fought. As strong as she had become since then, she would still be fighting her brother at the end of it all.

Then Prompto pipped up: 'Do you guys ever think we all think too much?'.

'Nope, never have to worry about that with Sora around', Riku teased, smirking at the captain at the helm. 'Hey! I do think!', he said with a pout. 'Thinking about a certain redhead all the time doesn't count!', Gladiolus remarked. This caused both teens to blush profusely as Sora shyly resumed manning the helm while Kairi ducked her head as the others smirked at the two. 'And what, you don't have a certain blue head on your mind often?', Noctis challenged.

This time Gladiolus went silent as Aqua giggled. 'To be fair, he's on my mind too', she confessed. The shield smirked at the prince smugly, before Aqua's smile turned mischievous. 'Like how the heck did you three sleep with him around? He snores like a chainsaw!'. This caused everyone to burst out laughing excluding Gladiolus, forgetting the two young love birds and focusing on the older couple as the man glared at Aqua with mock hurt. The master just smiled innocently as she rested against the railing of the ship.

'Yeah laugh it up! Least she doesn't have to worry about me drooling over her!', he remarked with a cruel smirk. This time everyone glanced at the now mortified master, who stammered an excuse. 'I do not drool! You're just trying to shift the tide against me!', she argued. 'Then what was that wet spot on my shoulder? Sure as hell wasn't from me!', Gladiolus stated confidently. The woman huffed and grumbled as she turned pink, everyone snickering at her.

With the tension and worries of the upcoming battle passing over them, replaced by mirth and peace, they enjoyed the silence as their journey proceeded. Prompto, however, let out a groan. 'Are we there yet?', he whined.

'Jeez, that didn't take long for you. Whatever happened to "amazing" and "life-changing"?', Gladiolus asked exasperated. 'Well yeah…but all this ocean gets kinda bland after a while, you know?', he said. 'Now try living on an island for most of your life', Kairi teased, 'Then you'll be sick of the ocean!'. As they got close to land, the two ships made turn to sail around the cliffs, Sora mostly following Ignis.

'I hope Cindy's ok', Kairi said with a sigh, 'Cid seemed so ok with her just blasting off into space'. 'Miss Aurum is resourceful, I'm certain she'll figure out how to use the Gummi Ship and promptly return home', Ignis assured. 'I wonder how Cid knew about other worlds', Sora said thoughtfully, 'I mean I get he figured out we weren't from Insomnia or wherever else he's been to, but he was right on the nail about other worlds'.

'Maybe we weren't the first ones he's met?', Aqua offered, 'The Blademaster fought Master Eraqus years ago, maybe he met Cid?'. 'I dunno, I thought your master would be super strict about keeping himself at a distance from the locals', Riku argued. Aqua gave him a thoughtful look before shaking her head. 'Maybe…'.

'So, what's Altissia like? Anyone know?', Noctis asked. 'Foreign countries seldom lend themselves to trite explanations', Ignis hummed, 'We'll see soon enough'. 'A change of scenery may do us some good', Kairi said hopefully before sighing, 'Wish it was under better circumstances'. 'Gotta agree with Kairi there', Prompto sighed.

'What do we do first when we get there?', Sora asked. 'Sorting out lodgings first, luckily Cid told me there is an old friend of his who happens to have a place we can use once we introduce ourselves to him', Ignis revealed. 'A man named Weskham, he used to work with Cid and Regis back in the day'. 'Great, what kind of place does he have?', Donald asked. 'A café of sorts, though Cid said it could also be a restaurant', Ignis shrugged, 'I believe he claims the name is "Maagho", or something along those lines'.

'Least we'll be able to sample some of Altissia's dishes when we're there', Aqua said with optimism. 'Hey specs, mind switching on the radio? Maybe just in case, something is going on before we arrive?', Noctis asked. 'Certainly, after we have our guests board', the man said. As he said this, the two ships found themselves in between cliffs with a narrow passageway with a yacht sized canal leading into Altissia ahead of them.

'I believe its time to jump ship, Captain', Kairi said with a smile, poking Sora's cheek. The "Captain" let out a dramatic sigh as he released his grip on the helm and joined the others onto the yacht. 'So how does this…', Gladiolus started but his words fell when the ship started to glow with light before slowly disappearing into nothing but air, leaving this world. 'Oh…', Gladiolus hummed.

'Hey, Sora? Where uh does the ship land exactly?', Goofy asked, looking at the boy. Casually putting his hands behind his head, he shrugged and said: 'I dunno. Back to the Caribbean maybe'. '"Maybe!?", Donald bellowed. 'That sounds incredibly careless and could potentially be harmful', Aqua chastised. 'Aww come on, I'm sure it'll be fine'.

*The Caribbean*

In a dinghy sailing the open seas of the Caribbean, Jack Sparrow stared at his compass in thought. Pondering where to go and how to get there, it was only when his world started to darken, did he frown and looked up.

Only to see the Leviathan falling from the skies.

With a startled yell and grabbed the oars of his boat and rowed for his life. Just as well for when the ship fell into the waters, a massive wave sent Jack hurling over with him being throwing off his boat and into the ocean. Resurfacing and grabbing onto the rim of his boat, he stared at the Leviathan before it disappeared into light, likely storing itself away for its owner to one day return to use it.

'…there's not enough rum in the world to deal with that boy…', he groaned out.

*Eos*

As the vessel sailed onwards with the party of ten occupying it, Ignis switched on the radio and the news. 'The government issued a statement promising the reasons behind awakening the Hydraean would be clarified in a ceremonial address', the news reporter spoke. 'Delivering the address will be Lady Lunafreya, who was previously reported dead'.

'Guess the empire kept that rumor up after all', Riku remarked. 'Isn't this her first physical appearance since Insomnia was attacked?', Kairi asked. 'Sounds like it, if the empire has been keeping her under lock and key since then', Gladiolus said with a huff.

'But does that mean she's gonna give a speech?', Prompto asked. 'Maybe to assure everyone about the rite, a good idea to stop the entire city from panicking', Riku added. 'Not much longer till we see her then', Sora said confidently.

As they rode the canal to the city, the party stared in awe of the simple majestic city that awaited them. Beautiful stone architecture greeted them with two statues on each side of the canal, the said canal above the water while being on even heights with two waters falls on each side. They passed through the building leading into the city's ocean bay, taking in the regale look the city had that surpassed almost every city the other worlders had ever seen.

Ignis drove the yacht to the pier and once they docked, everyone hopped off the ship, stretching tiredly and most were just happy to be back on solid ground.

'Finally, solid ground', Noctis said with a yawn. 'What's next?'.

'Immigration likely', Ignis said as he pocketed the keys into his breast pocket.

Following the lines and after making up some cover-up for their visit, IE leaving it to Ignis to cover for them all, they all stood on the pier, taking in the sights and locals while Prompto snapped a few photos here and there. Aqua approached a round bulletin stand and after some searches, she managed to find the "Maagho" name on an advert. 'Looks like Weskham's café is located under some building near the governor's place'.

'How are we supposed to get there?', Gladiolus asked. 'Might I suggest we take the gondolas?', Ignis recommended, gesturing to them. Before they could all agree on that, however, Goofy's ears picked up two women talking near them and the Oracle's name was mentioned. Turning his head to the two, he heard them saying something akin to a "wedding dress". 'Huh? I think they're displaying the Oracle's wedding dress somewhere in the city', he said.

'Really? Any idea where?', Noctis questioned, holding back his eager tone. The captain shook his head but Kairi said: 'Well, we can always go look before we go to Maagho right?'. It's up to Noct', Ignis said, his tone reminding everyone it was a sensitive topic to bring up. The prince, however, nodded and with a grateful smile, said: 'Sure, kinda wanna see for myself'. With the decision made, the party took a few moments to explore this city in the search for the dress.

Unlike Lestallum the city was closer to a maze of sorts with many bridges and archways leading everywhere and anywhere in the town. Much of the scenery took their breaths away and they would occasionally stop for Prompto to take pictures of them or would slow down to check out a few locals for after their battle. Some of them even recommended them to Noctis to take Lunafreya to. Soon enough they came to the store where the Oracle's dress was proudly displayed.

Standing there, much of the party looked at the dress with awe and sadness as Noctis shoved his hands in his pocket in deep thought. Looking at the wonderfully made dress and imagining his Lunafreya in it, walking down the aisle with a bouquet of her favorite flowers. While he certainly had conflicting feelings about the whole ordeal, more so marrying her for the sake of a ceasefire between nations.

Yet after watching Sora and Kairi acting all cute and lovey-dovey, Gladiolus and Aqua having that special bond between them that none could replicate, made him reconsider. When this whole thing began, he didn't even think much of the wedding after, now that he was looking at the dress, he pondered how Lunafreya must have felt. Did the empire even give her the privilege to even *see* her wedding dress, or was that simply too much to give?

Was she devastated when her wedding was called off?

Looking at the dress again, he quietly smiled to himself as the others walked ahead to give him space. A secret vow was made in this moment before he jogged after the others.

It took time for them and after Ignis reading the guidelines to the gondolas, the party found their way to Maagho at last as the day grew darker and the city's lights begin to come to life. The café, or more realistically the bar, was quaint and homely as they stepped off the gondolas, looking around. The bartender turned to them with a small wave.

'Welcome to Arccordo, ladies, and gentlemen. Cid mentioned you'd be dropping in', he greeted, his tone friendly and welcoming.

They approached the counter as he continued: 'Weskham Armaugh, as you likely have gathered. My word, you have grown little prince'. Noctis gave him a surprised look before Weskham chuckled. 'I don't blame you for forgetting me, you were just a babe at the time', he revealed, smiling softly at the party. 'Nice to meet you, Weskham', Kairi said kindly and then introduced everyone. 'It's a pleasure to meet all of you, though I wish this visit was more casual and with better tidings', he said with rue.

'If you don't mind us asking, perchance has there been word about the Oracle's whereabouts?', Ignis asked. 'Nary a peep, the empire's keeping anything relating to her grace's location under tight lips. If she even is in Altissia anyway', Weskham explained, 'But with the rite coming up everyone is scrambling for spare provisions amongst other necessities'.

'If the Hydraean is gonna be summoned, then there's gonna be havoc running amok the city', Riku spoke with concern. 'Kinda surprised Altissia is ok with doing this, even if the Oracle is the one performing the rite'.

'You and nearly everyone in Altissia has been wondering that my boy', Weskham chuckled. He then turned around to his right and with a mixture of remorse and cheer, said: 'My dear Camelia, it's been a while'.

The party turned to see two guards standing near the gondola while an older woman dressed in a turquoise suit approached the bartender. 'I've heard of your distinguished guests', she said with contempt. Immediately the party was on guard at her tone as she eyed them all with concern and judgment. Weskham ruefully chuckled at her though, as if used to it. 'I see, you've an ear for gossip', Weskham mused.

Ignoring the man's words, she turned to address the group while crossing her arms. 'I won't be wasting your time, visitors, I am Camelia Claustra', she introduced. 'The first secretary of the Arccordo Protectorate', Ignis says, clarifying her role to his friends.

Camelia looked at the man with a curt nod, obviously glad someone amongst the prince's retinue knew of her position and likely the severity of it. 'You should know we have Lady Lunafreya in our care' she revealed, her tone was uptight and defensive. 'And the empire demands we surrender her to them'.

'You have the Oracle in your safety? How?', Riku asked, 'Last time we heard she was with the empire'. Camelia ignored Riku but when Noctis looked ready to ask the same, she said: 'The Oracle had escaped their custody a few days ago. How she managed to do is unknown to me, but we have been offering her sanctuary since then'.

'Then can't you relinquish her over to our party? Surely that would alleviate some pressure off you?', Ignis offered, standing beside Noctis. 'I am loathing to acquiesce their demands unless we stand to profit, I can't just hand her over to you without the retaliation from the empire. Hence why I came to discuss terms…with the King of Lucis'. Uncrossing her arms, she turned and left with one final sentence: 'If you've a mind to talk, the come to my estate'.

Once she left with her guards, Donald huffed. 'Aww phooey! We could've protected the Oracle from anybody!', he grumbled. 'She can be oblique at times, but I can assure all of you her heart is in the right place', Weskham promised. 'If you say so', Noctis said with an exhale, 'But can I trust her?'. 'I know it might seem like she's using the Oracle as a bargaining chip, but trust me when I say she has no more love for the empire than any of you do', Weskham said, leaning on the counter, 'If you truly wish for her grace to be safe, having an ally within the city can go a long way'.

'He's right Noct, we don't wanna be arrested or kicked out of Altissia before we can help Lunafreya', Goofy said, 'I think we should go and talk to her'. Noctis looked to his advisor, who nodded in agreement to Goofy and with everyone else going along with it, the prince bids Weskham a farewell before they leave the restaurant.

*Later*

With only Noctis and his brothers allowed in, whether it was for the secretary's security or concerns over the numbers of his party, the other worlders had agreed to wait outside for them to negotiate the terms. Inside her office, Camelia sat at her desk while Noctis stood before her, his brothers waiting at the door.

'I'm glad you came to meet with me so soon', Camelia said, expressing her concealed gratitude. 'No sweat, but first things first', Noctis said, composing himself before he asked. As desperate as he is to pry into the woman's affairs, namely with the empire and just how close they were, the last thing he needed to do was make her his enemy. Especially when Lunafreya was in her care. 'Thank you for coming to meet us in person', he said with gratitude, bowing lightly to her.

'Well, Weskham didn't extend me an invitation so I extended my own. It was the very least I could do for a king', she said. 'Although circumstances have changed, both the king and Oracle are here in Altissia'. Biting back his questions about her safety and risk insulting them or worse accusing them, the prince remembered back to what the woman said about the current predicament she and likely all of Altissia was in. 'You said you have Luna in your care…doesn't that pose a threat to your nation?'.

'Is the king concerned for our relations with the empire?', Camelia asked, almost accusingly. 'No, but I am concerned about the consequences of withholding the empire's Oracle. You know as well as I they are anything but tolerant when it comes to disobedience', Noctis spoke with a calm tone, putting on his best "Ignis mode". Those days spent practicing mannerisms had finally paid off after all these years.

Camelia leans back in her chair, obviously impressed by the diplomacy the king was performing. 'You are correct in that sense. Having the Oracle under our care is a risk, one we are prepared to shed with. Whether we do so will depend on you', she explains. 'Tell me, why does the Oracle seek to awake the Hydraean?', she questions. Noctis bits his inner cheek, almost deciding to be vague and not tell her the full details of their plan but considered the fact the whole rite would take place in her nation, a mutual trust between them was needed.

'She wants to forge a covenant so I can receive Leviathan's blessing', truthfully spoken by Noctis. Camelia chuckled, almost smugly. 'The answer I wanted to hear', she confessed. 'But, king or not, it can't be just a simple affair for you to receive a god's blessing'.

Clasping her hands and resting her elbows on the desk, she said: 'I'll be frank with you, the potential chaos is what worries me. You know better what took place in Lucis with the Archean. Tell me, what happened?'.

"We fought it while everything was tumbling around us, nearly got scorched alive, crushed and that was before the empire showed up to blow shit up", the prince thought back to that hectic fight. Deciding to keep it simple and not worry her, he said: 'I met Titan and he gave me his power'. Camelia hummed, a thoughtful look gracing her aging features. 'Just like the legends. Though the empire doesn't like how that story goes', she mused.

She stood up from her seat and approached the window, clasping her hands behind her back. 'Even as we speak, the empire is mobilizing their forces. As much as I would wish for it, chaos will happen, regardless of what we do'. 'A war would occur', Noctis sighed. 'Very likely. However, I have no wish to host a war on *my* soil, empire and gods be damned', Camelia said strongly, adamant more so. 'But you don't care for the empire's losses, do you? Sounds to me you need a proxy to go against them', he said confidently.

'Very sharp of you, your majesty', she complimented. 'However, before we go into that, there is a matter I wish to discuss. So, without further ado, let us talk terms'. She turned to him. 'If you wish to hold this rite, you must ensure my citizen's safety and their evacuation'. Noctis gave her a nod and said: 'Well that goes without saying. My companions are more than happy to lend their help to your people evacuate'.

'I am pleased to hear that', she said. 'So long as my people's safety are assured and prioritized, then I have no qualms about you having the rite'. 'However, there is another matter. Once the rite has begun, I will not be accountable for what follows. You are on your own'.

Holding back that anger, Noctis swallowed his irritation and said: 'That's fine, we can handle ourselves'.

With that the deal is sealed, they shook hands and with one more courtesy bow from the prince, the royal retinue left.

Outside the four keyblade wielders looked at them as Noctis carried a frown on his face with his brothers behind him, some with an equal amount of frustration with Ignis merely frowning. 'Dare we asked how it went?', Riku asked.

'Well she's willing to allow Luna to perform the rite in return we help out with evacuating the people before it happens. Bad news? We'll be on our own with the empire and anything else that comes our way', Noctis huffed. There were some groans and sighs from the wielders before Aqua looked at them. 'Least she was honest with you', she said. 'So what about Lunafreya? Did she say where she's being kept?', Kairi asked.

Before Noctis could tell them the rest of the meeting, he paused when he sees an old familiar face behind the group. Looking behind the prince, they see the Messenger of the gods, Gentiana. Eyes still closed as he's always seen, the prince approached her as she stood before them. 'Gentiana…', he said, calmly. 'Greetings, Chosen King', she greeted, her voice soft and wistful as always. The keyblade wielders glanced at the woman in question, each of them sensing something strange about her.

The raven-haired woman then turned to Kairi with a courteous bow. 'Greetings, Princess of Light', she greets with warmth. Kairi stiffened and bowed kindly in response to her. 'I bring an invitation from her grace, a meeting between you and her', she said. Kairi looked at Noctis with surprise and guilt before turning back to her. 'S-Shouldn't she want to see Noct first?', she suggested.

'Her grace swears her time with the prince will come, but for now, she beeches you to meet her', the blind woman pleads. Kairi looked to Noctis, but he nodded. 'Whatever it is, she's asking you for a reason', he said, 'We'll see you at the hotel, ok?'.

With a nod, and glancing back to the others, each nodding, Kairi kissed Sora before she followed the blind woman into the city.

As the princess of light meets with the Oracle, the rest of the party returns to their hotel. Tomorrow the rite will commence, and the great battle of Altissia will commence…

A/N: DONE AND F***** DONE!

So much dialogue… so much exposition…I hope it was at least good! Sorry the meeting between Luna and Kairi wasn't in this chapter, this went on longer than I wanted it to and it was to help explain a few things here.

Next time the fight in Altissia will commence, what can the heroes expect from the rite, what is it Lunafreya wants to talk to Kairi about? Find out…whenever it comes out.

Q1: Did you enjoy this chapter?

Q2: What do you think of Cor's fate?

Q3: Do you guys wanna see Cindy with the trio of keyblade wielders later?

Q4: What are you looking forward to most from the fight?

Q5: Would you like more dialogue like this? (Please say no)

Q6: Did you enjoy Jack's cameo?

As always, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	36. Chapter 36

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 36

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

Following the messenger of the Oracle with trepidation in her steps, nervousness coiling within her stomach walking into secretary's estate in secrecy.

The numerous letters exchanged helped paint the Oracle in the princess's mind, yet a feeling of anxiousness still gripped her, questions piling up in her mind as Kairi said nothing to the woman in black. Despite how serene and almost gentle the woman appeared, this aura around her felt inhuman. Not darkness like she had sensed from Ardyn, but her light was odd too in a way she couldn't describe.

She hadn't uttered a word to the girl since she requested her to meet with her Oracle. On the one hand, Kairi was grateful for the silence between them to help calm her nerves, yet on the other, she felt danger was looming near her, like a pack of wild dogs slowly stalking her. The corridor they were in was devoid of any other life, not even a single guard among them which only furthered her worries. If what Noctis said was true about them being on their own when the time comes and if that Camelia woman did intend on handing over the Oracle to the empire, then Kairi would be trapped.

'She waits for thee in here'.

Kairi's train of thought was broken, looking at Gentiana facing her on the other side of the door. Glancing at the door and then back to the woman, who remained still, she presumed she is just supposed to enter it. With inhale to relax her nerves, Kairi entered the room.

Inside she was welcomed by the smells of a flower she couldn't place yet it helped soothe her nerves, the quiet felt tranquil like a library of sorts and she felt this warmth from the room. It was very spacious, almost like the hotel rooms back in the Galdin Quay just not as homely and inviting, it felt more office-like. The color schemes certainly had the secretary feel to it with the dark turquoise color, several shelves adorned with books.

Three lounge chairs with a small table in the middle of all three with a large ceramic plate of posh-looking cups and teapots.

There sitting on her lounge chair, was Lunafreya, a book delicately placed on her lap. Closing the door gently behind her as the Oracle looked up to greet her visitor with a gentle smile that magically calmed Kairi. 'You have arrived safely, I assume?', she said, her voice sounded almost like how Kairi imagined, reading her letter.

Closing the book softly and placing it on her table nearby, she stood and approached Kairi. The redhead felt this essence from her, a light that she hadn't ever felt before. It was comparable to something like Sephiroth, but where's his darkness was inhuman, Lunafreya's light felt so warm and pure, like a divinity from the heavens. Or better yet, call her arrogant some may, it was almost like her own. When she stood before the princess, Lunafreya gave her a bow. 'It is a pleasure to finally meet you face to face, Kairi', she greeted warmly.

Kairi bowed politely in response to her, saying: 'It's nice to finally meet you too, your grace'. Lunafreya smiled softly while shaking her head. 'Please, call me Luna', she requested softly, 'I believe, however short, we are more acquainted to be on friendlier terms'. Kairi smiled back, nodding, following the woman's request warmly. 'Okay then, Luna', she said, grinning. The woman's smile was warm and gentle, almost familiar to the princess.

With a gesture, she guided Kairi to the table in the room, pouring her some tea that smelled wonderful. 'I apologize for the lack of variety of consumables', the Oracle said, 'The secretary could only do so much'. 'I'm just happy we can finally meet after our little note exchanges', Kairi assured kindly as she picked up her saucer and cup. Sipping the wonderous tea quietly, Kairi could feel her worries fade away slowly and calmly as the Oracle settled in her seat.

'This is amazing', Kairi praised, 'What sort of tea is it?'. Lunafreya smiled and said: 'It's a Tenebrae brand tea, the only thing I ask for these days'. Closing her eyes, relishing the fragile peace between them before the storm of chaos that will soon unfold. Opening her eyes, the Oracle said: 'I assume you have questions for me'. Kairi quietly sipped her tea before she lowered it and frowned, wishing this meeting wasn't weighed down by the severity of their predicament.

She could sense this was indeed reciprocated with Lunafreya as her smiles dwindled to nothing but the look of an Oracle, duty taken seriously with vigilance. Kairi placed the cup down and settled her hands on her knees as the Oracle did the same. 'You know about other worlds…and you knew the old saying', Kairi stated. 'Yes', Lunafreya confessed, 'I have known about other worlds, long before you and the others had arrived at Eos'.

'But how? Other worlds are meant to be a secret', Kairi asked. 'They are meant to be. Worlds ignorant of each other, yet you have met many who knew about the outside worlds, haven't you?', Lunafreya asked. Thinking as best as she could the redhead did recall several people outside of the Organization who knew about them, a certain evil witch came to mind, a bumbling idiot, her friends and of course herself.

'I know you have not met him yourself; you wouldn't have been born around then but…I believe your master knew him', she said. 'Master Eraqus'.

Kairi was thankful she had placed the saucer and cup down on the table, otherwise, she knew she would have dropped it. 'Eraqus? As in, Aqua's Eraqus!?', Kairi gasped. 'That's right, he came to us years ago when I was a child', she revealed, putting her cup onto the table. 'W-Why? Did something happen?', Kairi asked. 'No, believe it or not, he was as he said: "Exploring our world". He came and went for the most part', she says. 'Twenty years ago, to be exact; he aided his majesty King Regis Lucis Caelum during the war'.

'The war between Lucis and empire?', Kairi asked.

'That's right. Though he was an observer for a time before he bonded with his majesty', Lunafreya said. 'He tried to stay out of it, meddling was prohibited among the keyblade masters, but he grew curious, and the more he spent time here, the more he slowly became part of the world'. 'He stayed on Eos?', Kairi asked, 'Aqua's never told us that'. 'I believe Aqua may not have much memory of her master's dalliances with other world affairs', Lunafreya giggled softly. 'He was quite secretive when it came to other worlds'.

Kairi could believe that much. As Lunafreya told her more, a thought occurred in the back of Kairi's mind, she wondered just how much her master did Aqua know about. She never talked about Eraqus before, granted she's never asked, but still even Donald and Goofy would talk about their king's adventures, Riku told them too.

From what Lunafreya told Kairi, she learned Eraqus made frequent trips to Eos, lending a hand here for Regis now and then whilst maintaining his other world status. Eight years later she finally got to meet the man from another world, along with Noctis when he was in the hospital. It was there Kairi learned how Lunafreya and Noctis first met, and almost saw a girlish smile on the Oracle's face that made the redhead grinned.

When Eraqus met them, she told Kairi he knew there was something unique about both children, what it was she didn't know back then but now it made sense to her. Eraqus told them about other worlds, more so to Lunafreya after he learned what an Oracle is, and Kairi deduced that like herself meeting Aqua for the first time, she must have forgotten about all of it, Noctis may have forgotten everything Eraqus had told him.

'When the empire took our land, Eraqus came to visit me for the last time. He offered to sprit me away to Noctis…but I could not abandon my brother to save myself. It was why I choose to remain within the empire's grip', she said. 'Then why didn't Eraqus rescue both of you? If he was as strong as Aqua says, then the empire wouldn't have been able to stop him!', Kairi questioned. Lunafreya frowned in thought before she shook her head.

'I do not hold ill to him, I know if he had nothing to lose, he would have done it so. But it was around then, he took in two apprentices that he adored as his own', Lunafreya smiled as she said this, 'Those two claimed his heart after all'.

Kairi lowered her head down, not exactly disagreeing with Lunafreya's words for certain but still. To spend that long with the empire, what sort of terrible punishment she had endured from those monsters. Did Eraqus feel remorse for his action she wondered, maybe he didn't tell Aqua this because he fear she'd blame herself for damning Lunafreya to a life under the thumbs of the empire? Frowning with pain Kairi pushed those thoughts aside. 'So that's how you knew about other worlds? Eraqus just told you?'.

'For the most part', Lunafreya said. 'I suppose he wanted to prepare me for the rites, knowing what will come in my life'. Then the Oracle frowned as she clasped her necklace. 'Yet, I remember Eraqus returned to Insomnia after meeting me for the final time…Noctis wrote the man said some, in his words: "Luna talk", she giggled and earned a snicker from Kairi, 'But then after that, Noctis never saw him again'.

Shaking her head, the woman said: 'I suppose I should feel privileged, I'm one of the very few who knew about other worlds. Revealed to me by a master no less'. Kairi nodded in agreement, a smidge jealous.

Lunafreya gave the girl a knowing smile. 'But you always knew about other worlds, because you've lived in two, haven't you?', she says. Kairi blinked in surprise, eyeing her. 'How did you know?', she says. Lunafreya smiles softly as she closed her eyes, then when she re-opened them, for a moment what Kairi saw was not the Oracle, but rather a face she had not seen in a long time. Soft blond hair that drapes across her left shoulder, rosy cheeks, and pale, pink lips.

'N-Naminé?', she gasped.

The girl smiled softly before Lunafreya's looks returned as she sat up properly, the redhead left in complete bafflement. 'How…how is she doing this?', she asked. Lunafreya placed a hand on her heart. 'That my dear requires some explanation on my part', she stated. 'Do you remember the Station of Awakening? I believe it was right when you first lost consciousness'. Thinking back to the past two months, she slowly recalled that place, surrounded by darkness with only the smallest glimmer of light shining down on her like a beacon of hope.

The murals that showed her heart, how far she had come and what it looked like on the inside. Yet the memories were vague, nothing seemed to jump out at her. Then she recalled the stone platform that carried that small light, and when she looked to Lunafreya, something within her clicked. 'That light…was yours', she said, confused but somehow understanding. 'Yes. For that moment, Naminé was able to transport a part of her heart to connect with my own', Lunafreya elaborates, 'My connection to Noctis must have somehow reached her own, and she, in turn, guided my light to you'.

'How? Naminé never did any of this before', Kairi questioned, 'Also, I always felt her in my heart before, why didn't I notice hers was in two?'. Lunafreya placed a hand on her heart and took a breath. 'Because of our light. We share a similar one that few can share, and it was passed on to me merely a few months before your arrival', she spoke. 'A light…similar between us…?', Kairi mused. 'You must have sensed it when you came in here, did you not?', Luna asked.

The Oracle slowly raised her hand and formed a sphere of pure light, her hands glowed in a golden warmth of light. Slowly after receiving an encouraging nod from the Oracle, Kairi placed her hand on hers, and then the light slowly entered her hand and trailed down her arm into her heart. The warmth of it was something she could only compare to the safety of Sora's arms; a light so pure and divine no darkness could taint it…

Her eyes widened with realization. 'Y-You're…', she gasped. 'I am one of the next Princesses of Light, the fifth', Lunafreya revealed. Kairi stared at her, unable to wrap this new vital information around her mind. 'W-When did…', she stammered, but the Oracle spoke: 'Before Noctis set off to meet me in Altissia, I felt a powerful divinity racing within my heart, and I knew it was my time to become one of the few who carry the divine light'. Placing a hand upon her heart, she smiled. 'Naminé has been helping me discover more its properties, how I can connect to those with similar lights, and even help me with forging covenants'.

'Noctis said it was supposed to be dangerous to you, is it?', Kairi asked. The Oracle nodded with a sullen look, lowering her eyes down to her knees. 'Yes…and this one will take more from me. The Tidemother's wrath will be the most destructive, her rage cannot be taken lightly'. Kairi leaned forward. 'But why? Does Noctis need her blessing?', Kairi questioned. Even a glance at the woman told the redhead she was weary and ill, the light within her was flickering weakly from all this strain.

'It is pre-ordained…for Noctis to fulfill his destiny as the Chosen King of Light', Lunafreya revealed with admiration, but Kairi heard that sadness akin to her own when she lost Sora for the first time. A pain deep within her heart that ran so deep it was practically part of her. 'For Noctis to reclaim his throne, and bring peace back to our world, he must obtain this power, and as the Oracle, I must fulfill this task'.

'But if you keep that up…then you'll…', Kairi said, unable to finish her sentence as the Oracle kept a calm smile on her face. 'I know', she sighs with serenity. 'Tell me, Kairi. If there was a way for Sora to save all worlds, but for that to happen you must place yourself in harm's way, slowly killing you, would you do it for him?'.

Kairi took out her good luck charm while thinking on the question, holding it with both hands, her thumb rubbing the smooth shell. The question was a no brainer to her, thinking on how many times Sora had put himself in harm's way for her, for others and putting their well-being above his own. The scar on his chest, all for her. 'I would do it in a heartbeat', she says, but then she looks to the Oracle with defiance. 'But I know Sora, and Noctis would sooner lose their hearts to the darkness than put those they love in harm's way'.

Lunafreya looked at her guest with eyes widened as Kairi took her hands and placed it on her charm. 'This charm represents a bond between me and Sora, that no matter where we go, what we see, we will always be a part of each other's hearts', she explained. Smiling warmly at the Oracle, 'That notebook between you and Noctis is like our charm, a small thing that keeps you connected'. Lunafreya looked at the charm in their hands, a wonderous light touched her palms and filled her with warmth. The same warmth and joy she felt when she reads her love's words, always wondering what he sounds like and how he'd react to her words.

Knowing her fate, and the fear of never seeing him again, even if it was just but a mere minute of her time she would cherish all the seconds she had to spent with him. 'I don't know about becoming the Chosen King, the astrals plans or whatever else you have to do and why…but I know that want to protect those you love, and if you're committed to this…then I want to help', Kairi offered. Lunafreya gave the girl a small grateful smile and said: 'Then be my sword, help me forge the covenant with the Tidemother'.

'I'll be your sword…but not for that reason', Kairi said with a smile. The Oracle's smile shifted into confusion before Kairi clasped her hand and said: 'I'll be your sword…so that you can see Noctis again'.

Lunafreya's face changed to surprise, then she closed her eyes and smiled, tears running down her cheeks. 'Y-you…you can't…', she sniffled, before she laughed. Kairi held her hands tighter and said: 'You've been doing this on your own for a while, but Naminé's helped you, and now it's our turn to help carry that weight, right?'. As the Oracle faced the redhead, she sees Naminé's ethereal form standing near her with a smile of her own, encouraging the Oracle to take this chance to fulfill her duty with friends by her side.

With a teary smile and nod, she whispered: 'Thank you…'.

*Later*

Camelia had arrived sooner than Kairi thought, and likely behind the imperials were just waiting for her to leave the room so that they can "escort" the Oracle to the temple of the Tidemother.

Standing beside Lunafreya like a sworn guardian would, Kairi kept her face neutral and passive as Camelia had started to speak with Lunafreya. The old woman certainly gave the princess a look that said, "You shouldn't be here", but the princess refused to cower underneath a withering glance such as hers. Angry Aqua is far more terrifying, and that was just from observing her when *you're* not under it.

Regardless of the third (fourth courtesy of Ghost Naminé) addition to this meeting, the secretary resumed the discussions between her and the Oracle. As the redhead predicted, like Noctis, the woman is mostly concerned with the well-being of her citizens and while again she may have no love for the empire itself, getting directly involved was out of the question. She tells the two that Noctis and the others had agreed to the terms of protecting the people, and assurance to the Oracle she will still be able to perform the rite after her speech.

'If worse comes to worst, you can always threaten to throw the trident into the sea. Then they'll listen', Camelia offered, her tone neutral like Kairi expected. 'In the meantime, it will be well guarded'. Then she glanced to Kairi subtly but just enough for the keyblade wielder to see her unimpressed and condescending look. 'Better than the Oracle herself', she said glancing back to Lunafreya. Holding back her frown Kairi said nothing.

'If only she knew you could take on every guard under her command and still kick their keisters~', Naminé giggled, winking at the redhead.

'Rest assured, next to Noctis' Crownsguard, I cannot think of anyone more suited to escort me to the temple other than Kairi', Lunafreya said coolly and proper like the royalty she is. 'I will reclaim the trident at the altar'.

'Just remember, you will be under imperial watch', Camelia reminded while adjusting herself on the chair. 'Of course,', Lunafreya says. 'Think of it as a necessary evil to forge the covenant', Camelia said, looking at her hands as if the whole ordeal was a nuisance. The princess despised how casual in indifferent the woman is acting, especially when she is playing with Lunafreya's safety and the risks of what the empire is willing to take is not a laughing matter. Yet Lunafreya merely bowed her head and said: 'We are in your debt'.

'Thank you for putting us back in the hands of the empire', Naminé ridiculed, scowling at the secretary. Having an ethereal former nobody certainly had its perks Kairi was noticing. Raising her head to face the secretary, Kairi could see the will of the Oracle had grown stronger, eyes resolute with determination. 'Once it's over, you may go as you wish. But you do so without our protection', Camelia warned.

'So be it', Lunafreya confirmed, 'If all goes well, I will find myself in the party of King Noctis and his party'. "It *will* go well". Kairi thought strongly, pushing down her anxiety over the ordeal. Bowing slightly to the Oracle, Camelia got off her chair saying: 'Then you had better be going. Your public awaits'. Without another word the woman leaves the room but no sooner did the doors close on her, it bursts open again and storming into the room were the imperial soldiers.

Kairi almost summoned her keyblade in retaliation but Naminé shook her head quickly, halting the princess of light from doing anything reckless. As the soldiers surrounded the two, one soldier aimed at Kairi with the full intent of putting her down. 'She is my guardian, and is not to be harmed', Lunafreya declared with fire in her eyes. 'You will treat her as you treat me during this escort, and if any harm comes to her by your hand, the consequences will be far worse than whatever his Radiance can do'.

The soldier aiming at Kairi slowly backed off, lowering the gun only slightly to her stomach as the others kept their weapons trained on the Oracle, slowly standing up. With confidence in her stride, she pushed the gun trained on her aside and spoke: 'Kairi, we are going'. Without a word Kairi followed closely by her side, her fears quelled for now as she followed the woman in virgin white. As her heart beats softly with her friend's showing in her mind, she strode with the Oracle confidently.

*Outside the Altar*

Nervously pacing in the middle of the gathering of people just outside, Sora was clenching and unclenching his fists whilst Noctis is talking on the phone with the others. 'You guys in position?', Prompto asks. 'Yeah, but unless we hear from Kairi I think Sora's gonna go off looking for her…and maybe tear the city apart before the Tidemother shows up', Noctis informs, glancing at the antsy looking younger boy.

'Tell him to not forget the plan', Gladiolus says, 'Everyone else is already waiting for all this to get started'. 'Same to all of you', Noctis said back with a smirk. 'Of course,', replied Ignis, 'But you mind yourself, you'll be in thick of it all'. 'Just as well I'm bringing back up', Noctis says with confidence. He hangs up after and looks to the boy still pacing, running a hand through his spiky locks. Despite retaining a calm form in that he was just standing and waiting, Noctis isn't going to pretend Kairi's absence didn't worry him to a degree, not Sora's mind you.

He trusted Gentiana to just bring Kairi to Lunafreya certainly, but he hoped she'd bring her back as well. Or even if there is a need, which given the empire's record is an understandable precaution, she could at least let the girl give them a warning. They gave her their numbers for a good reason after all…

'Where is she?', Sora asked, talking to himself, crossing his arms. He yanked out his phone to see if she messaged him or left a voice mail but all he could see was a blank screen with nothing missed. Furthering his worries. He felt a pat on his shoulder and looked to see Noctis gesturing the altar. 'I'm sure she's fine, right now we've got bigger things to look out for', he said, gesturing the large crowd. Sora opened his mouth but then sighed in defeat as he shoves his phone back into his pocket and followed Noctis.

Swimming through the ocean of people to get close and blend in at the same time, the prince and wielder of the key found themselves in the middle of the sea of attendees just in time to see the people applauding with cheers ringing from them.

Walking towards the podium with the grace of a queen, there was Lunafreya. Trailing close behind her was Kairi, eyes fixed on her charge while her face was as passive as it could be. Sora looked at Kairi with relief in his eyes, seeing no harm had befallen her and judging from the lack of imperials they were for now safe. He looked to Noctis to see the utter relief in his own blue eyes, fixed on the woman on the stand with warmth.

'Dear friends,', greeted the Oracle, the cheers silencing out of respect. 'I stand before you today with little hope the words, I speak…shall reach beyond these walls'. She paused for a moment, either to prepare herself for she must say next or to give the people a chance to prepare for what is to come forth. As she did, Noctis and Sora quickly though subtly snuck deeper into the crowd to get closer to the girls.

'For slowly, but surely, the Light fades from our world', Lunafreya reveals, her voice was so powerful, yet the sadness was not going unnoticed. Sora could feel the emotion she was trying too hard to convey to someone, to give assurances to those where she had none of her own. 'And as it does, the shadow shall loom ever longer until all succumbs to the darkness', she says. This made the boys look at each other before Noctis mouthed "heartless" to the boy, yet Sora shook his head, uncertain.

The Oracle clasped her necklace as she finished that sentence, eyes closed as she composed herself. Behind her, Kairi kept herself in control and it tested her will to not run out and hug the poor woman. The world didn't need to see their beloved Oracle to be afraid or wither away to a whimpering pup, they needed to see there is hope for the world despite this terrible darkness that threatened their world. 'Darkness that evokes terror, hatred, and sorrow within the hearts of man', she continued.

The ashes of Lucis…', she says, and for a moment all could hear the heartache within it. She looks to see Noctis, addressing that pain to him as his own eyes go softer and showed her his grief, his pain. Composing herself, Lunafreya continued: 'A dream of peace twisted into a nightmare of death and destruction, claiming innumerable lives and leaving a myriad of souls to suffer'. The Oracle fought back those memories; on the day she bore witness to the fall of Insomnia.

The lives lost, both in service to the king and those of the common folk, the destruction of a peaceful city. The falsehood of peace forsaken for lust of power, greed consuming the heart of a once-loved emperor. The lives given to save hers, the duty to carry the burdens of the father to give the wayward son his legacy. She nearly sheds a tear of that memory but swallows her pain. 'Yet, I beg you, do not surrender to despair', she pleaded.

Thinking back to Kairi's words, and one look at the chosen wielder of the keyblade before her, the embers of hope slowly kindled and grew within her heart. 'Have faith, for the gods that watch over us', she says, looking at her people, 'By their blessings, by the Stars that light the heavens above, our world will be delivered from the perils of the dark'.

Clutching the sides of the podium, she glances at her people with faith renewed. 'I stand before you here, in Altissia, to call upon Leviathan, Goddess of the Seas, spirit of the deep. By the sacred rite, I will commune with the Hydraean', she declares. Many of her people looked to one another, whispers of concern about invoking the Hydraean and likely facing her wrath. After what Titan was capable of back then, Noctis couldn't fault the people's worries or fears about their home becoming a watery ruin.

'But first, I offer you my solemn vow', she speaks, silencing the worries of the people for a moment. 'I swear, on my honor as Oracle, I will not rest until the darkness is banished from our world and the Light is restored'.

The people cheered her name, praises and prayers sang for this woman. Their faith in her strengthened, their hearts one with her plight. Yet despite the vast amount of people before her, Lunafreya's eyes locked with the one person they desperately wanted to see for so many years, and there within the crowd next to the warrior of light, she sees him. Noctis stares at her as he unknowingly sheds a tear for her, her voice reaching his heart.

With a nod and a smile that only Noctis would ever be blessed to receive, she uttered "Bless you all" for one more time before she turned to the altar as her people prayed for her. Noctis took a deep breath to calm himself, he turned to see even Sora's cheek was wet with a tear of his own. The boy, however, had his eyes not on the Oracle but his divine light herself. As the Oracle passed Kairi, she glanced back to Sora with a smile.

Gently she lifted her Oathkeeper, reminding him of the promise between them. With a nod and a thumbs up from the girl, Kairi turned to follow the Oracle.

Slowly the crowd starts to disperse, in time for Noctis to receive a phone call from Ignis. He nods quickly and says something that Sora didn't hear. 'Its time', Noctis declared. Sora looks at him then to the skies to see a plague of imperial ships looming over the city of water.

Sora and Noctis turned to the armada of ships coming in. 'Iggy says they're closing in on the docks', Noctis warns. 'What about the civilians?', Sora asks, not taking his gaze off the ships. 'They others got them covered…', Noctis assures, 'We've just got to do our part, I'll find a vantage point to wait for Leviathan'. Noctis turns to Sora. 'You sure you got this?'. With an affirming nod, Sora summons his keyblade. 'Leave those ships to me', he says confidently.

No more words exchanged between the two, Noctis quickly made his way out of the crowd while Sora ran to his task at hand…

*Altar*

As Kairi stands near one of the stone arches, she listens to the wonderful voice of the Oracle singing to the Leviathan, trident held in her hand as she sings to the beast. In her hands is the Oathkeeper keyblade. As the Oracle's wonderful song comes to an end, a distorted voice rang out. Kairi flinched in pain from the intensity of the voice, it was audible gibberish of all things that rang so loudly in her head it made her fear it'd split her skull in half.

'What fool mortal dares break the slumber of the Tide!?', the goddess of the seas bellows, only for Lunafreya to understand. Standing tall, the Oracle proclaimed: 'It is I, Lunafreya, blood of the Oracle! Goddess of the Seas, I beseech you: enter this covenant that the King might reclaim the Stone!'.

There is a silence before a massive torrent of water rockets from below, sailing through the torrent high into the sky is the Goddess of the Seas, Leviathan. She was gigantic, Kairi would even say she could stretch from Insomnia to possibly Hammerhead with how long she is, her large fins splashed small tsunamis across the place. Leviathan unleashed a screech that shook the ground and nearly knocked Kairi off her feet, yet Lunafreya didn't so much as flinch from the soundwave.

As the Goddess loomed over the two princesses of light, it spoke once more to the Oracle: 'This wretched pile of bone and flesh, ignorant of that which governs All, comes to requisition the might of a goddess?'. The condescending arrogance in the beast is not unexpected, the Oracle knew the beast's views on humanity was low, to the point of pure utter disdain for them. Yet she stood firm. 'I do', she answered.

Surrounding the Leviathan were four airships, just as Noctis ran down a corridor to find a vantage point get a view of the beast. On his phone conversing with the others. 'Noct, the rite has begun! The Hydraean has awoken!', Aqua said into the phone. 'And the civilians?', he asked as he turned a corner.

'Me and Gladio have just gotten them onto the escape vessels, we're making our way through the city now!', she explained. 'Great, everyone else?', he asked. 'Riku and I are nearing the docks right now, we've encountered a squadron of magiteks, delay inevitable!', Ignis answered. 'Got it. Prompto?'.

'We're in a fight, but we'll catch up!', assured the blond. 'Where's Kairi and Sora?', he asked. 'Kairi's with Luna, probably acting as a bodyguard for her!', Noctis said, 'Least Luna's got some protection while we deal with the empire!'. 'And Sora?', Goofy asked. 'Doing what he does best, gotta go!'.

Noctis ran on after hanging up his phone and in time to run into two soldiers. They aimed the prince only for Noctis to warp strike one by plunging two daggers into its chest. Appearing in a blue light whilst stabbed into the false excuse for a human, he yanked out a dagger and tossed it at the other's head, piercing the bucket helmet and killing it. Jumping off the dead soldier he ran onwards.

Running around a corner and out to the balcony of the building, Noctis sees three soldiers rushing towards him. 'Don't have time for this!', he grunts before summoning the Sword of the Tall and rushing in.

With one cleave he smashed the blade into a soldier and sent it flying off the balcony before he warp struck the other, utterly ripping it apart like it was made of paper. He warped to the top of the pillar to get away from the firing shots of the remaining soldier. He flipped off the pillar and summoned his spear whilst he was over the soldier in the air. Landing back on his feet behind the slow soldier, Noctis pierced its torso with one thrust of his spear.

Dismissing his weapon to run on into another corridor, he warped past three soldiers that tried to ambush him. When he was five feet from them, he flings a magic flask of lightning at them before proceeding to run on ahead to strike down more soldiers. The flask exploded behind him and decimated the soldiers as he summoned his engine blade to hack and slash his way past the soldiers, tearing their mechanical bodies to pieces and reduce them into scrap metal.

Running outside the building back onto another balcony, he sees the Leviathan in its full furious glory, arching backward to let out a loud shriek from its mouth.

'What does a lowly, ephemeral speck know of All Creation!?', the goddess roars. She swings her head towards the Oracle, destroying the pillars and archway above her. Yet Kairi quickly stepped in and erected a barrier around the two of them to shield the Oracle from harm. As the rocks fell and the goddess stood tall once more, Kairi dismissed her barrier but refused to leave Lunafreya's side. The Oracle stood firm, stomping the end of the trident into the ground.

'I know what you must know- that the King of Kings is to drive the darkness from our star!', Lunafreya challenged.

Leviathan, however, is unmoved by this woman's claims as large balls of water formed near her. They burst into large spikes of water and charged towards the two. Kairi erected the barrier again but the force behind the water spikes broke her barrier instantly, splashing them both with the force of a speeding car. On her knees with the trident supporting her as Kairi staggered to get back to her feet, Lunafreya coughed out the water that spilled into her mouth before, weakly, she rose to her feet in pain.

Her dress torn on her left with the straps of her left were nearly reduced to rags with a large red mark on her shoulder, Kairi only getting a single cut across her cheek. Her clothes were more durable and only suffered watermarks from the Goddess' wrath. As they stood together against the Leviathan, the Goddess bellowed: 'Blasphemous ingrates, all men, quick to forget the ages their goddess stood watch!'.

Stepping forward to the spot she stood before though with her pain escalating, Lunafreya glared at the Goddess. 'It is in receiving mercy that men offer praise, and shedding grace that the gods solicit worship', she says.

'Yet this profane speaks her "King" heresies before a goddess! Insufferable sacrilege!', she roared. Leviathan reeled her body back and then charged towards the altar with her massive mouth wide opened. She closed her jaws upon the altar with Lunafreya and Kairi still standing on it. Then a golden light shined like a pillar from the Goddess, and with the Oracle crying the Tidemother's other name, a blast of light threw the Goddess of the Seas off the pillar as if she was struck by Titan's fist.

Standing proud with light cloaking her body, Lunafreya stabbed her trident into the ground again. 'I vow the King will prove himself worthy!', she cried with confidence.

The Tidemother raised herself to glower and tower at the two, yet she would not strike again. 'If not, then the Feasting shall begin, and it shall not end until every speck is devoured!', she declared. Leviathan then lets out a roar as lightning boomed from the gather clouds in the sky, her power skyrocketing as she looked at the two.

'So let the covenant be forged. Heaven and Earth, High and Deep, Birth and Return…', she says. Saying all this, tidal waves that reached as high as the airships in the sky surrounded the city, trapping all who dared to remain within her arena.

With Noctis, he ran up the stairs to get high enough to see what was transpiring before he received a phone call from Goofy (they bought everyone a phone after meeting the secretary) and answered. 'Noct! Prompto's heading your way now!'. 'What? Wait a second, what about you and Donald?', Noctis questioned as he reached the top.

'We'll wait for him, there was only room for two!', answered the captain. The call then shifted to Prompto who shouted: 'Noct! JUMP!'. 'W-what!?', Noctis said as he reached the rendezvous point. 'No time for questions just DO IT!'.

Trusting in his friend, Noctis used one of the stone benches to step onto the stone railing and then leaped off it with a yell.

As the prince fell, he suddenly landed on something that was speeding into the air and when he looked, it is being piloted by Prompto, sporting a grin mixing with excitement and fear. 'What the hell is this supposed to be!?', Noctis asked Prompto and he zoomed. 'A little ride we "borrowed" from the Niffs! It's gonna help us get close!', Prompto explained quickly as they flew towards the serpent of the sea.

They flew through a neighborhood and its streets as a small watery form of the Leviathan flew towards them. Noctis summoned the Blade of the Mystic and blocked its watery jaws before slicing it in half mouth to end. As Prompto flew them out of the neighborhood while Noctis struck down more of the watery clones of the Goddess, soon they reached the astral. 'LOOK OUT!', Noctis shouted as Prompto nearly drove them into her mouth.

Prompto yelled and quickly turned them as hard as he could to escape becoming the first meal the Goddess had had in however long she slept. Up high just reach the Goddess' face, Noctis summoned his sword and with one more wish of good luck from his best friend, Noctis warp struck to the Goddess.

Prompto quickly escaped with only a few watery serpents on his tail, leaving Noctis to face the Goddess alone. Standing on her blue skins right below her eye, Noctis cried: 'Leviathan! I need your power!'.

Despite the desperation in his voice, the Goddess refused to hear his pleas as she threw him off her head, throwing the prince back into the ruined city. Noctis slammed onto a rooftop, bouncing off it and tumbled down onto an awning and then fell to the street with a thud. Gasping from the shock of the pain and disorientating the attack, he rolled onto his back to catch his breath before he stumbled back onto his feet, glaring at the water monster.

Over to Kairi and Lunafreya, the latter still trying to beseech the Goddess to lend the King of Kings her power while Kairi just watched helplessly. She attempted to heal the Oracle, but the woman refused her aid, stating she would need to conserve her magic for the battles ahead of them despite the agony she endured.

Kairi looked behind them to see black ink holes starting to pool around the pathway leading to the altar they stood on. Slowly neo-shadows began to pull themselves out of the darkness. Lunafreya turned to see them with a gasp, but Kairi quickly stepped in front of her, Oathkeeper in hand. 'Leave them to me, you look out for Noct', Kairi yelled. Kairi ran down the steps and slashed two shadows that tried to rush her, meeting Oathkeeper for a moment before oblivion.

When she cleaved a shadow in half, the princess saw an empire ship floating towards the Goddess, preparing to fire those lines to anchor the beast down. After what Ignis told her about their confrontation with the Titan, against something more lithe and thinner like the Goddess those lines could potentially accomplish the empire's task at hand.

Then two slashes ran from one corner of the airship and one straight down into the middle of the ship. The machine fell apart as it was coated with explosions and flames, a single entity leaped off it and onto a building nearby.

Kairi looked to see Sora standing on that building, keyblade in hand in what she believed was his "Second Form", the color palates reflecting his second clothes from his previous journey. With his keyblade glowing in light, he leaps into the air, covering plenty of feet to hop-scotch his way to the other airships.

Everyone was doing their part, they could do this…

Affirming the promise to Lunafreya, Kairi stared down the heartless as she held Oathkeeper in both hands, and charged forth…

The battle had truly begun.

A/N: Would you believe me if I said I struggled with the conversation with Luna and Kairi? Yeah, you probably would.

First, massive, MASSIVE thanks to VashTheStampede0409, not only has he helped me with the conversation between our two girls, but he's also helped come up with another idea for the future so HUGE thanks to him!

Lunafreya being a princess of light was suggested by keybladelight. It fits don't you think? I know KH technically should have the news one but seeing as we only know there's four so far, we're free to guess who the other one is! Answers:

Question from Guest Isa:

Cid is already aware of other worlds long before the others screwed up, that'll be covered later. But yes, I should have phrased that a little better. Sorry.

Also can't answer the Iggy question. You'll have to wait and see.

My questions:

Q1: Did you like the conversation between the two?

Q2: Do you agree Lunafreya could be a Princess of Light?

Q3: What are you looking forward to most in this little arc?

Q4: Which character do you wanna see more in the next chapter?

Q5: Are you excited for the fight?

As always everyone, thanks for reading this! Stay awesome but most importantly stay safe!


	37. Chapter 37

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 37

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

Soaring through the air, in his Strike Form and his keyblade shifting into a halberd, Sora leaps onto another dreadnaught. He throws his halberd into one of the large engines, piercing the metal and gears to rupture the machine, explosions scattering around the cylinder-shaped engine as the ship begins to slant to the right.

Sora re-summons his halberd and grips it with both hands, plunging into the ship as he cast Thundaga upon his halberd. The golden bolt from above rocketed down from the skies onto the ship, piercing it and striking the violent waters below them, the ship slowly coated with numerous explosions surrounding it. Sora dismisses his weapon as he runs to the engine that was breaking apart from the shop and leaps on the rim of the engine, then jump into the air towards another ship.

As he sailed through the air, he turns to his left to see one of the dropships flying towards him with guns firing at him. Quickly air-dashing and rolling to evade the bullets before he summons his keyblade and aims with both hands locked onto the handle. He fires a single blue beam of light at the airship's main deck (he guesses) piercing the machine and likely he must have hit something important the ship started to fall to join the ships in a watery grave.

The warrior of light dived towards a bit of land to recuperate himself and help steady him with solid ground. Once his feet touched the remains of the destroyed town, he looked to survey the battlefield he found himself in, looking for the others. Far in the middle of the ocean, he could see the faint crystal trails of light near the giant serpent. Squinting his eyes, he could barely make out Noctis flipping and warping as he fought against the monster.

Sora would have joined in and lent his strength to Noctis, but the more airships he can keep off the others the better. So far, he's the only one here among them that could do this without the aid of others, and despite how desperate he wanted to help his friend against the giant serpent this is just as important. Sora looks towards the altar to see Lunafreya standing there with the trident, likely watching for Noctis and ready to lend him something if he truly needed it.

What worried the boy however was the surplus amount of neo shadows prowling on the bridge with only Kairi being the sole protector of the Oracle. The redhead is surrounded by the creatures of darkness, leaping and flipping over them as she switched up swordplay with magic, brandishing Oathkeeper in her fight. Once more Sora would have rushed in to lend his support to her, but outside of fighting the airships, he had faith in her.

After everything they had been through, seeing her loses and wins, how strong she had become since she had first come to this world. It is a massive difference to the girl he knew back then, now he sees a warrior ready to finally hold her own and trusting her to protect the Oracle is a clear sign of that he believed.

Shaking his head, he can admire his girlfriend later as he turned to see more dropships starting to fly in. Sora lifted his keyblade and shifted into Strike Form and turned his keyblade into the Drill Punch form. He bent his knees and then shot into the air like a rocket towards the dropships. The last thing Kairi and Lunafreya needed are magitek soldiers breathing down their necks or worse. With a yell Sora punched his way through the machine, the drill ripping the metal apart as he flew out of the airship like a bullet.

In the air he fires the drill onto the other airship that pierces through it and hooks itself on the other side of it, making Sora swing low enough to go under the airship and swing himself up over it. Once he was ten feet into the air above the airship, he sends lightning down the wire of his Drill Punch that slithered down and entered the ship, covering it in lighting. It turned the ship into a Christmas light, shining all over the waters before it fell to the ocean.

Switching his Strike Form to Element Form, Sora summoned Star Shooter and changed it into the Magic Launcher. Grasping the weapon with both hands, he aimed at the airship getting close to the altar and fired a barrage of magical homing orbs at it. The magical ammunition soared like beacons towards the airship, exploding on impact and bring down another fleet of soldiers. Sora reverts into his normal form, summoning his keyblade and then dashed to more airships.

Back at the altar, Kairi slashes a neo shadow in half during a backflip, landing on her feet at the start of the stairs ascending to the altar. Spinning Oathkeeper in her hand she swings twice to toss magical arc shaped like a blade at the neo shadows, splitting several of them or destroying them in the process of her attacks. Panting to herself as she wiped the mixture of sweat and salt water from her forehead, she clutched the keyblade with both hands as more shadows crawled from the dark pools.

A neo shadow leaps towards her, Kairi swings Oathkeeper over herself, slicing the shadow in half before she parried another's claws. Channeling magic through her free hand, Kairi aimed her open palm and fires a torrent of white lightning at the group. The white searing hot bolts reduced the shadows to nothing as the light struck some of the pillars and broke them along with some of the ground being struck.

The princess of light took a breath when no more shadows began to resurface from the ground, granting her a reprieve from the fighting for a moment. Kairi reached into her pocket and pulled out an ether, given to her by Ignis, and downed it in two seconds. Feeling her mana recharged, she looked to the Oracle, using the trident to hold herself up and she could hear her coughing harshly. Checking once more if the coast was clear for her, Kairi ran up the stairs and checked the Oracle, placing a hand on her shoulders.

The woman was pale and sickly, her shoulders shaking with exertion and her eyes looked so weary it worried Kairi she might collapse before the trial was even halfway finished. 'Luna, you need healing', she says, handing her a potion from her pocket. 'I-I'm fine', she persisted, but Kairi grabbed her hand and helped her crush the item. 'Sorry for the lack of mannerisms but I would have force-fed you this if I had to!', Kairi promised as the woman glowed faintly in green for but a few moments.

They watched in dismay as Noctis was suddenly thrown to a ruined home by the Leviathan, smackdown onto his back in defeat. Lunafreya gaped in fear and nearly ran from the altar to reach him, but she couldn't even take three steps without coughing roughly and collapsing to her knees, trident still in hand with her knuckles whitening. Kairi crouched near her, grasping her shoulders to hold her steady as Naminé in ethereal form watched in worry.

'Luna, you can't get to Noctis from here!', Naminé warned, 'There's no pathway to him!'.

Lunafreya turned to her companion with strain before she grasped the trident and held it with both hands, upright like a pole. Slowly a golden light shined on the trident, bathing it in a heavenly glow as another light shined down upon Noctis in the distance. The two girls were unaware of Lunafreya's idea, but in the land of Eos, the tombs of the royal family that Noctis and company had visited had begun to glow until they all erected pillars of the same light from the Oracle.

Slowly the light levitated Noctis up into the air, straightening him upright as the weapons he's obtained throughout his quest began to enter his body. The light shines so brightly on him as he stares down the Tidemother, even Lunafreya's trident disappears into a blue light to empower him. With a cry and wave of his hand, Noctis was surrounded by the ghostly blue versions of all the royal arms he's obtained.

His weapons circled over his head as he lifts his right arm, and then aimed it at the Tidemother. The weapons flew to the creature like rockets, exploding in blue fire upon impact as the prince teleported to the astral. With the Sword of the Wise in hand, Noctis slashed the Tidemother's head, the sheer force of his attack not only created a blue line in the shape of a blade that covered from one end of the surrounding water to the other half but it even forced the Tidemother's head to face the right with a roar.

Far from finished, Noctis teleported again wielding the Axe of the Conqueror and slashed at Leviathan's head, forcing it to the total opposite direction with another cry. He threw the trident upwards as the Tidemother tried to regain its senses but by the time it could straighten itself, Noctis was above it and with trident, in hand, he dives down onto her wing-like fin and destroys half of it.

As the fin falls, Leviathan roars so loudly it shook the remaining ground to stand on yet Noctis merely moved faster than the eye could see and created a good distance between himself and the wrath of the sea.

The real battle had finally begun.

Leviathan raises the walls of water even higher than the airships, trapping everyone including the imperials that remained within her trap. She uses the waters to sail into the air and chases Noctis, but the prince would not turn tail and run. He dashed so quickly even Kairi couldn't keep up with his speed, arm outstretched and firing his royal arms like rockets. The mystic weapons of the past rulers struck the body of the Tidemother, explosions of blue flames danced on her scales as Noctis evades and dances around the mother of the seas.

Flying into the air above the Tidemother, Noctis summons the Sword of the Tall and grabs it with both hands, his body cloaked in the blue light of his heritage. With a cry he flew towards the Tidemother with inhuman speed, speeding so fast for even the astral that by the time she realized the prince had dashed past her, her second fin was decimated into nothing but broken bits of rubble. Leviathan roared to the heavens in pain as Noctis flies around her, firing more of his royal arms at her.

The trio of girls could only watch in awe of the Power of Kings being displayed before them, the power Noctis showed had not kept up with the Tidemother but he was practically dancing around her with almost minimal effort. 'He's winning!', Naminé cheered, clapping her ghostly hands together, 'If he can keep this up then the Tidemother will have no choice but to acknowledge him as the King!'.

Lunafreya smiled tiredly in agreement as she watched her fiancé fly around the air like a force of nature. Just when things turned in their favor however, the two princesses of light turned to the pathway below the altar to see more shadows had begun to swarm and gather up like bees in a beehive. Kairi quickly stepped in front of Lunafreya with her arm out and keyblade on the other hand, staring down the shadows.

Slowly the shadows all gathered up together until a black miasma of darkness surrounded them and spread to the start of the stairs, Kairi sensing a greater darkness manifesting before them. A horde of shadows explodes from the group, soaring into the air like a tower completely made from shadows. Kairi's eyes widen with shock and fear, remembering Riku had warned them about this version of a heartless.

Even the Oracle was in horror of the sight of such darkness as it charges to the girls. Kairi quickly shoves Lunafreya to the side before the tower tackled her and sends her to the skies. Lunafreya fell to her side as the tower raced up to the skies, taking the keyblade wielder with it like a horde of crows snatching their prey. Lunafreya reached her hand out in vain and cried her sword's name as the tower flew away.

Within the tower, Kairi thrashes wildly like a caged animal as the heartless swarmed all over her, kicking and swinging her keyblade madly as her vision was a mixture of the darkness and yellow eyes.

She feels the darkness slowly trying to infect her, the stinging of their claws cutting into her skin and the darkness threatening to swallow her whole, but her pure heart and light kept it at bay. Even still Kairi is in no hurry to test out how long she could last in this vortex of shadow but no matter how ferocious she tried to fight they held her trapped within the darkness. In her panic, she starts to feel weaker as her limbs went from wild thrashing to trying to wad her way through neck-deep in sand.

Her strength begins to wane as her will weakens despite her desperation to fight for freedom from this tower of darkness. As she starts to still, an image forms in her mind, a memory not belonging to her but to Sora. She saw him fighting creatures resembling heartless yet could tell they weren't, but that was irrelevant because she witnessed him aiming his keyblade upwards and cried a word that spoke to her.

Mustering her will to fight, Kairi grabs her keyblade with both hands and thrusts it into the air with a cry: 'FAITH!'.

Suddenly the girl was surrounded by five pillars of white light that spins around her so quick it cuts the tower like a chainsaw, splitting it and giving the girl the space, she needs to escape the tower. Kairi quickly dashed through the horde and escapes the tower, falling to one of the rooftops of the near sunken buildings, landing on her feet before she stumbled to her knees, coughing and panting from the toxic place she found herself at.

Shaking her head to rid herself of the dizziness, Kairi turned to the tower that now leaned over her, staring at the princess of light. Kairi glared at it the tower as she held Oathkeeper over her head, allowing the tower to bear witness to its majestic light as her clothes glowed in heavenly glow. With a cry, Kairi changed into her Element Form.

Her outfit is now dark blue with star patterns around her back and torso, Oathkeeper shifted and warping into a new weapon for the princess. Now in her hands is a beautifully made Bow, using the blades of the keyblade to form the body while the teeth changed into a quiver strapped to her back with glowing whitish-blue blessed arrows, the string glowed white. Finally, on her right hand holding the string is a glove that only covered her two fingers, silvery pink.

Feeling the magic coursing through her like a river, Kairi quickly grabbed an arrow from her quiver and aimed it at the tower, letting it soar into the air with lightning speed. The arrow struck home in the tower, encasing it in flames that quickly spreads along the tower. It thrashed about in pain before it charged to Kairi, the princess quickly running away as it did.

Kairi hops over several debris of ruined buildings around her, skipping and flipping around them using Flowmotion. This was not the end of her movement however she discovered as she was still sliding on the walls as if she defied gravity and the wall held her up. She jumps to a fallen pillar and rides it while she fires arrows that sought out the tower, glowing beautifully as they soar.

The arrows struck the tower with golden explosions that threw several shadows off its body and destroyed them, Kairi leaping on the floating bits of Altissia and using them as stepping stone to ascend higher and higher as the tower starts to destroy her stepping stones, demolishing the bits of rubble as Kairi flips and fires arrows mid-flips and jumps. Each arrow hitting the tower broke off more and more shadows from the tower.

Kairi jumps to another platform but during her jump the tower's speed increased and caught her mid-jump and smacked her in her stomach, knocking out all the wind in her as it dives to the ground with Kairi first. The princess quickly used the tower to hoist herself over it and land on the body of the tower. She slides down it like a railing while firing arrows behind herself, firing explosive arrow after explosive arrow that broke more and more of the tower in her descent.

Kairi slides off the tower and turns herself to place two arrows on the bow, charging them with light as they glowed so bright it made the shadows close their eyes in fear. The tower charged towards her, glowing in a darkish red light like a meteor charging down from the skies. Kairi fires the two beams of light, swirling and twirling together until they combined into one large ray of light that struck the tower head-on. The collision of the opposing forces sent a shockwave so great Kairi was thrown back to the ground, bounced off a rooftop of a ruined home and then tumbled off it and onto the ground.

Slamming onto her side with a heavy thud, Kairi's weapon bounced out of her hand and skidded across from her. Grunting to get back up, Kairi looked up to see it was raining shadows. Many of them evaporated into nothing while some fell into the raging seas or fell onto the ruined land before vanishing into nothing, the tower nowhere to be seen nor could she sense it's darkness. As she slowly got back to her feet, her clothes glowed for a moment before she reverts to normal, Oathkeeper changing back to its blade form.

Rubbing her head with her free hand, it was only when the adrenaline had worn off from her did, she take note her body was home to many more scratches and bruises thanks to the tower. Her arms were cut in several parts, legs adorned with bruises and a scratch, her clothes cut and roughed up and she feels something run down her cheek and upon touching she flinched. Kairi tries to use magic to heal herself, but before she could utter a single word of healing, her blue eyes fell to Naminé and Lunafreya, the latter on her knees.

Kairi took a breath and willed herself to ignore the pain in her body before she starts to make a run for the Oracle, using Flowmotion to get there.

The trek was short and mercifully forgiving on her body as she leaps from one bit of land nearly sinking into the ocean and lands on the pathway to the altar. Quickly she scales the stairs to see Naminé trying to comfort the Oracle, hacking and coughing. 'Is she ok?', Kairi asked, kneeling to her. 'No, she's getting worse! Whatever she did to help Noctis is taking its toll on her!', Naminé revealed, her voice was full of desperation.

Kairi nodded and lifted her keyblade, casting Curaga on the Oracle. Despite the power of her magic, however, the Oracle hadn't recovered nearly as much as the spell would ordinarily have done. It may have calmed her breathing and healed her throat but that was trivial compared to what she could have healed. Kairi looked at her in fear as she attempted to repeat the spell, mana be damned but Lunafreya grabs her wrist in protest.

'Don't…you…you'll only waste your energy on me', she says, coughing. Kairi looked at Naminé for answers, only seeing the exact confusion on her nobody's face that likely remained on her own. Shaking her head, Kairi helped Lunafreya to her feet, 'Then we can take you back to the others! We'll leave the Leviathan to Noct and Sora!'.

'Going somewhere my dear?'.

The three turned to see sauntering towards them on the pathway was none of then the chancellor, Ardyn. With a smug on his face with that loathsome smile, he merely bowed to them as Kairi stepped in front of Lunafreya. Keyblade in her hand as she stared down the man with fiery red hair, Kairi tried to gauge this man like Aqua had taught her before, yet nothing was springing up on her, nothing stuck out from this man. An enigma to her, and she did not like it.

'I'm afraid leaving here isn't much of an option, you're going to miss the show', he said with a smirk. 'Stay away from Luna!', Kairi yelled, 'Or you're not gonna like what happens next!'. Ardyn raised an amused brow at the girl, comically opening his mouth. 'My word, with such vigor and ferocity, how could I be so bold as to even take another step?', he says with theatrical movement, like he was addressing some form of divinity before him.

Until his smug look turned sinister as he mockingly took a step closer to the princesses of light. Kairi glanced between him and Lunafreya, then ultimately back to him. 'Luna, stay back', she said, 'I won't let him near you'.

Without waiting for Lunafreya to reply, Kairi leaps towards Ardyn with a cry, bringing Oathkeeper down onto him. The chancellor just jumps back from the girl just in time before Oathkeeper could tear into his flesh. As the man of no consequence stared down the redhead with a smirk, Kairi readied herself before she ran to him.

Jumping into the air in his Second Form, Sora wildly swings his keyblade as he cuts through the dreadnaught, slicing everything cleanly and perfectly. Above the falling apart dreadnaught, high in the air before he dives towards a bit of land.

When his feet touched the ground, he staggers and places his hand on one of the broken walls nearby to catch his breath as his shoulders shook and knees wobbled in exhaustion. Sweat running down his forehead, body drenched with it and saltwater, the many scrapes he's taken to his body thanks to the ships and him tearing through them all. Switching in and out of so many forms in rapid succession had pushed him to limits he never knew he could break.

Yet even with shaky hands and a weary body, he pushed himself off the wall and stumbled slightly before he looked to Noctis, soaring through the air and blasting Leviathan with the royal arms. His strikes had worn down the goddess enough to rest her head on the broke buildings, giving Noctis a chance to land a devastating blow to the goddess by blasting her horn and breaking it off her, making her roar in pain.

Sora lets himself breath a sigh, at least Noctis didn't need his help to fight that thing. Then when he managed to refill his lungs with air, he looked to the altar and narrows his eyes, seeing Ardyn dancing around Kairi's strikes. Why the chancellor of all people was here fighting he didn't know, but if there was any lesson Sora had taken from his journeys, it was to never underestimate those of the darkness.

And there is no chance he was going to risk Kairi.

Sora swiftly leaps into the air, hopping on several floating platforms and some on the sea to make his way to Kairi and Lunafreya. Close to his goal, Sora jumps onto one more platform that floats over the altar, crouching down to prepare himself for one more jump. Leaping into the air and towards the altar, he had no time to protect himself from a sudden punch that knocked the air from his lungs. A cry from his throat, the hero was thrown across the seas so fast and far it was as if he was shot from a cannon.

Smashing through one of the buildings and landing behind it with several bounces off the ground until he managed to get to his feet and dig his heels into the ground to stop the momentum, Sora halts himself before he could fall into the ocean behind him, tensing his body before he fell onto one knee in pain from the shock of the forceful attack. He coughed and spits out some blood, splattering on the ground before him before he glared up to see from the ruined building is none other than Terra.

Smirking cruelly at the young boy, he brandished his keyblade and aimed it at Sora. 'Been some time since I saw you, kid', he greets snidely. Sora grunted as he stood up to face him despite the pain his body took on, gritting his teeth as Terra jumped down to face him on the field. The storm the Tidemother created grew worse as the rain fell heavy from above, the wind rushing loudly and harshly. Sora stared down this impersonator of Terra, wielding the Darkgnaw keyblade like he had when he fought Aqua before, a student of Eraqus.

'Ya know looking back, I might have made a mistake in just choosing Riku as my successor', Terra mused, eyeing Sora, 'A boy not chosen by the keyblade, yet somehow far more proficient and powerful'. Sora narrowed his eyes as Terra laughed. 'Yet you stand before me not a master, so I suppose in the long run I made the right choice picking the former vassal of the Seeker of Darkness'. Sora's eyes darkened with anger, his memories of those days where he and Riku stood on opposite sides of light and darkness.

Terra continued to smugly taunt the boy, rolling his shoulder. 'I know how that feels kid, knowing you put so much heart into making yourself worthy to become a master. It was a dream of mine', he mused. His eyes darkened as his smile twisted into a snarl. 'Until the master decided I wasn't good enough to be a master, instead he chose Aqua above me!'. Sora's eyes showed a morsel of sympathy to the man knowing he spoke at least half the truth about Terra's dream.

Sora wouldn't ever forget Aqua's tale of her youth and how she and her brothers were involved in the battle between light and darkness, how Terra's darkness was manipulated by Xehanort himself to plant the seeds of doubt within him and put him on that dark path. Another moment in someone's life Xehanort's influence had turned out for so much worse. Sora shook his head and said: 'Xehanort was the one who manipulate your darkness!'.

Placing a hand on his heart, Sora faced him. 'Terra, you know this isn't you! I know you're still in there!'. For a moment it looked as if Sora's words had reached him because he could see the faint glimmer of blue in his eyes and a look of hope that nearly convinced Sora, he had awakened the slumbering heart. It faded quickly as it came however as Terra growled before he chuckled. 'Xehanort freed me Sora, he showed my true power can grow with the darkness'.

Shaking his head, Sora persisted. 'You know that's not true! Think about Aqua and Ven, what he did to them!', he pleads. 'Ven's waiting to see you again, Aqua's here now! You don't have to face this alone!'. As he spoke from his heart, Sora could see more and more of Terra's will was starting to fight back, even the dark keyblade looked as if his light was trying to turn it back to a weapon of the light.

Shaking his head, Terra just laughed. 'Nice try boy, but this body belongs to the darkness, just as Riku's once did and will in time!', he promises, aiming his keyblade at Sora as the boy readied himself for combat. ' "Terra" won't be alone for long Sora, after all, Aqua and Ven experienced the darkness Xehanort granted him', he promised. 'In time so will Riku, the king, those fools of his, Axel…'.

'And eventually…Kairi…'.

Before he knew it, Terra was suddenly on the receiving end of Sora's keyblade, just barely managing to block it before Sora slammed the teeth between his skull. The attack startled the slave of the darkness and because of that, he couldn't keep up with Sora's sudden burst of speed as he swipes the keyblade into his side and knocks him into the stairs on the right.

Terra slammed into the stairs with a heavy thud, breaking several bits of the stone stairs. He grunted and looked to see Sora had already prepared his Ragnarök attack, glowing golden red and orange. The boy fired twenty bending and twirling beams at the man, forcing Terra to throw up his armored arm to create a wave of dark fire to act as a barrier for himself. The beams were halted as Terra rose to his feet just in time to see Sora burst forth from the flames, striking at him.

Terra swings his keyblade with full force as both hands grasped the keyblade to smack Sora away. He underestimates Sora's power however as both ended up in a deadlock that halted all the momentum Terra had put into his attack. Unrelenting Sora quickly flipped himself over Terra and leaps onto the rooftop while firing several spheres of fire at the man. Terra quickly swipes at the pesky spheres of fire before jumping to meet Sora on the rooftop.

Standing there, facing each other down, Terra grunts in frustration. He had been completely caught off guard by Sora's display of power despite pushing himself to the brink of exhaustion, and dare he say it he felt that strike. Sora's own blue eyes glowed with an intense fire within them as his keyblade was surging with power. As he watched the boy, the words of one of the members of the previous Organization had rang within his mind as he smirks evilly.

"You are the fire that feeds Sora's anger".

'Did I touch a nerve? Is someone worried about their significant other?', he sneered. Sora growled as he ran at Terra, closing the distance between them almost in nanoseconds as they started to clash. Keyblades sparking with light and darkness as the two opposing sides dueled for supremacy, Terra's more aggressive and powerhouse style against the smaller but far faster Sora became a fight on equal footing.

Terra brought down Darkgnaw on Sora only to be parried by a skillful retaliation from Sora, knocking his keyblade aside and allowing Sora to slash his chest with light and throwing him back despite him digging his feet into the tiles of the roof, breaking them apart. Terra glared at the boy, smirking still. 'Those eyes, they remind me of Aqua's…on that day when she realized she couldn't do anything for me', he gloats, 'And her sacrifice to save me only brought ruin and destruction onto the world's she swore to protect'.

'You shut up! You're nothing but a coward! Hiding behind Terra's body and using it to hurt Aqua!', Sora yelled, his anger slowly growing to a boiling point. Never could he forgive Xehanort for a lot of things he's done over the years but using two friends to fight each other like this sickened him to his core. He knew that agony of fighting that person close to your heart, and to learn he and Riku had been in the same situation as Aqua and Terra broke his heart.

He at least managed to save Riku before losing him…

'And what does that make Kairi I wonder? Constantly being saved by you, again and again, didn't you lose your heart because of her?', he taunted. Sora yelled in fury as he suddenly appeared in front of Terra and started to wail on him with the keyblade. Terra grunted and groaned in pain with each strike of Sora's keyblade, amazed he could even feel that pain despite the vast difference in power between them. Or at least, he thought he knew who had the greater power.

Sora slashes Terra into the air, jumping towards him and striking at him with golden traces of light following his strikes until he slammed the man back down to the ground and onto the broken walkways with a heavy thud that left a small crater in the ground.

Sora landed a few steps from the man as Terra got back to his feet slowly but laughing none the less. 'Amazing! Such power! Such ferocity!', he praised madly, getting to his feet, laughing. 'But it still pales in comparison, you're still holding back your full potential boy!'. His grip in the keyblade in hand tightened, Sora forces himself to restrain the anger that dwells within him. Even if the man before him carried the darkness of the same man who ruined so many lives, putting Sora in one bad scenario repeatedly, and of course his numerous crimes, this is still not his body.

Destroying Terra now would mean his heart would have no place to go back to, making their rescue of him pointless. Yet still, hearing him planning on putting Kairi, his Kairi, through the same horrible ordeal as he did with Aqua and her brothers, it fuelled the rage that Sora feared he possessed within the depths of his heart. 'Terra stop this! Come back to Aqua and Ven! You're stronger than Xehanort's darkness!', Sora pleaded despite the strain of anger in his tone.

Terra snarled, growling at the boy like a wild dog. He nearly went to strike the boy but instead, heartless began to swarm over them like a plague of locusts. Shadows covered the entire island of land, trapping Sora as he looked all around him to find he is indeed trapped. 'Can your heart survive all this!?', Terra challenged, sending the heartless to swarm the boy. The shadows dog-piled onto Sora as he starts to slash and hack his way through the growing horde.

Sora's wild struggle did not go without a hitch however, many shadows managed to strike him and scratch at his body, some even managed to pin him down for the others to strike. Sora only escaped using reflect to blast some away and took the chance to leap onto the rooftop to grant himself breathing space. But he falls onto his side in pain, his limit finally reached as he was physically exhausted and magically drained.

The shadows start to swarm him as his attempts to fend them off him were futile. The shadows started to pin him down, their combination of numbers and his exhaustion were enough to hold him down as the darkness washed over him. He thrashes and struggles with a yell, his strength waning.

At the altar as the battle between Noctis and Leviathan grows closer to a conclusion, Kairi struggled against the chancellor's inhuman evasive abilities. As much space as her attacks could cover between magic and physical, Ardyn is seemingly untouchable to Kairi, even covering the entire pathway in magic did nothing to slow him down.

As she swipes her keyblade at him, he dances and saunters around her like a master toying with his apprentice, the difference in skill and experience clearing showing between them. She leaps backward to create distance between herself and him, panting tiredly with her wounds and fatigue getting the best of her at long last, her mana empty and her libs aching as if she is grinding them to dust. Ardyn, however, wasn't even sweating with all his dodges.

'Is that all you can do, princess?', he teases, 'I expected to have at the very least a small paper cut by now'. Kairi musters all her will and strength into this one attack, grabbing her keyblade with both hands as it glowed from the tip. 'Rays…of Light!', she cries.

Seven beams of light soared from the keyblade, flying towards the man of the empire. Ardyn narrowly dodges four of the beams while two of them scrape his shoulder and leg, but one finally struck him in the chest and bathed him in an explosion of light. A solid hit that made him stagger backward and fall onto his knee in pain. Risking everything to finally be rid of this meddler, Kairi ran at him with all her remaining energy and brought down her keyblade on him.

Ardyn just looks up with a smile as he stood up easily without even grunting in pain and raised his at the girl. Kairi's eyes widened in shock, not seeing a single scratch on the man nor sensing she did any damage to him. It was as if all her attacks had missed him. Her thoughts were halted as darkness swirled around Ardyn's hand and then a blast of dark fire struck Kairi full force. The princess was thrown into the air with a cry before she slammed onto the ground on her back.

Her keyblade fell from her hand and into the raging waters, sinking into the abyss as she laid on her back, her body wracked with agony. Kairi gasps as the pain raced through her, the embers of the dark flames disappeared quickly from her clothes' magic. She tried to get to her feet, but the combined might of the agony from Ardyn's attack and her exhausted form is too much for her to bear. 'Unfortunate for you, my dear princess', Ardyn tittered with a sigh, 'If only you and Noctis shared more than royal blood, you might have harmed me'.

Standing over her, Ardyn leaned over and grabbed her arm and hoisted her up to rest on her knees, making her yelp out in pain. 'Ah my dear, I believe you have a spectator', he says with mirth. Kairi looked to his gaze and saw Sora being swarmed by the heartless, her eyes opened wide in horror as she watched helplessly at the sight. 'What a horrible way to die, isn't it? Being eaten away by those vile creatures?', Ardyn gasped, reveling in Kairi's horror. 'Wouldn't you do whatever it took to save him?'.

'Perhaps what Sora needs is some…motivation'.

The next thing Kairi felt, was something cold piercing her stomach. Suddenly she felt numb as her breath let her, a horrible cold consumed her body as she froze, the sounds disappearing into the void. Moments of her life flashed through her eyes, her childhood, her training, her adventures and those moments with Sora.

Kairi could only look down in dismay to see Ardyn's hand holding a dagger, plunged into Kairi's body as a coat of red began to spread and taint her clothes. 'KAIRI!', Naminé cried as Lunafreya watched in utter horror.

Over on the building, nearly consumed, Sora's eyes shot open in pure unbridled horror at the sight. Ardyn pulled the dagger out of the girl and dropped her to her side, smiling at Sora and waving. 'Sora! Your dear beloved needs you! Might want to hurry to her aid!', he says cheerily. Sora felt his blood run cold when Kairi fell onto her side, unmoving save for her desperate breaths, eyes looking into his even from this distance.

He sees fear running wild within those eyes, tears unshed from the fear as Ardyn saunters off to leave her with the shadows returning to finish off the girl

As the darkness of the shadows swarmed Sora, his panic disappeared as he watched Ardyn saunter away, awakening a deep darkness within the boy…

His rage…

With a cry of rage, Sora's body glowed red and then in a burst of darkness, the shadows that tried to consume him were obliterated when a large wild tower of dark flames rose up like a volcanic eruption. Standing there as the heartless were eradicated into nothing, a lone dark figure stood tall with rage unchained. Sora's clothes, keyblade, and skin were deep black with glowing red eyes and with an aura of darkness and fluorescent white swirling pattern on his pants.

Like a wild animal, Sora charges towards the altar, leaping from flying platform to platform with speed greater than he had ever displayed. He jumps over to the altar just as the heartless swarmed the dying princess, his keyblade ripping them asunder. As the shadows gathered, Sora just snarls like a beast gone berserk and starts to rip and tear them all, keyblade and claws used to destroy them all. He grabbed a shadow by its neck and crushed it, his keyblade plunging deep into a neo-shadow's stomach to the hilt of his keyblade.

He throws his weapon at the horde as darkness swirled around it, cutting them all like a buzz saw while he rips the shadows with his claws and crushes them with his boots. Yet even with his heart swallowed by rage and the darkness, he refused to leave Kairi, ferociously destroying any heartless that came close to her. A neo-shadow slashed at his face, but he leans back to evade it and with a single thrust of his claw he pierces through its torso.

One more neo-shadow torn apart, Sora snarls and roars but then he feels something grabbing his leg. He turns around, ready to rip apart that filthy shadow, only to see Kairi facing him with tears in her eyes, desperation within those beautiful orbs. 'D-D-Don't…let it…consume you…', she pleads, desperate and heartbroken. Sora's rage dwindled, he could feel his strength disappearing and power wane, slowly his eyes turned from dark red to blue as the darkness evaporated from his body.

Exhausted beyond human limitations, Sora's final sight was him collapsing near Kairi, her calling out to him weakly just as more shadows began to reappear, the final assault on the two.

In the air, panting and exerted, Noctis stared down the Tidemother with a desire to finally be done with this battle. Just a few more pushes he thought to himself, only a few more to finally end this fight. Channeling his armiger, Noctis readied for the final strike, yet before he did, he looks to his bride and sees his two companions on the ground as the heartless surrounded them.

'Sora! Kairi!', he cried in fear. He turned to Leviathan as she readies herself for her final attack, but with both her and the heartless, Noctis gritted his teeth. There was no chance he could finish her off without losing the others to the heartless, nor could he stop the heartless without the goddess sweeping them away with a tsunami. Attacking one would only delay protecting the others, and none of them looked able to protect themselves.

"Call the light".

Noctis looked up to see no one, but the voice sounded familiar to him. "Call the light and bring out your full power".

Looking at his hand, a sense of trust was placed within the voice as he clenched it. The desire to protect those important to him, for all the ones he could not protect. Using this power within him, Noctis opened his eyes as they shined bright blue as if he was blessed by the crystal of the kingdom. His body glowed in a fiery blue aura that licked his form, slowly his weapons glowed with ghostly flames as he lifted his hand.

The weapons spun around his body like a barrier of arms, spinning faster and faster until they were invisible. With a cry, Noctis shouted with all his might: 'ONE HUNDRED ARMS!'. The weapons rocketed up into the skies, a large circle forming and spinning above the city before firing off one hundred ghostly weapons from the heavens.

At least seventy-five of those weapons charged down to the heartless like arrows from the heavens, striking them all that hunted for the warriors of light, striking everywhere the shadows lied be they near or far from them. Twenty-four of the weapons struck Leviathan, however, forcing the serpent to stagger as Noctis formed the hundredth weapon within his own hands. A pure blue crystal light in the shape of his engine blade, and holding it together with both hands, body glowing in blue, Noctis charged forth like an arrow and struck Leviathan.

As Leviathan throws her head to skies, letting a cry of defeat, Noctis' body no longer glows in the fiery blue light but now a dimmer and weakened one as he loses his strength to fight any longer, slowly descending to the altar, smiling tiredly before he loses consciousness and embraces the silence of sleep. Lowered to Lunafreya and the two keyblade wielders, the Oracle cradled her prince in her arms as Leviathan readied herself to strike once more.

Then as the Oracle prayed, a single golden light shined down in the water in front of the altar. Rising from the waters, the astral, Titan stood up to defy his fellow astral. The astral of the earth roared challengingly at the astral of water, but this battle went unseen for even the Oracle had finally succumbed to exhaustion.

The battle had finally ended…

Three days later…

Flinching in dull agony, the weariness he never knew tugged at his body, yet Noctis persisted in opening his eyes willing for the first time in year. The lull of sleep had left him as he sees and feels he is no longer in battle; he feels warm and softness around his body. Slowly he takes in his surroundings, then he begins to sit up with ache. Ahead of him resting in a lounge chair, he sees Ignis. 'I-Iggy…?', Noctis croaks.

Turning slightly, Ignis says: 'Back with us, Noct?'. In a pace never seen from Ignis, the man slowly stands up and even more so turns to face his prince. When Noctis shook his head to stay off the dizziness and weariness, he looks to his advisor. His heart broke.

No longer wearing his usual glasses that earned several nicknames from the others, Ignis now wears dark shades that completely hides his eyes from the world, horrible scars adorned his face now. One long enough that it nearly reached his forehead and below his cheekbones on the right side of his face while he couldn't make out much from his left.

'Ignis…w-what happened to you?', he squeaked, tearing up. Ignis glanced away from him, almost ashamed that is was the first thing Noctis had seen since he awoke. '…a minor sacrifice, for the greater battle', he says, sullen and quiet. Shaking his head Noctis quickly attempted to get out of bed. 'What about Luna? Sora? Kairi!?', he demanded.

'Noct…', Ignis started.

'What happened to them!? What happened to you!?', he demanded.

Ignis turned to his prince, his face contorted into misery. 'I'm so sorry Noct…', he whispered.

A/N:

Well here we go, diving into the tragedy side of XV. So Altissia is done…at least for Noctis' side, so next time it's the start of Episode Ignis and Riku! What else happens while our heroes dealt with Leviathan? How else did Ignis lose his sight? What happened to Ravus? Find out soon!

Question time!

Q1: How did you find this chapter?

Q2: Did you like Noctis' Limit Break of sorts?

Q3: What did you think of the Oathkeeper form change?

Q4: Excited to see Riku and Ignis have the spotlight for a while?

Q5: Was Sora's power properly displayed to your liken?

Thanks for reading this as always everyone! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	38. Chapter 38

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 38

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

*Years ago…*

Standing quietly near the King of Insomnia, a six-year-old Ignis held his breath and stilled his shaking shoulders that were shaking thanks to his nerves being on full alert. Despite his lessons from his uncle about royal decorum and maintaining a strong statue-like stance and with the best manners for his king, Ignis could not shake that fear within him.

This is the first time he had ever met the king face to face, and worst of all he had to meet him on his own with only the faint assurance that his uncle was just outside the throne room in case things went south. His six-year-old mind raced with worry of why his king had called him on his own, fear of misbehavior or worse.

'Listen well:', the king said, his voice jolting the young child to straighten up. 'A king cannot lead standing still'. Words of wisdom Ignis had been taught by his uncle, an old saying passed down from generations of the Lucis family. He took comfort in these words strangely, likely because he knew that was how his majesty walked his path, never standing still when his people needed him to guide them to prosperity.

'A king pushes onward always, accepting the consequences and never looking back', his majesty says, turning to the boy. Seeing his king's face, Ignis had forgotten that despite the deep and grave yet wise voice within his throat the king had a face that was friendly and kind. He always reminded Ignis of his uncle, but with far more wisdom in his eyes and the courage to walk the path of the king regardless of the difficulties that come along with the responsibilities.

'That said:', he says, bending slightly to Ignis. 'a king can accept nothing without first accepting himself'.

His face showed concern, but it vanished as it took one a gentler look, one that spoke of a man who is about to ask a person a great request. 'Should he standstill, I ask you to stand by him and lend a hand- as his friend,', he speaks softly and almost pleadingly. The king stands aside to allow Ignis to see a little boy behind him, shyly and hesitantly walking towards the slightly older boy.

Even back then when he was a child the sharp eye Ignis felt something about this boy. The shyness yet curiosity of a child certainly glowed from him but there is an innocence that is welcoming to the boy. 'As his brother', the king said, gently pushing the boy closer to Ignis.

'Please, take care of my son', the king asks, soft and low.

Ignis was always told from the day he learned to speak that this would be his path from there on out, to be the advisor and guide to the future ruler of the kingdom. If he falters, he would straighten up, if he stay still, he would be by his side and urge him forward. A life dedicated to this future king was already planned since his birth, a life to give for his prince.

Yet…that was not what Ignis saw on that day.

On that day he did not see the son of the king his family had sworn to serve, he did not see the prince that would one day sit on the throne like his father before him, and nor did he see the boy who would be under his care for the rest of his life.

He sees the boy shyly look away but upon offering a hand to greet him, the prince looked surprised by the offer like he had never seen anyone perform such a gesture to him. The prince gently grasped his offered hand with both of his smaller hands and shook it, childishly but with restraint giddiness of a child.

No, what Ignis saw on that day, was a brother who needed someone to watch him, to be by his side. Someone more than just a member of royalty, someone more than just a person to serve. This was the boy, who gave him one of the most precious smiles he had ever seen, who would be his king.

And…the boy he promised to protect with all he had, even if it means his life…

*Present time*

Despite the defeat of the Leviathan, the battle was far from over.

Running onto the bridge after dealing with imperials, Riku and Ignis attempted to cross the bridge only to stumble as the world shook from the power of Titan. Catching up to them is Aqua, Prompto, and Gladiolus while Ignis pressed his fingers to the earpiece.

'Noct, can you hear me?', he asked as Riku did the same.

'Sora? Kairi? Damn it guys say something!', he cursed. When neither got a response, they turned to the others. 'If they're not picking up then we need to make sure they're safe ourselves', Aqua stated. 'With the trial over by now, all we have to worry about is Titan and the imperials'.

Just as Aqua finished her sentence, the ground shook again and everyone stumbled, Prompto more so falling on his back. Looking through the arches of the walls, Riku sees an airship being forcefully turned around and whatever Titan did must have shut down the power, because it was now charging towards the bridge the party was on.

'LOOK OUT!', Riku shouted.

Ignis and Riku ran over to the other side as Prompto scampered to his feet and Gladiolus grabbed Aqua and threw himself and her back just as the airship crashed. The bridge had been decimated, the center reduced to nothing as dust and rock flew all over the place as the world shook around them.

When the shakes subsided, the three warriors looked up to see the vast gap between their side of the bridge and the other end, but worst of all no Riku or Ignis insight. The three could only stare, each expression fear, anger and worry for their companions.

*Later…*

Squinting his eyes as the pain subsides, Ignis opened his eyes to find himself within the canal of Altissia, his only support keeping him from drowning is a lone piece of wood. Shaking his head to rid this headache plaguing him, Ignis looks to the sky to see more imperial ships flying towards the astrals and altar. Ignis curses lightly but then suddenly looks around the canal, remembering he wasn't the only one who might have fallen into the canal. 'Riku?', he called out.

'Over here!'. Looking ahead of him he sees the silver head floating in the water, waving at his fellow water ridden partner. 'Over there, there's a way out', Ignis says, pointing to a flight of stairs near the water and started to swim to the flight of stairs with Riku in tow. Once they reached the stairs and climbed out of the water, they took the time to assess their conditions.

Riku is missing his black jacket, his white shirt was damp and had a tear around his stomach, exposing it. His left arm was missing one of his glovelettes while the one on his right was cut up and in tatters. Likely he's only sustained minimal damage, nothing a potion couldn't fix. Looking himself, Ignis advisor frowned when he saw his gloves were missing, and his jacket had been lost too. 'Least it's only clothing we lost as opposed to our limbs…', Ignis lamented as Riku crushed the potion in his hand.

Riku grunted in pain before exhaling softly, then he looked at his ruined glovelettes and bare left hand. 'Aww man, I liked those…', he said half-jokingly. 'And I'm certain you like having your hands more', Ignis chastised softly. Riku chuckled lightly as he rolled his shoulders and rubbed his neck.

Riku glances at Ignis before he snickered. 'Love the new hairdo', he teased. Ignis frowned at the tease, he didn't want to imagine how horrendous his hair looked. How in the name of the astrals did Riku manage to keep his own so well kept despite everything they had just endured? Must be magic, he refuses to believe otherwise.

'I'm kinda surprised your glasses stayed on', Riku said with amusement, pointing at him. 'Did you glue them on or something?'.

'That is a question we can save for later', Ignis said, 'We need to reach the altar and help the others'. Riku's playful demeanor changed quickly to serious, nodding wholeheartedly at the man. 'Right, first we should probably figure out how far we are from them', he offered, gesturing the stairs nearby. Ignis nods before they both ran up the summit of the stairs and onto the streets of the battle-torn city, the day slowly shifting to dusk as more airships flew overhead.

They grimaced at the sheer amount of them polluting the skies above, the question of how many did the empire make and send weighing on their minds. Onwards they went regardless of the number of enemies that would likely impede their progress, climbing another flight of stairs but before they rounded the corner, Riku stopped them both, arm out to block Ignis. Looking at the boy, the man then peered over the corner to see a single magitek soldier patrolling the small area.

'Just one in sight, there could be more', Ignis said, sounding Riku's concern. 'And if they hear anything they'll come down on us', Riku finished. Ignis rubbed his chin in thought, then he summoned his dagger, looked to Riku. 'Let us be quick, do you happen to have a spell of sorts that could perhaps wipe them out quickly?', he inquired.

'Hate to say my magic is a bit on the minimal side', Riku confessed with a weak chuckle, 'One thing the others have me beat in'. Ignis scoffed at this, but Riku regardless summoned Brave Heart. 'I can go in and get their attention, you jump in then', he suggested.

Just before Ignis could question the plan, Riku immediately ran in and yelled out to the magitek soldier. The robotic being turned quickly to the boy, letting out a robotic cry to alert its fellow soldiers. Just as they both suspected, a platoon of soldiers raced down a set of stairs and another jumped off the rooftops. Riku plunged his keyblade in the soldier's stomach, turning around to see the horde of machines rushing toward him.

Before they got close, Ignis suddenly descended upon them, spear plunged into one and crushing its body. The tremor emitted from Ignis' strike sent a powerful shockwave that made some fall or stagger. A chance to rack up some kills, Riku performs a move he had grown fond of, the dark splicer.

He vanishes and begins to appear and reappear around the stumbling soldiers, striking at them for quick kills, ripping them apart and turning them all to scrap metal. As Riku was slicing everything and moving too fast for the imperial army to keep track of him, Ignis took the chance to dish out his punishment to his foes, imbuing his daggers with lightning.

Feeling the electricity coursing through him and his daggers, Ignis begins to strike at his foes with speed comparable to Riku's attack. Like a lightning bolt, Ignis strikes at his foes and moves fast enough to get around and strike others without either soldier being able to halt him, together the combined heroes were like a storm of steel and blades. The soldiers were eviscerated within minutes of their cyclone of death.

Landing back on his feet with a light bounce in his step, Riku dismissed Brave Heart as Ignis shook his hands. He gave the older man an approving smile, 'Not bad, never knew you could use magic like that', he praised. Ignis pushes his glasses upwards with a small smile etching on his lips. 'Come now, its nothing special', he assured. Riku rolls his eyes, patting the man on the shoulder in good nature.

'But all seriousness, how come you've never done that before? Probably could have saved time on the fights before', Riku questioned. This makes Ignis frown before he said: 'I could ask Sora the same thing'. Riku gave the man a questioning look, prompting him to elaborate. 'I'm no fool, Riku, Sora is a far more powerful than he displayed. Yet he is continuously holding back his strength'. Turning to Riku as the master gave him a frown, he folds his arms.

'I know not why he does, but for myself, if I went all out like this then there is a chance Noct would grow lax and become more dependent on us to take care of things should we find ourselves in a tight spot', Ignis explains. As faithful in Noctis' abilities and feats as the man is, Ignis will always carry that fear of laziness of his majesty will get him killed one day. Of course, there have been times he had should have gone the extra mile and go all out for them, but after Sora joined the party, he fears them relying on them had made them more unguarded.

Riku waved his hand with a shrug. 'I get you…but personally? I'd rather do all the heavy lifting it means keeping them safe', he confesses with a casual tone. Ignis raised a brow at him as Riku looked at him. 'You can do that for Noct and the others if you want, but when it comes to those two, I'd tear the world apart for them', he said strongly, adamantly.

'Maybe Sora's holding back for us, or to give Kairi a sense of assurance she can keep up with us, I dunno. I know I'm holding back for Xigbar and nobodies', he says. 'Speaking of which…we should probably get a move on'.

Deciding to agree with the idea before this conversation causes a rift between them, Ignis turns to the buildings before them. 'We'll have a good view of the city should we take to the rooftops', Ignis surmised, calmly. Riku nodded in agreement before his face scrunched up with annoyance. 'So how are you getting up? Unless you can use Flowmotion like me, only one of us is going up', Riku argued. The boy had a point, Ignis couldn't scale the building and much less leap hundreds of feet. Getting around would take them too long if they had to find a route for him…

He looks at the fallen magiteks and spots one that catches his eyes. Its right hand possessed a wire that is undamaged by their attack and the greave looked to be in good enough condition to be used. Ignis kneels to it and got to work separating the wire from the socket of the magitek's shoulder and strapping the greave to his left wrist.

Finished, Ignis adjusts it and aims it at the ledge of the rooftop before them and fired the wire. Like a grapnel, it pulled him up the moment it stuck into the building. He used his foot to kick himself up when he got close and stood on top of the building, turning to Riku. 'Coming?', he asked rhetorically before walking off.

'…smartass', Riku chuckled, jumping to the top of the building with ease.

Together on the building, they could see just how things fared nearby the altar. Titan stood alone in the middle of the ocean, punching and crushing the airships and fending off the larger dreadnaughts with ease. Even as the imperials blasted the Archean with rockets, the humanoid goliath remained undeterred and resilient to their persistence as he granted the airships that were close to him a quick death and a watery grave.

Several buildings were reduced to rubble and ruin, many paths blocked by debris or fallen airships, there was fire spreading among the town. Yet the two were fixed on the altar in the distance behind the Archean, a faint shimmering golden light shines down on the altar like a beacon. 'Do you think Titan showed up because of Noct? Or Luna?', Riku asked, gesturing to the Archean. 'The astrals only intervene when Noct is in great peril, and I dare say the situation certain counts as one', Ignis answered.

Riku looked at the altar and the surrounding areas, his face taking on a frown when there was nothing show them how to get to the altar, but instead just a platoon of imperials holding territory. Together they crouched down on the ledge, surveying the playing field before them while Ignis ponders their next move. No magitek armor units among them luckily, only soldiers.

'We'll have to clear out this area first, better to deal with them now then have them hot on our heels', Ignis deduced. 'Alright, then you want me to light them up?', Riku asked, raising his hand and manifesting dark flames. Ignis frowned at the dark display but kept his tongue on hold. 'Perhaps a swifter approach would be better…', he said, placing Riku's hand down, 'I've got a magic flask with lightning inside, it should put them down quick'.

He handed the flask to Riku and gave him a quick explanation on how it worked before the silver head stood up and ran off the building and jumps into the air. He throws the flask right in the middle of the platoon of soldiers. The flask smashed on the ground and bathed all the soldiers in a cloud of lightning and sparks, the soldiers cooked to a crisp and they fell apart, lifeless. Riku lands on the streetlight to stay out of the cloud of sparks.

After the flask's work finished, the two re-joined back in the center just as Ignis raised a hand. He placed two fingers on his earpiece, picking up the Accordo guard's message. 'Attention all units: the Hydraean has fallen to the Archean', the commander of the guard says. 'Imperial forces moving from city center toward the altar. All units withdraw from the front lines immediately. I repeat: all units, withdraw immediately'.

Ignis exhaled from his nose, giving Riku the quick rundown about what he heard. 'Without the Leviathan going crazy with the water, nothing is stopping them sending every freaking ship they've got', Riku grunted, both turning to the Titan crushing the airships. The giant showed no signs of fatigue absolutely and likely it'll deplete all the empire's military forces if it must. However, given where the ships had fallen or been smashed too, it was only a matter of time before a mistake is made and their companions become pancakes.

Provided the empire doesn't reach the others first, especially if there is a ground unit patrolling in the city.

'Any idea how we can get to the altar?', Riku asked, looking at the man. Ignis pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to wrack up the map of the city in his mind. Studying it before arriving to Altissia for situations like this. Furrowing his brow in irritation at the lack of an idea of their whereabouts and no clue as to how they can make their way to the altar. If the empire is just using the airships, then that wouldn't be much of an issue if Titan can pummel them all. But if ground troops were deployed, then they'll be delayed and outnumbered.

He snapped his fingers, recollection showing on his face. 'We're currently standing in the Arcaleo District', he stated, looking at Riku, 'There's a bridge on the eastern side that should help us reach the altar if we cross it and stay on the rooftops'.

'Avoiding the bucket heads in the process', Riku added with a nod, 'Alright then! Let's move!'. 'Certainly, but I must contact Camelia first, see if she can lend us some support', Ignis stated, running with Riku to the direction of the bridge. While the silver head may have his issues and doubts with gaining help from this woman, he trusted Ignis to hopefully gain some form of aid.

'Madame Secretary come in!', Ignis says as they run down the stairway to the street ahead of them. 'What is it?', the secretary responded, angrily and impatiently all in one reply. Ignis held back the bite in his tone, saying: 'We need your help; I fear Noct is in danger!'. 'As is the entire city of Altissia, in case you haven't noticed', she says neutrally, like it was blatantly obvious to her and treated Ignis like he is dim-witted.

When they reached the end of the stairs, ahead of them were more imperials but this time they were in the company of nobodies. Three berserkers followed by five dusks, waltzing around and slithering in the air near the lifeless soldiers. 'Was wondering when Xigbar would bring in the cavalry', Riku grunted, summoning his keyblade. 'I'll go ahead, you try talking sense into that snob!'. Ignis nodded as Riku rushed into the fray. 'Besides, he and his "girlfriend" are probably long gone', Camelia says dismissively.

'No! I made a promise to keep him safe, a promise I intend to keep!', Ignis argued. 'Madame, we've aided you and your people in evacuating, surely we've earned your help!'. 'At the cost of my city, if you kindly recall', Camelia pointed out. Ignis grits his teeth and paces around, glancing at Riku being swarmed by imperials and nobodies alike. 'Forgive my language madame, but for bloody sake, we are not only going to lose our King but the Oracle as well! Be it the battle or the empire capturing them both!', he growled.

'Do you truly believe you writing both important figures such as them off is the wisest course of action for you and your image?'. There is silence on Camelia's end, the advisor hoped he managed to get through to her and at the very least see the cons of her dismissal. Sometimes the best way to earn someone's attention is to remind them of their possible losses. '…you make a good point, Scientia. I'll see what my men can do, but *I* promise nothing', she says with a sigh.

Ignis ended the call and rushed into the fight, daggers drawn.

He tosses one dagger in the back of an imperial's neck, plunging the steel through the mechanical part. He rushed past a dusk slithering towards him, swinging his reversed gripped dagger at it and killing it with one strike as he joined Riku in the middle of the cesspool of enemies.

Back to back, staring down their opponents as they surrounded the two, Ignis gave Riku a subtle glance. 'Riku, by chance you wouldn't happen to have, as Prompto would say, an instant kill ability on you?', Ignis asked.

'Maybe…if you're willing to give it a shot…', Riku says, glaring at the berserkers. 'At this moment I'm willing to try anything to get us out of this predicament and proceed with our original task', Ignis replied. Riku nods in agreement, slowly his body glowed with magic as did his keyblade. Slowly Ignis feels a surge of power welling up within him, his body felt lighter as the elements around his daggers start to surge and grow. Somehow, bizarrely, Ignis knew exactly what to do.

'Ignis!', Riku shouted as the mana surged around them.

'I've got just the thing for this!', Ignis affirmed.

Lightning danced around the two and in an instant, they vanished. Together in mid-air, they spun in a buzz-saw form, ice coating their swings as the sliced and froze the dusks and imperials as the other helplessly tried to strike or stop the warriors. Ignis and Riku separated from their saw pattern, landing on opposite sides of the horde as their bodies were cloaked in lightning that sparked wildly around them and shocked the ground. One from Ignis even overcharged a streetlamp nearby until the bulb burst into heated shards.

'Keep up!', Riku declared.

'Don't fall behind!', Ignis announced.

Both started to speed through the nobodies and imperials, crisscrossing with each other as light trailed behind them, keyblade and daggers striking at the enemies so fast they didn't even have time to identify the wounds. Doing these strikes three times until the whittled down the horde into only two berserkers and three imperials, both Riku and Ignis appeared right above them with plenty of space between them and their soon to be deceased foes.

'Finish it!', Riku ordered.

'Return to ashes!', Ignis demanded.

With Riku's keyblade cloaked in black fire as Ignis crossed his arms, daggers covered in flames and blowing so wildly it was as if they had turned into flame throwers. Together, they threw their weapons to the ground beneath the enemy's feet, stabbing into the stone. Landing on their feet outside of the horde, they both raised their hands and doing so, a tall and wide pillar of red and violet flames roared to life. Consuming nobodies and the imperials in scorching heat that reduced the metal to ashes, weapons and bodies alike weren't spared.

When the flames disappeared, they reclaimed their weapons, Riku looking impressed by their combined power while Ignis looked at his daggers in awe. The power that coursed through him for that moment, the strength he felt and how light his body was, it felt incredible. Is this what its like to be as strong, nay, possess such power like the others?

His thoughts were interrupted by Riku patting his shoulder, getting his attention. 'Nice work, that went a hell of a lot better than I hoped', Riku praised, smiling. 'W-What, what was that we just did?', he asked, dismissing his daggers. 'That my friend is a Limit. A joint attack by two strong individuals like you and I', Riku explained, 'But it takes a lot of mana to pull off'.

Ignis could agree to that, he felt slightly woozy and a bit drained after pulling off such an attack like that. 'But we can discuss more of it later, the way is clear', Riku said, pointing to the bridge ahead of them. Pinning this discussion for later in his head, Ignis and Riku ran to the bridge and started to cross it.

They barely reached the top of the slope on the bridge before the two protectors turned to the right upon hearing a whistling noise. 'Incoming!', Ignis yelled. Quick as a bolt, Riku jumped in front of him and erected a barrier of darkness as the missiles struck the bridge twice. The bridge shook but when Ignis glanced up he sees the cracks spreading in the ceiling above them along with bits of stone crumbling down.

Ignis grabbed Riku's shoulder and quickly pulled them back from the breaking ceiling as the center of the bridge begins to break and ultimately collapse into the ocean.

The two assessed the damages once the dust settled and flames disappear into the wind. Much like the last bridge, they stood on prior, the gap between their side and the other side is too vast. Ignis knew his hook shot wouldn't reach that far, and Riku wasn't abandoning him any time soon, especially with nobodies prowling the area with the imperials. Frustrated, however, Riku kicked a debris of stone into the building across from them, cursing.

'Now what? Our way over literally fell apart!', Riku grunted.

Ignis isn't too far off from lashing out either, more delays is the very last thing they needed with the imperials slowly polluting the city. 'We've got no choice, we'll have to backtrack and find another way to that part of the city!', Ignis says, turning around and jogging back down the slope with Riku begrudgingly following in tow. Just as the got to the entrance though, Ignis ceased and stepped back behind a pillar, pulling Riku with him.

The boy opened his mouth to ask but Ignis sent the boy a look, gesturing to see for himself why they are hiding. Riku carefully peered around the man to spot Caligo following a much more heartless

Riku narrowed his eyes darkly at Ravus' new form, recalling he did not look as monstrous when they first fought. From the distance, they felt his darkness had attained a new level of power, unfamiliar even to one who had experienced that dark power first-hand, and Caligo looked closer to a terrified mutt following his master out of fear.

'Have you located the Ring yet, Commander? And what of Lunafreya?', Ravus asked, his tone sounds so inhumanly close to the dark Ignis flinched at it. How did this happen to the man he pondered; he is aware of his current use of the darkness from Riku's telling but this is an entirely different matter. It is as if he had become a heartless himself but retained a human form. 'Both, High-Commander, but our forces are unable to extract either of them yet', Caligo explained, his seemingly calm voice was strained with fear.

'So long as the Archean stands in the way, we have no way of reaching the altar'. The two members of the imperial army watched as Titan demolished and crushed their airships as if they were no more than pesky insects. 'Even the gods are on his side…', Ravus growled, clenching his dark fist. 'Neither the king nor the Oracle will survive as long as the fight continues'.

Ignis could hear that semblance of humanity within his tone when he spoke of Lunafreya, it seemed Ravus hasn't entirely become one of the dark yet, but how long would that last he wondered. 'Order a full retreat, I'm going in alone', Ravus commanded, turning and heading back the way they came as an airship hovered before them. 'B-B-But sir-

Ravus turned to Caligo with a glare. 'Are you disobeying me, Commander?', he accused. 'N-No sir, but I understand rescuing the Oracle, but the king? And those brats nearby? Why should we care what happens to them?', Caligo asked. Ravus scoffed, lifting his darkened limb for him to see. 'Are you familiar with how I lost my arm previously?', he questioned. Caligo weakly nodded, confirming to his commander. 'Then you should be aware, without the one who can wield the ring, it is nothing more than a death trap! As for those brats, they matter not. Whether they live or die is irrelevant', Ravus dismissed.

Defeated, Caligo bowed his head and uttered a resigned "yes sir". Ravus turned and marched off to find his way to the altar. When he was out of earshot however, Caligo raised his head contempt and hate within his eyes. 'How dare he address me with such impudence? Has he forgotten his place entirely?', Caligo growled, 'Or is he too concerned about his sister to care?'. With a disgusted noise, he turned to head for the airship.

As the ship flew off to wherever it so desires, the two protectors stepped out from the pillars watching the ship fly off. Ignis turned to Riku. 'Was, was Ravus like this when you fought him?', he asked.

'No, far from it. Aside from the darkness around him, he looked human', Riku confesses while crossing his arm and bowed his head in thought. 'But that form…he even managed to regrow his limb back'. Then he turns to Ignis, a question brewing in his mind. 'The ring of the Lucii…is that how Ravus lost his arm?'. Nodding to the boy, Ignis said: 'The ring may only be worn by those of royal blood, those unworthy often suffer more gruesome fates…Ravus is fortunate enough to be alive'.

'And if Noct wears it, he'll be fine?', Riku probed.

'…No. Even the royal bloodline pays a price to use such an item…the ring will grant him power but cruelly it saps the user's life force in the process', Ignis revealed, grimly. Riku unfolds his arms with a grunt, shaking his head. 'Terrific…', he muttered, 'But now what do we do? We're trapped here unless we come up with a new plan'.

'I-I…Iggy! Riku!? Damnit will *one* of you answer!?'.

Both jumped at the loud angry voice booming in their ears before identifying the caller to be Gladiolus. Quickly the two placed fingers on their earpieces to respond to the growing concerns of their team. 'Gladio! We're here!', Ignis assured, looking around the field for them in case they were nearby.

'About time you answered!', he growled, 'We thought you two drowned or something!'.

'Its gonna take more than saltwater to do us in, Gladio', Riku rebuked with a scoff. 'What's going on? Where are you guys?'.

'Imperials everywhere!', Donald shouted, 'And that's just the soldiers! They're dropping those giant mechs like crazy!'.

'And that's before the nobodies started to pop up!', Goofy cried out.

'Have you two reached the others yet?', Aqua asked on her end. 'We're currently at an impasse, Aqua', Ignis answered, 'Our passage to the altar has been destroyed, and soon enough all the streets will be filled with imperials and nobodies'.

'There's got to be a way!', Gladiolus growled, 'The damn city has got to have more than one bridge to the freaking altar!'. Ignis pinched the bridge of his nose, inhaling through it as he listened to everyone starting to spout ideas, suggestions or demands to know what their plan is. If Ignis had one, he wouldn't be in the middle of this insistent banter of rambles. Looking to the ocean, a thought slowly occurred to him.

There is no imperial airship near the waters, and chances are they wouldn't have soldiers on boats or such patrolling the ocean. Why would they especially if the astral in question rules the seas? 'A boat…', he mused, catching Riku's ears, 'A boat! That's it!'.

'A boat? Wait…you guys aren't thinking of actually sailing in the middle of the ocean are ya!?', Prompto squeaked. 'We don't have much of a choice, Prompto!', Ignis replied, 'Ravus is trying to make his way to Noct and the others as well as the imperials, and he already has a head start on us!'. 'But…'.

'Guys, this is suicidal!', Aqua admonished, her voice silencing the others. 'Between Titan smashing the airships into the ocean, they're firing everything that got! You will be in the middle of that battle, and you'd be lucky to even get close to *see* the others!'. Riku growled back, pacing around. 'Sora and Kairi are stuck over there, Aqua! Neither of them have responded to my calls, for all I know they're too hurt to even move!', Riku shouted back.

'I understand, Riku, but rushing in like this isn't going to change that!', Aqua argued back. 'Then what are we supposed to do!?', Riku yelled, 'We can't find a way on land, the imperials have the city under their control and that Ravus ass is getting closer to the others!'.

'I suggest calming down first before you do something stupid!', Aqua shouted. Riku gritted his teeth but before he could lash out, Ignis grabbed his shoulder with a stern look. The two stared at each other, both showing frustration within their eyes but while Riku's was alit with desperation and anxiety, Ignis' showed wisdom and concern. 'Aqua, we know the risks, and yes, this is the last thing I'd recommend us doing…but we don't have a choice in the matter', he explained calmly and patiently.

'The empire is closing in on us all, and there is a good chance Xigbar will send his nobodies if push comes to shove'. Aqua became silent on her end, they patiently awaited her response as the two protectors wait. With a reluctant sigh, she responds: 'Do you have a boat in mind?'. 'I was hoping we could use his majesty's boat', Ignis explains, 'It's not too far from us'.

'Uhh…Iggy? We're actually at the yacht', Prompto said with nervousness rivaling him about to ask a woman out. Next thing to happen is Riku receiving a text from the boy with an image attached to it. They both looked at it with deep frowns.

It is a selfie of the blond, but behind him was the destroyed remains of the yacht, upside down with several holes under it, split in half with the driver's side ablaze. Below the image is the text: "Only seaworthy thing about this is sinking at the bottom of sea. Hashtag rocked the boat".

'Well, that's a bust…', Riku cursed.

'Just as well we left the cars back on the mainland!', Prompto said with a weak giggle. 'Hold on, the Accordo guards are sending a transmission!', Aqua yelled, ceasing everyone's speech.

'Attention all units: assemble at the docks and prepare for withdrawal immediately. We depart in three minutes', the commander of the guard announced. 'Hold on! We're heading for the altar, we need a boat!', Riku said, jumping on the opportunity as quickly as possible. 'Are you mad boy? You're going to be in the crossfire between the empire and Archean!'.

'If we don't, we'll lose the king and Oracle!', Ignis stated. Before he could persist and argue, Camelia's voice rang out, ordering her commander to give the two the boat they required. The commander, hesitantly but obligingly, agreed to the command. Ignis offered a quick response of gratitude to the secretary, only to be rebuked to be paid in gil as opposed to thanks. Riku scoffed quietly at the tone of the woman as the two ran towards the docks, the others still on the line.

'We'll make our ways to the altar, in the meantime all of you, do whatever you can to keep as much of the empire off us as you can!', Ignis ordered. 'Gladio and are heading to the districts occupied by the empire, we'll reclaim them and see if we can get some of the guards to hold them down once we kick the unwanted guests out', Aqua says on her end. 'The looser their grip is on the city the better', Ignis says, agreeing with the master.

'Donald, think you can create a storm or something? Just to knock out some of those airships?' Riku asked as they reached the rooftops. 'No problem!', Donald assured boastfully. 'Me and Goofy will keep our black mage safe! Go save Noct and the others!', Prompto says. 'Will do!', Riku says confidently.

Ending their calls, they make their way to the docks while keeping a distance from the empire's forces as much as they could. Fortunately for them, only a handful of soldiers had been stationed on the rooftops and they stood little chance against Riku and Ignis quickly cutting through them all or dash past them to evade a skirmish.

They reached the docks just as the crowd of people begin to hop onto the escape boats with the guards giving each of them instructions while ordering their men to perform their tasks at hand. Walking onto the docks, they were waved down by a guard near an unoccupied boat. 'Are you two the ones the secretary ordered us to assist?', he asked, eyeing the messy and soaked protectors. 'That's us', Riku assured, gesturing himself and Ignis.

The guard looked at the boy with a frown, then to Ignis, who says: 'We are ready to set sail. It'd be best for you to get what remains of the civilians to safety'. The guard nods in agreement, handing the man the keys. 'Are you two sure about this? It's gotten hectic out there', he warns. Riku scoffed in response as he ran around him to the boat, while Ignis nods. 'We're aren't about to abandon the king and his companions because of the empire', he assured, jogging after the boy. On the boat, Ignis grabbed the controls as Riku summoned his keyblade in preparation for the empire or nobodies.

One more look to the battle ahead, any fears or regrets pushed aside for the sake of their companions. They set sail into the battlefield.

Through the canal littered with ruined buildings and fallen airships, luckily every canal leads to the ocean where the Archean stood. Exiting the canal, Riku and Ignis could see the altar still had that beautiful light shining down upon it, as if it was guiding them to the others. Here in the ocean, they could see the Archean is closer to the altar then they had thought it'd be as if it was protecting the others from the empire.

'Looks like Titan's got a soft spot for the others', Riku said. 'It pays to have a god on your side it seems', Ignis agreed as he drove.

Titan uppercut and digs his gigantic fist into the belly of a dreadnaught, likely reducing it to useless as he reached up with his other hand to grab the face of the ship. He tore off the left engine wing of the ship and flung it away from the altar and luckily over the small boat the two warriors used. 'Hang on guys, we're nearly there', Riku promised, grabbing the top of his seat tightly. Closer and closer they got to the altar, Riku could see his friends on the ground.

Unfortunately, before they could dock their ship, Riku looks the right.

'LOOK OUT!', he cried too late. The driver turned to see an airship charging straight towards them and colliding with the boat and spinning them around and away from the altar. Riku grabbed the top of the seat and held tightly while Ignis lost his grip and was thrown off the boat and into the ocean with a yell.

Riku turned to his friend overboard and cried his name, unable to move without himself getting thrown off the boat. Fortune smiled on them as Ignis quickly resurfaced with a loud gasp, but he had been thrown quite a fair distance from Riku. Looking at the controls of the ship in the desperate hope to figure out how to work it, Riku grunted, his lack of knowledge of technology had chosen a bad time to rear its ugly head.

Ignis meanwhile looked at the boat, but then he sees an airship slowly descend closer to the waters, opening the hatch to show Caligo and a new type of MA-X machine. 'Well, well. Look who it is! What could one of His Majesty's royal retainers be doing out here of all places?', he said mockingly, smiling sinisterly at the advisor.

Ignis swiftly began to swim to Riku as the guns of the airship began to fire on the water ridden advisor. 'A shame for all your years to the king, your reward is a watery grave!', Caligo taunted smugly. Just as he was about to resume his taunting, he looks below to the boat and sees Riku dashing towards him in the air, keyblade in hand. Caligo had no time to react because his vision was then obscured by Riku's boot. The commander is thrown onto his back as Riku jumped, using his face as a steppingstone.

The master lands a foot near the docile mech, staring at Caligo as he rubbed his boot marked face with rage. When his eyes fell onto Riku, he got to his feet and withdrew a revolver from his holster on his hip, aiming it at the boy with seething hatred.

'You…you miserable meddling little shit!', he growled, shaking with uncontrollable rage at the boy who destroyed much of his reputation as the commander. Every mockery made about him, every belittlement he endured, the humiliation that forever followed him all done by Riku for just existing. Riku just glared at him with contempt, not the least bit threatened by the gun in his hand. 'I should have known that Ravus would have failed us! If I were in charge your head would be mounted on my wall!', he bragged. 'Funny, I remember Ravus managed to hurt me, and be a legit threat to my friends', Riku taunted, 'The only thing I remember about you is you constantly mistaking me for Noctis'.

Caligo opened fire on the boy, his bullets were deflected by the master and this repeat until he empties the chamber of the revolver. Riku swings his keyblade before dismissing it. 'Sorry to cut it short, but I've got friends to look after and an Oracle to rescue', he says. He then plucks from his pocket a spare magic flask Ignis had given him earlier and then chucks it at the mech on his right before he leaped off the ship.

Caligo's final actions were him screaming and vainly reach for the bomb before he and the airship went up in ablaze.

As Riku dives to the ocean while behind him the airship is exploding, he is flung into the ocean thanks to the shockwaves of the explosion behind him. Sinking deeper below the surface, he spun around and stabilizes himself, turning his head back to the surface above him with the boat hovering nearby.

Swimming back up to the surface, Riku breaks through and as he inhaled some needed air, he sees Ignis reaching out to him. 'Done taking a dip?', he asked. 'Just needed to cool off really', Riku jokes as he takes his hand and allows him to hoist him up and re-join him on the captain's ship. He frowned at Ignis' bare left arm, the magitek hook gone. 'It got damaged when I was thrown overboard, water locked it', he confesses, 'A shame too, I was starting to like it'.

They looked to see they had been pushed a far distance from the altar, but Titan had moved even closer to it as the skies become clustered with the airships.

'There is no chance of survival if we drive straight forward', Ignis says, changing direction of the boat and driving it into another canal. 'We'll have to find land and proceed on foot once more'. Nodding, Riku turned behind them to see that while the empire is fixed on the Titan, sadly their "allies" had other interests.

A swarm of dusk nobodies begin to chase after them along with nobody snipers running and warping all over the canal to hunt down the two. 'Better pick up the pace Iggy, we've got company!', Riku said, drawing his keyblade. 'Keep them off us!', Ignis instructed. 'Gladly', the boy replied.

As they drove through clustered canal, Riku fires off darkness at the white creatures while erecting a barrier for the beams of red fired from the snipers. Parrying some while deflecting them back to their shooters and slashing at the nobodies coming in close, Riku aimed his left hand and fired a barrage of dark fire at them, torrents of darkness rocketing towards them as he hits nobodies and fallen ruined buildings alike.

Ignis makes a sharp turn down one canal that is too narrow for the boat, but it didn't stop the nobodies from chasing them. Their stubbornness to remove the two protectors is what the advisor was counting on because this canal was infested with many bridges and low joint buildings that for a boat provided little hindrance, but for those flying and chasing them?

It is essentially trying to drive an airship through a window without damaging anything.

Unfortunately, the canal is indeed more narrow than the average canals, slowly they were being squeezed into the tight walls of the buildings, the boat rubbing and forcing itself through regardless as the nobodies chased them on despite their numbers depleting quickly. Riku stumbles as they bump into the walls, grabbing the seat near him as he turned to Ignis. 'What's the plan, Iggy?', he questioned.

He didn't answer as he made another turn after exiting the canal with the nobodies hot on their watery tracks. Looking over to the left, Ignis places their last magic flask on the windscreen of the boat. 'Riku, is it possible for you to get both of us over there?', he asked. 'If I must!', Riku said, catching on to his friend's plan, lifting the keyblade up. As it shines brighter, Riku throws Ignis over his shoulder and then jump off the speed boat just after he allows his keyblade to act like a flash grenade.

The nobodies were blinded by this as they aimlessly chased the boat as it came to a slow halt. The dusks recovered their visions fast though but when they all gathered onto the boat, none expected a blizzard to suddenly appear and freeze the ship and a part of the ocean enough to leave a thin surface of ice. The snipers stayed on one of the broken buildings from a distance, watching Riku land in the middle of a town square and place Ignis back on his feet.

'Hold your horses gentlemen'.

The nobodies knelt before their master, Xigbar waltzing up onto the ledge of the building and sees the two running into the city. Rubbing his chin with a wicked smirk, he nods and snaps his fingers. 'Head on back, you're done for the day', he orders. The two snipers bowed and vanished back into the white portals as Xigbar watches the two protectors disappear from him. He plucks his cell phone from his pocket and dialed the number he needed.

'They're moving in, you remember the plan yeah?', he asks casually. He snickers ruefully, 'Just making sure ya know what to do, wouldn't want things to go south now would we?'. He hangs up the first call and then makes the most vital call to his plan.

'High-Commander Ravus? I've got an update for ya'.

*Further in*

Ducking low behind a half-destroyed wall, Riku and Ignis carefully peered over to see more of the imperials patrolling the area with those magitek armors hunkering down nearby. 'We're nearly there', Riku said, 'All that stands between us and the others are those scrap heads'. Before the boy could charge in recklessly, Ignis held his arm and pulled him back down.

'Hold on, remember Ravus ordered a full-withdrawal for the army nearby', he reminds hastily, 'Merely wait a moment longer before we rush in'. Riku opened his mouth to protest with little patience regarding the plan, but Ignis says: 'Preserve your strength and energy, Riku. Keep in mind we have four friends to rescue and relocate'. The keyblade master slowly closes his mouth with a deep sigh before ultimately, he slumps against the wall, following his friends' advice and rest at last.

Propping up one knee while having one leg straight and resting his right arm on the propped limb, Riku laid his back against the wall. Ignis sits down near him while keeping his ears and eyes on full alert. Despite the mechanical beings patrolling nearby, the two allowed themselves a moment of ease and a chance to recollect themselves as Riku just stared ahead of him, deep in thought.

'Heh', Riku chuckled lightly.

Ignis raised a brow at the boy's sudden amusement. 'Something amusing you, Riku?', he asks, genuine curiosity in his tone. 'This is the second time I have had to go and save Sora; you know?', he says with a tone that the man could not place. 'The first time it happened was when we were trying to pass the Mark of Mastery exam, but then Xehanort snuck in and tried to make Sora his thirteenth vessel…'.

Looking at his right hand, Riku narrowed his eyes. 'You know the feeling? That, no matter what happened to yourself, you'd risk everything to save the other person? No matter what's going to come back and bite you in the ass?', he asked.

Ignis nodded. 'Quite so…many a times', Ignis says, looking ahead of him, 'There have been too many close calls for us, and often, it is because of Noct putting himself ahead in danger for our safety'. The early days of their journey often ended shortly thanks to their inexperience and changes in the weather catching them off guard. Those tasks of retrieving the royal arms were probably their most dangerous ventures, if not the terrain, dungeons or location that provided the challenge, it was the beasts that guarded them.

'Yeah…but you know you'd do anything to keep them safe, right?', Riku asked. 'No less than you would', Ignis offered with a small smirk. Riku chuckled lightly, but then he looked down, shame coating his face. '…you've probably been wondering how I knew what Ravus is capable of…how I know his abilities, right?'.

Ignis allowed his face to remain neutral and blank, the tone in the boy's voice told him more than his words could alone. 'I have pondered it, but I'm certain you would have told us when you felt comfortable enough to do so', assured the man. While his questions were vital to get answers for, the other worlders have long earned his and the other's trust long ago. He also remembers after the group reunited after their raids on the imperial bases Noctis telling him something along what Riku is hinting.

'I've known about other worlds since me and Sora were kids, that was when we first met Terra and Aqua', Riku reveals with a hint of nostalgia in his tone as he looked up the skies. 'Then Kairi came to the islands…and we've always wondered what it's like out there, what kind of worlds lied in wait for us to explore'. '…but unlike Kairi, who had no interest in remembering her home, and Sora just excited for the adventure, I wasn't as patient'.

Ignis didn't speak, his silence however encouraged Riku to continue his tale. 'I hated being trapped on our islands, the same old thing repeatedly. Until one day, I found the door…the door to darkness'. Ignis recalls Aqua telling them this a month ago after Gladiolus demanded answers to Xigbar and the nobodies. However, that was briefly explained by Riku and the rest of the conversation went to Xehanort and his goals.

Hearing this vital information raised questions about this world's light and darkness but the man became more interested in where Riku's tale would go and end. 'So I opened the door…and the heartless invaded our world. It was swallowed by the darkness…and all I did was gleefully accept it as a minor sacrifice to finally be free of that watery prison…', Riku sighs, regretfully. Ignis lets his mouth open slightly, shocked to hear a master of a weapon of would do something so…evil, all for the sake of his thirst for the outside worlds.

'That's when I met a witch, who helped me exploit my darkness and make me stronger…but it was all a ruse, to turn me against Sora, Donald, and Goofy. She tricked me into thinking he replaced me and Kairi with them, my jealously of Sora being picked by the keyblade…all used to make me delve further deep into the darkness to lose sight of what mattered to me', he explains lengthily.

'And those dark powers, you learned them all from that witch?', Ignis questioned. 'Yeah, Maleficent. But the dark powers were a fragment of what she gleaned from the heartless. Xehanort and his vessels have the real power underneath them, hence why Ravus can use it more than I could', Riku explained. 'But tell me, how did you not submit to it?', Ignis pressed. '…because of Sora'.

Riku ran a hand through his hair, breathing an annoyed breath. 'After everything I did, the amount of chaos I probably caused, and even stealing Kairi from him…he still saves me in the end', he chuckles in guilt. 'Even after my heart was lost to the darkness, he wouldn't give up on me'. Summoning Brave Heart in his hand, he looks at his weapon and lowers his head. 'When we took our exam, for me it wasn't to become a master, but to see if I was worthy of being able to wield this thing…and stand by Sora's side for what came next'.

Ignis watches the boy in deep thought, before letting a sigh escape. 'It sounds to me Sora is fortunate to have a friend like you', he says. Riku looked to the man's passive face, bewildered. 'Not many of us can safely say we haven't made mistakes in our lives like yourself, but very few of us have strived as hard as you to redeem yourself', he speaks wisely. 'Your mistakes have cost you more than just your heart, your home and light as well. More reason why Sora is precious not just to Kairi, but to you too'.

Ignis smiles at him with a shrug. 'I've been in service to Noct ever since I was six years old, sworn to look after him for his majesty', he reveals to his friend, 'And despite our highs and lows, the frequent arguments of responsibility and his disdain for vegetables, those years…I wouldn't trade for anything in this world'. Looking up to see the airships speed off, Ignis took a risk and carefully glanced over the wall to see the path had been cleared.

Getting up from his space, he offered a hand to Riku. 'I believe it is time for us to keep up the good work, and protect those dear to our hearts', he said.

Riku gave the man a grateful smile and nods, taking his hand and allows himself to be hoisted up. Together with renewed motivation, and deeper bond, the two raced into the ruined city to the altar.

*Altar*

As the day darkens with burning buildings surrounding the altar, rain begins to fall from above as Riku and Ignis finally, after so much fighting and struggles, reached the altar. The site, once a holy place of history and a tribute to the goddess, now resembled a long-forgotten ruin left to wither away from the passages of time.

Together the two steeled their hearts, forcing the worst outcomes that preyed on their fears to be ignored and pressed on. Passing through the ruins, ahead where the faint light begins to dim, they see four bodies nestled close together.

'SORA! KAIRI!', cries Riku.

'NOCT!', Ignis shouts.

Running to their fallen friends, Ignis immediately tends to the sleeping prince while Riku is between his two lights. Each of them carried wounds, great and minimal, their clothes torn and ruined with so much blemishes on their bodies.

'Noct! Noct, wake up!', Ignis demands, shaking his liege with probably more force than he realized. Although he could feel his king lives, the need to see him speak and open his eyes won over his senses. He looked to Riku, looking ready to cry.

'No…no, no', he repeated.

Ignis allowed his gaze to fall to Kairi before he choked with horror, seeing the red spread along her stomach. Riku's shoulders shook as he whimpers, head down as he shakily places a hand on Kairi's shoulder, shaking her. 'Kairi…Kairi, please…please wake up…', he begs, tears running down and falling on his friend. Not a sound made, the princess of light remains still as Riku shakes her. 'Don't do this to us…not to me…not to Sora…', Riku cries softly.

Even Ignis could not hold his tears, a lump forming in his throat. Looking away to his prince, Ignis could hear the agony in Riku, the anguish that tore his heart asunder as he sobs.

Looking at his best friend, his brother, to tears running down, failure rushed through his very being. 'I'm sorry…Sora, I'm so sorry', he sobs, hiccupping. He rests his head on Kairi's shoulder, unable to hold himself up from the sorrow weighing down on his heart.

'…R…Ri…ku?'.

Shooting up immediately like he was struck by lightning, Riku looks to see Kairi's eyes weakly looking up at him, her skin so pale and cold. At a loss for words, Riku looked to see a hand resting on her back he never noticed, glowing faintly in light. Following the arm, he sees Lunafreya with strain on her face passing her light to Kairi.

'S-She…she needs, help', she grunts out, 'Her wounds…they're merely being delayed…', she explains.

Hearing this, Ignis lowers his prince and rushes to the islander's side, rummaging his pockets to pull out an hi-elixir. 'Here! Take this!', he orders. Quick as humanly possible, Riku grabs the potion and helps place it in Kairi's hand, crushing it with her. Slowly a light green hue surrounded the princess of light, healing her as she lets out an audible gasp. Her skin slowly regains some of its color and they could see life returning into her eyes.

Making sure, Ignis lifted her dress to see the wound and like a miracle from the gods above, he sees the fatal wound had closed to a thin scar that certainly needed proper healing but for now would do as a substitute. Lowering her dress down as Riku breaths out relief, Ignis nods to her.

'S-Sora…', she whispers, weakly. 'He's right here, Kairi', assured the older man, 'As well as Noct and Luna'. Kairi graced them both with a smile before her eyes closed as she fell unconscious, likely still very weary from the battle and the wound. Lowering her down, Riku turned to the Oracle on her side, elbow used to support herself up.

'Luna…thank you', he whispered, words unable to convey the level of gratitude he had for this angel of a woman. The Oracle glanced up at him with a small but tired smile of her own, before she turned down to the pathway with a gasp.

Both protectors see approaching them is Ravus.

Behind him are neo-shadows following him like a pack, Riku and Ignis immediately stood up with narrowed gazes. Lunafreya behind them slowly but shakily stood up, clutching her wounded right arm as she could only stare in horror of what her brother had become. The older Fleuret stared down the two protectors as his shadows twitched at them.

'Brother…what have…what has the empire done to you?', she gasped. Ravus lifted his dark limb to face his sister. 'The empire would have you dead, sister. Xigbar however, has given me the power I need to protect you', he corrects. Riku flexes his fingers to prepare himself to strike at this man, but Ignis stepped forth slightly. 'Ravus, we do not have to fight anymore! Your sister lives and is safe! Surely that is enough of reason to lay down arms?', Ignis pleads.

'For how long, boy?', he sneered, glaring at the prince and keyblade wielders. 'So long as they draw breath, my sister will never be safe from the false prophecy of the false king!'. Lifting his human arm to summon dark flames that cloaked his limb until they formed a new saber with a familiar design that sent sickness to Riku's stomach.

Soul Eater's design in the form of a saber.

'Brother! Enough of this!', Lunafreya demanded, 'Look at what that monster has done to you! Your light is so faint I cannot even sense it within you!'. 'The light rejected me, sister! It would rather see you dead, but with the darkness, I can protect you from that boy!', Ravus argued. 'All I need to do is rid this world of that menace and those false followers of his!'.

'Come to your senses man!', Ignis shouts, 'Kill them and you destroy the future *your* sister struggled to fight for!'.

'Be silent!', Ravus roars, swinging his saber at Ignis, throwing a lightning arc at him.

Riku, however, appeared before Ignis and deflected Ravus' attack to the broken archway above them, decimating it. Ravus glared at the boy as Riku stood up properly, narrowing his eyes at him. 'You aren't going anywhere them', he promised as Ignis stood by his side, daggers drawn.

'If neither of you move, then you will share the same fate as them: death!', Ravus warned. Riku growled as his own body was slowly being cloaked in a purple aura, keyblade coated with his darkness. 'That's not going to happen', he promised. Looking back over his shoulder to see those two preciouses to his heart, the two reasons why he kept pushing.

Turning back facing Ravus, Riku proclaimed: 'I will keep them safe! And if I must kill you to keep it that way! Then you leave me no choice!'.

Together Riku and Ignis ran at Ravus and his heartless, all three of them ignoring the pleas of the Oracle…

A/N: MUCH…MUCH happier with this chapter!

Not going to lie, I did tear up writing Kairi's scene, listening to the sad music from XV. Now with Ravus fighting for his sister's sake, can Riku and Ignis talk him down before tragedy strikes again? What's Xigbar's grand plan? Will Ardyn cause more trouble with a living Oracle?

Questions:

Q1: How was Riku and Ignis' relationship?

Q2: What was your favorite part of this chapter?

Q3: What do you think Xigbar's plan is?

Q4: How many expected Kairi to be dead?

Q5: Do you think this is a better version compared to the original?

Q6: What did you think of their limit? It'll be expanded on later.

I've been doing some thinking about how many chapters I post and have decided to take more time to develop them out and give more time to extend them. Quality of quantity.

As always everyone, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	39. Chapter 39

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 39

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

Neo-shadows fell to the combined ferocity of the advisor and master despite the constant interruptions from the High-Commander striking at them.

Ignis kicks one shadow aside as he flicks his dagger to one leaping at him from the left, his right-hand sparking with lightning. He spins the weapon and plunges it into the chest of a neo sneaking behind him, the lighting from the dagger sparking through it and chaining together and shocking two more. When they faded into nothing, he summons his other dagger and strikes at Ravus.

Riku swung his keyblade upwards as a neo-shadow spun towards him. He slices it mid-section, allowing the two halves to soar behind him while he performs a front flip and plunges his keyblade into the ground. A white shockwave emits from his keyblade that wipes out more shadows around him, but Riku raised his right hand to fire off several violet beams to the air. The single-beam splits into seven and rockets down onto the shadows, exploding into pillars and consumed the shadows.

Clashing with Ravus, each swing of his dark weapon was followed by trails of violet and blue lighting, Ignis kept up the pace with his lighting as their weapons sparked and rang out through the altar. Parrying one strike from the commander and then lifting his reserved gripped dagger in his right arm to block a downward strike from the commander, Ignis kicked him in the stomach to create breathing space for himself.

'Ravus! Come to your senses man! Killing Noct and the others will not put an end to this!', Ignis beseeched, stubbornly standing at the entrance leading to the others. Ravus swung his saber angrily, his dark aura coating him grew fiercer and more monstrous. 'BE SILENT!', he snarls.

He struck at Ignis with more speed, almost as fast as a cyclone with his saber. Ignis tried to keep up with the man possessed by the darkness, yet the man outclassed him both in speed and strength. He landed several hits on the younger man, his saber cutting his side, shoulder, and arm until finally with one swing of his saber Ravus broke Ignis' guard and grabbed him with his darkened arm by the neck. Ignis instantly felt the air being cut off from this, grasping Ravus' arm to desperately keep himself up and struggle against the man.

Ravus lets out a growl of pain when Riku struck at his exposed side with Brave Heart, cutting into him and tossing the man across the field, dropping Ignis. Ravus' boots stuck into the ground as he ceased movement near the edge of the platform, glaring heatedly at Riku as Ignis rubbed his neck, coughing. The silver head ran to Ravus, firing dark barrages at him during his charge. Ravus meets with his strikes by slicing them and cutting them to pieces as he and Riku reached into a clash of steel mixed with lightning and darkness.

Their weapons bounced and clashed like two raging storms fighting for supremacy, even though Ravus managed to land a few swipes on Riku, the boy returned his wounds twofold with the combination of light and darkness. Their weapons locked together, pressing against each other as black flames cloaked the two of them, while Ravus looking more monstrous as Riku's own eyes glowed violet.

'Why? Why do you side with that menace!? Do you have any idea what his family line has wrought upon others!?', snarled Ravus. Riku pressed harder, teeth gritted with effort as he battled. 'Last time I checked Noct didn't take over your home and held your sister as a prisoner!', Riku challenged. Riku broke the deadlock with a step back, making Ravus stagger forward and give the hero a free hit on his shoulder. Ravus curses the boy and while spinning around he swings his saber at him, nicking his cheek but doing little else to harm Riku.

'We lost our home because of him and his line!', Ravus roared, 'His coward of a father abandoned both of us after the empire murdered our mother! What sort of "Chosen King" is that, the child of a coward!?'. 'And what kind of brother allows his sister to remain in the captivity of the empire who destroyed their home!?', Riku shouted, clenching his fist in fury. Part of him didn't even know why he was arguing with Ravus, because truthfully Riku didn't care why or how deep his hatred for Noctis ran.

All the islander cared about is the two lights near the altar and removing Ravus from the realm of light would be a crime he'd live without regret.

Ravus spawns two Anti versions of himself in front of him, taking on what he looked like before his "awakening" from Xigbar. The two Anti lookalikes rushed to Riku, but they were quickly subdued by Ignis lighting dashing around them, slitting their dark throats. When the false versions of the man before them fell to oblivion, Ignis stood side by side with Riku, daggers in his hands as the commander growls in fury. He attempts to spawn more of his minions, but Ignis throws his burning daggers at him before he could call for reinforcements.

The daggers struck the man right along with Ignis throwing eight more of the fire bounding projectiles at him. Homing in on Ravus and striking him several times yet Ravus shook off the pain, the flames didn't last longer than five seconds on his body. Ravus lifted his hand of the dark and from five feet from him, a large sphere of darkness formed in the air, sucking in the air around them. It tried to suck Riku and Ignis into it, Riku stabbed his keyblade into the ground to keep him there while Ignis did the same with his spear.

Riku called upon his darkness, a pool of the dark formed beneath him. He quickly sunk into the pool and disappeared from the other's sites, reappearing behind Ravus. The High-Commander had no time to react to Riku before the boy's left hand was surrounded in darkness. He punched Ravus right between his shoulders, the impact exploding and throwing Ravus from Riku, his suction sphere disappearing from the broken concentration.

Ravus fell onto his side but quickly rolled onto his feet as Riku took a stab at him, just missing his cheek and receiving a backhand from his armed human arm. He turns to see Ignis stabbing at him with his spear, catching the polearm just under the blade of the weapon. Ignis quickly dismissed it and struck at him with his left-hand dagger, narrowly missing his underarm. Ravus strikes him with his darkened limb, punching Ignis to the edge of the platform.

Ravus raised his dark limb and clenches it, suddenly huge car-sized heartless claws rose up around Ignis and then closed on him, slamming him into the ground with a loud thud. The prisoner of the hands lets out a yell of pain as they pressed down on him, holding him. Ravus turned onto his true threat getting to his feet, wiping the blood off his lip as he showed his teeth. Riku crouched down before jumping into the air but as Ravus tried to follow him, he suddenly moves too fast for even an enhanced warrior like Ravus to keep track.

Riku struck at him from behind, keyblade slashing at his back before jumping into the skies again. Ravus turned around to strike at him but Riku just appeared in front of him and kicked in the face before re-doing the same tactic of cut and jump. Enraged at this game of cat and mouse, Ravus turned to the skies and started to strike repeatedly into the air, creating a dome of violet blades striking the air to shield himself from Riku.

After seeing his wild but effective tactic, Riku, while still in the air, charged up his darkness and magic within him. He glowed into a golden reddish light that covered his body, slowly opening himself up with Brave Heart in the air. He grips the weapon in both hands and then dives down, slamming it into the ground. Behind Riku from the air, small meteors rained down behind him and flew towards Ravus. Ravus' wild strikes managed to destroy some of them but three of them managed to hit the ground around him, destroying some of it and the last one he barely managed to split in half.

When he cleaved it in two, Riku was behind it with Brave Heart outstretched. Ravus lifted his dark limb to block Riku's keyblade, the tip piercing into it but it acted like a shield for the man of the dark. Ravus attempts to stab Riku, only for Riku with his black flame covered hand to grab the steel and hold it from tasting his flesh and organs. The two stared down each other as their darkness rose up to the skies like smoke from raging fires.

With Ignis, he managed to pull his arm out from beneath the hands pinning him down, summoning his dagger in the process. He sees Riku and Ravus' in the deadlock, neither one backing down from their struggles as the ground cracked and splits beneath them. Looking at his predicament, Ignis inhales sharply and raising his dagger upward, he cries as he stabbed into the darkened hands just over his side. The dagger sank into the darkness, the limbs stiffening and then slowly they release their grip on him, dissipating into nothing.

He gets to his feet in time to see Ravus creating a dark barrier around him that threw Riku away from him and across the platform, on his back skidding across. Riku stopped short thanks to Ignis catching him and helping him back to his feet. Riku nods in thanks to the man as Ravus dashed towards them, together they met his saber with keyblade and daggers. The three protectors strike wildly at each other's steel, Ravus' lighter and swifter sword counteracting Riku's bulkier and dense weapon but Ignis' precise and concentrated parries and swings covered any open spot for Riku.

Ravus managed to knock Riku's weapon aside and plunged his saber into him, only to have Ignis step in quickly and bring both daggers down on the saber. He holds the saber down to the ground, pinning the weapon. 'Do you realize what ramifications you'll create if you murder Noct!', Ignis accused, glaring at the man. 'Kill him, and everything your sister has done, every pain, every trial she endured, will be for nothing!'.

Ravus roared as through raw power he managed to throw the man off his saber, but Ignis struck at his sword as they dueled, Riku jumping out of the way as the cyclone of steel between the two was held on the spot. 'You kill Noct, and you kill her grace's hopes for this world!', Ignis persisted. 'WHAT HOPE IS THERE IN A FUTURE MY SISTER WILL NEVER SEE!?', Ravus bellowed. Ignis crossed his daggers to block a downward strike from the man. 'Stand aside, or you will join them!', he threatened.

With a cry, Ignis broke through and threw Ravus' blade aside, then he struck him with roaring burning daggers, knocking him back from the altar. Ravus shot his head up, baring his teeth at Ignis as the advisor's patience grew shorter with this man stubbornness and insistence of regicide. 'Noct didn't choose to become King; his ascension was preordained by the Crystal! It wasn't mere happenstance!', Ignis insisted.

'It was a mistake! One that needs to be corrected!', Ravus argues, throwing his dark palm at Ignis and fired a ray of darkness at him. Riku jumps in front of Ignis and with a straight thrust of his keyblade, the beam was halted by him. The beam splits like a star, shooting in different directions. 'Listen to him Ravus! If you don't trust Noct, what the hell makes you think trusting Xigbar or Ardyn is a better choice!?', Riku shouts over the attack. He glances at Ignis and nods, encouraging him to make his move.

Nodding, Ignis summons his spear and adjusts his glasses, crouches and then leaps into the air. His jump went higher than before as he performs a front flip and grabbing the polearm with both hands, he dives down to the High-Commander. Ravus looks up in time to raise his sword to stop him impaling him with his spear. Their collision was far greater than Ravus had feared, Ignis almost broke through and had he not been enhanced by the darkness or wield such a powerful saber, he would have been dead right there and then.

His surprise attack forced Ravus to stop blasting Riku with darkness, but in turn, gave him use of his arm to protect himself from Ignis by grabbing his spear and throwing it and the man off him. Ignis landed on his feet gracefully, flipping around and drawing daggers once more as Riku stared down the High-Commander. All three warriors panted, the day having reached tonight as the rain continued and grew heavy, the ground soaked with rain and salt water as the silence loomed over them all.

Ignis feels the weariness of his body finally tugging his senses, he mustered all his will to keep himself from collapsing or showcase any form of exhaustion. The battle with the older sibling to the Oracle felt as if no progress had been made, their words not reaching this man as desperate as they were, his hate for Noctis blinding reason and sense. The specs wearing advisors glances to Riku, panting but nowhere near likely Ignis' state of exhaustion.

'I'm giving you one last chance boy…stand aside', Ravus threatened, darkness accumulating around him as Riku's own manifested. 'You want them?', Riku growled, 'The only way you'll get past me is in pieces'.

Ignis cursed quietly at this, he could feel the darkness within Riku stir, growing more and more aggressive with each passing moment the battle prolonged. He feared the longer this keeps it, it may not be long before he would end up fighting the boy as well. They already have a man-powered by the darkness, misusing it in a misguided attempt to protect those close to his heart. Yet knowing this also reminded Ignis he is sorely outmatched by the two of them, he could keep up with Ravus for only so long.

Ravus and Riku charged towards each other, dashing mid-air as their darkness covered them both…

'ENOUGH!'.

Suddenly both warriors were trapped in golden domes that halted them entirely and trapping them both. Riku's darkness disappears when he sees himself a prisoner of the light, looking at Ignis in bewilderment while Ravus starts to look around frantically like a wild animal caught in its cage. All eyes fell to Lunafreya, trident returned to her hand as she stood up with her right hand outstretched, glowing in a gentle light.

Despite the obvious strain in her eyes and inhuman exhaustion her body must be enduring, she stood tall like a goddess of light before them, undeterred by the weariness. 'This fight ends right now!', she declares, 'I will not idly stand by and watch two men who should be on the same side fighting to bloody death!'. Riku glanced at Ignis, before turning to Ravus, then to the Oracle before he reluctantly but ultimately, dismissed Brave Heart.

Lunafreya turns to her brother, now striking at her shield desperately to escape. His strikes did nothing other than wear him out, not even his darkness could inflict harm upon her light. He refuses to look at her, eyes dead on Riku as the boy just stared at him with contempt and distrust. Lunafreya marched to the two opposing sides of the darkness, her steps were slow and she is in pain yet like the divinity the world saw her, she held it back.

She stood in front of Ravus, obstructing his view of Riku before she dispelled his golden prison. When his target is no longer within sight, finally Ravus looked at his sister, not with the wild hate or ferocity, but with sadness. The Oracle's face sported a look of grief and pain as she placed a hand on the dome, looking at him with pleading eyes. Slowly with hesitation, Ravus placed his human hand where hers laid.

'Brother…please, stop this fighting', she pleads, 'You know this is my path'. 'Do not ask this of me! Sister…look at you, bloody and wounded, all because of him!', Ravus cursed, his darkness spiking from his anger and hate. Riku almost stepped in for the Oracle but he is held back by Ignis placing a hand on his shoulder. With a shake of his head, the older man turned to watch the two speak and with luck, come to a solution.

'Sister, please don't do this…we can stop this curse without you dying!', he begged. Lunafreya shakes her head with anger. 'You truly thought I didn't think of alternatives? That I spent all my time happily waiting for all this to happen?', she accused harshly. 'This is no longer about my trials or calling! This is about you, brother!'.

Dismissing her dome around Ravus, she makes her trident disappear and faces him. 'You tell me to look at what this is doing to me, yet brother, you haven't seen what this darkness is doing to you!', she admonishes, placing a hand on the heartless emblem, 'You throw your heart to darkness for power, yet you use it to harm and murder those who would wish to save our world from the very same darkness Noctis faces!'.

Lunafreya grabs his hand and lifts it to show him. 'How much of your light are you willing to sacrifice for nothing brother? Does your hatred towards Noctis truly bind your heart to this false crusade?'. Ravus opens and closes his mouth as the darkness within his eyes slowly fades, growing fainter and weaker as the words of the one person he strived to protect the most, the person who for her sake he would throw his heart into the darkest depths to protect. The pain caused by his choice, the hurt in her eyes and voice.

'…you would die sister…', he whispered, 'Die for him?'.

'I lived…because of her', Lunafreya speaks. She turns to gesture Kairi still sleeping with the others. 'Had she not protected me, your chancellor, the very man who poisoned you with this darkness, would have killed me if not for her!'.

Ravus looked at the girl, eyes wide. 'The people who you tried to harm, are the reason why I draw breath still', she reminds. 'Yet the people who gave you this power encourage you to put them down, strip down my shields'. Ravus looks away, conflict within him stirs wildly as the words and truth behind his beloved sister struck home, wherein the deepest depths of his darkness his heart felt her light.

'…the more of that darkness you use…the less you there will be'.

The two looked to Riku, one knee bent from weariness as Ignis tended to him. 'You think if you've a strong heart, the heartless wouldn't be able to swallow it, that you're immune to the dark'. He scoffs and shakes his head, facing Ravus. 'But you're wrong. Sooner or later, the very person you're trying to help or protect will be no different from the person you hate so much'. '…believe me when I say this…I know exactly what that's like'.

Slowly with Ignis' help, Riku gets to his feet and stared down the older man in front of him. 'You've still a chance to make things right…don't make the same mistake I did and wait for you to lose your heart'.

'You said you would do whatever it takes to help Lunafreya', Ignis adds', 'Then listen to what she has to say'.

All eyes fell to Ravus, one pleadingly, one encouraging and one showing reflection of past mistakes. The High-Commander looks to his darkened limb, no longer feeling that sensation of power that granted him confidence to be stronger than even Noctis, but now instilling doubt. Gently his sister took his arm and placed his hand in between hers, her light slowly radiating and trailing down the hand to his body, the sensation of gently hug from the cold dark. Lunafreya looks to him, hope glowing within those beautiful blue eyes.

'…very well'.

He concedes, lowering his hand, slipping from her warm palms and sheathes his sword. 'If you truly believe, this is the only way…', he submits. Lunafreya gives him the most joyous smile he hadn't seen in years, a surge of light sparked within the dark depths of his own heart. Riku and Ignis nodded to each other approvingly as Riku managed to stand on his own two feet, the tension in the air disappearing as they knew the fight between them, and the High-Commander had ended.

'We best move then', Ignis suggested, gesturing the trio, 'It is likely the empire will send their men here should Ravus not report in'. 'Right, we'll meet up with Gladio and the others', Riku agrees. The four of them slowly thanks to their wounds and exhaustion approached the fallen heroes. Just when they did, however, a voice called out.

'Iggy! Riku!'.

They both turned to see to their surprise and relief Gladiolus running up to them…alone. 'Gladio, there you are!', Riku waves tiredly at the shield. However, when the shield was close, he frowned in concern as Ignis stepped forward. 'Where are the others? I thought you were with Aqua?', Ignis questioned. Gladiolus said nothing, he instead turned to Ravus standing over Noctis with Lunafreya kneeling to check him.

He approached them, his walk strangely playful and it reminds Riku of someone else. Glancing at Ignis with suspicion, both frowned at the silent shield of the king. 'Well, what do we have here? High-Commander Ravus', he greeted cordially. His voice sounded too low, to mysterious and condescending for the shield, even towards a man like Ravus. Suddenly Gladiolus summoned his greatsword and took a swing to the High-Commander.

Ravus sensed his aggression because he immediately unsheathed his sword and parried the shield's attack, earning a yelp of surprise from Lunafreya and shocked cries from his party. Ravus, however, glowered at him, stepping in front of the Oracle with seethe.

'Ardyn…', he snarled.

"Gladiolus" just chuckled as his weapon disappeared, stepping back from the angry sibling. 'Oh, dear. Was I that transparent?', he asks, bowing as his body and clothes turned into that familiar garb. When he raised his head, hat on and in his normal form, he smirks cruelly.

'Ravus! Protect the others!', Ignis shouts as nobody snipers and imperials rush to the altar behind Ardyn. Riku cursed as he recalled his keyblade, he and Ignis rushing to the front of Ravus and the others, staring down Ardyn and his minions. 'Well look what I've got here', another voice called. A corridor of darkness appeared near Ardyn and waltzing out of it was none other than Xigbar, smirking at the two.

'Long time no see, Riku', he greets with a smirk. Riku aims his keyblade at him with a grunt, yet Xigbar is unphased by this aggressive display, almost amused. 'Pfft, still going the first approach? Attack first chance you see a guy like me?', he taunts. 'Better than wait around for you to make the first move', Riku retorts with spite. Xigbar chuckles in agreement as Ardyn watches with amusement. 'Good thinking…but that's the issue kiddo…you know me too well', Xigbar compliments with some sass.

He smirked as, within his right hand, darkness manifests and grows. 'All the more reason to have this chat without pesky keyblade masters prowling around'. Xigbar disappears and reappears on Ignis' left, upside down and levitating over the ocean and his darkened hand aimed at the man. He fires at him, Riku sees this and shoves Ignis back to Ravus. He was struck in the chest by the darkness, throwing him off the altar and into the oceans with a large splash.

'RIKU!', Ignis cries, quickly getting to his feet. Just before he could rush in to save the boy, he was struck by two imperial soldiers, hitting him in the back of his knees. Forced onto his knees, then onto his stomach as his right arm is restrained by one soldier while the other presses their hand down onto his head. Ignis struggles against his captors as Ravus' voice rings out to his sister as the nobody snipers take shots at the High-Commander while the imperials restrain the Oracle and drag her to the altar, leaving Sora, Noctis and Kairi in the middle.

Thrashing defiantly at his captors Ignis cursed and grunts in futility. He glares heatedly at Ardyn crouched down facing Ignis with that smirk on his face, a dagger in hand as Xigbar gestured his snipers to ceasefire. Ardyn just shrugs to the man's struggles, almost weary of his persistence. 'Come now. Why not follow your liege's lead and stop resisting?', Ardyn offers, patting the dagger into his free hand, sounding a chastising uncle.

'Never!', refused Ignis.

With an exaggerated eye roll and comical shrug, Ardyn says: 'You and Riku risk lives and limbs to safeguard the "King of Kings" and two warriors of the key, only to bear witness to them failing in such spectacular fashion. I can't imagine how disappointed you must be feeling'. Ardyn saunters to the sleeping prince, allowing Ignis to see Ravus was restrained by two imperial soldiers. He could see several patches of marks on his human flesh, likely thanks to the sniper nobodies. Two of which were training their odd weapons on him.

Further behind them, he saw Lunafreya being held hostage by more imperials, a total of two this time. Lax certainly but compared to the rest of them in the context of combat prowess, and understandable plan. He turned his gaze back to Ardyn, crouched down to Noctis, studying him with a frown. The dagger shining sinisterly to the man of the king, making him thrash more desperately. 'Don't you dare lay a hand on EITHER of them!', he demanded.

'I know I am certainly disappointed in him', Ardyn sighs, ignoring the advisor's warning. 'Oh…what good is a world that only lets you down? Why not just let it all end here and now?', he asks to no one. Eyes widening with horror as the dagger within Ardyn's hand slowly raises above Noctis' head, the man of no consequence grabbing his hair to hold him in place. 'No…you can't…', Ignis gasped.

Ardyn readies himself to plunge the dagger into the King of King's head, ending there the line of Lucis here and now as Ignis cried his brother's name.

No sooner did Ardyn's dagger nearly touch the boy's forehead, a blast of darkness just misses him and eradicates a single imperial soldier near him. The mechanical body breaking apart at the seams like a puppet being ripped asunder. Ardyn glanced to see Ravus striking down the soldiers and nobodies holding him, glaring at Ardyn and Xigbar. Behind him the Oracle erects a barrio around herself, repelling the soldiers keeping her captive into the seas.

'Oh wow, looks like those two became fast friends', Xigbar taunts with mirth. 'Hey Ravus, this is considered treason ya know? You *truly* wanna side with the sleeping prince over there?'. Ardyn chuckles as he drops Noctis to the ground with a light discarding toss, the prince rolled onto his stomach while Xigbar marches to Ravus with Ardyn.

None of them noticing that the single relic of the Lucis line clattering close to Ignis.

Ravus draws his saber as the two beings of darkness approached him. He attempted to strike them both, or at the very least take one of them down for Ignis. He barely raised his sword arm high enough to attack, Ardyn's right hand glowing with blight-based fire. He swiftly placed his hand on Ravus' chest and an explosion of darkness forced the near-heartless Ravus flying into the Oracle's shield, the force of Ardyn's attack destroys the nobodies and imperials nearby. Ravus smashed into Lunafreya's shield with incredible force that even the Oracle's shield cracked and near broke from the attack.

Lunafreya cries his name as she lowers her shield to care for him, leaving the two men to sneer at the vain attempts of playing hero from Ravus once more. Xigbar sighs and crosses his arms. 'And here I thought you'd be the perfect vessel…but looks like I made the wrong call again', Xigbar said dismissively, like Ravus was an afterthought. 'Oh well…back to the original plan then'. 'Ahh, but before we do so', Ardyn interrupts with a smirk.

'If you would permit me to make a rather beneficial suggestion:', he starts, turning to Ignis, 'instead of following this flotsam away to nothing but a watery grave, why not come with us?'. Ignis looks to his fallen comrades, weighing the situation in his mind. Three of their friends were out of commission before him, Ravus is wounded and likely unfit for any more fighting, he had no clue if Riku is even conscious within the waters.

He is both outnumbered and outmatched and far from fit to continue in his condition against someone like Ardyn and even less so against Xigbar. If he could stall them for a while for Aqua and the others to arrive then perhaps, they could turn the tide yet, but who knows how long it may take them to even find a way to the altar.

The offer could perhaps be the last chance to save the others if it meant they just take him…but one look at the others only brings doubt and fear of what they may do to them. Worst yet, what if they try to turn him like they nearly did to Ravus or even make him a full-fledged nobody? Looking to the Oracle's desperation to heal her brother, thinking back to Riku and their journey to reach their friends, he recalls something the boy mentioned.

"I'd rather do all the heavy lifting it means keeping them safe".

Heavy…the burden his friends carry, not just his liege but those of the keyblade. Perhaps, for this man not born of royal blood, it was time he helped carry that burden for them.

Ignis roars, pushing his body and relishing in the adrenaline rushing through him. The combined determination and strength helped him push the guards off him and with two swings of his arms, made them back off but keep their guns trained on him.

Ardyn frowns with amusement as Xigbar claps his hands. 'Guess that's a no?', he mocks, 'Fine by me'. He summons his Arrowguns as Ardyn aimed his dark hand at the advisor as Ignis staggers and falters in his stance, but the willpower shining in his eyes showed more than just a fierce will to fight. There is that loyalty developed from the time he spent serving and befriending Noctis, the years he gave up, to guide his brother.

'I swore an oath to stand by Noct and keep him safe. Whatever it takes, I will protect him!', declared Ignis. Ardyn lowered his hand when he sees just what sort of methods this man before him would indeed do to fulfill that promise. In his right hand between his finger and thumb, is the Ring of the Lucii. Lunafreya from the distance could only watch in both admiration and horror as Ignis slips on the ring on his middle finger, blue light shines around the ring as Ignis clutches his hand.

Agonized screams spewed from his throat as he grips his wrist in sheer pain, staggering and crying out in pain. 'Ah-ah-ahhh, I wouldn't do that if I were you', he chastised playfully as Ignis raised both hands to his head. The man knew the risks and price of wielding the ring, it costed Ravus' arm, it killed people in the past, and if neither, it would certainly scar them for life, physically and mentally. 'Ignis! Remove the ring!', Lunafreya cried, pleading to him.

'Don't be a fool boy!', Ravus shouts.

Yet despite their pleas with the unholy amount of pain he is facing, Ignis refused to abide by their commands. Clutching his hand, Ignis gritted out: 'I may not be of royal blood, but if a Glaive can harness its power, then so should I!'. With another agonized yell, Ignis raised his head. 'Kings of Lucis, lend me your strength!', he begged. After his pleas, Ignis grasped at his eyes, crying out in pure pain.

The world around him burned, black spots appearing in his vision as they expanded and multiplied, his final sight he would ever see is the sight of his king and the two children of light before his world went dark.

Ardyn and Xigbar watched with contempt, Ardyn more so with fury as Ignis' body was caked in a thin sheen of blue light, almost like the Lucis line would possess, his hands were covered in violet flames akin to the blight but with light instead. On his face the two sees fresh burning scars take place, glowing in purple fire as the advisor raised his head to face down those who would harm his charge and companions. Even his eyes were glowing violet too.

Xigbar looks at Ardyn with a smug look, almost taking pleasure in that barely concealed look of hatred within his eyes. 'Well…', Ardyn starts, his smug smile turned dark as suddenly he warps to Ignis, staring him down, 'It seems they have shown you their favor, after all'. He lifts his right hand to envelop them in a miasma of darkness, only to have Ignis warp away from him as he clenched his fist.

Drawing his two daggers, both caked with violet and blue flames, Ignis holds them in reverse grip as Xigbar joins his partner in crime. 'Oof... looks like somebody needs a change of shades after this', he mocked, using his gun to gesture Ignis' eyes. 'Least I won't have to wear an eye patch', Ignis rebukes, 'But how about I make your eye match the other!'. Warping into Xigbar, Ignis swung his blazing daggers at the former nobody's face. Even for someone as agile as Xigbar, his speed nearly claimed his last eye.

Though he managed to keep his eye, it didn't stop Ignis from adding another scar to the man's face from cheek, over the nose and to the other cheek. Xigbar cursed the blind dagger-wielder, lifting his guns and fired a barrage of violet beams at him. Ignis deflected them all with his daggers, the sparks of steel and magic running around his weapons with such blazing speed even unmatched by those of the keyblade.

Ardyn ambushes him during his deflection and roundhouse kicks the man in the back of his head, causing him to fall to his left. Ignis, unfazed, simply speeds around the battlefield, leaving lightning bolts where he stood as he reappears behind Ardyn and stabs him in his side, earning a grunt from the man. Then he zips around the field again, a bolt of lightning striking the chancellor in the back as he turned his head to Xigbar.

He had teleported himself to the top of the building leading to the altar, combining his weapons to create a make-shift sniper rifle. 'Gotcha now!', he bragged. He fired a power burst from his gun at Ignis, the man zipping away from his spot. The bullet left a small denture in the stone ground, but Xigbar kept shooting at the advisor as the man zipped and dodged his shots via his lighting evasion or warping.

Xigbar fired another burst at Ignis after calculating where he would zip to and just like he predicted, the man had indeed reappeared on the spot. What he didn't take into consideration was Ignis swinging his right dagger into the bullet nor did he even think he'd be powerful enough to deflect right back at him. Xigbar sidestepped the attack as his bullet zipped into the skies before vanishing into nothing. He turned back to the empty playing field, but then felt the presence of another from behind.

Ignis swung his left dagger upwards along Xigbar's back, burning him and throwing him off the building. Xigbar fell but teleported again just as Ignis dived down to chase after him. He tumbled and rolled onto his feet as Ardyn struck at him with his darkness with his leg. Ignis evades it by sidestepping, striking home on the user of the darkness by slicing his shoulder with his left dagger and as he spun around, he plunged the right dagger into his right shoulder.

He gives Ardyn a taste of his own medicine and kicked him in the stomach to pull his dagger out as Xigbar teleports above him upside and rains down bullet-hell on Ignis. The advisor warps through the hailstorm of bullets and reaches Xigbar. The two fought in the air with Xigbar using his guns as clubs to block and parry Ignis' attacks, but it was certainly clear who excelled in close range combat because Ignis broke through his pitiful attempts of close-quarters fighting.

Punching the man in the stomach with dagger still in hand to debilitate him for a moment, Ignis warps down to the ground and performs his fire bound attack, throwing blue/violet flames as opposed to his usual color of fire at the one-eyed sharpshooter. All ten of them struck Xigbar and brought him down to the ground with a thud as his robes were starting to catch fire. Ignis recalled his daggers but not fast enough to stop Ardyn from striking Ignis below his neck with darkness.

The attack explodes with darkness, throwing Ignis into the building where Xigbar previously stood upon, slamming into the stone and leaving a body-shaped print in it. Ignis hacked and coughs blood, but he pulls himself from the building without so much as a grunt before he turned to Ardyn, smugly smiling at him and without so much as a strain on his body. "How is that possible?" thought Ignis, he was positive his strikes from earlier should've at the very least staggered him or at least harm him to limp.

'I do hope you realized by now, young man, that if you don't pick up the pace, then you'll be more liable to die here', Ardyn taunts. Ignis grunts as he zips across the battlefield again, appearing to Ardyn's side. Ignis coats his right-handed dagger in a deep chilling frost before he stabs it into Ardyn's left thigh, piercing it all the way through. Ardyn yells in pain as his leg and pants turn frosty white, freezing the blood within his limb also.

Ignis quickly dismisses his dagger and flips to the left, avoiding more Xigbar's bullets. The man combines his guns and fires off a blue energy arrow that charged to Ignis, who narrowly flips over it in time before it skewered his legs. The arrow ricochets off the building behind Ignis and flies back towards him, cutting his side and ripping his shirt. Ignis yelps in pain, clasping his wound as blood leaked from it.

'Got ya this time, smug bastard!', Xigbar mocked, aiming his guns at him and starts to create wormholes around Ignis. The near-blind man senses this and changes his daggers to violet/blue flames as the bullets rained down upon him like he was caught in the middle of a storm. Ignis stabbed his daggers into the ground while crouching, the daggers erected a huge dense pillar of scorching heat that protected the man by incinerating the bullet beams into nothing but dust.

Ignis then quickly changed his daggers to use ice and instantly freeze the fiery pillar. Now in a pillar of ice, Ignis warps upward to the top of the pillar. When his feet touched the rim of the circular tower, he warped struck Xigbar too quick for him to react in time. He stabs one dagger into gun arrows, rendering it useless and then flips the dagger in his right hand proper and swipes it at him. He cuts Xigbar's chin, marking him with another scar to add.

Xigbar teleports from this empowered Ignis, creating space for him to take shots at him despite only possessing one functioning gun. Ignis parried and deflects his shots as best as the man possibly could, however, two of the shots struck his left shoulder and stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Ignis stumbled back, clutching his shoulder in pain as the price of using the ring had slowly began to catch up to him. The immense pain from the first use had returned with an unholy vengeance, it was so great he felt sick and his legs shook to keep him up.

Yet he refused to bend knee and bow to defeat, even if his body was broken and battered beyond repair, he will still fight on.

The spectators of this fight could only watch on as Ignis dueled the two, slowly but certainly, the man is reaching the end of his rope. The Oracle healed Ravus to the best of her ability given her wounds and near-death exhaustion. The older Fleuret got to his feet, clenching his fist in helplessness as Ignis took another kick from Ardyn and just avoided taking a bullet to his face. Even with the ring, the man is facing insurmountable odds, and it wouldn't be long now before he falls.

'Brother…', Lunafreya gasped, on her knees from the exhaustion. Looking at his darkened hand, Ravus shakes his head in fury. He isn't strong enough, not against someone like Xigbar or Ardyn. Fortunately for them, they have someone more than comparable to those monsters. Ravus turned to the ocean…

He couldn't move, he couldn't breathe, he could barely keep his eyes open…

Riku could feel this horrible familiar sensation grow as his eyes were slowly feeling heavy and his vision slowly blurred. The darkness that had hit him thanks to Xigbar weighed him down like an anchor and paralyzing him, it is as if just drowning wasn't enough of a horrible way to go for him. Still, he persists in fighting on, forcing his limbs to act upon his command to stay on this mortal plane for a little longer.

If today had to be the day he had to fall to his final sleep, he wanted to save those two first before then. Seeing those two the way there were, Kairi nearly being lost forever to them, Sora so tired and wounded he would have been easy pickings for the heartless. Riku feels the weight of the darkness pull him further down into the dark depths of the ocean, his desperation to fight back was the only thing keeping from succumbing to despair and allowing it to consume him.

"Sora…Kairi…", he thought as his strength finally waned. Slowly he feels his eyelids descend as a blurred figure swam towards him…

He opens his eyes to find himself descending into the dark depths, no more feeling the anchor tugging on his heart or that lull of sleep calling to him. A single beacon of light was shining down on him, ethereal visions of his light stretching their hands to him, calling his name. Riku reaches out for them, his right hand outstretched to grasp them, to hold onto that hope. Together the two hands clasped around his one, a mix of his darkness with their light as they smiled at him.

*Altissia*

Laying Riku on back flat after giving him CPR, Ravus looked to his sister as she knelt before the boy, looking at the darkness that still swirled around the boy's chest. 'This darkness hasn't reached his heart, how is that possible?', Lunafreya questions.

'What matters is he lives, and we can save him from whatever Xigbar had planned for him', Ravus counters. Lunafreya nodded in agreement, thinking it'd be best to thank the gods for the fact the boy lives as opposed to falling to the dark or dying. The Oracle raises her hands to begin the healing, only for Ravus to stop her by placing a hand on her shoulder. She looked to her brother's resolute and firm look, shaking his head. 'Let me save him, there's little your light can do for him', he reveals.

Slowly Ravus placed his dark hand on Riku's chest, glowing violet and red as the darkness covering Riku begins to seep into his arm. Ravus grunts and hisses in pain as he absorbs the darkness from the boy, allowing it to migrate into his own heart, cursing and grunting in pain while his neck tenses and a vein appears on his forehead.

He extracts the darkness from Riku with an exhale as his darkness begins to spread all over his torso, effectively turning him nearly ninety percent heartless by this point with all but a shimmer of light residing within his heart. Lunafreya's tears run down her cheeks as she witnessed her brother absorbing the darkness and further distancing himself from the light, and worst of all even the Oracle wouldn't be able to bring him back from it.

'Brother…', she whimpers, reaching out to touch him. Yet Ravus stands up, turning from his sister. He walks towards the battle, darkness seeping from his body and covering him like a horrible cloak bound to him. 'Brother!', Lunafreya cries, 'Don't do this!'. He stops his walk, the rain growing heavy as he lifts his head to the skies with one single take of breath. 'Sister, you would have given your life to help Noctis, would you not?', he questioned.

He turns to her with a smile, the smile only her eyes had ever seen. The smile of her brother, before their lives, were forever changed for the worst. Even in his heartless state, she could see his light was as strong as it ever been. 'All I ever wanted, is to see you happy. To see you fall in love, and to live your life', he expressed. 'By doing this, a pawn of the dark means I can make that future come true, then it is a price I will pay'.

Ravus looks at Riku, then to the other sleeping heroes before to Noctis. '…Don't falter now, your majesty', he says with respect.

Ignis finally falls backward from Xigbar's gun, landing on his back in defeat as the ring's toll finally took him. No strength remaining, not even a smidgen of power to even lift his head. Ahead of him, a completely unharmed Ardyn stood and casually brushed off dust from his clothes while Xigbar, far less than unharmed, hunched over in pain and tiredness, huffing. 'Damn that blind bastard…', he cursed, dreading his newly acquired scars. 'So much for the ring killing him off the bat'.

'Indeed, but no man outside of the royal blood may wield such power without a price', Ardyn remarks, clapping his hand. 'Now then, shall we finally put an end to this?'.

'Gladly', Xigbar says, grinning sadistically. He raised his arrow gun at Ignis' still form, but before he pulled the trigger, Ravus dashed before him and gave the man a solid punch into his face with his darkened fist. The attack sends Xigbar through the building Ignis' body once occupied and into the ocean. Ardyn didn't have time to react because Ravus plunged his saber into his stomach and wrapped his darkened arm around his neck.

Ardyn glared at the interfering commander, his face slowly succumbing to the darkness within his heart as his eyes glowed yellow. 'Interesting look, High-Commander, although I'm not much of the hugging type', Ardyn chastised as he tried to break free of the man's grip. 'My time is short, but I shall not traverse beyond alone…Ardyn', growled Ravus, 'We'll go together!'.

His final words chosen, Ravus' body shines in dark light as he threw his head back with a cry. Darkness explodes around him as the entire area is encased in darkness, destroying much of the field and the shockwaves splits the oceans and even buildings from a distance felt Ravus' sacrifice.

Lunafreya erects a barrier to protect Ignis and the others from a distance as the darkness rushed through, covering the entire platform and altar in dark fire, consuming all the light did not touch.

*…*

Flinching from pain, groaning as he rolled onto his side, Riku gasps as air rushed into his lungs for what felt like years since he tasted oxygen. Shaking his head as rubbing it, he looked up to see the battle Ignis must have fought had truly be chaotic with all the destruction that had been wrought.

The tall archway buildings had all been reduced to rubble, much of the platform is submerged in water with purple flames scattered around the field, licking the stones in darkness. Riku slowly got to his feet shakily, panting and groaning with pain, stumbling while walking to find his friends. He just hoped whatever it was that caused all this destruction it left Sora and the others unharmed.

He stumbled onto his knee, weakly gasping in pain. He looks at his bare arms and sees new cuts and bruises adorning his tanned skin, hands carrying cuts too. His shirt had been torn completely, rendering it useless unless the fairies magic could patch it in this state. His pants were ripped apart with his knee to ankle on the left completely ripped apart. He really, *REALLY*, hoped the magic clothes could fix this.

He pushed himself to move onwards if he was this bad without partaking in whatever fight took place here, who knows how bad the others were.

Reaching the middle of the platform, he sees Ignis on his stomach. Quickly running to his comrade, Riku knelt before him and rolled him onto his back. He gasped in horror when he glimpses at his face, the fresh burnt scars marking him and likely his eyes were damaged. 'Ignis! Ignis, wake up!', he shouts, shaking his friend. The older man groans painfully out, weakly moving his head as he flinches and hisses in pain from his newly obtained scars.

'R-Riku…?', he gasps out, turning his head to the sound's direction. 'I'm here buddy! Holy hell what happened to you!?', he demanded, almost panicking at this very point. Ignis coughs harshly, lifting his left hand to touch his face to assess the extent of his injuries. Riku looked around for Ravus or anyone else while his friend did this, but then he heard Ignis' breathing quickening with panic. 'Riku…the ring!', he gasped.

'W-What ring?', Riku asked as Ignis grabs for Riku's shoulder or arm. When he sees his friend starting to panic, he grips his hand to stop him. 'Ignis!', he shouts. 'The ring of the Lucii! Where is it!?', he demanded. Riku looked around them to spot the ring, but with so much destruction and fire around them, he shakes his head frustrated. 'I dunno! But we need to find the other first!', he states, slowly helping Ignis to his feet.

'Riku…you don't-

'I know what that ring is important! But my friends, *our* friends are more important than some fancy parasitical ring!', Riku argued, throwing Ignis' arm over his shoulder. Riku's angry and frustrated looks slowly softened with realization dawning on him, looking at Ignis' face. '…y-you didn't wear it, did you?', he asked, despite knowing full well the man had indeed. '…better to do the heavy lifting yourself, to keep others safe', Ignis parroted.

'Ignis…', Riku gasped, shaking his head as a lump formed in his throat. Inhaling sharply, Riku adjusted them and carried his friend further into the destruction, keeping his eyes out for the others. Near the broken exit, he spots something stabbed in the ground, and then and there, he knew just what had transpired while he was out of commission. Like a marked grave, Ravus' Soul Eater saber was left there, clean of the darkness that had been tainted by the heartless.

'Riku?', Ignis asks weakly, noticing they had stopped moving. '…Ravus, he's…his sword is just left here', Riku explains, voice heavy with remorse. Ignis exhaled sadly, nodding shakily.

'RIKU!'.

'IGGY!'.

Riku raised his head to the ledges of the altar, he sees the others jumping out the boats and landing on the shore of the altar. 'OVER HERE!', Riku shouts, waving the hand not carrying Ignis, 'WE NEED HELP!'.

Aqua quickly dashes towards them, leaving the others behind and reaching the two protectors in time. The master had seen her share of fights likely on the way here, her clothes damaged and dirty with dust, oil from the magiteks and cuts on her cheeks with her hair wet and sticking to her face. He worried how the others fared on the way here. Aqua's eyes widened as she claps her mouth in horror, likely he guessed after seeing Ignis' eyes or how torn up the two of them looked.

'Oh my god…w-what happened?', she gasped.

'Later, Iggy…Iggy needs help', Riku grunts, helping the woman hold Ignis as the others reached them, as he expected they all had looked like they were put through the worst of it all. 'Holy shit Iggy…', Gladiolus cursed while Prompto squeaked in dismay. Aqua helped settle Ignis on the ground while Donald quickly took his staff out to begin healing the man while Goofy gave Riku a potion but he shook his head and rejected the potion.

'No, no! Not me, Kairi needs it!', he says, shaking his head feverishly. 'I, I need to find them!'. Gladiolus nods to yells for everyone not tending to Ignis to find the others. Before Riku ran off, Gladiolus grabbed his shoulder and stopped him. 'Take breather first, clear your head', he instructed, 'We'll find them, alright?'. Riku opened his mouth to argue with this man, but ultimately given how hurt and tired he is, he nods in submission. Gladiolus nods in approval before jogging off to look for the others.

As the sounds of the ocean waves and rainfall washed over them, Riku closed his eyes, feeling the rain pelting his body and cooling him. This fight had taken more from him, more from Ignis, then either could have expected. The destruction of this city would forever haunt him, the sacrifices made to gain the blessing of some arrogant sea-serpent felt unjustified, the agonies that the team endured felt undeserving, especially someone like Kairi and Ignis.

As he opened his eyes and looked to Ravus' blade, he approached and gently gripped the handle of the saber. There is a ghostly sensation trailing from it, where Riku should've felt rage and other feelings that lure in the darkness, he feels a sense of honor and courage from this sword. Feelings of acceptance and love for a sibling, his final wish to give the only person closest to his heart a future where she could be happy.

Ravus' final wish and gift.

"Everything you did…the sacrifices you made…all that, for someone who became your light", Riku thought, bowing his head in respect for this man. A single tear ran down his cheek out of admiration for someone who, in many ways, was like him.

He yanked the sword from the ground, lifting it as it glowed and shifted into a small key chain for Riku. "If you're willing to tag along, lend me strength to help make the world for Luna", he prayed. He stuffed the item into his pocket in time to see Gladiolus carrying Noctis towards the others, looking very relieved but worried at once at the sleeping prince. 'I've got Noct, where are the others?', he asked.

'Fellers! Over here!'.

The team looks and sees Goofy assisting Lunafreya to walk while in Prompto's arms was Kairi shivering in her sleep. Riku raced to the girls, potion Goofy had given him and approached Kairi. He checks her temperature and sure enough, she was freezing, saltwater mixed-blood staining her face as Prompto helped place her on her knees, taking off his jacket and wrapped it around her. 'She's in pretty bad shape', he whispers, scared out of his wits.

'I know, but maybe Donald and Aqua could do something for her', Riku says. He held back the "I hope" part, pushing that doubt away and keeping real hope for his companion. He looked to Lunafreya and sees her cheeks stained with tears, the loss of her brother weighing heavily on her. Standing up with Prompto carrying Kairi, Riku said: 'I'm…sorry about your brother'. Lunafreya shakes her head ruefully yet with a hopeful smile. 'He died so that we would live to see this to the end', she whispers, 'He was stronger than Ardyn and Xigbar had believed'.

Riku smiles in agreement with a nod, however as he looked around, he sees there is still one more person missing amongst them. 'Goofy, Prompto, have you found Sora?', he asked. 'No Riku, we looked everywhere too!', Goofy says worriedly. Panic stirred within the boy before he turned to Gladiolus, shaking his head with a frown. Riku grunts and hoped the boy didn't fall into the water or worse got crushed by the debris.

'Riku? Does Ignis still have the ring?', Lunafreya asked, breaking his train of thoughts. He shook his distractedly, more focused on Sora's whereabouts than that life-sucking piece of metal.

'Looking for something, your elegance?'.

All eyes fell to the entrance to the altar and in horror, they see Ardyn standing there smugly. Not a scratch to be seen on himself or clothes, he looked as if he had just arrived at the scene. Lunafreya just stared in aghast and dismay as the man placed his hat on his head. 'Quite the performance, congratulations to all of you for such a display!', he praised with such callous and mockery it infuriated the group. Riku snarled and summoned his keyblade as Goofy placed Lunafreya behind him, shield out and after placing Noctis down with Ignis, Gladiolus joined them.

'You bastard! How are you still alive!?', Riku demanded, thoughts of Ravus' demise, his sacrifice, rushing through his mind. Did that man throw his life away for nothing but to merely hinder Ardyn or worse annoy him? Ardyn chuckled at Riku's question with a wave of his hand. 'Maybe fate has not decreed my time yet, or perhaps, something else is keeping me alive my boy', he muses playfully, the answer within him.

'But it is all in the past now, after all, need I remind you, Riku, he would have struck Sora and Kairi down without a second thought?', he teases. Riku grits his teeth as his darkness manifests within him, this man mocks the sacrifice of someone who he manipulated and twisted into a horrible creation. Acting so casual over it, it sickened him. 'But oh well, I'm disappointed, but luckily for me, I won't be leaving empty-handed'.

With a flick of his finger like a magician performing a trick, he unfolds his fist and opens it up to show the team his prize. Lunafreya's blood ran cold as her skin turned white as a sheet in horror. 'No…', she gasped.

In his hand, lies the ring of the Lucii.

'At long last, the ring is back to where it should have been all this time', Ardyn muses, smirking evilly at the heroes. 'But I'm afraid any attempts of reclaiming this ring will have to take place at another time!'. With a click of his fingers, neo-shadows appeared from the dark pools of the dark, creating a line of defense for the chancellor.

'If you think a bunch of shadows are enough to stop us, then you're in for a rude awakening Ardyn!', Riku shouts. 'Oh worry not Riku, I have no doubt this is nothing more than a minor annoyance to you all, but our fight is for another time', Ardyn said dismissively, turning around and walking away down to the altar. 'Get back here you coward!', Gladiolus roars, running into the fray with Riku following close behind him. The shadows swarmed the shield and master, all food for their blades, nothing more as Ardyn had said.

But that wasn't all the man was taking from the team.

When Riku struck down a shadow, he glared at the direction of Ardyn, then raised his head the stairs and sees Xigbar opening a dark corridor behind him. Riku's heart stopped as time seemingly stopped all around him. Levitating near him completely at his mercy, unaware of what is transpiring was Sora.

'SORA!', Riku roars.

No…not again…

With his rage unhinged, Riku tore through the heartless, running as fast as his nearly broken body could go. Riku sliced all the heartless that tried to delay him, they met their fates quickly to Riku's keyblade. Desperation within him reaching a new height, Riku kept cutting his way through the horde of darkness. Riku jumped on top of a shadow's head and leaped off it, turning his hand to them and firing his final dark firaga to burn away the dark beings.

Landing at the start of the stairs of the altar, Riku runs up the stairs, skipping four steps at a time as he raced to the summit of the stairs. He jumps to Sora, hand outstretched to reach for his friend while he was being pulled into the dark corridor. Riku's hand could only grab that crown necklace as Sora was yanked away from the older boy, his chain breaking and leaving the only thing for Riku and his companions.

Riku tried to run for him, only to have Ardyn stand in front of his and blast him with an invisible force that threw Riku off the summit of the stairs. Riku slammed onto the ground at the end of the stairs, raising his head to see Sora being swallowed by the darkness as Xigbar and Ardyn smugly smile at him before they too ventured into the dark realm. The corridor disappeared as Riku raised his hand to desperately stop them, all in vain.

As his strength waned and body finally submitting to exhaustion and pain, hearing the voices of his friends, their cries and yells became duller and duller to the boy as darkness took him…

*Present Time*

Sitting on his bed, head in his hands as the information is poured into his mind, Noctis could barely hold his tears back. The sense of failure striking him from all sides, failure to be strong to keep his the brother of his bride safe, failure to keep the sacred heirloom of his family within his hands, but worst of all, among all his shortcomings, his greatest fails stems from failure to protect his friends.

Ignis, now blind, sat on the stool beside the bed, having retelling what has transpired after the battle with the Tidemother. Noctis had been the first between him and Kairi to awaken, the princess of light had yet to awaken from her slumber. He assured Noctis the moment they gave her to Donald and Aqua, they healed her stab wound and gotten her medical help from the secretary's men to replenish the blood she had lost.

'What about you? Can't they heal you?', Noctis whispers, his voice hoarse and weary. Ignis sighs, likely he's been asked this from almost everyone else. 'They've tried…but the ring of the Lucii, is above their powers', Ignis reveals, 'Aqua is insistent they keep trying, however, perhaps she may find a solution'. Noctis looks to his feet in defeat, before he took a deep shuddering breath. 'Luna?', he whispers.

'She has been bedridden, the events that had transpired have taken a toll on her grace's mind…', Ignis confesses. 'But I believe it would do her wonders if her fiancé would come visit her'.

Dryly swallowing his nerves and grief, Noctis manages to throw himself out of the bed and grab his boots and jacket. Slowly they leave the room, more so out of courtesy to Ignis' new disability, the cane clicking throughout the corridor as several Accordo guards patrolled the area and many of them awkwardly saluted the prince while Ignis tried to memorize where his moving and going.

Just before the two entered the room of the Oracle, suddenly Noctis froze.

A horrible chill raced through his body as his body felt an unnatural sensation coursing through him, a tug on his heart and soul threatened to rip him apart. Noctis choked clasping his neck in pain as he fell to his knees, this sensation of having something ripped out of him felt as if someone had stabbed him with a great sword and slowly painfully pulled it out of him.

'Noct? NOCT!?', Ignis shouts, hearing his prince's weak breathing and chokes. The door to the Oracle bursts open with a Prompto exiting the room quickly and panic painted on his face. He sees Ignis and Noctis in the corridor, rushing to them. 'Noct? Noct what's going!?', he asked. 'What's wrong with him?', Ignis demanded.

'P-Prompto…', he wheezed. 'What!? What is it!?', pleads Prompto.

'S-Something's…wrong, I…', gasped Noctis, nearly throwing up.

'Prompto! Get them in here!', Gladiolus' voice boomed from the room. Quickly Prompto helped Noctis and guides Ignis into the room, where inside the prince sees his fiancé sitting upright in bed, looking as if she was just told the world was ending right now. The rest of the party were all standing in the room, questions erupting from everyone bar Aqua who is trying to calm everyone down before they all exploded in full-blown panics.

Their voices stilled when Lunafreya turned to her Messenger, Gentiana standing by the window as the day slowly shifts into night. 'Gentiana? What's happening?', Lunafreya gasps. The woman turned to the Oracle with a smile full of sadness and despair.

'…the age of the Eternal Night…has begun, my lady', she whispers. Slowly the woman's body begins to break away into flutters of ice, everyone could only watch in horror before the woman disappeared from their sights as the day turned into night.

As the heroes could only watch in utter bafflement and horror. Lunafreya placed a hand on her chest as Noctis, held up by Prompto, watched her in complete confusion and fear. 'Luna, what did she mean by that? What happened to Gentiana!?', he questioned.

'…the end, Noctis…', she whispered.

A/N: Sorry this took so long…but its worth it I promise!

Episode Ignis and Riku is done! Tragedy abounds, the loss of a redeeming man, Ignis being awesome and now the team must deal with the loss of their hero! (I'm sure I've infuriated a lot of followers…)

Also, some of you think this is where the tragedy ends…it's only going to get worse.

So, I've got a question and a good point pointed out by this lovely guest!

Guestboiz: Sorry for the confusion, I'll try and go back to previous chapters when I get time and change that around. Also, thank you for pointing out the differences!

MY questions :3

Q1: How did you like this chapter?

Q2: How was Xigbar and Ardyn?

Q3: Did you enjoy Ravus?

Q4: What do you wanna see in future chapters?

Q5: Are you gonna miss Sora? I am!

As always, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	40. Chapter 40

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 40

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

*Insomnia, Citadel*

Walking through the ruined city of "his" land, taking in the dissolution and lifeless streets devoid of sound. Buildings that once touched the skies are nothing more than rubble, the lights that once shined brightly to give the citizens that false sense of hope and security had long lost their power.

Ardyn took in the ruined sites of his brother's city, reveling in the decay and destruction caused by the empire's lust for power and conquest. It certainly wasn't as bright and cheery when he last visited, but the darkness that surrounded it was far more acceptable for him. His walks were lonely at his request, not that he needed permission from that fool of an emperor to visit this fallen city. Xigbar gave his blessings to his goals, and after he made sure the boy was locked away "safely", he relayed the last piece of information for him.

The final piece to achieve what he had sought for so long.

On his middle finger glowing in a darkish red aura, the ring of the Lucii hummed dully. The man could not hold grin from appearing on his face, a sense of victory and smugness, unlike any other time, had utterly consumed him. The first time he felt joy in so long thanks to this victory, the power of kings coursing through him along with the newfound gifts he exploited from his curse. Altissia had played back in his mind, he couldn't help being relish in that memory of seeing the Oracle's face fell to utter despair.

To know everything she had done, the pain she endured, the sacrifices she had to make to help her beloved Chosen King fulfill his prophecy, the gods she slaved to appease, all for naught. The ring she had kept out of the clutches of the empire had so easily fell to his hands, her brother's sacrifice doing nothing more than bother the man. If only he had blondie take a picture of it, it would be the perfect reminder of the day her world fell apart.

The advisor though, truly Ardyn felt a small semblance of respect for that man risking his life for his liege, a shame he wasn't in service to Ardyn. Yet giving up his eyes for him, another pointless sacrifice performed by those following Noctis.

He did ponder what exactly Xigbar had planned for the boy, surprised he took him as opposed to the redhead or the boy who was touched by the darkness. Certainly, the child was easily the best fighter among the warriors of light and likely his true potential had yet to be explored. Did he have plans to warp him like he did to Ravus? Shrugging indifferently, those thoughts could be discussed at later dates, he had a long reunion to attend.

He stands before the Citadel gates, impressed that the building has stood against the destruction of his empire's wrath. Ardyn closed his eyes as he inhaled through his nose, trepidation somehow held him back from waltzing into this place. He wondered if he was just feeling a sense of apprehension or worse doubts of this plan bearing fruit. He lifted his ringed hand to look at the ring that burnt his hand yet feels no pain from it.

Staring at this parasite of a ring with contempt, those feelings of hesitation were crushed when he recalled this ring was supposed to be his, his rightful place on the throne denied. How he was misguided by the gods who gave him this curse, how he just wanted to help others who bore that scourge, used as a puppet. And how could he forget, the one man who took everything from him…

Somnus Lucis Caelum.

'After all that had been done…all your "righteous" acts…and you branded *me* the monster', Ardyn chuckles mirthlessly as he stared up to the building. 'These ignorant people, hailing you as a hero, a chosen champion, shielding those in need…yet blissfully unaware of your true character'. As his blight slithered through his form, dark miasma surrounding him, he lifted his hand and fired a force that destroyed the gates.

'You've had a good kingdom in the long run, brother dearest, but with every kingdom that rises', he monologues to himself, walking to the entrance to the building.

'Every kingdom falls'.

*Throne room*

Walking through the emptiness of the Citadel felt close to walking through an abandoned graveyard, not a sound or soul within. It feels like Ardyn is treading through forgotten lands that haven't had a visitor in centuries, yet the fall of this city was only nearly a year ago by this point.

There high above him as he stood in the center of the room, the night from outside looming through the broken walls as the wind whistles past them. The throne that was stolen from him, a throne he would never have gotten a chance to sit upon and lead his people as he should. Everything was taken from him, his birthright to become king, his sacrifice was turned against him, his brother taking his throne and painting him as a monster.

Even taking…her…

He paused his march when he recalled the Oracle within his mind, a strange sensation swelled up into his chest as he felt something clogging his throat. Ardyn placed a hand on what he believed was his heart, thinking to Lunafreya…no, not Lunafreya. Strangely as he tried to think of that fool woman, he saw someone else in her place who looked like her yet there was a light to her, something warm and it brought weakness to his stance.

Why? Why was her name hidden within the darkness of his heart? That name he loved to use, to hear, to speak with emotion he couldn't feel for so long. All he can properly remember without blanks and gaps within his memory is her death.

Her unfortunate end caused by none other than the man he called his brother. It wasn't enough to label him a monster, to steal his place on the throne, no, he had to take her from him as well. One final slap to the face before he took his life. And did he pay for his crime? No, that bastard of a sibling not only took *everything* from Ardyn, but he was hailed and chosen by the astrals and crystal themselves. Truly the man asked who indeed was the monster?

He scoffs, shaking his head and climbs the stairs to the throne. Gently rubbing the armrest attached to the throne, he smugly settles into it and with the ring glowing more intensely he could feel the pull to the place where he must go. The final resting place he was denied, the peace that was out of his reach. But unfortunately for some, he wouldn't be gone for long. Lifting his ringed hand and calling upon the weapon bestowed to him so many years ago, a weapon that was dreamed to be wielded alongside its brother.

Ironically, it would be doing the very opposite of what it was made for. It would be the axe that executes the line of Kings.

'Kings of Lucis', Ardyn calls. 'COME TO ME!'.

Ardyn grips the weapon with both hands and stabs it into the ground before him. Instead of the blue light associated with the Lucis line, Ardyn's dark red crystal light took its place. The ten kings of yore arrived, all in the same red light as Ardyn's weapon. Manically grinning at the corruption of his ancestors, or descendants really, Ardyn waited eagerly for them to aid him in their destruction. His grip on the sword didn't loosen as the kings picked up their weapons one by one.

Anticipation ran wild within in him with excitement, the day had finally come. The day he would get the justice he deserved, to pay back to those who have wronged him in his past. Two thousand years of agony have finally paid off.

The kings struck Ardyn one by one, with each blow their souls were absorbed into the ring, laughing away with each one being consumed by the ring only feeling the force of the strikes and nothing else, slowly destroying the lines one by one. The last blade to bring him down, the final nail in the Lucis coffin was his very own brother's sword. His smug looks to turned unadulterated hatred to him, the blight showing on his face as his brother charged forth to finish the prophecy.

As the ring absorbed Ardyn, he feels his soul leaving his body…

*In the Beyond*

When he first came to this, it gave him memories he would have done anything to be free from. Now, however he cherished it, the last time he could look at those memories with contempt, now he would laugh about it in the long run.

Standing in the space of the beyond, the beautiful color of this place would have granted him peace surely. Not now, not ever. This would only serve him to be the place where he would settle it, where every moment of agony he endured, where everything that was taken from him would finally feel the full brunt of his hatred and rage. Because if there was anyone Ardyn Lucis Caelum hated more than his brother, it was the very God who changed his purpose.

The God of War, Bahamut.

He looked up to see the armored astral before him, as big as the Citadel itself with his wings made from fifteen swords outstretched, glaring down at the mortal before him. The god glowers to the Accursed while Ardyn clenched his fists with contempt, the last time he had stood before this "benevolent" god flashed in his mind. The torture of seeing his fiancé striking him down, cursing him to this new path the gods ordained for him, seeing her death replay over and over in his mind like a never-ending reminder of what he had lost.

'Been a long time, hasn't it, Draconian?', Ardyn spits with venom, gazing up at the god.

Bahamut stares at the spec of a human before him, concerned as to why he carried the ring and why the Chosen King was not present. Ardyn must have figured he had questions, but unlike the god who was so cruel as to deny Ardyn answers, the man was kinder. 'Oh? Wondering why your "Chosen King" isn't here? Why I've returned to this forsaken place?', he teases. 'Well, let us just say someone shared the same mindset as I and we both came to a mutual agreement that I should reclaim my throne'.

Lifting the ring of Lucii, now corrupted into black and red steel with a terrifying red light surrounding it as the darkness of the heartless and blight began to grow, cloaking the Accursed man in darkness unseen by even the Draconian. Slowly behind him, the kings of yore rose up from nothingness, all corrupted by the blight and Ardyn's darkness influencing them. Slowly the red dark cloud of the blight began to corrupt the sacred place, the light growing dimmer and dimmer as even the God of War himself senses the true power behind their chosen Accursed.

'A fool…you know not what you have started', boomed the god's words, his swords glowing in light. The giant blades spins behind the god, then rocketed towards Ardyn and his corrupted guards. Ardyn smirked however as Crouching Dragon King and Dynast King's corrupted armors fly to the swords, their weapons twisted and tarnished by the darkness from Ardyn. Together the combined might of the Lucis members destroyed the blades that flew closest to the party of the darkness.

Ardyn merely aimed his hand and the rest of his servants charged to the weapons the Draconian threw at him. The royal guard that would die for him, and likely will, using the corruption to power their weapons to make the garnish and ugly imitations of the purity they once carried. The light within them smothered and swallowed by the darkness of Ardyn's powers, so enough their hearts will be swallowed by the heartless and who knows? Perhaps Xigbar's boss could make use of them.

Bahamut's swords had not reached even close to Ardyn, his death guards destroyed his weapons like they were made of glasses. When no more divine blade could be called upon, the Lucis warriors hovered in the air as the last glimmer of light within this place had been swallowed. Bahamut lets out a roar that shook the very realm itself, it could have even shaken Eos for all they knew as his body shines in a beautiful light that reminded Ardyn of the crystal.

The Draconian draws forth the most powerful weapon within his arsenal, the legendary blade that could split the very planet in half, the Ultima Sword. The God of War grabbed his weapon of choice and swings at his previous servants with the power to split the planet and the speed of a comet racing down to the planet. The former rulers of Insomnia dodged and weaved from his mighty sword as Ardyn watched with interest, wondering if the Draconian is powerful enough to slay his legion of corrupted rulers.

The Crouching Dragon King and Dynast King with the Winged King and Lion King all brought their weapons to meet the Draconian, their weapons clashing so loudly it could have shattered the entire populace of Altissia's eardrums and annihilate buildings. Their joint effort managed to halt the giant's blade as the rest bar the Mystic all joined in to clash with the God of War. As Bahamut struck again, the entire legion of rulers all met his gigantic sword with their own.

A shockwave so powerful that even Ardyn felt like his entire body would have been ripped apart from the force alone. He fell to one knee as the shock washes over him while his corrupted Mystic stayed by his side like a loyal dog. The Accursed smiles in malice when he stands up, the ring practically covering his entire right arm with dark red shadows as it burned into his skin and burned his sleeve. Slowly he orders his "brother" to do his part at long last.

The Mystic flew to the air as its brethren all strike at the Ultima Sword. Ardyn raised his hand aiming the ring to Bahamut and with a cackle, he allows the ring to slither with two violet lines trailing to the giant god. Busy with fighting the pesky rulers of yore, the Draconian could not predict that Ardyn would master the ring's power so quickly nor take advantage of the fact that the ring could burn him all it wanted yet the Accursed was immune to such pain.

Bahamut's chosen Accursed had ultimately become his greatest mistake.

The Draconian was struck by the parasitical lines that connected with his chest plate, slowly spreading along his torso as it burned him. The rulers of the past all combined their darkness to land their final Armiger upon the very being that bestowed upon them that power. Together like one arrow of the darkness, they all charged and perfectly landed strikes upon the weapon at once.

Ultima Sword cracked and then burst into shards, shattering into pieces as Ardyn drained Bahamut's life force, absorbing his power onto himself. 'NOW! FEEL MY VENGEANCE! KINGS OF YORE! STRIKE DOWN THE GOD OF WAR!', cried Ardyn as loud as he could. Like obedient soldiers, the rulers of the past rained down upon the defenseless god, striking him with the fury of a thousand storms. His armor broke apart thanks to the might of the Lucis line, the light he used dwindled and faded with each tainted weapon poisoning him.

All but the Mystic struck him, he merely waited for his master to order him to do what he must.

The Dynast King split open Bahamut's chest piece exposing his crystal heart, and for Ardyn, this is exactly where he planned to mark his vengeance. He drew his Rakshasa Blade, the very sword made for him to wield alongside his brother. He channeled all the powers of the blight, darkness, and power of Kings within the blade, turning its red crystal light into pure violet flames that extended into the length the silver-haired samurai used.

Ardyn laughs cruelly as his minions tore apart the Draconian, relishing in the thought of how agonizing the being must be in. Not only to be picked apart like a dead carcass by vultures, not only to have his most powerful weapon be reduced into nothing more than broken shards that would forever mark his failings but to know all this was because of his arrogance and disinterest in the lives of mortals he played with.

Any doubt he had, hesitation or remorse within him, had all perished when he sees the being who forced him into this role of the Accursed finally taste his pain, his humiliation, and losses. Even as the woman he once loved flashing in his mind, in a desperate vain attempt to stay his vengeance had failed. There is nothing else to live for, no other purpose for him to keep existing, then to finally have the revenge he had been craving from the very day it had all began.

Ardyn flew towards the Draconian, laughing madly as his Mystic pawn summoned his corrupted blade nearly identical to Ardyn's. The Mystic grasped the blade with both hands before it falls to deliver the second last strike to the Draconian as Ardyn plunged the dark blazing sword within Bahamut's heart. The sword pierces Bahamut's crystal heart just as the Mystic's blade sunk his sword into the God of War's helmet.

Ardyn's sword pierces through the Draconian, the pillar of black flames erecting behind it and burning the metal armor it dawned, slowly darkness begins to swim and wrap around the fallen god's body. Corrupting the god's body in darkness while it begins to fade away into nothingness as the rulers flew behind Ardyn like dutiful soldiers as Ardyn takes in this sweet victory, all those years in captivity had brought him to this point.

Here he finally achieved his goal, putting the god to rest and destroyed the line of Lucis. As Bahamut begins to fade into nothingness, he gasps: 'Y-You fool…the scourge will swallow this world…'. Ardyn cackles as he buried the sword deeper into the Draconian, earning a gasp of pain from a god. 'As well as the "gifts" you have granted us will be taken away, the crystal, the ring, all of it will be a thing of the past', Ardyn states. 'Meaning, this world will be consumed in darkness without a glimmer of hope to cling onto'.

Ardyn flew up to the dying god's head and grabbed the helmet and lifted it upward, just so the Draconian can see who it was that not only killed him but rob him of his world. The same fate he had for Ardyn, but in Ardyn's way, he was granted mercy. He'd be dead before he could watch his world darken and give in to despair. 'Oh, fret not, Draconian, take joy in the knowledge you won't go alone', assured the Accursed with a wicked smile. 'Do say hi to the Glacian for me?'.

With that Ardyn uses the ring of the Lucii one last time to disintegrate Bahamut's head, ridding the world of the Draconian for the final time. As he felt his soul being pulled back into the realm of living, Ardyn allows himself to float away as the ring disappears from his finger. Laughing in victory as he loses consciousness.

*Eos*

Ardyn awakens to see Xigbar standing below his throne with a smirk. 'Oh? Ya done already?', he asked sarcastically as Ardyn gets to his feet, rolling his shoulders. He looked to his finger and as expected, the ring was no more. Strangely, however, he did not feel any different, anymore before he ventured to the beyond. Curiously, he flicked his hand and to his utter delight, he resummons his sword in all its blighted glory. How could this be? Accursed or not, with the Draconian dead he shouldn't have this power surely?

Until he looked to Xigbar, sporting a smug grin. 'The darkness kinda took over that whole Lucis exclusivity garbage for ya, just in case old dragon head got the idea to take it away from ya', he explains. Ardyn smirks wickedly as he looked at his sword, even in the wake of the death of God who bestowed this power to his royal chosen ones, he still carried his gifts to hell and back.

Somehow, he doubted Noctis could say the same thing.

Together he and Xigbar stood at the broken wall to overlook the city below them as the darkness spreads in the sky, the Eternal Night had begun quicker than either had hoped. Xigbar chuckled. 'A world where the darkness rules forevermore so long as night reigns, without the crystal or ring the Chosen King can't complete his Ascension and purge this star', Xigbar narrated, voicing the prophecy Ardyn told him.

'Correct, the legacy of the Lucis ended with Noct', Ardyn says with glee, 'Without the Draconian, he has no power. Effectively Noct has become redundant'. Xigbar crosses his arms as he clicked his tongue. 'And the other astrals go with the big boss too?', he asked. 'Indeed, even the most powerful ones all perished alongside the God of War', Ardyn says. Then he turned to Xigbar with a malicious grin. 'Now then, I believe I owe you a thanks, is it?', Ardyn questioned.

'Or you could do me a favor', Xigbar suggested. 'I'm gonna need an assistant in my sessions with the kid, and with your special "touch", I think things will go smoother'. Ardyn grins as together they turn to see floating behind them, the corrupted ruler of the past, corrupted with the blight and heartless to create the new breed of guardians. Ardyn gives Xigbar a callous grin.

'When do we start?'.

*Altissia*

Dry heaving as his body feels as though something was pounding him from within, gagging from the pain of feeling like he was stretched apart with a hollowness taking shape within him. Noctis dried to control whatever convulsions that ran through his body, this horrible agony that tore into him. Not even his fight with Leviathan could hold a candle to this pain, like a part of himself had been taken away.

Gently rubbing his back as he heaved was Goofy, whispering gentle words of encouragement as he waited patiently for the prince to finish up. Noctis waved him off, signaling he was for now done, turning onto his backside and leaning against cupboards of the bathroom. His bangs stuck to his face in sweat, pale skin and dark circles around his eyes, to say Noctis looked like death was slowly coming for him would be an understatement.

'Do you want to get Donald or Aqua?', Goofy asked, kneeling before Noctis. The prince shook his head weakly, swallowing weakly. 'No, they've got their hands full with Riku and…Kairi', he said, weakly speaking the latter's name with dread. The princess had still yet to join them in the waking world, still sleeping in fits and obvious nightmare tainted sleep. Only halted by Aqua's magic to help counter them but even the master was on her last bit of nerves.

The prince looked to Goofy's fallen face as he got to his feet. 'Well…if ya need me, or the others, just holler, okay?', he asked softly before turning to the door. Noctis reached for the captain, opening his mouth to say something to provide a form of comfort to him, but words failed him as the captain exited the bathroom with a soft click behind him. Sitting there in the bathroom alone with the light flickering, Noctis just rests his head against his knees as his breath hitched, mind swimming with the new information Lunafreya had told them.

Gentiana's disappearance was not her leaving them to continue her tasks, she was dying right before their eyes and apparently, she was not the only astral to perish. Lunafreya had revealed to them after the Messenger had vanished, that the astrals had all perished. Because she could speak to the gods, the Oracle felt their life force disappear moments ago, all starting with the Draconian, the God of War and the strongest of the astrals.

She revealed that is why she panicked when Ardyn stole the ring from them, he would parody the prophecy of the Chosen King by ascending the throne himself to battle Bahamut. With the ring absorbing the souls of Noctis' ancestors who sat upon throne all those years ago. Using the ring to enter the place between life and death where he could confront Bahamut. Slaying him, meant the death of not just the other astrals, but more. Ardyn's actions had destroyed the link of the Lucis line's source of power, the crystal would fade into nothing as the ring would have by now.

The crystal gone, means Noctis' powers would go with it. To everyone's horror, her words of prophecy had come true for Noctis couldn't summon a single royal arm, not even his weapons blessed by his Armiger. None of his companions could do so either, rendering them all defenseless and worst of all useless. Next came one final slap to their faces, courtesy of Ardyn's vengeance, the Starscourge had run amok more quickly and wildly than it had ever had before. The days would end and night would reign forever eternal, and the Oracle would feel the full brunt of it all.

That is if she was given this power from another being.

It was Bahamut who gave the world the Oracle, to begin with after all, and like Noctis' powers, Lunafreya loses her own. The woman had fallen gravely ill because of this, nearly on death's doorstep had Aqua not expend more of her mana to preserve the former Oracle until she received proper medical assistance. Whether it was the exhaustion of calling upon the Tidemother or without some power from the Oracle keeping her going, he didn't know.

Running his hand through his hand, he willed himself to get off his butt and exit the room. The room he stayed in is the same one he woke up in but now darkened from the night. No less then two in the afternoon yet it was as if they were late in the evening times. Looking outside to see the ruins of Altissia, now under the ugly eternal night sky that colored the world in a hue of sick browns and sickening greens.

Resting on his chair, silent and still like a statue is Ignis, tapping his fingers on the armrest. Goofy must have told him where he was going and likely offered to stay here to watch for Noctis. The prince slowly walked around his chair and sat across from him, holding his piece and lowering his gaze to his knees in defeat. The words he wanted to say to this man, the man who gave up so much for his king sitting across from him, yet now it was all for nothing.

Likely sensing his liege, Ignis leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and hands clasped together. 'Noct, are you alright?', he asks, merely out of courtesy. Noctis shook his head as a sound of frustration escaped his mouth, breath hitched. 'Iggy…', he gasped, trying to get the words out to express his struggles and fury. The sensation of uselessness, the internal burning of worthlessness that wrapped around his heart like a serpent.

'What am I going to do? I…I can't call the arms anymore', he breathes out, 'The ring is destroyed, Luna can't use her powers anymore, we lost Sora…and I can't do a damn thing about any of it!'. Noctis hisses as he feels tears burning in his eyes, shame, and dismay mixing into one horrible sensation of agony within him. Everything that those who followed him had done, the trials to obtain the arms, Cor's sacrifice to save his shield and friend, Luna enduring all the empire's cruelty and trials of the astrals, Sora fighting for his sake, all of it accumulating to nothing.

Each of them had paid the price for following him, and he had nothing to show for it. The burden of what is to expect of him once the ring is placed into his hands had been taking from him, his chance to finally convince himself he was ready to become the king they all believed him to be, stripped away. Now he was nothing, nothing but a poor excuse for a member of the Lucis bloodline, and a disgrace to his father.

As his self-lashing grew intense, he feels a hand gently resting upon his shoulder. He looked up to see Ignis facing him. 'Noct, I…cannot pretend to understand how you feel about this, that your birthright was stolen, along with us being rendered incapable for the moment and the concerns for her grace', Ignis says wisely. 'But what I do know, Noct, is that this circumstance is out of our hands, much like it was back with when the empire first invaded Insomnia'.

'That was different!', Noctis argued, 'We lost our home, not our strength!'. 'I know, but we have allies who can help us', Ignis counters. Noctis growled in frustration as he stood up, freeing himself from Ignis' hand as he started to pace in the room. 'And look what happened! They lost Sora to those bastards! Do you have any idea how Kairi is going to react to this!? Knowing we couldn't keep him safe!', he ranted.

Ignis clenched his fist and exhaled through his nose while his prince paced around more angrily. 'I know that, Noct. But Kairi won't blame you for his capture', he reasoned. 'No, but she has every right to!', Noctis cursed angrily. He grabbed the edge of the coffee table near him, shaking. 'And we can't even promise to help save him…', he laments, looking down in defeat as anger shifts to sorrow and misery. The room fell to silence as the two men composed themselves, lashing out against each other isn't going to help them, especially in their current conditions.

'…Ignis…I'm so sorry…', he whispers. 'What happened to my eyes was by my choice Noct', Ignis sighs softly, 'I'm certain you had no hand in removing my sight'. Ignis carefully feels around the area until he reached his prince, placing a hand on his shoulder, Noctis unable to face him as his tears ran. 'You gave them up for nothing Ig…I can't even ascend the throne without the ring…Luna did all this for nothing…', he lists.

'…no, Noct. Sacrificing my sight was not for nothing', the man replies strongly as he grips his friend tightly. 'I gave them up…to make sure you would live to see another day, and I would do it all over again if it means you're safe'. Unable to hold back his tears, Noctis turned to his brother, his most loyal and oldest friend who had given up so much for him. Gently Ignis smiled. 'I know we're not in the best of conditions, Noct, our situation is dire and without the use of the Armiger, we're at our lowest point', he says.

'But there is an old question that I am certain, you know the answer to. "Why do we fall"?', he asked. 'To learn…how to pick ourselves up again…', Noctis answers shakily. Nodding, satisfied with the answer, Ignis pats his arm comfortingly. 'You will figure it out Noct, I'm certain of it'. They shared a brothers hug, Noctis trying to hold back his pain for his brother's sake. Here before him, blind and rendered unfit for battle was his brother, yet somehow, he was even stronger than the would-be king. How could a prince falter in his duty where others faced a far worse fate than he was in, and somehow still retain that power to face the world.

'Get some rest, I'll be checking on the others shortly', Ignis instructs. 'Y-You sure?', Noctis asks as they broke the hug. Nodding, they approached the door as Ignis picks up his cane, saying: 'I'm trying to memorize my way around the estate, better to do it sooner than later'.

With a small farewell, Ignis leaves the room and Noctis basks in the silence before retreating to the bed. He would have gone to see the others with his brother, but after their talk, the faith Ignis still carried for his liege left him thinking. Laying down on his back as he stared into the ceiling, the prince looked at his hand, trying to summon or call an arm to his hand. All he manages to achieve was tiny faint mists of light dancing around his fingers, mocking his ineptitude.

Dropping his hand in defeat, Noctis looked to the darkness of the ceiling, taking in the silence of the room with only the lamplight on to accompany him. His mind trailing to Sora, fear clutching his heart with worry for the boy. As strong as his heart is, a monster like Ardyn is sure to find something to break the boy's spirit, however long that may take. He is strong, but the empire would do whatever it took to keep him in check, especially now knowing Noctis and his royal retinue, along with any surviving members of the Kingsglaive would be powerless to fight back.

As he worries grew, sleep called to him and despite how apprehensive he would be to allow his dreams to become nightmares, maybe some rest could help him. Strangely though as he starts to drift away into slumber…a forgotten memory begins to play out for him….

*Other Room*

Stirring and groaning from the dull aches that plagued her body, Kairi's eyes slowly fluttered open, blurry but she could feel the warmth of a bed and blanket protecting her from the cold. She lets out a small groan as she rubbed her eyes with her arm, rubbing the sleep and exhaustion from them. Slowly she sits up on the bed, but then when she hunched over, she hissed and accidentally placed a hand on her stomach too quickly and immediately hisses in pain again.

Opening one eye as the stinging pain subsides, the girl looked to see she wasn't in her usual bedclothes, but rather in an oversized t-shirt for herself, likely Gladiolus and a pair of night shorts. Slowly she grips the rim of her t-shirt and raises it to expose her stomach. There it is, a brand-new scar adorned on her stomach, jagged and still bright red with patches of faint blood. Mustering her strength to not throw up from that, memories of her acquiring the scar. A sickness to her stomach struck her when she thought on that one moment, for a while fearing that was to be her final resting place.

But she was saved by Sora again…and she, in turn, stopped him from becoming one with his anger and fall to the darkness.

She heard the door opening near her and glanced up to see Prompto entering the bedroom, carefully carrying a tray of what thought was his breakfast. When he turned to her, his blue eyes lit up with relief and surprise, nearly dropping the tray. Quick as he could he placed the tray on the table nearby and rushed to her side. With an exclamation of her name, the gunner wrapped her into a hug, carefully as to not open her scar.

'Oh man! We thought you wouldn't wake up for another while!', Prompto gasped, clearly relieved. Kairi weakly hugged him back as the blond shook, worried how long she had been inactive or how long she was in her comatose state. He leaned back to smile at her, but she sees pain in it like he had endured something terrible. Dark circles were under his beautiful blue eyes, he looked as if he hadn't slept in days and there is a sadness within them.

'Prompto…h-how long was I…wait', Kairi starts but then grabs his arm. 'What happened with Luna? Is she ok? Did Noct beat the Tidemother!?', she questions. 'Yeah! Yeah, they're…ok', he starts, but then falters and looks down in defeat, his brilliant sunny cheer disappearing. Kairi looked at him with worry, wondering whatever it is that's put this cheerful man into such despair. Did something happen while she was out? Before she could inquire, the door opened again with Aqua entering the room.

The master's face showed relief when she saw her student had opened her eyes, but much like Prompto, they were tainted by sadness and pain. 'Prompto, please be careful, her scar could still re-open if strained', she warns softly, not playfully. Prompto releases his friend from his hug while Aqua approached Kairi. 'Sorry, but I need to see if I can heal it', she instructs. Nodding and eager to be able to walk around with the fear of reopening her wound, Kairi lifts her shirt up to show the scar.

Aqua placed her hand on it and uttered "Curaga", bathing Kairi in green light. She feels her aches disappearing and that fatigue plaguing her leaving her limbs like she entered a hot bath. When the spell ends, they see her scar was fainter and silver, like it was an old wound from a battle long since fought. 'Thanks, it was starting to itch', Kairi giggled, gently patting her sensitive skin. Aqua formed a small smile but said nothing else, getting off the bed.

'Aqua?', Kairi says, seeing her master's face fall into a neutral one. Aqua stopped walking yet dared not to face her student. Her worries for whatever is causing this level of despair peaked in Kairi's heart as she clutches her necklace. 'Aqua? What's going on? Why are you all acting like we've just lost something?', she questioned. She then looked outside the window to see the eternal night clouding the world in shadows and darkness. There she feels a horrible darkness, unlike anything she had ever felt before, a suffocation that stole her breath when she looked.

Glancing at the clock on the bed, she was shocked to see it was only half-past two in the afternoon, yet the dark made it look like they were all up at midnight. 'What's happening? Why is it so dark outside? And what…is it?', she questioned. Aqua's shoulders sagged and dropped, turned to her student and said: 'Luna says this is known as the "Eternal Night",'. 'Eternal Night? What do you mean?', Kairi says, turning herself in the bed to face her.

'You know that daemons come out only at night, right?', Prompto says, wringing his hands, 'Well, it's going to be night forever now. Meaning, there's gonna daemons all over the world'. 'B-But how? How did this happen?'.

Aqua folded her arms and looked away. 'Ardyn. He stole the ring of the Lucii from us during the battle, and from what Luna told us, took Noct's ascension and slew the astral who gave the world the crystal, the powers Noct and Luna have. When he died…the other astrals went along with him, taking Noct and Luna's powers'.

Kairi shook her head in disbelief as Prompto just stood there quietly while Aqua closed her eyes. 'Now with them gone, the ever-lasting nights begin. Noct and the others can't fight the darkness without their Armiger', she continues. Kairi placed a hand on her heart as the knowledge sunk in, despair washing over her as her master tells her what else the Oracle had to say and explained, how now without the crystal and prophecy, there would be no way to remove the Starscourge from this world, that Ardyn had destroyed the two things that could have halted the corruption.

Aqua had also informed Kairi what happened to Ignis and Luna, making the princess nearly weep in agony while Prompto struggled to keep his tears in check, clasping his mouth with his shoulders shaking. Aqua exhaled when she finishes her summary before Kairi asked.

'And where's Sora? Is he safe?'.

The two older members of the party went silent, neither one of them facing Kairi. 'Guys? Where is he?', she asked again, more demandingly. Prompto looked away while Aqua kept her eyes hidden with her bangs, furthering the princess' fears and anger. Why were they stonewalling her? Did Sora get hurt more than her? Is he infected by the blight? Or worse? 'Guys! Answer me!', she demands. Kairi, frustrated, threw the sheets off herself and climbed out of the bed, darting for her clothes folded neatly on the chest.

Not caring if the others saw her in her underwear (not that Prompto would ogle), she threw on her adventure gear and stormed out of the room.

Kairi marches down the corridor of the estate, uncertain where she was going and even unaware of exactly where they were, but she didn't care. The one person she wanted to see more than anyone else right now, his location being kept a secret from her not only infuriated her but also felt like a slap to her heart from the others. Whatever happened to Sora, no matter how badly wounded he had gotten she knew he could, would bounce back from it like it had never happened.

Kairi's march stopped when she sees just the right boy, who would tell her where Sora is.

Exiting a room with Gladiolus nearby, she sees Riku closing the door behind him. 'Riku!', she called out, jogging to him. Gladiolus turned to greet her, like everyone else though she sees his face was scrunched up in pain and sadness although nearly hidden behind his resolute eyes. When she got close to Riku, he refused to turn around to face her, however. Kairi's smile evaporated into one of confusion and hurt. 'Riku?', she asked.

Gladiolus gave Riku a hard glare, possibly in the same mindset as the princess from this cold reception. The master says nothing as she sees him lowering his head, muttering something she couldn't pick up. Her desire to ask him the question she tried with Aqua froze on the tip of her tongue, like if uttered her whole world could shatter into pieces. Horrible thoughts about Sora began to swim in her mind, questions she didn't want answers to as her heart feels as if something was strangling it.

'Riku? Where is Sora?', she whispers. Riku says nothing, he just kept staring ahead of him and not face the princess. He even tried to walk away without a word, but Kairi grabbed his hand. 'Riku! For the love of light just answer me! WHERE IS SORA!?', she shouted. She didn't care if she woke up the entire floor of this place, she could've woken up what remained of Altissia for all she cared. Why was he acting like this? After everything that's happened to them, did she not earn to know what's happened to the boy who won her heart with his light?

In the end, Riku yanks his hand from Kairi's grip roughly, and then uttered: 'He's been taken'. Kairi's heart stopped for a moment hearing those words, the whole room disappearing. There was no eternal night that plagued this world, they were no longer in the corridor, Gladiolus was nowhere to be seen. In this dark place, Kairi and Riku were the only occupants here. 'Xigbar and Ardyn took him…along with the ring…', he revealed.

Quickly, Riku turns around and grabs her hands. Not looking at her, he placed something in her hands. Standing still, Kairi still frozen as Riku lowers his hands from hers, barely above a whisper, says: 'I'm sorry'.

Without another word Riku walks away down the corridor, leaving Kairi behind with Gladiolus watching him leave. Kairi looked at her hands to see the broken chain carrying the crown necklace that hung around Sora's neck. Her strength in her body disappeared, her will broke while she brushed her thumb against the crown that belonged to the boy who claimed her heart. The boy who has a smile that brightened her day, fill her with confidence and the will to keep fighting. Tears splashed on the chain as Kairi broke down, sobbing and falling to her knees.

She clutched the chain against her heart and cried in the corridor, letting her pain go and forgoing maintaining strength. The boy she had risked herself to find, the person she would go the ends of the world for, the boy who gave her so much since she had come to this world, was taken away from her.

And it was her fault…

Kairi feels a hand placed on her shoulder, making her turn to see Aqua with her glistening tears. Kneeling to her student, Aqua enveloped Kairi into a hug and allowed her to sob into her master's arms. Gladiolus looking away in guilt while behind Aqua, Prompto stood with his tears running down his cheeks, for Kairi's pain and Sora's capture. Wrapped in their misery and anguish, none had seen Riku's face contorting into absolute misery and shame. Tears running down his owns cheeks as listened to Kairi's painful cries.

And it was all because of him…

*Sometime later…*

Sitting on his bed in deep thought, the shield of the prince had sat there for what felt like hours, yet only minutes had passed him by. His hands clasped together tightly, anger trying to claw its way out of him, everything in the room looked perfect to just grab and smash until there is nothing left. All the while as he brood in this room, his mind kept going back to the altar, Sora's capture weighed heavily on his mind and soul.

They were all there, he and Aqua especially should have done something. Those heartless were nothing to him at this point, he should have run with Riku to rescue the boy. After all his training did, he still came up short when it mattered in the end, and now without Noctis being able to draw power from the Armiger, he couldn't even keep up his job as a shield of the prince. Effectively Gladiolus had become useless to his liege.

The door opened and Aqua entered it when he glanced at her Gladiolus sees the strain on her face. She looked so tired, and why wouldn't she be? The master had been spreading herself thin for everyone that had fallen into coma-like states or severe wounds, even the Oracle after Sora's capture couldn't stay up for long. Between maintaining a healing session with five people while assisting the Accordo guards and helping out in case heartless prowled too close to their breathing space.

She had even forgone most of her armor, saying it felt heavier than usual and just wore the cloth of her gear. Her hair a messy and unkempt as if she suffered the worst case of bed hair, even her eyes looked dimmer. The shield had made sure she had at least eaten before this crusade of hers took over her body's needs and get some form of rest when her tasks were put aside, for now, least he could do. Here in the now, he sees the woman just looked utterly deflated and approached the bed without a word.

'Blue…', he started, but Aqua laid on the bed, looking at him to join her. With a restrained sigh nearly escaping him, Gladiolus joined her and lays with her, allowing her to lay her head on his chest. Together they laid in silence, neither had uttered a word as the gentle ticking of the old clock above their bed resonates in the room. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer to him, feeling the tension in her body and stress radiating off her.

'…once we return to the mainland, we're going to Niflhiem', Aqua announced softly. 'And we're going to get Sora back'.

Gladiolus frowns softly at this, not that he was against rescuing the hero, but the condition the party was in, the fact they were down to three useless warriors and with Ignis losing his sight, did nothing positive for the morale. He glanced down to her as she faced him. 'Blue, not to be a pessimist, but we're not exactly at our best', Gladiolus argued softly, only for Aqua to shake her head. 'I know Gladio…but I didn't mean everyone'.

He sat up with her as she held his gaze. 'After we get Noct and Luna settled, I'm taking the others and we'll go alone', she explained. Gladiolus shook his head. 'What? Blue, you're going to try storming that place with just the four of you?', he said, incredulously, 'That place is the home of the empire's military, and there's probably gonna thousands of heartless, nobodies AND daemons!'. 'And what do you want us to do? Wait? You think we're just going to wait on our butts while Sora's in Ardyn's hands?', she accused.

'That's not what I meant!', he growled. He grabbed her shoulder and held her there. 'We're not going to let all of you just wander off to the empire like that! But we can't do anything yet to help!'. This helplessness he felt, the fact everything they had fought for was for nothing. Without Noctis' power, Gladiolus knew he'd be no more use to Aqua than a flesh shield. 'We can't afford to wait for a miracle, Gladio! I will not sit idly by while my friend is in the hands of those freaks!', Aqua said.

'And throwing your lives on the line like that is gonna work?', he challenged. No matter how strong Aqua is or with all of them, Gladiolus could only imagine just how warped and twisted Niflhiem had become with the darkness and eternal night reigning. With Xigbar and Ardyn running things over there, given how easy it would to turn even the emperor into a heartless or a daemon, that place could be the next hell on earth.

The thought of seeing those four people they've become close to just march to their deaths scared him in no way he felt before. Aqua faced the shield with steel in her eyes, the same eyes that faced down her darkness and triumphed, yet he could see something else in her eyes. Gently he lessened his grip on her shoulders as his face slowly melted into a gentler look. 'Blue, I get it, I'm worried about the kid too, hell we all are…', he starts, rubbing her shoulders as Aqua's face crumbled. 'But throwing ourselves to their walls won't save him…you know that'.

'I can't just leave him there Gladio…', she says weakly, looking down, 'To be alone in a place like that? Isolated from everyone you cared about while your worst nightmares become a part of your daily routine? Sora doesn't deserve that'. The shield cupped her chin to get her to face him, rubbing away the tear stains that adorned her cheeks. Among all of them, no one else would understand what Sora would be facing alone.

That desperation to spare him the agony she had to endure before, a boy like him who had done so much for others, carrying pain that no one should have to bear alone. In the hands of a monster like Ardyn and an unfeeling daemon of man like Xigbar, Aqua would prefer if he did fall into the realm of darkness. At least he'd be safer than there…

'I know that Blue…believe me when I say everyone one of us would tear the whole empire apart to save him', he assures, genuine. 'But do you think Sora would be happy if one of us died for him as opposed to all of us being there?'. She gave him a small smile, something he hadn't seen since before the battle. Small, but it's a smile none the less he believed. 'I dunno how Blue, but, maybe, there's a way to get us back in the fight…', Gladiolus says.

'Maybe, if we could create a link like the Armiger…I mean, it's how Donald and Goofy kept their weapons without Sora', Aqua pondered. Gladiolus hums in thought as they decided to lay down together, closer and basking in the warmth. As the darkness raises with power, slowly encompassing the world in a never-ending night with the light broken down to a mere flicker, hope wanes.

But what most seem to underestimate, is that within the light, there is more to it than meets the eyes…A/N: This was the trickiest chapter yet, and believe me when I say the original idea I had would have been way, WAY more clustered!

I was planning on showing how the group recovers from it, but that'd be suited better for next time.

Firstly: Hello to Shock17, thank you again for that comment on chapter 38!

Second: QUESTIONS!

Q1: How did you enjoy the fight with Bahamut?

Q2: Did you like how Ardyn took Noctis' role and came out even more powerful?

Q3: Do you think I'm a bit harsh on Kairi lately?

Q4: Are you excited for next time?

Q5: How do think things will play out from here?

So quickie question, but would you guys like a Christmas story from this? Just with slight changes to the canon of this for fun? Let me know!

As always, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	41. Chapter 41

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 41

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

*Fifthteen Years ago*

A little Noctis ran through the empty castle halls, giggling sneakily doing so as he was quite pleased with himself for tricking Ignis to going down the wrong way. The older boy may be the smartest person in the whole world, but he was naïve when Noctis played the innocent prince card. The little prince should have been in bed hours ago certainly and had Clarus not left him in Ignis' charge, he may have indeed been put to bed thanks to his dad's shield. It took some practice, a lot of sugar to keep his energy up and giddy for his plan tonight.

Carefully sneaking in the empty corridors with the moonlight being his only guide to illuminate his way through the darkness, making sure none of his father's guards were nearby to hear his snickers. He eventually found himself in the throne room where beneath the throne was a super-secret door that leads into the "antechamber" his father once told him about months ago, that only those of royalty may touch and open. But his father had made the prince promise to never, EVER go down there alone or without his father by his side.

Noctis did indeed promise he would do no such thing…mostly because he knew his father was indeed down there. So, he wasn't breaking a promise to his father, he's going down to the antechamber because his dad is there.

And Ignis calls his logic silly~

Noctis placed his small hand on the secret door leading to the antechamber, his royal blood unknowingly at the time revitalizing the old magic within the stone carvings. The doors split into two, parting ways for Noctis to enter the antechamber.

Carefully as his little slipper wearing feet could, Noctis climbs down the stairs leading to the bright room with the giant shiny rock his father told him about. He reached down the stairs and peers from a corner to see his father looking at the crystal, but he looked so sad. It was weird to see his father with that kind of face, it was like when Ignis learned about his grade wasn't up to par, but this face looked like he was in pain.

A small frown appeared on Noctis, his father is the strongest man he knew, even tougher but not meaner than Clarus. He felt apprehensive, thinking maybe his father wasn't in the mood for him and he came down here to be alone, but he remembered when he once got really sad, Ignis just gave him a big hug and said: 'Sometimes just being there is enough, even if they don't ask'. Mustering his courage, Noctis slowly approached his father.

He gets closer, but before he spoke, another voice chimed in.

'You've a visitor, Regis'.

Noctis lets out a small yell of surprise and turned to see standing against one of the pillars was Eraqus, that weird man who visits him and his dad. He had slightly tanned skin. Eraqus's black hair is tied into a short, high topknot, with one bang falling off to the right side of his face. He also has a short, triangular soul patch and a mustache.

Wearing a white red-lined haori that has a hood, along with slightly shorter than normal, light-colored hakama. Underneath his haori, he wears a navy blue shirt with a large white X pattern on the front. Eraqus wears pieces of armor, in his case gold and black armored boots and a dull blue-green section that covers his abdomen. This second piece of armor sports a symbol that the prince was sure was told about before but couldn't recall.

Regis turned to his son with a frown as Eraqus softly smirks at the two, the prince suddenly feeling sheepish, his previous confidence evaporating when his father stared at his son. He knew he would be grounded, and if he was lucky it'd be only for a month…

Instead of lecturing Noctis however, Regis merely pats his head and ruffles his hair, shaking him out of his sheepish stance and giggled instead. Noctis looks up to his father while placing his hands on his father's larger one, smiling at him. The sadness was gone from his father's eyes, he sees renewed hope within them. 'Noct, do you remember Master Eraqus?', he asked, gesturing his old friend. Noctis nods, how could he forget the man who told him and Luna so many stories? Tales of weird places from fairy tales, about how unique and different they were to his own home, heroes and villains.

The prince turned to Eraqus, who knelt before the boy. Gone was his smile, a look of contemplation took its place as he studied Noctis. Weirdly enough Noctis didn't feel that strange uncomfortable sensation tingling his spine like all those weirdos in suits gave him when they watched him. Eraqus is friendly and his dad liked him, so he must have been a good person. Eraqus glanced to Regis with what the prince thought was something like permission…?

At least that's the look he always gave his dad whenever they're dining together. Unaware of his father nodding to Eraqus, the boy looked puzzled when Eraqus turned to Noctis once again, and then he summoned that weird sword thingy…

'Noctis…'.

*Present*

'NOCT! WAKE UP!'.

Jumping up in his bed with a startled yell, Noctis looked to see Aqua and Gladiolus in his room, the master wielding her keyblade while Gladiolus slammed himself against the door, struggling to keep it closed. Something powerful was pounding on the other side of it, the frame of the door was being jolted from the walls by the pounding and loud breaking noises alluded him to believing it was on its last legs.

'Get dressed! We need to regroup with the others!', Aqua says, gesturing to the prince's clothes on the chair nearby. 'W-What's going on?', Noctis asked, scrambling to his feet to do as the master turned to the door. 'Gladio, move!', she ordered. Gladiolus threw himself away from the door, it bursts open. The wooden door is destroyed and rendered to splinters, daemon bombs fluttering into the room with their maws open and burning brightly in the room.

Aqua quickly fired a stream of icy mist on them, near-instantly freezing them into large chunks of ice that fall to the ground, shattering into pieces. '*That's* what's going on!', Aqua replied. 'Daemons have invaded the town, and very soon the heartless will join them!'. Noctis throws his boots on as questions ran through his mind, baffled by the appearance of the monsters of the night. Even with the eternal night plaguing their world, the daemons couldn't have appeared within Altissia even at nightfall. Their lights were just as, if not more, powerful as the ones back at Lestallum, they couldn't have been able to invade.

Aqua ran to the door and checked left and right for any more surprises waiting for them. She nods when it was clear, turning to the men. 'Come on! Let's go before more show up!', she says. They both followed Aqua, Gladiolus with his phone on his ear speaking to Prompto. 'Prom, we've got Noct! Where are the rest of you?', he questioned as they ran down the stairs and into the foyer. Before they could get out, Aqua stopped them and erects a barrier before them. The walls of the entrance were demolished by a thick sheen of flame covered steel crashing through the building. The walls fell apart and some of the ceiling collapsed onto the barrier, bouncing off the blue wall of magic.

Aqua grits her teeth from the shock of the attack as Noctis looked to see an iron giant with a blazing sword step into the building, crushing the fallen bits of the wall to dust and even backhanded another part of the standing wall to allow it easy access to the foyer. The master of the keyblade dismissed her barrier and ran to the giant. It brought its sword to her with a sweep, which the master leaped over while Noctis and Gladiolus were forced to duck for cover. The blade tore through the foyer, furniture ripped apart as the building was cut in half, the stairs decimated as splinters and debris flew all over.

Noctis fell onto the floor stomach first and covered his head as the splinters flew, some of the flying objects hitting him and he hears the weakened structures groaning under the weight of the ceiling above. 'Noct, move!', Gladiolus shouts, grabbing his prince and quickly throwing him back onto his feet, rushing him out of the building using one of the holes the giant created for them. With Aqua, she struck the giant's metal torso, splitting the corrupted metal open.

She soared past it, landing onto her feet and turned with her keyblade glowing golden red. With a cry, she fired a beam of intense heat that pierced the giant's torso and leaving a massive hole the size of a small car in its chest. The beam blasted through the broken remains of the roof and into the skies before it dissipated into nothing as the giant fell to its knees and sunk into the abyss. The master huffs, jogging to Gladiolus and Noctis standing by the bridge.

From here the party of three sees the city is suffering from a full-scale assault from daemons. Land, sea and even the skies were plagued by the monsters of the blight. Sounds of battles commencing, destruction wrought upon the city of water and the sounds of people crying out in fear, Noctis could only watch in utter horror at the sight that laid before him. He hears voices calling for aid, soldiers barking orders and instructions, pleas to the deceased gods for divine protection. Noctis leaned against the railing of the bridge, bile rising in his throat forcing him to clasp his mouth.

These people were helpless against the daemons, the soldiers probably have almost no experience in combating the daemons, he feared they may not even have any means of keeping the people safe during a daemon invasion.

Is this what it was like for the people in Insomnia? Seeing their homes being attacked and destroyed before their eyes, seeing everything be consumed by the fires of war and having no one to shield them? He feels sickness running through him, along with a deep resentment to his current useless state. Here he is, a prince of Insomnia, whose slain daemons, heartless, nobodies and all other manner of foes, now unable to even protect himself.

'We need to find the others…', Aqua announces, shaking her head. 'Gladio, did you reach Prompto?'. He nods to her and says: 'Yeah, he said he's gotten Luna and Ignis out of the hotel after we left. They're with Kairi and the other two'. He swipes his phone to ring them, hoping they would tell him where exactly they ran off to since their talk was cut short earlier. Thankfully Prompto picked up after the first dial and said: 'Gladio! What happened!? Are you guys ok!?'.

Putting him on loudspeaker for the rest to hear, Gladiolus replies: 'We're fine Prompto, where are you guys?'. 'We're nearby the secretary's place! But we're being chased by daemons everywhere!', he says, judging from his speech he was running with the others. 'Is Riku with you guys?'. 'No, I thought he was with you!', Gladiolus grunts.

Aqua took her phone out (a flip phone) and dialed Riku's number and stood at the edge near the waters. She patiently waited for a response from him, but all she got was dial tones and after the fourth, she hung up. Shaking her head impatiently, Aqua turned back to Gladiolus. 'He's not answering his phone', she says, 'Either he's in the middle of a fight, or he lost it'. Nodding, Gladiolus placed the phone to his ear. 'Prompto, listen to me. Find a place to bunker down with the others, and when you do, text us where', he instructed.

'Got ya! We'll- GOOFY LOOK OUT!', Prompto yells before the line goes dead. 'Prompto? Prompto!?', Gladiolus shouts. With a yell of aggravation, he stuffs his phone into his pocket as Noctis finally gains control over his ailment and after some deep breaths, turns to his shield. Aqua stepped up and looked at the two. 'We need to move, Ignis and the others should still have their phones, they'll contact us once they're ready', she said in an assuring tone. 'What about Riku?', Noctis asked. Aqua sighs. 'I can't go looking for him yet, so long as you two are in the open', she lectures, 'For now the best thing we can do is see what we can do for the people'.

Gladiolus nods in full agreement while Noctis looked down, doubt plaguing his mind. What could a prince with no power do for the people he is meant to protect when even he could not save himself from all this carnage. He felt a hand on his shoulder, making him look up at Aqua and sees strength within her eyes. She gave him an encouraging smile and gestured to the city. 'Our friends are waiting for us, Noct. Along with your fiancé', she said.

He feels his cheeks heat up from that harmless tease, yet somehow thinking of Lunafreya and the others in the city sparked something within the future king. He steels himself and shoves his fears aside, nodding to Aqua. Together the trio raced into the city, the master in front as the prince followed.

All the while unknowing to himself, a powerful light begins to glow within the prince's heart.

*Prompto's Group*

Dragging the unconscious Goofy from the fight with only Kairi and Donald taking on the horde of daemons, Prompto heaves Goofy onto his feet and threw an arm over his shoulder. He glances up to see the bombs were detonating left and right, creating a pathway of thunderous explosions that destroyed the paths, buildings and anything else within radius of their explosions.

The redhead used Flowmotion to leap over the bombs while combing swordplay and magic into one, freezing those buggers while slicing the goblins that jumped at her. Kairi jumps on top of a bomb's frozen form and leaps into the air. She aimed the keyblade at the red-skinned iron giant that was making its way to the party. Kairi a chain of yellow lightning that encased the daemon in a web of shocks, killing it as the rest of the lightning chained towards the goblins, shocking them and leaving holes in their forms.

She lands on her feet while bringing her keyblade down onto a bomb, splitting it in half just as Donald blasts two goblins in a wave of frost, freezing them. Kairi spins and throws her keyblade in a buzz saw motion to the frozen monsters, shattering them on impact as her keyblade boomeranged back to her in time for Kairi to strike down another goblin.

Donald turned to the army of bombs flying to Lunafreya and Ignis, aimed his staff and fired a torrent of water at the daemons. The magical wave sucked them into its cold substance and washed them over the land and into the canals of Altissia. Small explosions rumbled within the waters, likely due to combing lightning with water after all. The duck lifted his staff, aiming at the iron giant approach him and created a giant stone pillar spike above himself. He swung his staff at the golem, making the spike launch towards the giant. The stone pierced its stomach and finished it off.

Kairi joined Donald after making sure the daemons had been quelled, at least for now. They turned to their charges, Goofy waking up after Prompto gave him a potion while Lunafreya helped guide Ignis to the two.

The captain waved off their worries with a tired smile as he summoned his shield again while Kairi looked at the Oracle and Ignis. 'Are you two okay?', she says, panting slightly from all the fighting. 'We're fine if a bit shaken', Lunafreya assured, though the redhead sees the woman was struggling to keep herself up. Ever since Ardyn did whatever he did (she was still short on the full story of what's happened), the Oracle's health had begun to steadily decline and moreover if Prompto wasn't around to continue to check on her Kairi would fear she'd collapse.

After she had woken up after her break down, no sooner had she gotten dressed she was attacked by two goblins within her room. Kairi slew them easily luckily, but she then went to warn the others only to find Donald bashing the head of a goblin while Goofy was keeping Lunafreya and Prompto safe from them. She had so many questions about this but when more started to flood the place, they were forced to use the fire exits and escaped outback of the estate, ran into the streets and be ambushed by more daemons.

'I don't get it! Why are the daemons suddenly popping up all over Altissia?', Donald said impatiently, 'I thought the lights were supposed to keep them out!'. They turned to Lunafreya, frowning. 'The lights in Altissia are nothing when it comes to the Starscourge running its course', she explains, clasping her necklace. 'Without my powers as an Oracle or the astrals, there is nothing to stop it from growing'.

'Meaning without either, it is only a matter of time until almost everywhere is filled with daemons', Ignis says, 'Lestallum, Galdin Quay, Hammerhead to start with'.

Kairi looks at Lunafreya's crestfallen face, seeing the light that the woman once displayed even in the harshness of the empire and whatever was thrown in her way waver greatly. It was like she was becoming greyer and dimmer with each passing moment as the night went on. Herself she couldn't deny she wasn't feeling the same sense of defeat within her heart, her strength is limited and even now she could feel the weight of her pain grow.

Donald must have seen the two's forlorn looks because he quacked loudly and flailed his arms up and down. 'Come on! We gotta keep going before they come back!', he said loudly. 'We gotta find somewhere safe and regroup with Aqua and the others!'.

'Donald's right', Prompto said quietly, stepping near Ignis to guide him, 'We're in the open and there's gonna be a lot of daemons breathing down our necks soon!'. Much of the party was in silent agreement to the two's concerns as Kairi took point and leads them into the town. Luckily for them, she had a good memory of the section of the city they're in. Unlikely there would be any remaining boats left for them to use, so the ocean was out of their hands.

Running along a street as more daemons begin to pollute the town, goblins hopping on the rooftops while some bombs formed around the edges of the streets, booming sounds of iron giant's footsteps surrounded them.

Donald did his best to keep the goblins off their backs, striking them with all forms of magic he possessed while Goofy kept the rearguard in check. Kairi cleaved and cut her way through the daemons that came close to them, putting all her strength into tearing them apart. She wielded Destiny's Embrace, figuring she could use the two form changes she was used to using by now as opposed to more experimentation.

Nearing a bridge that took them to another district, Kairi was then struck by a goblin that pounced on her from the rooftop. She tumbled and fell to the sidelines of the street, the goblin striking her in the stomach. She swung her keyblade at it to wave it away from her, growling at it. The goblin skipped away from the princess, jumping on a restaurant's outside table before leaping to the building. Prompto, after getting assurance from Ignis, raced to her and helped her to her feet.

Kairi waved off his worries, but then she felt her pocket and froze. Panicking she started to pat her pockets like she was trying to squish bugs climbing her body. 'It's gone!', she cried. 'What's gone?', Prompto asked. 'Sora's necklace! I had it in my pockets!', she states.

Kairi turned to the building where the goblin resided and to her absolute fury, it was carrying Sora's necklace in its short monstrous hand like it was taunting the girl. Prompto looked at it with bitterness, wishing for his gun to put a bullet in the smug little monster's face. Kairi let out a cry of fury and ran to the building, using Flowmotion to scale it in seconds. 'Kairi! WAIT!', Goofy cried out as Donald yelled for her too, but the princess of light chased after the goblin, abandoning the others.

'KAIRI!', Prompto yells, stepping towards the building but futility outstretching his hand to stop her. As the battle rages on, Prompto turns to the others with despair. Now without a means to combat the daemons, Donald and Goofy shared a glance of hesitation and bafflement. Donald nodded to him, his face showing focus. 'We've gotta keep going', he said with remorse but otherwise steadiness in his tone. Prompto turned to the duck in shock, but before he could argue, Lunafreya placed a hand on his shoulders.

'I don't want to leave Kairi to her own devices as much as you, Prompto', she says with strain in her voice, 'However, we are no more help to her than picking up sticks and hitting daemons'. Prompto's face deflated in defeat, knowing the two were tragically in the right on this matter. However, he pulled his phone out and immediately sent a text to the others about Kairi running off, detailing where they were when she split from the team. 'Okay, any ideas where we could run to?', Prompto asked, seeing as they were down their offense.

Donald and Goofy shook their heads, the city a mystery to them as Prompto. Lunafreya folds her arm in thought before Ignis spoke up. 'If I recall correctly, there is a basement beneath the secretary's estate', he says, tapping his stick as he says this. 'Perhaps we could use that? With Donald's magic creating a barrier at the entrance, we shouldn't have to worry for daemons sneaking upon us'. There was a collection of sounds agreeing with the blind man. Donald and Goofy took point this time, heading ahead with the others trailing behind them.

Climbing a flight of stairs, Goofy charged up with shield first and clatters away a horde of goblins, knocking them aside or some even over the steel railings near them. He throws his shield towards bomb closing in on them, splitting it in half via mid-section of its mouth while Donald casts Magnet on a horde of goblins, sucking them all into a single spot.

With a raise of his staff, he erects a pillar of stone beneath Goofy's feet that sent him flying into the air with a cry. Ten feet in the air, Goofy grabbed the handle of his shield with both hands, pressing his feet onto the shield as he dive bombs onto the group. His shield glows with cartoonish light and the moment he stomped on the dog piled daemons, a small explosion that sent waves of air all over was made. The daemons were destroyed thanks to the captain, giving Donald a thumbs up as he gestures the others to follow him.

It took time but soon they were running past the shops displaying the clothes and other unneeded items for the team. Just when Goofy climbs the top of the stairs, he was immediately struck by a ronin. He just barely manages to keep the tip of the long katana from piercing his chest with his shield, falling onto his back before the others. Donald looked up to see the ronin slowly make its way down to the others, its wooden sandals clacking loudly on the stone ground beneath it.

Prompto gulps worriedly at this powerful daemon, nervously looking at Donald and Goofy. Could they take on something like this without their keyblade friends or Armiger users? He gestured Lunafreya to stay in the back with Ignis as the blind man sported a look of frustration, no doubt feeling that helplessness Prompto was plagued with as well. If they had the others by their side with the Armiger this daemon wouldn't have been an issue, but now it may as well be Ardyn for all the difference it'd make.

The ronin swung the sword in a sweeping strike, Goofy on his feet fast to block it from chopping off their heads. Digging his heels into the stone, Goofy held his ground and only moved an inch thanks to the striking power of his adversary. Donald used his magic to pour a waterfall of water upon the daemon, soaking it entirely but doing no damage to it. That was until the duck jumped a foot into the air, quacking loudly to bring lightning down on the ronin.

Combined with the water-soaked flesh and cloth, the daemon practically turned into a light bulb with sparks of lightning sparking all over it, dropping the katana from the pain. It staggered and fell to its knee in defeat, which gave the captain a chance to rush in and deliver an uppercut with his shield, sending the ronin to the air. Donald then casts a lower-tier Aero spell that threw the daemon aside and into the lower levels of streets, ridding themselves of this monster.

Their victory became short-lived however, for the ground began to shake and sounds of breaking stone began to ring out. Everyone let out a yell of surprise as Lunafreya grabbed onto a lounging table to look into the city with eyes wide with horror.

Slowly rising from the depths of the ocean, is a heartless. It was twice the size of Titan, a Darkside that stood in the ocean with the blight surged around it as Altissia's buildings begin to crumble and break apart, all levitating to the skies. Buildings, homes, nothing was spared from the magnetic power of the heartless, lifting its giant claw-like hands to the skies while a sphere of red and black began to swirl and form within its palms.

It stares into the orb with orange-red eyes, before letting it fly up into the skies above Altissia, growing into larger and larger sphere, more of the city starts being sucked up to the void above. As such, heartless of shadows and neo-shadows began to swarm and appear within the city, demon towers appearing in numerous numbers and flying and likely hunting for more hearts to possess and consume. Those of the party with eyes could only watch in utter dismay of the sight, the army of daemons and heartless completely overwhelming them.

The Oracle felt it all crumble away, the will she had built up from everything she had fought and survived from had completely shattered into pieces. Her strength vanishing to nothing as her light, her hope faded into the darkness. Lunafreya fell to her knees in defeat as Prompto held onto the railings in dismay, shaking unable to bear witness to what seemed like the end of their world while Ignis stood there resolute.

Even the warriors of other worlds could only look on in despair, glancing at each other. Donald's face fell to defeat while Goofy softly shook his head. They were outmatched, outnumbered and extremely underprepared for what may come next.

'Guys!'.

The group looked to see racing up the stairs is Aqua and her two, reaching them. When they looked to the distance, Aqua's face fell at the sight. 'No…', she gasped with Gladiolus and Noctis looking at the sight in horror. 'What the hell is *THAT*!?', Gladiolus shouts, grabbing the railing. Aqua lowered her head. 'A Darkside…', she reveals, 'It's a pureblood heartless…one of the strongest of its kind'.

She gestures to the sphere. 'That sphere, its pouring darkness into it. When it reaches full power…this world will be consumed by the heartless'. They all stared at the woman bar Lunafreya, then back to the heartless. Noctis gripping the railing tightly as he stared heatedly at the heartless, the prongs of the railing digging into his palms. 'What…what do we do!?', he asked, looking at Aqua. The woman shakes her head, turning to him. 'You can't do anything…but if I can take down the heartless, that will stop the darkness', she explained.

'Wait, you're telling us, you're gonna fight your way there…?', Prompto said, horrified, 'There's like an army of…EVERYTHING there!'.

'We don't have a choice! If we wait around, we'll lose this world and there won't be anyone to stop Xehanort or Ardyn!', Aqua growled, her tone final and adamant. 'Donald, Goofy, take them somewhere safe! And…wait', she starts, before she sees they were missing someone. 'W-Where's Kairi?', she questioned, looking at the two. Prompto rubbed his arm nervously, meekly looking at the woman. 'S-She, Sora's necklace was stolen by a daemon, she chased after it', he says.

'SHE WHAT!?', Aqua shouts, for the first time since they met her baring her rage. Aqua looks in the city streets, desperate to find her apprentice yet all she could see were the hordes of daemons and heartless flooding the city with their darkness. For all she knew the girl could have been swept up in the ocean of darkness at this point. She couldn't even detect her light anymore, the darkness' power acted like a protective barrier to fog up her senses, the amount of the darkness that remained here nearly reminded her of the realm of darkness.

'And what about Riku? Has *anyone* been able to contact him?', Ignis chipped in. 'I've texted and tried calling him but nothing!', Prompto states, grabbing his head with both hands. He let out a yell, stressed and close to having a panic attack as Goofy tried to calm him while Donald paces in place. Aqua looks at her friends, each of them sporting looks of helplessness, uselessness, and fear, their world is being destroyed before their eyes and they are unable to even attempt to resist the fall. Aqua places a hand on her heart, clasping her badge and closing her eyes.

With inhale of breath, she opened her eyes. 'I'll go look for Kairi, then send her to you all', she announces, turning to the other guardians of the prince. 'Keep trying to reach Riku, tell him what's happening and to meet me as soon as he can'. Before they could argue, likely against her going into the ocean of darkness alone, Aqua raised her hand. 'I'm the only one amongst us who can navigate through here without succumbing to the darkness, and defend myself', she stressed. She then turned to Donald and Goofy. 'I'm leaving them in your care, protect them, ok?', she pleads.

The two glanced at her, then to each other with affirming nods, then saluted to her. 'We'll keep them safe!', Goofy announced, strong and proud. 'You go find those two and bring them back! Ya got it?', Donald said. Aqua gave them a smile and a nod, washing away their fears. Goofy quickly helps Lunafreya to her feet as Donald leads them to their original destination with Prompto guiding Ignis, leaving only the three behind.

Noctis looked down at his feet, once more feeling helpless at the situation. A king that cannot protect his people, forced to run away to save his backside. Never had he felt so ashamed of himself, chasing after Donald and the others. Gladiolus gave his girlfriend one look that was reserved for her, his tough demeanor faded as she, in turn, shows apprehension on her face. Gently, the shield places a hand on her cheek and brushes her cheek.

'You come back safe, alright?', he asked…pleaded, even. To hear that level of warmth and concern for her, Aqua could feel strength within her heart spreading along her body, gently placing her hand on his. She smiles at him, eyes shining. 'Promise', she assured. She then raises herself and gives him a peck on the cheek, smiling with a hue of red dashing on her cheeks. Gladiolus nodded and reluctantly jogged off to the others.

Watching him go until he was out of sight, Aqua summons Brightcrest, turns to the city of darkness, then leaped into action…

*Elsewhere*

Chasing down the goblin into an open town square, Kairi managed to reach it and stabbed it right through its back. The daemon perished under her attack as the chain falls to the ground with a light clink sound. Panting angrily and huffing, Kairi turns her eyes to the chain and picked up, dismissing her keyblade.

She gently brushes the dust off the crown, her anger subsiding as a wave of relief washes over her heart. Slowly however guilt begins to take over her, remembering she had abandoned Prompto and the others to the daemons that were slowly populating the city of water. The cold winds rushing by her feels unnatural, the air itself felt as though she had been taken to a place where a heart of light should never wander to. The sounds of rushing waves instead of the calming lapping of water made memories of the day her heart was lost, her home destroyed.

Kairi holds the chain close to her heart, the pain coming back to remind her of why she had to lose him. After everything she said, promised, worked so hard for, she still ended up being used to get Sora into a horrible situation. Now he was lost to them, taken by those of the darkness with nothing but horrible intentions. "It's not fair", she thought darkly, "Every time I want to be helpful…every time he gets hurt pushes himself…is because of me".

Her shoulders shook as sadness and anger clashed within her heart, anger at her incompetence and sadness at the cost of her shortcomings. While she allows herself to tear into herself, she feels the darkness surrounding her and upon looking up, Kairi sees she was surrounded by invisibles and neo-shadows, hunched over broken buildings while the invisibles surrounded her from the air.

A trap laid for the princess, a cooperation between heartless and daemons to lure her into a spot away from her friends. If she didn't feel so low, she might have felt flattered they worked together to draw her away from backup, like she was as much of a threat to them as Sora or Riku.

Surveying how many of them there are, Kairi summons Destiny's Embrace in her hands and stuffs Sora's necklace in her pocket. The invisibles made the first move, swooping in and swinging their swords at her. Kairi jumps into the air to avoid the four-winged monsters, their blades clashing together as she soared into the air. Two invisibles flew upwards to her like bullets, but Kairi aimed her keyblade downwards to them and blasted a breath of intense flames that would have reduced them ashes if there was any flesh remaining.

An invisible soared to her, bringing down its sword onto the keyblade wielders blade as she blocks the attack. Kairi strikes back, however, knocking aside the blade and swiping the key across the invisibles chest, destroying it as neo-shadows spun towards her. She erects a barrier of wind around her, effectively creating a dome of razor-sharp blades that sliced and cuts the heartless to pieces. She then falls back down to the ground, but not before charging her keyblade with energy and slamming it onto the ground. A wave of blue energy covering five feet of her destroyed the shadows close to the princess.

A duo of invisibles rush in and begin to swipe their swords at her, the girl parrying and deflecting the dark steel while backing up. Kairi throws their swords off her so she could spin around and slice through a neo-shadow in half, then when she turned around to face the two attackers she fires off a shot-gun like spread of ice shards at them, striking them in their chests and piercing them, which finished them off.

Kairi grabs her keyblade with both hands to block a rampaging neo-shadow that struck at her. She pushed it off herself and fired a blast of light at it, disintegrating it. She was then struck in the back by another neo-shadow, its dark claws tore into her back and caused her to stagger forwards. In doing so she spun on her feet and shoots one stream of light at the attacker, destroying it. Kairi uses some of her magic to heal herself, narrowly sidestepping a blade from an invisible. But in doing so, she turned too late to see another invisible cutting into her left arm with its sword.

She cried out in pain, only using the shock and pain to strike back at it with a quick upward slice. Kairi looked at her arm to see the crimson liquid coat her arm and profusely as well, making her use more mana to heal her wound before she bled out. Slowly she was surrounded by neo-shadows prowling around her, like a pack of wolves cornering a weakened prey. They all leaped to pile on her, but Kairi quickly grabbed the keyblade with both hands and with a thrust to the sky, cried out: 'Faith!'.

Seven pillars of light surrounded her, spinning too fast for even quick heartless like the neo-shadows to avoid. As they spun around the princess, they start to spin outwards into lines that cut through the horde of heartless, even healing her to a degree. She musters the energy to quickly shift her keyblade into the Cross-Pike, spinning it around in her right hand and entered her Strike Form. Kairi unlocks the weapons and grabbed the other dual pike with her left hand, spinning them both in her hands as she runs into the fray. The shadows and invisibles all rushed at the girl of blades, some striking at her while many perished under the onslaught of whirling blades.

Kairi strikes rival a runaway train with speed of a bullet, she became a hurricane of destruction for the shadows. She leaped, flipped and spins around the dark beings, her pikes tearing them all apart and cutting even the invisible's blades to pieces. Kairi then jumps into the air, reconnecting the pikes into a cross once more. She spins the weapon like a propeller, spinning faster and faster until she used it to propel herself into the sky.

'Tornado!', she shouts, spinning the weapon above herself.

Kairi's magic manifests and creates an incredible wind of dark green, surrounding her in a tornado. She sucks up the heartless into the tornado along with debris and water, hitting them monsters with earth and water as the debris smashed into them while the water, with a touch of her magic, crushed them with the weight and force of it. Kairi unlocks her weapon and dives down, spinning like the tornado striking at everyone and everything in her way, slicing all. With one front flip, she slammed both pikes into the ground, splitting the tornado.

The gale splits in two, the shadows and invisibles not destroyed by the wielder were thrown into the ocean or the buildings around them.

Kairi reverts into her normal form as more invisibles begin to appear around her, the girl grunted. They charged at her, only for a blade of darkness to race across the field and pierce each of them until nothing remained.

Kairi turned to see leaping towards her is Riku, bringing Braveheart down onto two more invisibles while performing a buzz saw like spin at the neo-shadows that tried to jump and pile on him. The master of the dark splits them apart, firing dark firagas as he spins, combing magic and swordplay. He finally flips and landed before Kairi, keyblade in his hands as he turned his back to her and faced the heartless head-on while she did the same.

'Why are you away from the others?', he questioned, his voice strict and deep with constraint anger. Whether it is directed to her for going off alone or something else Kairi neither knew nor cared, she was just as angry at him as herself. 'They stole Sora's necklace, I came to get it back', she stated as-a-matter of fact, eyeing the invisibles that were regrouping and more spawning in. 'You abandoned Prompto and the others for that?', he asked incredulously, she heard a tone of disappointment in him. 'And where were *you* this whole time? Huh?', she asked.

Riku scoffs, blocking an invisible's attack and then stabbing it in the stomach. He unleashes a barrage of darkness at the neo-shadows while Kairi fires pearls of light at the invisibles in the sky, the two opposite sides working together to slay the heartless. An invisible reached Kairi, but Riku shoved her aside and erects a dark barrier with his left hand. Once the sword of the heartless struck the barrier, said barrier reflects its attack and destroyed it.

Riku turns around to see neo-shadows jumping at him, only to all end up in a cloud of golden lightning and be shocked by Kairi's magic. She gave Riku a cold look as he rolls his eyes at her, turning back to fight off more of the growing number of heartless that persisted. Kairi throws her keyblade at the incoming invisibles, letting it spin and strike one down. She used her left hand to cast Magnet, sucking in three of the invisibles into one spot. Her keyblade spun through them and decimated them before returning to its master.

Riku bathed his keyblade in dark flames, with a yell he thrusts it forwards, firing a Mega Dark Flare at the group of shadows nesting in the broken building ahead of them. The giant ball of flames smashed into the building and then exploded into a dark explosion, destroying the building and the heartless within it. Looking up he sees only a few of the invisibles remained in the sky, the neo-shadows giving up on trying to capture the girl while fighting Riku.

Riku leaped into the air, charging headfirst to the invisibles as his body glowed dark purple and then he vanishes into nothing. He re-appears like he was rapidly teleporting, striking at the invisibles in the sky with immeasurable speed, before ending it all with one final dark firaga in the center of the group. He fell back down to the ground on his feet as Kairi fires off one more Aero spell, sucking up the heartless and throwing them into the ocean.

When no more showed up, Kairi thought she could take it easy and relax, but no. She felt tension and stress built up in her, and when she looked to Riku it merely got worse as he turned to her. This silence between them, this sense of antagonistic between the two feels unnatural to Kairi, but somehow, she couldn't push aside how angry she felt to the older boy. 'Go back to Noct and the others', he says, turning away to the Darkside.

Irritation grew within the girl, furious by how dismissive he is towards her. Like a master done with their impatient apprentice and just wished for them to get out of their hair. Kairi stomps over to him before he tried to walk off and grabbed his arm. '*We* should go back to Noct and the others! They need our help!', she insisted. Riku turned on Kairi with a scowl. 'You're the one who abandoned them for a necklace!', he reminds harshly. Kairi glares at him as he yanked his hand roughly out of her own hands.

The two friends glared at each other, almost daring the other person to say something on the tip of their tongues. It seemed Riku took the challenge because he turned to face her properly. 'Go to Noct and keep them safe, that's an order', he said. 'Excuse me? I'm not some apprentice you can dismiss at your leisure Riku!', Kairi rebuked, insulted by this. Riku raised a brow at this rebellious attitude from his friend, despite knowing just how stubborn the girl is. 'Where were you when everything started?', she questioned, 'Ever since you told me what happened to Sora…'.

'I was trying to figure out how to deal with all this, but then I saw you surrounded by the heartless', he starts with a grunt, pinching the bridge of his nose, 'You shouldn't have run off like this! Especially knowing Noct and the others can't keep themselves safe from the heartless!'.

Guilt-ridden with that knowledge she did up and left the group because of the necklace, Kairi felt the shame that she prioritized an item so close to her over the well-being of her friends. Looking back on it, she did understand why Riku is upset with her. Yet knowing this, however, clasping the chain within her pocket, she feels anger to him. Why was he treating her like a student on the first day? She's fought off hordes of daemons AND heartless on her own once, fighting them now was far easier than she first started.

Having someone she cared for so much and looked up to, treating her like this not only infuriated her but also hurt her too. 'I know I shouldn't have run off like that, but that necklace is Sora's!', she growled, 'It's all I have of him right now! So, forgive me, Riku, if the only blasted thing of the boy I love is something I don't want some filthy daemon to keep!', she shouts, eyes wide with anger and hurt. Riku's face showed surprise and some form of remorse for his tone, but that was pushed down as his own eyes glowed with anger.

'So, you're ok to go off to save some jewelry and leave our friends to fend for themselves?', he accused. 'I did not leave them defenseless! Donald and Goofy are there!', she argued. 'And why didn't you regroup with us instead of going off on your own!?'. The anger she felt, the loathsome feeling deep within her heart from everything that's happened since the battle had finally reached a boiling point. Nearly dying, losing her lover, her faults coming back to haunt her, Riku being so condescending and dismissive of her was just the nudge to push her over the edge.

Despite this overwhelming anger clutching her heart, the logic side of her mind was desperately telling her to stop it. The pain she feels, the sadness of losing him was not Riku's fault, and she knows he was trying to protect her. But no, for once she would not back down and cool off, if Riku was going to be angry at her like this, then she should have the right to bite back. 'Because I trusted you to stay with Noct and the others! Guess I made the wrong call on that!', he barked.

'And going off on your own worked so well the last time, huh?', she taunted. The words coming from their mouths, Kairi is shocked she had the nerves to say them as much as Riku does. The pain from their words cut deep however, she almost felt the prickle in her eyes from their argument and musters her will not to cry from it. They shouldn't be arguing like this, in the middle of a horrible battle right now with likely the world at stake, not at each other's throats like enemies.

'ENOUGH!'.

They both turned to see Aqua marching towards both, looking completely done with their argument. The looks she gave them was a mixture of anger and disappointment with her eyes like she was baffled by their actions. Not that Kairi could fault her entirely, here were two keyblade wielders squabbling like children fighting over a toy. In the middle of a battle as grime and terrible as the one they found themselves in.

The master glared at the two, before speaking to Riku: 'Why weren't you answering your phone when we needed you?'. Riku looks away, shame painting his face before he muttered: 'I just…wanted to be alone'. Aqua's glare intensified at this pathetic excuse, almost insulted that this is the reason why he couldn't get into contact with them or at the very least assure them he was at the very least safe. 'Yet here you are lecturing her about abandon the others while you just ignored them?', Aqua accused.

Riku turned to her to open his mouth but ended up just closing it with a sigh, looking down. Shaking her head, Aqua gestured the direction she came from. 'Go. Noct and the others have headed to that direction, regroup with them and this time answer the phone when they call', she ordered, using what Kairi dubbed the "Master authority" tone. The kind of tone that would make even Xehanort shake in fear on the receiving end of it.

Without a word, Riku scoffs and jogged off and then leaps onto the buildings before jumping out of sight of the girls. Kairi feels the stare on her as she looked away, rubbing her arm. Aqua says nothing, just keeps glaring at her with disapproval. Deciding to just bite the bullet and get the lecture over with, Kairi takes a deep breath, exhales and looks at her master. 'You're angry…', she starts lamely but Aqua raised her hand. 'I'm angry at Riku for his behavior, that's unbecoming of a master', Aqua explains. 'I'm disappointed in you, however'.

Kairi looked down, almost wishing she was angry instead. 'It was bad enough you rushed off leaving Donald and Goofy to take the work themselves, but what was worse you put yourself in danger like this again', she states, her tone tough and master like. 'Kairi, this penchant for recklessness needs to stop. If Riku hadn't arrived, or if NO one arrived, you wouldn't be here right now'. Kairi clenched her fists, angrily. Why? Why is everyone constantly throwing that in her face?

Every battle she was in she had proved not only she could handle herself but exceed herself in the same fight. She had fought off countless enemies, on her own or with someone, fought a man even stronger than Sora and had come out without losing a limb or even taking that many hits. Does everyone just simply assume she couldn't keep herself safe? That she needed to be constantly watched or protected because of her status as a princess of light? What did she have to do for people to see she wasn't that damsel in distress anymore?

'I can handle myself just fine, Aqua!', she shouts, startling her master slightly. 'Even if Riku didn't show up I could have beaten them all! I did so long enough before!'. 'It wasn't the eternal night when that happened and you darn well know you were on deaths doorstep when we found AND Sora!', Aqua said, reminding her. 'This time, they wouldn't have given up if you were on your own and you know as much as I do the heartless only retreated because they sensed me and Riku showing up!'.

Kairi opened her mouth but Aqua cuts her off. 'Kairi, I understand you're angry, and hurt that Sora isn't here with us, but that is no excuse to throw yourself into the neck of things!', Aqua stated. 'You-

'Do you understand?'.

Aqua stops at that question, Kairi's face down, eyes hidden by her bangs. 'What?', Aqua asked, 'Do you, really, truly understand how I feel?', she asked again. Clenching her fists with her shoulders shaking. 'Let me ask you something Aqua…when everything happened to you and the others…when everything was taken…did Terra and Ven fight each other because of you?', Kairi asked. Aqua's face shifted to concern at this, Kairi's tone is a mixture of anger, frustration, sadness and…guilt.

She shook her head and raised it to face her master with tears running down her eyes despite the anger plastered on her face. 'Did Terra give into the darkness because he was trying to figure out where your heart went? Did Ven sacrifice his own heart to free yours from within himself?', she listed. Aqua's face turned to shock at the girl as she shook. 'Did you have to go home and stay behind while they were off finding each other? Fighting every day? Getting hurt while you were safe at home? Did you feel so useless that you were always the one stayed behind while your friends had to go off and fight?'.

'Kairi…', Aqua gasped, as the Kairi grabbed her head with both hands. 'No! Of course, you weren't! NO ONE BUT ME WAS! Constantly pushed to the sidelines, constantly told for my safety stay behind!', she screamed. Shaking her head, she faced her master. 'I became a keyblade wielder to protect Sora! To be there when he needed me! So that for once I didn't have to be saved! But look at what happened! He's captured, because of me!'.

Her hands shook as she summoned her keyblade, quivering and shaking as both anger and guilt raged within her body. 'In the end…it's always my fault. Everything that happened to him is because of me…I thought…I thought maybe, if I could learn how to use this, I'd be able to help him, to prove I was more than just a princess of light…'. She shakes her head as she lets out a cry. 'But I was wrong! I screwed it up and now we've lost Sora!', she screamed, throwing the keyblade to the ground with a loud clang.

Aqua just stared at her student, her disappointment evaporating and transforming into remorse and genuine understanding of her student's pain. Looking at her own keyblade's chain, remembering her pain of what she endured to help her brothers. Looking back at her student, arms wrapped around her she tried to hold back that sob that wanted to break free, maybe she was tired of crying, maybe she wanted to stop feeling like this.

The master may not know what it felt like to be in those positions where your beloved friends are at each other's throats for your sake, that were you used as a means to harm the one you loved and how desperate it must make a person feel to want to help those close to your heart. She did, however, know that desire, that power a person must have felt when you were willing to allow yourself to throw it all away to save someone dear to you.

She thought back to those years on her own, how she gave up the chance to stay in the realm of light for Terra to be safe, or when she locked Ventus in place only she would know to keep him from Xehanort. She looks to the thrown keyblade, understanding that sense of self-doubt and questioning her qualities of being worthy of being a wielder of such a weapon. The same pain she had to endure many times in the dark realm.

Aqua picked Kairi's weapon up as she approached the girl, still not facing her and gently embraced her. '…I won't pretend I know what you went through, nor will I insult you by saying I understand', she assured gently, 'But I disagree with a lot of what you said'. She gently creates a gap between them and lifts Destiny's Embrace in her hands to Kairi. 'This keyblade is yours, and you were chosen by it not because you are a princess of light, but because of that heart of yours', she explains. Aqua gestures her to take it, and she could see the doubt within her student's eyes.

'…Sora's capture is, weighing on everyone Kairi, though the pain you must feel, I can't imagine', she continued, 'But it was not your fault'. 'People like Ardyn, they know how to manipulate and exploit the heart, especially when it comes to love'. Aqua closed her eyes, thinking of her brothers and master, how their bond was abused by Xehanort and his partner, the scum who took so much from them, creating rifts within their bonds. More of a reason why she knows deep down when they all finally reunite; all their ties will mend.

'If the roles were reversed, do you truly think you would be any different than Sora on that day?', she asked. Kairi shook her head, not trusting her voice in case a sob escaped her again. Aqua gently rests her hand on her shoulder, smiling. 'You've grown so much since we came here, far exceeding the expectations I had for you', she praised, 'But you're still learning, you still need more time to train. But most importantly, you're still only scratching the surface of what you are capable of'.

She offers the keyblade to her student once more, sensing the faith rejuvenating in her eyes as she looked at the keyblade. 'You said you wanted to be there for Sora when he needs you, right? Then now's the time to fulfill that promise by bringing him home'. Kairi looked at her master, not seeing a smidgen of doubt in her eyes but complete faith in her student. She smiles through her tears and giggles lightly, grabbing her keyblade and reclaiming it, making it disappear back to where it belonged.

Then the girl hugged Aqua tightly, her master hugging her back warmly. "You are stronger than you believe Kairi…", she thought to herself.

Gently she brushed her tears away with her thumbs. 'No more tears, ok? Not until we save Sora', she asked. 'Yeah…promise', Kairi assures, smiling. Together they both rushed off to re-join the others.

*Noctis' group*

Racing down the streets chased by shadows, the party of seven exited the alleyway just as Donald stops and turns around while the others ran past him. He erects a barrier of magic in the small space between the two buildings to delay the daemons and heartless, shocking them when they touched the grey barrier of mana.

He chases the others as they cross over a small bridge that on the other lied the estate and the basement where they agreed to hold up in. 'Almost there guys!', Prompto pants, guiding Ignis still as Goofy leads them to the other side. When they were almost across the bridge, the ground shook more violently and caused them all to lose their balances, falling onto their knees or in some cases of the weakened party fall entirely.

Noctis fell to a knee, looking ahead to see the bridge was being torn apart by the dark sphere in the skies power, rubble and metal was being torn from the bridge. Slowly with loud groans of breaking, the bridge was being levitated upwards to the sphere. The prince tries to steady himself while feeling the weight of being pressured down by the quick movement of the bit of land they were on. He stands up grabbing the stone railing of the bridge to see they were above the city and joined the ring of floating land surrounding the Darkside.

'Oh give me a break…', he groans out, stressed.

'Heartless!', Goofy yelled.

The prince sees a group of invisibles floating nearby their small island of land, swords drawn and intent clear when their yellow eyes glowered at the group of relatively helpless individuals. One invisible immediately flew towards Prompto and Ignis, the former letting a yell of terror and bravely turned his back to the monster to shield Ignis. The invisible swings its sword but Gladiolus tackled it with his shoulders and knocked it into the railing.

He quickly stomped on its head and killed before grabbing the blade before it could vanish along with the heartless. He turns on the invisibles while beating his chest. 'What are you waiting for!? Come and get me!', Gladiolus taunted, waving the smaller weapon of his choice. Defiantly staring down the heartless, Gladiolus gripped the smaller weapon with both hands while two flew towards him. He lets out a roar while he swings, splitting the swords and the invisibles in half, the shockwave of his attack rumbled in the stone beneath his feet.

Donald and Goofy kept to the other end of the bridge, fighting off the other invisibles that flew to them while Prompto helped Ignis get to some form of cover with railings, the boy using his body as a shield in case the fighters couldn't stop them. Noctis looked around to see if any more of the invisibles dropped their weapons so he could at least help Gladiolus, but none were to be had. He looked to the Oracle standing near Prompto, unaware of an invisible swooping towards her.

His blood froze as time slowed down to a crawl, the dull beatings of his heart was all he could hear. Flashes of the burning of Tenebrae boomed in his mind, seeing the Oracle he become so close to be left behind in the hands of the empire. Seeing her bloodied and hurt for him to fulfill a prophecy, to have it all undone by that bastard of a man. Now a useless king, unfit to rule or lead his company, unable to wield the weapons of his ancestors.

Clenching his fists, his body moved before he could think, as the prince, no, the king of Insomnia. If he is to perish here, at the very least he would go out protecting his love.

Noctis pushes Lunafreya aside and felt it…the cold grip of death.

Time stops for him, memories of his life up to this point flashes through his eyes, everything he did, wanted to do. He couldn't even breath in shock as his eyes fell to the dark steel that plunged into his stomach, slowly coated with the color of his blood. He couldn't even hear the Oracle cry his name, the inhuman rage of Gladiolus' roar or the pure desperate cries of Prompto before he was discarded from the blade, thrown off the bridge.

His vision darkens, Lunafreya's face was all he could see before he is swallowed by the cold waters of Altissia with a thud and splash. Slowly sinking into the dark depths of the seas, descending in strange tranquillity as his blue eyes flicker with a hand outstretched to grasp the tiny bit of light ahead of him.

His final thoughts oddly played back to one day…his last meeting with Eraqus…

*Fifteen Years Ago…*

The small prince looked at the old antique looking blade, thingy, Eraqus wielded. A strange light flickers within it, reminding the young child of his father's arms whenever he explained it to him. Yet strangely the light he feels from this weapon wasn't cold nor did he feel a weird sapping sensation from it, the light is warm and gentle almost like a friendly handshake.

Eraqus gently reverse grips the weapon and offers it to Noctis. 'Noct, you're father has told you of the duty of a king? Correct?', he asked. The prince nodded shyly despite knowing this man was one of the few friends his dad had and trusted. The way he spoke is something akin to Ignis' usual expecting kind, the kind where they knew Noctis was far better then he would admit to. 'Yes', he muses quietly and still very shyly.

Eraqus smiled softly to the boy, almost like he predicted. 'One day you will take his place, this is a gift from me', he says, 'If you wish to receive a blessing from an old friend, I ask that you take hold of this keyblade'. Noctis looked at the weapon's handle with apprehension, turning to his father like he was asking for permission to do so. He sees a pleading look within his strong eyes like he was hoping the prince to take this weapon. Turning back to the weapon in question, Noctis raised his hand to grasp the handle of the weird (but cool) sword.

Eraqus relinquishes his grip on the weapon to allow the prince to wield the weapon in his little hands, impressed by how the boy lifted the weapon with ease. Noctis felt that light course through him, warm and friendly but he felt strong, maybe Cor the Immortal strong with this weapon. He felt like he could take on the world with it, maybe even protect his dad too. Eraqus placed a hand on the boy's shoulder, proud of him, and recites: 'In your hand, take this key. So long as you have the makings, then through this simple act of taking...its wielder, you shall one day be. And you will find me, friend—no ocean will contain you then. No more borders around, or below, or above, so long as you champion the ones you love.'.

The weapon then disappears from Noctis' hands, making him gasp in surprise as Eraqus stood up. He gave the boy one more smile before turning to his friend with a look of respect and…sympathy? He nods to Regis. 'Take care on the long road, my friend', he says. 'This…will be the final time we speak'.

Regis claps a hand onto the man's shoulder, smiling at him. 'It has been a good few years if the gods are willing perhaps, we will meet again', he says hopefully. Eraqus nods in agreement, before turning to the entrance and leaving the antechamber. Noctis watched him go until he disappeared entirely…

*Present*

"Eraqus…", Noctis thought vaguely, memories of that day resurfacing in his mind. The last time he spoke to that old man, the day his dad had broken down in tears, the day he started to treat Noctis more like a normal son than a prince. As he sinks deeper into the waters, Noctis felt himself being pulled deeper not to his demise but to a place he swore he knew.

When his eyes opened again, he felt like he was standing on something but couldn't place what. He is surrounded by nothing but darkness all around him. There is no heartless or daemons around him yet he feels like he wasn't in Eos anymore. Why did this place feel so familiar to him? Had he been here before?

"Can you do it? Reach deep down into the untapped power that lies deep within the depths of your heart, Chosen King of Light?", a strangely familiar voice hums.

"Untapped power?", Noctis thought to himself, placing a hand on his heart. Closing his eyes, he tried to call to it, the source of power that lies within him. Digging into his heart, he feels a warmth spread from his body, a source of light growing within him as he opened his eyes to see his brothers standing before him, unscarred. The people who helped him on his journey, Cindy and Cid repairing the Regalia, Cor and the Crownsguard who've supported him, Iris, Talcott and Jared for their unwavering faith in him.

Sora and his friends, friends he couldn't replace or ever repay for their help, his father standing amidst the darkness of this place. The people he's felt close to, the ones who kept him going to fulfill his role as the future king. Even without the Armiger, when things got to their lowest, they were still by his side, unwavering and forever confident in him surpassing the challenges that would cross his path.

Looking at his heart, Noctis nods with a small chuckle. 'I'm not sure if I can do this…don't even know how I'm supposed to be the king this world needs…but I know that you guys believe in me', he says. 'You've been by my side, when I'm at my weakest, always getting me into gear to push forward, to be better, and just reminding me I don't have to walk tall alone'.

Resolution and hope stirs within him as the ground beneath his feet slowly glows into the crystal blue light, he once carried within him, slowly extending and expanding on the ground bathing all those close to his heart in the same light. Noctis raised his hand, face turned to determined and with faith renewed in not just himself but his company, he glows.

'Power…of Light!', he cries.

*Above*

Gladiolus roars as he stabbed another invisible, rage consumed and like a wild bear tore his enemies apart while Donald and Goofy kept up the defenses, striking and blasting their enemies. The former shield of the prince blocked an attack from the invisible, but another swiped the sword from his hands and two more tackled the shield into the ground.

They tried to plunge their blades into him but Goofy threw his shield at one that struck its head and Donald blasts another with a ball of fire that burnt it to nothing. Goofy quickly helped Gladiolus to his feet as more of the invisibles began to swarm and cloud the skies around them. 'They just keep coming!', Goofy says, shield up high as Gladiolus clenched his fist. Donald kept aiming his staff at several of them, unsure who to blast first as they backed up near Prompto, shielding both Ignis and Lunafreya from the horde.

'Where's Aqua and the others when you need them!?', Prompto squeaks in fear. Gladiolus wished he knew the answer to that question as much as the others likely, antsy and waiting for the invisibles to attack. For all he knew, if he could delay the deaths of this group for even a minute longer, at the very least he will die doing his job as a shield to someone at least. The invisibles all swarmed and charged at them as Gladiolus stood with the only guardians of light among them, embracing his end.

But then, the invisibles were all decimated by light. The warriors and Oracle were being protected in a dome of crystal light while soaring all over the air were crystalized weapons ripping and tearing apart the invisibles. Destroying them all while keeping the team safe, earning looks of shock. Gladiolus looked to Donald, wondering if this was his work but the duck gave him the same look of bafflement and confusion he dawned on his features.

Behind them, a pillar of blue light shined down into the ocean and something quickly flew upwards into the air, glowing in crystals. They all looked to see Noctis flying in the air, surrounded by the royal arms once again with his engine blade in hand. 'Noct! Noct's alive!', Prompto cheered, clapping Ignis on the back. 'And he's got his army gear thing!', Goofy sings with joy. Donald didn't even bother correcting him, to ecstatic to see the prince was still with them.

Gladiolus watched in awe and admiration of his prince, no, his king there. A thought occurred to him and one look at his hand, made him clench it before he raised it. "Please…give me the power to protect them", he thought to himself.

Slowly materializing in his hand was the Masamune used by the Blademaster. He grins excitedly as he summoned Defender in his other hand, letting out a cry of victory earning the others looks. Their jaws hit the ground as Ignis resummons his daggers and Prompto calling his gun back to his hand. 'We've got our weapons back!', Prompto cries out in joy, grinning madly. Lunafreya watches in dumbstruck at this change, before she looks to Noctis in the air.

'Gladio!'.

They all turned to the edge of the bridge to see the three keyblade wielders jumping onto the bridge. 'We've gotta move you all...some…where…', she starts before her eyes fell to their weapons. 'W-What?', she asked, gobsmacked as Kairi and Riku just stared in confusion at their weapons. They all pointed to Noctis, now dashing towards the Darkside with the speed of light. 'I think we owe that little miracle to Noct over there', Gladiolus revealed, pointing to the king. Aqua followed his thumb, before nodding and turned back to him.

'We should go after him! He's gonna be surrounded by heartless!', Prompto said, waving his gun, 'We can back him up!'.

'He won't need it'. They turned to Kairi, watching Noctis fly towards the black sphere in the sky while his weapons surrounding him. 'Noct…doesn't need our help this time'.

Noctis raised his hand towards the sphere, his weapons all turning into ten rays of blue light that spiral around the king before charging towards the red and black sphere. They pierced the sphere in the skies, turning the red into blue as rays of light began to pierce the sphere until a brilliant light boomed within and detonated. The sphere exploding into nothing with a force so great it splits the waves and ocean and even for a moment, cleared the darkness in the skies to bless the world in a brief respite.

The king floats before the Darkside, defiantly as the royal arms he's collected begin to appear around him while his engine blade was carried in his left hand while he raised his right hand. His body is bathed in blue light as fragments of white crystals surrounded him, eyes glowing blue.

'You're going down', he declares.

Noctis flew towards the Darkside, like an arrow of light as the armada of arms flew along with him, striking the Darkside. The weapons of light struck and destroyed the monster with Noctis summoning his newest addition to the Armiger and with a cry, he brings it down unto the head of the Darkside. An explosion of light blinds the others as a force of wind brushes by them.

The Chosen King of Light had returned…

*Later…*

With the defeat of the Darkside and with the royal retinue's powers restored, the group managed to vanquish what remained of the darkness with their combined powers while they made their way to the bit of land where the Darkside stood prior its destruction. Using the gondolas that were still seaworthy to make it there, they all raced to the ruined town to find their king, worried if he became exhausted and fell into the ocean.

The party of nine found his majesty standing by the edge of the island, staring into the distance not moving or making a sound. Approaching him cautiously, none had dared to say a word, granting the king a chance to explain. He turned to the others, facing them all with a look that showed something within his majesty had changed greatly, an air of maturity and wisdom of a king surrounded him while his eyes appeared more awakened and aware.

He smiled at the party, placing his left hand on his hip before smugly nodding. 'What? Didn't think I could take it?', he joked. That's when they all looked to see what he carried in his right arm, much to the surprise and shock of the keyblade wielders.

In the arm of the king was neither a royal arm nor his Engine blade. In his hand was a blade with two shafts the represent the Citadels buildings in black steel with the Kingsglaive emblem made of grey steel at the top of the hilt of the weapon, with the handlebars bearing six swords on each bar. The teeth of the weapon is shaped like the crescent moon with a bladed tip resembling King Regis' blade, the chain connected to the weapon was a small crystal of blue.

Noctis lifted his new weapon to the others. 'Looks like your master had a backup plan', he said, looking at Aqua.

On the day where the eternal night had begun, the King of Light had become a wielder of the most powerful weapon of light. A keyblade.

A/N: …I'm so tired…

So this mega chapter had a LOT of work done to it! GAHHHH! Its over now. Noctis is a wielder of the key, gets his Armiger back with his brothers, and now can keep up with Aqua in company in the future. Bet Xigbar didn't see this coming~

Sorry if I focused too much on Kairi again, I didn't want to make her depressed in the later chapters and wanted to try and get her back on her feet while lashing out something I want to see in the future games or DLC. But now she's back on her feet and ready to rescue her boy!

If anyone has any questions, please ask away. Here's mine:

Q1: What do you think of this chapter?

Q2: How was the bequeathing scene?

Q3: Did you enjoy seeing Eraqus again with Regis? What do you think of them being friends?

Q4: Anyone excited for Episode Prompto and Kairi in the future?

Q5: Should I develop limits for Aqua and Gladiolus?

Q6: How do you think Ardyn is gonna react to learning Noctis is even more powerful?

Q7: Thoughts on the rift between Riku and Kairi?

As always, thanks for reading and the patience for this chapter. I'm not sure if I'll do another big one like this often, I just wanted to stop with all the gloom for awhile. Next time will be more chipper! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	42. Chapter 42

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 42

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

*Ocean, three days later…*

Leaning against the railing of the ferry in silence, Noctis watched the ruined city of Altissia slowly grow smaller and smaller as they ventured forth into the ocean. He heaves a small sigh of lament, wishing he could have done more for this city that played the stage for all the carnage and hell that went down there.

Sadly, after he was announced a keyblade wielder, they had little time to wrap their minds around the change because no sooner had they returned to the mainland, Camelia had the guards escort them to her estate. As many would expect, she had been rather displeased by the amount of daemons and heartless that had been popping up all over Altissia, along with the Eternal Night taking place. Lunafreya had tried to explain what's happened, with the theory the empire must have done something to kick start the never-ending nights.

That did little to clam her "protector's" anger, however, as she ranted on how not only the city was destroyed (to which Noctis claimed they knew of the Tidemother's wrath to incur such destruction), but the fact that the empire had gone completely radio silent ever since the Rite. Along with that, they have no means of combating the daemons that will resurface and their lights would not work as strong as they used too, not that they did much during the ever-lasting night.

She demanded something from the two, but luckily for them Aqua and Kairi offered to empower their lights with their own set of magic and before even then they had the men lend their services to the guards in helping with the displaced civilians, daemons prowling the area and lending a hand with some reconstruction work here and there. The two keyblade wielders had been using "Lucis magic" to empower the lights for the workers and spent several days powering them up while Noctis stuck with the others to hunt and save.

After the few days spent there, they had finally procured a ferry to take them back to the mainland.

Noctis isn't particularly saddened to leave the city or not even give the secretary a farewell, after everything that's happened his patience for her is at an all-time low. He was more focused on the task that laid bare before him and his company, that being rescuing Sora from Ardyn and Xigbar of course. Still, he thinks of the prophecy he was meant to fulfill, and how he was going to bring back the light to the world without the crystal. Lunafreya had explained it to him again after he obtained his power back, but now without that rock, there is little they could work with.

He pushes aside in his mind however, thinking the solution would come to him in time perhaps. Noctis turns around with his back against the railing, outstretching his hand and with a flick, he summons his keyblade (which he named "Night's Sky"), the weapon appearing in his hand. He stares at the holy weapon of light, amazed by how light it felt yet the strength behind it rivaled Gladiolus' strikes. He thought he'd be clumsy with this weapon given the make of it but strangely he could wield it just fine as if he'd been practicing with this weapon for years.

After he recalled that day with his father and Eraqus, the blue-haired master Aqua had told them what her master did was an old tradition of the keyblade. He bequeathed the keyblade to Noctis to be his successor of sorts, or in this case as Aqua stated since she technically inherited his original keyblade, he would become a wielder of the key when the time was right. It still puzzled them that Eraqus had planned that far ahead of time, but as far as they were concerned, they owed the older master a thanks and prayer for such hindsight.

The king gave his weapon a few swings, pondering what this could potentially mean for him in the long run of this whole ordeal. Noctis can summon all the arms he's accumulated throughout his quest sure, and even the weapons they had bought he could still use. Yet after some talking with Aqua, he was more fixed on wielding this weapon to perfection, maybe even pull off some of the tricks Sora could do.

Noctis could only imagine the fun he'd have with what Sora's abilities entailed.

His musings and wonderings stops when he spots Lunafreya sitting on one of the empty benches near the railings, watching the world pass them by. No longer in her white dress or anything regal that one would have expected from her, but instead her clothes appeared more simple and common. A long grey and black strapless mini dress with grey gloves that covered almost up to her elbow with a black insignia of the Fleuret emblem on the knuckles. A virgin white steel to show the family crest of the sun with the Oracle's Trident below the sung, the emblem had two angel wings.

A pair of black shorts that reached her knees (likely because of the cold the Eternal Night brought) with a pair of hiking boots. She even changed her hair up, having a ponytail rest between her shoulders with that pin holding it together and leaving the bangs loose and free with one hanging over her left shoulder. The prince feels a warmth spreading across his cheeks when he took in her less noble look and admittedly found this a unique look to her. Even as children he couldn't recall her in anything less than royal clothing.

His admiring was halted when he looked at his keyblade, realizing that the woman is still likely trying to come to terms with the changes that had occurred to them. As far as the party had seen while Noctis had regained his Armiger the woman had not regained her powers as the Oracle. After numerous attempts to heal wounds or summon barriers, Lunafreya had came to the sad conclusion that her powers were forever lost to her, and as Eos is concerned, she is the last Oracle they will ever have.

The king felt a pang of sympathy to the woman and be this selfishness, he was glad she was freed from the burden of being the world's Oracle. He dismissed his keyblade, mustered up his courage and approached her when he sees no one was around.

'Hey', he greets, softly and friendly. The woman turned to him with a small smile on her face as he took a spot near her. 'Getting some fresh air?', he says with a smile on his face. He inwardly cringed at the question, remembering the plague of the darkness the night brought. Yet the woman merely clasps her hands over her knees and hums. 'My roommate has succumbed to slumber, and I decided it'd be nice to allow myself to enjoy the quiet', she explained.

It figured Kairi would fall asleep the moment she hit the hay; he knew the girl had been running on fumes with her magic being used. The two settled into a silence of peace between them. For the first time since they had met, reunited really, they were alone to enjoy the peace between them. It is strange for the king to be alone with his fiancé…though could he even call her that anymore? The marriage was a means to an end at the start of all this absolutely, and while they may have changed their thoughts on the matter, he still somewhat excepted it was a marriage he was willing to have with her.

Lunafreya looked at her king with curiosity in her eyes, a question lingering in her mind. 'How are you, Noctis?', she questioned. He raised a brow at this question before she gestured to his heart. 'You've regained your powers and have been chosen by the keyblade. I imagine you have a lot on your mind', she clarifies. He lets an "oh" escape him as the king turns to the dark horizon in thought, leaning against the wall with an exhale. He did indeed have so much on his mind about all this, yet instead of thinking on them he chooses to ignore them for now.

'Guess I do. But for now, I'm just grateful we've got a fighting chance to fix whatever it is Ardyn's done', he says calmly, 'And more importantly, we can take on the empire again'. Looking at his hand in thought, he firmly says: 'And we're getting Sora back as well'. Among all the things he needed to do, rescuing that boy came first. After everything, he did for them, and the fact Lunafreya, heck all his brothers were still here because of Sora is enough for the king.

Not only that, but the boy had become important to the king. A constant cheery but strong heart boy who isn't afraid to show what he felt or how important his friends are to him. The journey they been on together, the adventures, the battles, the fun times, they had become important to him. Now he was reunited with his lost love because of the boy but at the cost of separating him from his love. 'The chosen wielder of the keyblade', Lunafreya says.

'Yeah…', Noctis replied, lowering his head, 'And our glue that held us all together'. Losing Sora had not only been a devastating defeat despite their victory over the Tidemother, but it also reminded Noctis how much of a crucial member of the party he was to them. Between Kairi's grief, Riku's distancing of the team and Aqua lamenting her shortcomings, it hit the king hard. Not only that, but he cruelly realized how much they relied on him to pull their butts out of the fire.

All the reason why he needed to master his new weapon quickly.

'His light is still strong', she assures, placing a hand on his own, 'I can sense his heart remains free from their clutches'. He turned to her with a raised brow, curious as to how she would know this despite never meeting Sora face to face. Lunafreya smiles comfortingly and clasps her necklace. 'She doesn't know this, but Kairi's light is constantly anchoring him in place, to keep him safe from the darkness', she elaborated.

Noctis nods, somewhat catching on to what she's saying. It still amazed him she was a princess of light like Kairi. She had revealed this to the others after they had gotten onto the ferry along with several other answers to their questions. Donald and Goofy had told them that the new Organization XIII had been adamant in keeping the newest princesses safe from harm, which would explain why Ardyn didn't harm Lunafreya during the Rite.

The reason he didn't apply that rule to Kairi, however, was to likely provoke Sora into giving in to his anger. The two companions of Sora had told them about his "Rage-Form" and how it worked when Sora gives into his rage to become a nigh-unstoppable force of destruction at the cost of nearly losing himself to the darkness. It disgusted Noctis that Ardyn would stoop that low to use Kairi as leverage for Sora to nearly lose himself in such a horrible manner, only cementing the king's desire to make that man pay for what he's done.

He shook his head, wanting to stop thinking of all this and just enjoy having Lunafreya with him. She may have sensed it because she gave him a warm and gentle smile. 'I heard you were looking at my wedding dress', she teased lightly. He shyly blushes and looks away, earning giggles from the woman who leaned forward to glance at his shy adorable face. She then gestures her new attire. 'To be honest, I was very hesitant to wear these, but Kairi suggested it'd make moving easier without fears of tripping on myself', she explained.

'…you look beautiful in that', Noctis quietly says.

Just a shame he didn't look at her, he would've seen the former Oracle blush profusely and smiling in a giddy manner.

He turned back to her, looking at her gloves. 'The gloves, where'd you get those?', he asked, certain Altissia, with the empire's iron grip, would never sell something like that. Lunafreya frowns sadly, brushing her fingers gently across the emblem. 'These…were Ravus' wedding gifts…', she says, her voice heavy with sadness. Noctis raised his gaze to her eyes, sadness swirling in them as she sighed a shaky breath. 'H-He said, no matter where I go or what name I take, the Fleuret line shall always be by my side', she explained, 'A little reminder of where I came from'.

Familiar words to the king, recalling his father had something like this to him before he left his home for the first time. He gently laid a hand on her own, brushing the knuckles with a small smile. She softened her gaze, looking at him warmly. 'Noctis…', she starts, but he cuts her off. 'You know you can call me "Noct", right? Luna?', he said with a small tease. She giggled, nodding, 'Noct', the former Oracle says, wording it out in several tones of voices, likely to tease him. He rolls his eyes at her as she smiles playfully.

'…so…what's gonna happen to you now?', Noctis asked, deciding to address the situation. The woman's playful looks turns determined. 'Master Aqua and I have discussed this matter, she will be teaching me some form of magic to protect myself', she explained, 'Without the Oracle's power, I am no more a threat to the darkness than a bug'. Noctis agreed with the idea, though he wondered if he could do something about drawing out the trident she once carried.

'What about the trident? The one you used back at Altissia?', he says, 'Isn't it a royal arm? Couldn't I summon it for you?'. 'I'm not certain if it's possible. You never received it before I did', she hums. Then Noctis gets up and offers a hand, 'Then let's go see if I can help summon it from you', he offers. She nods, taking his hand and letting him guide her to a more open space on the ferry for them to practice.

*Cabins*

'Yeah we're on our way back to Cape Caem', Gladiolus says on the phone to Iris, laying on the bed. 'How bad are things over there?'.

'Pretty bad, Gladdy', Iris replied, 'Ever since the days ended daemons have been all over the place. We've got some of those high-powered repelling lights from Hammerhead thanks to Cid, but a lot of the Crownsguards said we're gonna be migrating to Lestallum once you guys show up'. The shield grunts in understanding, looking up at the ceiling as Iris tells the older sibling what's been happening since they left.

When the night began to rule over, almost everywhere on the mainland was overpopulated with daemons. Many small towns had been abandoned when the scourge of daemons became too much for the lights to handle, a lot of the hunters had been killed in action because of them and slowly but certainly the population of Lestallum had begun to overflow. At Caem, Iris tells Gladiolus that for the first few nights they had some chances of fortifying the place with more powerful lights, but they could only do so much when being constantly on.

'What about Jared and Talcott? They ok?', he asked. 'Jared's been doing a lot for us, mostly comforting Talcott but its starting to get to him', she says, 'The constant attacks have had him bedridden most days'. He grimaced at the news, hoping to get back soon and get them all out of the bay as soon as possible. If Lestallum is indeed becoming more populated with all the refugees, then it may be time for the team to start using the Havens for temporary housing.

'Just stay indoors until we show up, alright?', he says, 'Once we arrive we'll head to Lestallum, but if its too crowded sis, we're gonna have to discuss using the Havens for a base'. 'Camping for who knows how long? Sounds like your dream come true!', she laughed, earning a deep chuckle from the man. 'I gotta go, Gladio. Talcott's trying to make dinner again, bye'. She hangs up after he wishes her well and lays his phone the lamp table near him. With a sigh, he placed his hands behind his head and stares at the ceiling in thought.

He had told her what's happened to them after the Rite commenced, how they lost the ability to use the Armiger, then get it back with Noctis wielding a keyblade, how Ardyn kidnapped Sora and stole the ring, to everything else that's happened to them. Part of him was happy he didn't get to see the broken look on her face judging from her voice when he relayed that bit of info to her, and after she asked about Kairi and Riku too. He had hoped those two would have patched things up by now after their fight, but the shield had noticed the older boy had all but cut himself off from the group, avoiding Kairi.

If they didn't possess magic keys that could open any lock, he would have thrown them both in a closet and waited for them to sort it out.

The bathroom door opened and out came Aqua, in her clothes without the armor and a towel drying her hair with steam rising from her. She lets out a sigh of refreshment, feeling cleaner and ready for the day. The master looked at Gladiolus still laying down before saying: 'Did you manage to call Iris?'. He nods. 'Yeah, it's as bad we thought it was gonna be back on the mainland', Gladiolus reveals. 'Says they're only staying at the bay to wait for us'.

Aqua places the towel on the table near the desk before she joined him on the bed, sitting down on the edge. 'If Altissia is any indication of what's happening to this world, then I'm dreading how bad things are on the way to Niflhiem', Aqua says. Gladiolus hummed in agreement, realizing they were still quite a ways from the imperial lands, and like Altissia before, taking a long car drive wasn't an option for them.

A frown etched on his face when he thought back to the Regalia, realizing that their main driver is no longer capable of driving. He felt a hand planted on his stomach, making him look to Aqua. 'You're thinking about Ignis', she says knowingly. The shield nods, confirming her thoughts. The man had been taking his loss of sight well for the most part, much to the amazement of the others. Though he is finding it easier to cope with the lack of sight and having Prompto, Donald and Goofy constantly checking on him, while it could be them just being overprotective, he was grateful the three were keeping an eye on him.

'I dunno what we're gonna do, Blue', he says, placing his large hand on hers, 'I don't want to leave him behind but…'. 'Do you think Noct is going to let that happen?', she asked exasperatedly with a shake of her head. Gladiolus huffed at that, knowing she is right. Blindness be damned that man would still go to hell and back for his king, and as much as Gladiolus respected the man for his stubbornness, he wished he'd just do what was best for himself. Then again when it came to stubbornness almost everyone was almost the same.

'I wish we could heal his eyes, but our magic isn't that powerful to restore sight', she laments, looking at the floor. 'You did all you could do for him', Gladiolus assured, patting her hand, 'Saving his life is more than enough'. She smiles gratefully at him, before she kicked off her boots and socks, then laid down beside him, resting her head on his chest. He almost immediately wrapped his right arm around her, pulling her close to him.

Together they laid on the bed in silence, enjoying this small haven of peace for them. After rescuing the others and bringing them back to heal, the two of them had no time to finally take time and rest for themselves. If Aqua wasn't busying herself with healing the others, then Gladiolus was helping with guards with whatever they needed him for. If Gladiolus isn't hunting down the dark monsters than Aqua was empowering the city's lights with magic.

He needed this, to hold her with him and finally allow a reprieve from all the chaos they put up with and enjoy her company. Sub-consciously he started to stroke her bare shoulder as she held onto him, gently breathing and slowly relishing the peace between them. For now, there is no eternal night, no daemons to fight with, it was just them in their room of silence. Aqua starts to shift and slowly propped herself on her elbow to look at him.

She smiles softly at him with that smile, the same one she gave him when he accepted her as his. She shimmied up to him and placed a hand on his cheek, brushing against the rough patches of his stubble before she leaned in and captures his lips. Closing their eyes simultaneously, he helped her lay on top of him, her knees resting on each side of his hip as he placed his hands on her hips. A warmth spread through their bodies as they tasted each other, the shield rubbing her sides as she moans softly.

He lowered his lips to her neck and started to gently suck her, making the master moan and arch her head up to grant him more access to her neck. Sitting up with her in his lap while she wraps her legs around him, Gladiolus kisses her neck and cheeks while she runs her hands through his hair. The man was careful however not to push further than foreplay, peppering her with affection as opposed to instilling arousal within her.

Their last night in Lestallum wasn't anything risqué or sexual, they fooled around certainly by touching, nothing more. Even as intoxicated and with drunken bravery taking over the two, he ensured nothing explicit happened that night given how incredibly shy the woman is. Aqua moans his name before she cupped his cheeks and kissed him passionately. In an act of bravery Aqua's tongue prodded his lips, begging for a dance with his own.

He opens his mouth and their tongues dance together, wrapping one arm around her waist as he runs his hand through her hair. She hums with approval, before letting out a surprised gasp when Gladiolus rolled them on her back. Using his elbows to prop himself to make sure he didn't crush her; he immediately saw the hesitance in her eyes despite the excitement of making out. As he expected, he gently rubs her cheek with his thumb, smirking at her. She, in turn, pouted at him, she loathed him teasing her shyness.

Yet she offers no resistance to him continuing with their little session as she kept her legs around his waist and threw her arms around him. He chuckles. 'You know, we're gonna be in a compromised position if someone knocks', he teases. Aqua however shrugged. 'I've got that covered', the master replies confidently. 'What? Did you put up those hanging signs that said, "do not disturb"?', he laughed.

Aqua says nothing, looking away shyly. '…maybe?'.

This woman is too adorable for her good, he thought before he continued to shower her with affection. For all they knew, this may be their last chance at peace before plunging back into battle.

*Cape Caem*

Finally arriving at Cape Caem, the ferry docked nearby one of the docks in the area, unable to dock were his majesty's original ship was due to the size of the thing. Once everyone got off and bid the captain a thanks and good luck, they make their way back to the small house on the cliff near the lighthouse.

'I hope Iris and the others are ok', Prompto muses as he guided Ignis, 'You think they've dealt with some daemons?'.

'She told me they've gotten some lights from Hammerhead to keep them away from the house, but those things have to be running 24/7', Gladiolus remarks, 'She's not sure how much longer they'll last here'. As the party spoke amongst themselves, Kairi trailed behind quietly while looking at Riku occasionally. A pang of guilt smacked her heart whenever she glanced at him, hating the silence and awkwardness that lingered between them. Since their spat back in Altissia, they had been avoiding each other with every chance they got.

The princess admittedly did those two days of avoidance out of her own volition, both out of anger for him and awkwardness that she partly created between them. Then on their third day, she tried to approach him, not wanting them to be at odds with each other during the remainder of their journey on Eos. Especially with Sora's safety being the main reason. Yet anytime she tried to speak with him, he'd leave her in the dust or just flat out refuse to speak to her.

She hates this, and while she will take responsibility for her actions that caused this rift between them wholeheartedly, she wished Riku would stop this lone wolf garbage and just speak with her. Kairi lets a small sigh leave her mouth, gently clasping Sora's crown over her heart. Since her talk with Aqua, she had donned this chain as a keepsake, better it around her neck than in her pocket if those pesky goblins were any indication. But more so importantly, she felt a warmth wash over her whenever she clasped it.

It is as if Sora was enveloping her into a warm hug whenever she does like he's still with her no matter how far apart they are.

Reaching the house, they see much of the landscape had seen so much destruction from the daemons. Trees were broken and reduced to splinters while some were caked in soot, leaves dead and withered. The ground split and torn apart like an earthquake had occurred, even the lighthouse was demolished into a ruin, probably thanks to an iron giant. The house where they used as a base of operations had been roughed up, but fortunately, it still stood tall.

The withered door opened to show Iris peeking from it before she opened it fully to greet the others with a relieved smile. 'Welcome back', she says, putting down (to Gladiolus' horror) a shotgun near the frame. The shield immediately went up to her when they see the girl had seen some action during their trip to Altissia. She had her right arm in a sling and cast, a bandage on her cheek that was keeping the skin and flesh together.

Even her attire was in what looked to be a modified Kingsglaive uniform, without the coat of course. A black t-shirt that still had some form of magic within the seams, black pants, and boots. 'Are you alright?', Gladiolus questioned, checking her for any other wounds. Iris sighs. 'I'm fine, just a few scratches here and there. The arm was a parting gift thanks to a giant', she revealed, gesturing her sling. 'But other than that? Nothing else thanks to the lights'. She then turned to the others with a tired smile.

'Everyone ok?'. The moment she looked at the party, she frowns when there is no spiky-haired boy among them, confirming Gladiolus' story. Iris gave Kairi a look, but she merely nods, a small but sad smile in return. 'Its been a rough trip for us…', Noctis says, shaking his head. Iris nods in understanding, gesturing the others to enter the home. 'We're just packing up what we had moved in before we get going', she explained. 'Need any help?', Noctis asked, folding his arms. 'Yeah, just a few things', she says.

Iris then turned to Aqua. 'We've got the cars nearby, the daemons just ignored them', she says, digging through her pockets to pry the keys out. 'I asked Dustin to bring them over when we heard you were on your way back'. Aqua nodded in understanding, catching the two keys and turned to Prompto. '…Prompto', she starts, not taking her eyes off Ignis. The blind man waved off her concerns, likely feeling her gaze on him. 'Try to drive carefully Prompto', he says.

The blonde pats his shoulder comfortingly and assuring, taking the keys and following Aqua to the cars with Donald and Goofy going to back them up in case of the daemons or worse. 'Is there anything we can do?', Kairi asked, gesturing herself and Lunafreya as Gladiolus went to help Noctis move the requested items. Iris shakes her head, gesturing to Ignis. 'Not really, maybe just get ready for when we gotta head off?', she recommended, subtly hinting at Ignis. She nodded and the former Oracle guided Ignis to a spot within the light, suggesting Kairi start teaching the woman some magic.

Riku was the only one remaining, which Iris smiled at warmly before she took in how weary he looked to her. Gladiolus had told her what happened to Sora certainly, but he only gave her a brief idea on what's going on between him and Kairi. She got down the steps and approached him as he finally looked at her. She could see the tiredness in his eyes, the frustrations that swelled within him and concealed pain. 'Are you ok?', she asks.

He took his hands out of his pocket and shook his head. 'Could be worse…', he muttered. Iris gently patted his arm, making him face her properly before she guided him to the ruined lighthouse, likely for privacy and to give him some space to himself.

With the destruction around the beacon, only one powerful source of light was beaming on it, so they were at least safe from any daemon invasion. Sitting together on the bench, with the girl letting out a small hiss some aches, she turned to Riku sitting there. The quiet emitting from him felt unnatural to her, usually, he was cool around her, chill and easy-going with a hint of that shy boyish attitude of his. To see him looking so down in the dumps and beaten reminded her of Noctis when they were kids. He rubbed his wrists, grunting.

'Gladio told me about Sora…', she starts slowly, hesitant. 'Why wouldn't he? My best friend taken by the empire and I couldn't do jack to help him', Riku chastised, staring into the horizon of darkness ahead of them. 'Well, no…he didn't say that…', Iris said, patting his shoulder, 'He said you did ALL you could do for him, but…that chancellor guy or whatever his name is stopped you'. She was a bit foggy on the details since Gladiolus had this annoying habit of keeping her out of things like this regularly.

She was amazed she managed to even learn Prompto's name on his first day on the job…

Iris gently rubbed his back, comforting him as Riku hissed in anger, running his hands through his hair. She sees the stress in his body, his hands clenching when he clasped them together like he was trying to crush something in between his palms. The tension in his shoulders when she brushed her fingers against them like he is close to snapping in two. 'I was there Iris…he was right in front of me…and I couldn't save him', he glowered, bowing his head.

'Riku…', she tried but then he got off the bench and started to pace. 'I was supposed to bring him and the others back home! I was supposed to keep them safe! But I still screwed it up!', he rants. Those memories of the battle will forever haunt him, not just the chaotic destruction of the city, not the soldiers he had taken down nor the wounds he's sustained from it all. What tore his heart is seeing Ignis losing his sight, unable to even dare to comprehend the agony that man had to endure to protect Noctis and the others from Ardyn.

Shaking him to his very core was seeing those two precious to him, the only two who never gave up on him from the very day their world was lost to the darkness. Even after everything he had done to them, the amount of times he tried to show up Sora and how cruel he treated the boy, Sora still did everything to rescue and help him. He wasn't even sure how much of their rivalry was known to Kairi during that time, he didn't dare to think of how horrified she'd be if she knew how he treated Sora. Yet even after all this time, they still held on to him.

Reuniting with them in the world of nobodies, Kairi pleading him to stay with them despite the form he donned that year, to Sora crying with joy of finally finding him safe. If they weren't in the middle of what he thought was the final battle he probably would've broken down too. Having them back with him after a year of separation, to see how much they grew in that time, it both warmed his heart but also hurt him too. So much had passed between them all and they had no time to even catch up on it.

This journey with them, the adventures they had, seeing the world for what it is brought that life dream of theirs to life. Despite at the time he was the only one taking their predicament of being stranded on the world seriously, seeing those two excited they were all on a big adventure together like this brought that spark of adventure alive within him. Now a horrible douse of reality had come and smacked him in the face. A reminder that they were in the middle of a battle, a war even, between light and darkness.

The moment he thought they'd lost Kairi, it felt as if his own heart had been crushed to dust. Seeing her still form, her lifeless body devoid of the joy and light she'd bring to them, fearing they will never hear her voice, her laughter, her teasing. It was for the first time since this whole idea of light and darkness started, he thanked the light for sparing Kairi a short life. A permanent haunting for him to know she is killable as he, Sora and the others are.

Losing Sora to Ardyn, not knowing what that man of a daemon is doing to him with Xigbar at his side, scared him to near death. It was so much like their exam, where he tried so hard to protect Sora from Xehanort's manipulation, and if he hadn't gotten help from the others, he could've lost Sora to the darkness the old master could use. Now for all he knew Xigbar was doing the same thing to the boy, trying to manipulate the darkness within him, using Kairi as leverage and fearfully Riku might end up fighting him again.

He grabbed the metal railings with a small yell, gripping it tightly his inhuman strength bent it slightly and if he was alone, he'd probably rip it off and throw it into the abyss below him. 'I failed him again…I failed Kairi in keeping them both safe', he lamented, his anger subsiding and slowly sorrow took its place. Riku couldn't even face Kairi after all of this, even after telling her what happened was like he tore her heart out, stomped on it and shoved it back in. Treating her like trash also didn't help him either, lashing outwards and unfortunately for him she was the only person he took it out on.

As much as he frowned on her actions, he couldn't blame her for acting like that either. If he had lost someone close to his heart and his only memento of them was taking from him, he'd probably tear the city apart to find it. Ripping into her, he wished he could take that back and just hold his anger within, she's already dealt with enough already she didn't need her best friend at her throat.

He feels a hand rest on his, making him look at a frowning Iris. 'So, what are you gonna do about it?', she asked, 'Because it sounds like you're giving up on yourself after one shortcoming'. Riku opened his mouth to argue despite in some ways she spoke truthfully. 'I know it sucks that you couldn't keep them both safe from whatever happened, but that shouldn't mean one screw up means you're useless, right?', she says.

Iris gives the older boy a friendly look and cupped his cheek with her usable hand. 'Those two mean so much to you, it's painful to be away from them both, right? So, shouldn't that be enough for you to get your butt in gear and get him back?'. Riku looked at her as he sub-consciously places his hand on hers, almost depending on her warmth to warm him and stay off those thoughts of inadequacy. 'You can't hold that grudge against yourself every time you mess up, I mean it wasn't like you just let them get away with Sora, right?', she said teasingly.

'No…I didn't…', he hummed, remembering that desperation in his movements, how his body was doing all the thinking itself while the brain was fixed on saving his best friend. That wild surge of emotion coursing through his body, like everything around him slowed down while he moved. The power he tried to draw out despite how battered and weary he was. 'See? Sora's still alive, and I bet he's just waiting for you, Kairi, everyone to come rescue him', she encouraged. 'I mean, that's what the plan is, right?'.

'Damn right', he assured, facing her. Iris smiles back before she turned to the left. Following her gaze, he sees Kairi awkwardly standing there, looking away. 'S-Sorry, I…I'll just go', she muttered, nearly backing away. 'Nuh-uh', Iris said, stepping away from Riku, 'I think you two need to hash this out before you go anywhere'. Before either of them could stop Iris, the younger sibling of Gladiolus walks away with a wink to Kairi, walking down the slope back to the house.

Alone, Riku rubbed his neck awkwardly as Kairi approached him, her eyes hard to read. He hated this friction between them, the fact they had become so awkward with each other it felt so unnatural to him, like when he discovered Sora had a good grasp on maths. The princess stood before him, no longer were her eyes alit with anger but now they gentle glowed with some form of remorse for her actions. The master before the red-head closed his eyes and exhaled, trying to push those negative thoughts aside.

As much as he wanted to put it off, Iris had a point about resolving this before they make their way to Niflhiem. Kairi rubbed her left arm, looking away. '…remember when we used to be able to talk to each other?', she asked softly and low enough Riku nearly missed that. As much of blow as that was, he knew the girl felt the same resentment to this friction that caused them to grow apart from each other. Even as kids, well smaller kids, Kairi was the one person he never got upset with or even went quiet on like he did with Sora.

'…yeah…I also remembered when it was usual you who had to make me and Sora kiss and make up', he chuckled weakly. His humor earned him a small smile from her, and she turns to him. 'Except nowadays those lips of his are mine to touch', she says with jest. Riku nodded, before smirking. 'Pfft, your loss I guess'. Kairi raised a brow at him before she crossed her arms. 'Don't be jealous that he's a better kisser', she mocks playfully. 'And how would you know he's better than me?', he accused, 'Last time I checked I never touched yours with mine'.

Kairi gave him a mock disgusted look and even gagged. 'Gross, you're like my brother, dork!', she says. Soon their faces melted into peace before they both started to laugh together, enjoying this brevity that they had so desperately needed since that day. For a moment between the two old friends, they could act like young teens without a care in the world. How he missed these moments, the chill vibes between them even without Sora. When their mirthful laughter died out, they looked at each other with regret and remorse.

'Riku…back there, what I said…', she started lamely before he raised his hand. 'Kairi, I get why you did it, believe me, I do', he says softly, gesturing the necklace around her neck. 'I'd be no different if that was all I had of him'. Kairi frowns at the forgiveness, almost like she thought he was going easy on her, but she clasped the necklace, realizing in some way he was more apologizing for how he spoke to her. 'Look, *sigh* I shouldn't have spoken to you like that, especially when we were both still in less than ideal mindsets'.

He replayed those words in his head, hating how cold and dismissive he was towards her. As angry she made him when she once again threw herself headfirst into danger, he knows just how much the team somewhat underestimates her. 'Its…not that I didn't deserve some tongue lashing though', Kairi softly argues, 'I didn't think how much losing Sora affected you too…'. Riku gave her a forlorn look that looked identical to her own, both no longer hiding their pain. Kairi opened her arms, a peace offer hug. He took it and pulled her into one.

He felt her bury her face into him as he held her tightly, unable to recall the last time he and she shared a hug like this. 'I miss him so much…', Kairi whispered, whimpering. 'I know Kai…I miss him too', he says with sadness, 'But we'll get him back, you know we will'.

Kairi nods into him as he loosened the hug so she could look at him. 'I'm sorry', she says genuinely. 'Me too…', he replies.

One more hug between them, bonds restored before they returned to the others…

*Station, a day later…*

As many had expected, Lestallum had indeed become a more densely populated location than ever which forced the party to relocate to Old Lestallum. Despite the daemon population take over, they were quickly dealt with thanks to the three keyblade wielders and soon the party started to use the lights Cid had loaned them all to repower the town. Using magic from Lunafreya and Kairi after some lessons with Aqua, they managed to create the perfect source of daemon repelling lights.

Old Lestallum became a new home for Iris and the others while likely more would flock to this final piece of sanctuary, they managed at the very least provide some form of safety. Yet the main party would not be able to enjoy this, for, after some map reading and guidance from the former Oracle, they learned the only way to the imperial capital would only be possible by using the trains. Therefore, the party would have to venture across the seas once to reach the imperial land. Fortunately for them, by the time they arrived at the Galdin Quay there was a ferry waiting for them.

Courtesy of a supposed amateur jeweller who apparently "always keeps his word".

They've loaded up the Regalia and Wayfinder II into the cargo hold and got to their seats after some farewells and promises to return. Standing on the lane before the train, Riku and Iris were saying their farewells. The Amicitia girl gave the boy a fond smile as he gave her the update on his and Kairi's situation, thanking her for pushing them.

'So, I guess this is it, for now, huh?', she says with regret. 'Yeah…I'm sorry we've gotta get going so soon', he apologizes. If things had worked out more in their favor, he would've gladly taken her on another date the moment he saw her. 'It's ok, a "hero's" work is never done, huh?', she teases cheekily. Riku rolled his eyes with a smirk, not used to the whole quote-unquote hero role everyone teased him to be these days.

Iris' eyes shifts into a softer look. 'Look out for Gladdy, you know how stubborn that guy can be', she requested. 'I think the guy's more likely to be watching out for us', Riku jokes while assuring Iris at the same time. 'Have you seen him punch someone? I think he broke the jaw off an imperial magitek one time!'. Iris rolled her eyes, believing Riku regardless. As the ferry's horn rang out to signal it was taking off, Riku glanced at it before turning to her again.

She nods in understanding. 'I'll…see you again soon', she says hopefully. Riku smiled back, wrapped his arms around her and then planted a kiss on her lips. Iris stiffens from this but quickly melted into the kiss and kissed him back with equal passion, unknowingly kicking a leg up behind herself.

Breaking the kiss, Riku smiled at the star-eyed girl. 'Compensation for our short reunion', he says, 'Next time we come back, I'll make up for lost time'. She grins. 'I'll hold you to that promise, buster!', she states confidently. He nods as he breaks their hug and gets on the ferry, waving as it starts to move. He waves goodbye to Iris and the rest as they grew smaller and smaller until they faded from view.

On the deck of the ferry, the party were all seated and ready to continue with their journey, bonds renewed and strengthened as Kairi stares out the to the sea, Sora's necklaces shining from the light of the car above them. As she gently clasped it, feeling her strength grow as well as the promise she made.

"We're on our way, Sora".

A/N: This was a hard one to do…I'm not good at writing drama!

Our heroes have put aside their issues and now venture to the imperial lands to rescue our lovable hero. What sort of dangers lie in wait for them? What does Xigbar have planned for Sora? And will Ignis be able to rise above his new disability? Find out…NOT next time.

Next time we're going back to Cindy and see what she's gotten up too!

As always, if you have questions ask away! Sorry this is a short chapter, I just didn't know how to extend it without padding.

The name of Noctis' keyblade was suggested by Carman, so massive thanks for that!

Here's mine:

Q1: What do you think of Noctis' keyblade?

Q2: Do you wanna see more of Noctis and Lunafreya?

Q3: How do you feel about Lunafreya joining the team for the rest of the journey and what did you think her clothes? I was going with a mixture of Kairi's KH2 look with a bit of XV cosmetics.

Q4: How was Iris and Riku? Wanna see more of them?

Q5: Is there any character you wanna see more of?

Q6: How do you find the lengths of these chapters?

Q7: Do you wanna see Riku and Kairi bonding more?

So I've been thinking while writing this, but would you all like a collection of short stories consisting of this universe? Like they'd be ideas I had but didn't make it in the main story with a few requested chapters here and there? Again that won't happen until after this story is finished.

As always, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	43. Chapter 43

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 43

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

*Several days ago, at the Mysterious Tower*

Rubbing her face with a groan, Cindy shakes her head to knock off that slight pain throbbing in the back of her skull. 'Dadgum... Feels like I got hit by a truck', she groans. The blonde mechanic yawned and threw off the sheets that felt extremely cozy, maybe she remembered to change them this time.

Cindy runs a hand through her hair, shaking her head remembering that weird dream she had the other night. 'Maybe i shouldn't mess with no sodas next time I'm workin late, she says. Least she knew to a degree the ship was in a much more stable and usable shape. A shame she only dreamt about the flying the thing, but when it got weird with the mouse fellow, porcupine head and that kid who she mistook for Sora, maybe it was for the best.

'Well, better get to…it', she said, eyes opening wide when she saw she wasn't in her garage.

Instead of the rustic but homely place she knew she found herself in what looked to be an old study room with several shelves stacked with multi-colored books, the room was painted in a cream color with several star and crescent moon shaped holes in the walls for what she assumed to be windows…without glass. The carpet was light green with a table near the bed and three chairs. The bed itself wasn't any larger than hers back home but way more comfortable.

Cindy's eye twitched as she took in her surroundings before she started to giggle a tad bit insane. She slaps herself once, then twice before coming to the horrible realization she was not in Eos anymore. 'W-W-Where am I?', she asked herself, looking around for anyone. Questions piled up in her mind, how long had she been asleep, where was she, who were those guys, and why were they keeping her in this room? She checked herself to see she wasn't wearing her usual clothes either, just a large t-shirt with a pair of jeans.

'"If that porcupine thing stole my jacket or even looked at my under britches…Ima knock him flat on his ass…', she promised as she got up and found her boots beside her bed with a pair of clean socks. Throwing them on and checking herself, she was surprised to see she looked squeaky clean, not a single trace of oil on her cheeks, even her usually unruly hair looked cared for and cleaned. Cindy checked the room one more time before she approached the small wooden door before her, quietly opening it to see outside.

The hallway was dimly lit with strange moon shaped lights guiding those who walk the hall, several more doors on each side of her and at the very of the hall was a set of stairs when spiraled. Not a single soul in sight, nor did she see anything resembling security cameras or security in general. Cautiously she peered left and right before silently leaving her room and walk into the hall, moving slowly and as quietly as she could. Last thing she needs is to be spotted or worse.

She climbed down the flight of stairs until she came to another door with more space-related shapes on it. Cindy tries to open it, however, the door refused to budge. There was no keyhole or anything either, it could have been painted on the wall for all she knew. Cursing quietly, she backed up the stairs, taking the higher floors, maybe she could find something to help open that door.

Reaching the top, Cindy was about to proceed down another hallway that looked near-identical to the one she found herself in earlier except the hall glowed in a softer blue light when she hears steps and sloshing. Quickly she hides herself behind the wall near the doorway and peers to see who was patrolling the halls.

To her absolute disbelief, she sees several walking broomsticks with arms from their rod forms and using the bristles of their brushes as legs and feet. They were mostly marching along in perfect sync with buckets of water in each hand as they entered the rooms one by one while some were using their limbs to dust and clean the walls and windows. She shakes her head, unable to believe what was happening before her. 'On second thought, I'll just keep going up…', she muttered, done with the weirdness that was performed before her.

The mechanic climbs to another floor of wherever she was, maybe a tower or something, and found herself onto the next floor. Except it was more of an open space without another hallway, two doors nearby on each side. Cindy approached the blue door, getting closer she heard muffled voices on the other side, one squeaky and familiar to her. She pressed her ear against the wooden frame to get some clarity on what's being side on the other side, but it was just as muffled as when she stood from it.

She figured taking the other door would be her best option, Cindy quickly entered the other room when she saw the doorknob jingle and the voices growing louder and clearer. She snuck into the room quickly and closed the door gently, pressing her ear to the door frame to listen for the footsteps of whoever those people were. After a few seconds, she heard their voices fading away, she breathes a sigh. 'That was too close…', she says.

Cindy turned around and froze.

The Sora look-alike stood there while getting his shirt on, standing there with mouth agape with red coating his cheeks. She lets out a yell as did he, averting her eyes as he throws his shirt on quickly. 'Shit! Sorry! I-

Cindy never got a chance to finish her sentence because suddenly she was slammed into the wall by the door slamming into her. 'Ven! What's up? We heard you yell!', a voice called out. Cindy uttered a small groan of pain from the attack of the door. From the inch of what she could see, the mechanic sees that redhead again with the small mouse fella's ears near him, and this "Ven" kid went from embarrassed to white as a sheet. 'Ven?', the redhead asked.

'A-A-Axel, t-the door…', "Ven" squeaks, pointing at it.

"Axel" looked at the door, then pulled it from the wall and allowed Cindy to fall forward, losing consciousness. Least she landed on something soft…

*Sometime later*

Squinting her eyes and hissing in pain, Cindy cracked open her olive-green eyes to see the same ceiling she had awoken to before, just with even more pain in her head. With a small groan, she rubbed her head but flinched when she felt a rather large bump on her head. Truth be told she was amazed she didn't end up having her skull cracked open.

She turned her head to see "Ven" sitting at the table with what looked to be a puzzle box in his hands, his eyes were fixed on it with his tongue sticking out. He turned to her, likely hearing her groan, and placed his box on the table. 'Hey there, you ok?', he asked. Cindy slowly sat up with a grunt, rubbing her head. 'Besides what feels like i been hit upside the head more than Paw-Paw cusses? Just dandy …', she groans out.

'Who?', the boy asked, before shrugging and handing her a small green bottle. Cindy looked at it, feeling it looked like the potions back home with the only difference was the design of the bottle. 'Here, just drink this and you'll be fine', he promises. Cindy nods and takes it, uncorking it and taking a sip of it before downing the whole thing. Her body glowed in a gentle green hue before the pain disappeared. A breath of relief escapes her, handing the empty bottle back to "Ven". 'That better?', he asked.

'Yeah, thanks, Ven?', she says, curiously. 'My name's Ventus, but yeah, call me Ven', he introduces. Even his smile looked like Sora's. The woman looked at the boy while she threw her legs on the floor. 'Where am I?', she asked. The boy looked uncomfortable and rubbed his neck shyly like he was suddenly in a position he'd wanted out of. Cindy frowned at the silence before the door opened to show "Mickey" (if she remembered right) and "Axel" coming in.

'Oh, she's up already?', the redhead says, smirking at her.

His leg was nudged by the mouse man a bit roughly, a frown on his face. Likely reminding "Axel" she was out of commission because of him. Sheepishly scratching his head, the man chuckles awkwardly. "Mickey" turned to Cindy with a friendly smile. 'How are you feeling, miss?', he asked, her name unknown to him. 'Name's Cindy, Cindy Arum', she greets. 'And you're…Mickey, right?'. He nods, then points to "Axel", saying: 'This here is Axel'. He gives her a small salute, keeping that smirk of his.

'So, Cindy…gonna tell us why you were using Sora's ship?', Axel asked, folding his arms. The woman got up, waving off Ven's concerns and faced him. 'For your information bud he asked me to fix her up for him', she reveals, 'I damn near had it bout fixed 'fore it shot me up into space!'. 'And that's when I found you!', Ventus added, smiling like a child. 'Yeah…then I ended up, wherever I landed, then the rest is a big blur of nothing', Cindy says.

'You fainted, for starters', Axel teased. She glared at him, but he waved her off, likely used to his smartass attitude getting glares left and right. 'Then we had to bring here to patch you up, you've been out of it for a while', he says. Cindy frowns with worry, how long had she been unconscious, and just where was she anyway. 'Can one of ya'll tell me where the heck I am anyway?', she asked. 'This is a place called "Mysterious Tower"', Mickey revealed, 'This is our base where we'd gather up and plan'.

'…So, I accidentally found your HQ?', Cindy asked, baffled. 'Yup, and unfortunately we'll have to make sure you don't talk', Axel says evilly, giving her somewhat creepy smirk. He received another nudge from the mouse man, elbowing his knee. 'Axel, she's already confused don't frighten her!', he lectured. Axel rolled his eyes when Ventus turned to the woman. 'You sort've did, but where are the others?', he asked, 'Were there two girls with blue and red hair with Sora?', he asked. Recalling back to Hammerhead, Cindy remembered meeting those two with distinct hair colors certainly.

'Yeah, I remember them. They were with the kiddo with spiky hair', she explained. Ventus' smile grew wide, looking back at Mickey and Axel. 'See? I knew they found their way to Sora! Maybe Riku did as well!', he says with giddiness. Axel looked to Cindy and inquired about Riku, which the woman shook her head saying she didn't see anyone with silver hair. Regardless at least she told them where their friends were, but then the mouse man said she would need to explain where she was from along with Sora's location to their leader of sorts.

To say she was not ready to meet Yen Sid would have been a massive understatement.

In the tallest part of the tower in the highest room, she meets the original keyblade wielder in his chair, the boy and mouse man bowing respectfully while Axel just leaned against the door. This Yen Sid is a rather severe-looking old man with long, grey hair, bushy eyebrows, and a long, grey beard that parts down the middle. He wears a weird (and nearly silly) sorcerer's hat on his head. The hat is blue and decorated with several yellow stars and a yellow crescent moon. He wears long, billowing blue robes with sky blue lining, with the insides of his robes being dark red.

His glare to the woman almost spooked her and sent shivers down her spine, however she remained resolute when she explained what world she came from, what she knew about Sora's company and other things. When she said her world was called Eos, the old man raised a brow at her.

'Eos…that is a world I've not heard of for decades', he muses.

'You know that world?', Axel asked, raising a brow of his own, 'What's so special about it?'. The old man turned his focus to Cindy. 'Tell me, child, what do you know of Regis?', he asked. Cindy scratched her cheek before saying: 'W-Well, he's…passed away a while back'. At this info, the old man released a sigh. 'A pity, Regis had such a strong light within him. A good man taken too soon', he says.

'B-But, he's son, Prince Noctis, he's still kicking', she offered. Though why she did she couldn't explain, it was compulsion to remind people the future king was still around. Yen Sid stroked his beard thoughtfully, lowering his gaze to the table. 'Yes, a new light had shined recently. A chosen wielder of the keyblade has been born', he reveals. At this the trio of keyblade wielders looked at one another, Axel quietly muttering "jeez anyone can be a keyblade wielder these days". 'But how? Was he ever bequeathed the keyblade from somebody, Master?', Mickey asked.

'Very likely, your majesty', Yen Sid affirms, 'Who I do not know, but if he is journeying with Sora and the others, I believe we can assume it was one from the realm of light who granted him this power'. All this information went over the mechanic's head, completely at a loss to what was going on between the four. Truly all she cared about was finding a way back home and probably sneak into Paw-Paw's cabinet and drink herself until she forgot her name.

'So, what are we waiting for?', Ventus asked, looking at everyone, 'We know where they are, and Cindy can show us the way! Let's go and get them back!'. Yen Sid raised his hand to quell the boy, silencing his questions. 'Riku was sent to find them, Ventus. Yet he has not returned to us', he reminds, 'This is the second ship used to venture into Eos and be reduced to nothing but scrap. Further misuse of the vessels and we may end up with no keyblade wielders'.

Ventus' face fell to defeat while Axel huffs. 'So, what exactly do we do? If we can't enter the world how are we supposed to get Kairi and the others home?', questioned the former nobody. Cindy folds her arms, agreeing with the group that standing around wasn't the solution as Yen Sid looked to Mickey's pondering looks. He snapped his fingers with a smile. 'Then we'll just have to build a ship that can withstand whatever causes our ships to fall apart near Eos', he says.

'I fear this request may be out of your engineer's abilities, your majesty', Yen Sid remarked. 'Chip and Dale maybe, but lucky for us, we know someone who has what we need!', Mickey rebuked. He looked at Cindy. 'Looks like until we can find out way to Eos, you'll be sticking around for a while. Would you like to tag along?'. Cindy blinks before shrugging. 'Sure, if it means I get to see what kinda ship you've in mind', she says.

'Looks like we're going on a space trip…', Axel sighs as Ventus cheers for it. 'Hope you know how to use your ship, Mickey…'.

*Space*

After a horrible case of motion sickness slowly passing her, Cindy was relieved to know they could walk around the ship since the world they were going to was still a few hours away from their location. Once she managed to keep whatever lunch she had in her stomach where it belonged, she got to her feet and finally peered through the window to see the wonders of space.

There were so many stars it trumped the numbers she used to stargaze back home, strange clusters of rocks lazing in the space, colors of all kind. "Paw-Paw if only you could see this", she thought to herself as they flew through the cosmos. She feels a pat on her back and turned to see Axel handing her a suitcase. 'The old man's had a few friends design ya some new duds unless you wanna walk around the place we're heading to in your PJS', he teases. He gives her an eyeing before smirking. 'Not that I'd complain mind you'. Cindy rolls her eyes as she brushed past him. 'In your dreams, hedgehog', she says.

'Oh man I am looking forward to sleeping tonight', he calls out.

Inside her room, which was spacious all things considered how big the ship looked on the outside. Still, she is grateful that they gave her a room as she placed the suitcase on the bed and opened it up to see her new gear.

In the cockpit of the ship, Mickey was trying to communicate with the world they were visiting hoping to reach the man of the hour as soon as possible. Sitting on a chair while looking out the dome to pass the time, Ventus' mind wandered back to Aqua and the others, a small sigh leaving him. Ever since they learned Sora had been stranded on that world, a lot of the team were trying to wreck their minds on where he landed and Riku even attempted to organize a search party.

Sadly, the old geezer Yen Sid had declined, stating any further losses would be a devastating strike on their morale and chances of defeating Xehanort. The boy tried to sneak off himself to go looking for them, only for Aqua to immediately ground him and threaten to keep him out of the battle if he so much as stepped outside the tower. That would have been bad enough but then she threatened he'd be her sparring partner…

There wasn't enough healing magic in the universe to assure he'd survive that.

It got worse when Kairi snuck off with the Star Shard, both her and Aqua being zapped to that world by pure chance and luck he'd wager based on previous exposure to the thing. In less than a day they go from having nine guardians of light to only four, and then a day later they were down to three with Riku going off to look for them. When he didn't return, Yen Sid ordered the trio to wait out for them or until they discover more of the world they were on.

Now though they finally have a chance to find and bring them all back to the tower, ready themselves for the final battle.

Truly he did regret making Axel and Mickey worry when he went off on his own to just seek out where the team disappeared to. It was either his usual luck that he managed to find Cindy or fate that he would meet the woman and rescue her from the heartless.

'I hope the others are alright…', he says to no one in particular.

'Me too…but I'm positive they're all doing well!', Mickey pipes up with cheer, 'Sora's one of our best, and with Riku and Aqua, they'll be able to handle anything that world throws at them'. Ventus nodded with a smile as he adjusts himself in his seat while Axel finishes off that ice cream he just happened to carry. Ventus truly wondered how he was able to stay in such good shape since all he ever seemed to eat was that stuff.

'I'm more worried about Kairi…', he confesses, throwing the stick into the dust bin behind him, 'She's just got out of training with me and suddenly she's off doing light knows what'. Ventus grinned cheekily at the man's worried looks, which got him his attention before he scoffed. 'Shove it, kid', he grunts. Ventus lifts his hands in mock defense at the older man's look, snickering at the softie Axel had become. 'I didn't say a word!'.

'I'm sure Kairi's safe with Sora and Riku. But don't underestimate her, Axel', the king reassures, 'She's stronger than we think'. Axel slumped into his seat with a small huff. Not disagreeing with the king but still when he thought back to their training, he strongly believed he was no stronger than he was before he was chosen by the keyblade. If he didn't get that much stronger, he feared Kairi was no better than him. At least he had more experience than her, plus he managed to learn Form change after their training from watching Ventus.

They hear the elevator behind them ding and a clack of boots resonating. 'Hey Cindy, what do you think of your-

The boy's voice disappeared when he sees the woman in her new attire. Cindy is now wearing a black vest with the Hammerhead logo on her chest (likely inspired from her cap) that exposed her stomach with a brown leather jacket over herself, a pair of navy-blue tank shorts with her usual tool belt around her waist with long brown boots. The jacket's sleeves reached to her elbows, allowing her to wear her favorite gloves with her cap still resting on her head and her polished goggles.

'Hope they fit you', Mickey says, not taking his eyes off the controls. 'Fits like a glove, Mickey', she assures, smiling. Axel whistles in approval, turning to a scarlet faced Ventus who quickly readjusted himself to his seat and kept quiet about the change of wardrobe. "Poor kiddo," Axel thinks with a smirk, realizing that Cindy is a woman the kid was not used to dealing with. Hell, for all the redhead knew the most experiences the kid had with girls is exclusively with Aqua and judging by how bad his blush was when he looked at Cindy, he had a good gut feeling he was slowly starting to experience the horror of puberty.

'So where exactly are we all heading to?', Cindy asked, taking her seat in between Axel and Ventus, not noticing the boy's cherry face. 'There's a world with someone who knows a lot about gummi ships. He helped Sora and the others a few years ago when they got stuck', Mickey explained. At this Cindy grinned excitedly. 'Ya'll think I could ask him a few questions? Your buddy Donald promised me a blueprint if I fixed his ship!', Cindy says. 'Sure, so long as you keep yourself anonymous from other worlds', Mickey states.

They had already given the woman a rundown on the Order, the history of the worlds, why they possessed keyblades and why her leaving the world was a big deal. Granted Cindy somewhat blanked out most of the Order stuff and was more curious about the difference in cars and mechanic stuff from the other worlds. If the place they were going to is anything to go by judging by Axel said it would have changed in the last few years since he was there, then she is in for a treat.

'I'm kinda surprised you managed to figure out how the ship worked', Mickey praised, 'It took us years to understand it'. our friend gave a quick rundown on how it worked. The rest is just me makin sure it wouldnt blow up on me.', she explained as she got up and joined the king's side. He started to show her more of the machine worked, what the buttons do and how they were able to memorize them.

Behind the two, Axel moved his chair using the remotes on the seat closer to a still blushing Ventus with a crap-eating grin. He gently nudged the boy's arm. 'So kiddo, what do ya think of Cindy's new duds?', he teases, 'I kinda wish Aqua would take a page out of her book if you know what I mean~'.

Ventus groaned quietly and slammed his hands to his ears. 'Axel!', he harshly whispered, 'Aqua's like my sister! PLEASE don't put those thoughts into my head!'. Axel snickers evilly before he gestures Cindy bending forward to look at the controls, giving the two a good view of her rear. This made Ventus turned even redder as he couldn't look away from her hindquarters, which only makes Axel laugh before he slides away from the boy. Ventus quickly spun his chair around to his controls and just stared at the several blinking lights to hopefully distract him from all this.

Finally, they came up to the world they were looking for, orbiting it before the king made the ship descend close enough him to use the warp device on board. Next thing Cindy knew she was trapped in a circle of light before the world around her went bright.

*New World*

Rubbing her eyes, the mechanic opens them to see the world she found herself in. No more surrounded by the cockpit's controls and buttons, she found herself in a square with a large fountain before her. Cindy sees herself in a city of sorts unlike Lestallum, the world felt older, almost like a fairy tale.

On the sides of the path leading into the city were flower beds decorated with the most colorful of flowers, red, white, blue and yellow just to name a few. The stones were bluish-colored with pink here and there, even the skies above looked to be in a permanent state of pinkish, like the sun is forever setting. The fountain made of stone with a violet plague on the face of it with odd wording she couldn't read.

Axel patted her shoulder with a smirk and gestured the town. 'Welcome to Radiant Garden', he explains with enthusiasm of a child, 'Home sweet home!'. Cindy lets her jaw fall at the majesty of the city, unable to believe how grand and how, well, otherworldly this place felt compared to the stories Paw-Paw told her of the Crown City. Here genuinely reminded her of those old tales from eons ago, the kind where magic was more common and probably centuries behind in technology. Now her curiosity for whoever this person who could help them became genuine excitement for her.

Ventus stepped forward to look at the city with a small smile before he folds his arms. 'Man…this place looks so different…', he says. Mickey stepped beside him with a friendly smile gesturing the town. 'Believe it or not, it used to look like a construction site, but after the town remembered their old name they've been pushing forward with the restoration', he explained. 'Not to mention without any powerful leaders of the dark residing in this world, there have been very few heartless stalking around the city'.

Ventus looked back to the city as the king walked on, saying: 'Welp, we better get going and see if we can find the person we're looking for'. Ventus nodded and jogged on to follow the king with Cindy and Axel journeyed with them behind. In the town square, the woman of Eos took in the world around her. Like she had thought it was nothing like back at home, there were so many people in strange and casual looking clothing that made her feel like she was strolling through a park.

Several kids playing in the streets with their friends, shoppers, and townsfolk populating the streets, a sense of peace reigned over the town. She sees a castle in the distance with a large golden gate with two guards wielding spears and glaives of sorts. It somehow reminded her of the Crownsguard in a way, just not as menacing looking as them.

During their walk, Axel was going on about how larger and more populated the town felt, saying a lot of changes must have occurred when he was gone. He kept pointing out a few things to the girl like the new shops, the townsfolk he knew and even said something on the lines of "Even the moogles have extended their stores". It surprised the woman that the mythical creatures like the moogles had explored space as well.

She swore if she heard there were also cactuars here something is gonna snap.

Making their way to the shopping districts as the king explained where they're going was passed here, Cindy was surprised that they weren't hold up by anybody nor did they get any weird looks by the locals, were they used to other worlders visiting this place? The blonde turned to Ventus talking to Axel about the world, making a few jokes here and there about the stores and what to pick up for later.

'Sora!'.

Cindy jumped suddenly when suddenly Ventus was enveloped into a tight hug by a raven-haired woman, earning a yell of surprise from Axel. She held the surprised boy tightly, the poor young man frozen stiff as she said: 'Long time no see! Where've you been?'. She must wonder why he wasn't hugging back or why he said nothing because she loosened her hug to face the boy now sporting a hue of pink.

'Wait…oh…shoot, wrong guy!', she laughed, letting go of him. 'Sorry about that, you had that "Sora smile" on you and I thought…ya know'. The girl before them was likely the same age as Axel, has short, black hair and wears a metal headband with two green tassels. Wearing an unzipped, dark grey combat vest with a black strap dangling from the right pocket overtop a navy-blue tank top with white floral designs, while wearing a white wristband on her right wrist and a grey, fingerless glove on her left arm.

Her shorts are slightly darker and have another black strap dangling from the left side. She also wears black, over-the-knee socks with white stripes at the top underneath dark tan sneaker boots that are knee-high in length. Scratching her head with a sheepish smile, she turned to Mickey with a friendly smile. 'Been a while since I saw you here, Mick', he greets. Mickey smiles back with a friendly wave, 'Its been a while Yuffie', he greets. The girl known as Yuffie looked at the trio of new faces, the boy still blushing.

'So, are you three friends of Sora's or is he a distant cousin of his?', Yuffie asked. 'I-I'm Ventus…', the boy says shyly, looking away from the beauty while Axel snickers. 'Name's Axel, I'm kinda a friend of his', he introduces, then points to his head, 'Got it memorized?'. Yuffie smirks at him and nods, before turning to Cindy. 'And you?', she asked. 'I'm Cindy, a mechanic', she introduces, smiling and shaking Yuffie's hand. She somehow reminded her of Prompto, full of energy. The girl opened her mouth to speak before another voice called her name.

They all turned to see a man jogging towards her, looking playfully annoyed by the girl. 'Thanks for abandoning me!', he said with a huff, 'You nearly dropped the flowers and ruined the bouquet!'. The man looked at the party with surprise, but when he saw Ventus, his smile broadened into a grin. 'Ventus? Is that you?', he asked, approaching him. Ventus blinked at him before his eyes widened with recognition.

'Zack?', he says with a smile.

'There ya go!', he laughed. He wears a dark blue "SOLDIER" uniform with the gloves and boots, but they looked much more pristine and refined than his old uniform. Strapped on his back was a massive buster sword almost as wide as the man himself, he has an X-shaped scar on his cheek, and he let his spiky hair grew out and becomes wilder with a single lock of hair hanging down in front of his face. There is also a silver earring in his left ear.

He gave the boy a brotherly hug and playfully ruffled his hair, 'Damn bud, you've barely aged a day last time I saw ya!', he laughed. Ventus laughs in response to the jest, grinning back up at him. 'Where've you been all these years?', he asked. Ventus chuckled weakly and rubbed his cheek, remembering he spent those years in a coma. 'I… was pretty much out on my own for a while, ran into some trouble here and there but, yeah…', he said lamely.

Zack chuckles at the excuse, not buying it but not commenting either. 'Ah well, you're here now, right? It's great to see you again!'. He turned to the others as introductions were made and the reason why they were here was revealed. 'Of course, that goofball can't go anywhere without needing help', Yuffie teased playfully, 'Figures you came here for the best'. 'So do you think your friend can help us out? Whatever's causing the ships to go nuts is making it impossible to traverse to that world', Axel says.

'I'm sure we can work something out', Zack nods, 'Let's go see the big man himself'. Before they left, however, Zack caught Yuffie's collar. ' "WE" will go, "you" on the other hand', he says with a smirk, 'Have a delivery to make'. Yuffie lets out a whine but before she could protest, Zack crossed his arm and glared at her. 'You wanna explain to Aerith why her flowers were ruined?', he asked, 'AND be anywhere near her when she finds out who's to blame?'. Yuffie opens her mouth to further persist before gulping and nodding. She gave everyone a small wave of defeat before skipping off to do her job…and hopefully, see tomorrow.

Leading the group of visitors through the town, Zack was catching with Ventus about the development of the city. Since the town recalled the old name pretty much all the history behind it was found by the Restoration Community, and more so because of the former apprentices of the man who once ruled over this world had returned. Regarding the heartless, he admitted they still stalk the city despite them being lesser than the years before. He says they aren't sure who's leading them but for the most part baring a few skirmishes, the only heartless that are prowling in the city were shadows and soldiers.

Beyond them, they haven't seen any nobodies or any of the other monsters that used to pop up in the city.

'With the monsters being so scarce these days, we've had a lot of time to focus on repairing the city', Zack explained, waving to the locals who passed them by. 'And gonna go on a limb here and say you're one of the reasons they're not fighting for space here?', Axel says.

'Me and a few others', Zack answers with a smile, 'Leon put together the "Exterminator Squad" a few months back, I'm only one of the captains'.

As he said this, there was a scream of terror to their left. 'Speaking of which…', Zack grunts, grabbing his buster blade, 'Time to go to work!'. He rushed off ahead, followed closely by the four.

They found themselves in a marketplace as the people ran past them, some even shouting "monsters" while parents escorted their kids to safety. Ahead of the party, there was a small gang of heartless soldiers, book masters, armored soldiers, and surveillance robots. The armored soldiers were striking at most of the market stands with the surveillance robots flying into the air and firing lasers at the people fleeing.

'Looks like we've got a bunch of party crashers', Zack grunts, drawing his buster sword, 'Time to kick them out!'.

Zack runs into the heartless, to Cindy's surprise, swinging that humungous sword around like he was using a stick. The sheer speed of his swings is inhuman, he cuts his way through the heartless as if they were made of wet paper. He leaps into the air and strikes at the surveillance heartless, deflecting their lasers and slicing them in two.

He front flips onto a soldier's chest and stomped on it, slamming it onto its back. Zack spins around while having both hands on the sword, striking at them all while creating a small whirlwind that was powerful enough to throw them all into the air while spinning. Zack then jumped into the air like a human bullet, striking at the heartless until he reached another surveillance robot. It fires more lasers at him, all deflected easily by the giant blade and then he grabbed it and flung it back down to the ground.

A book master fired three balls of fire at the SOLDIER, but Zack brings his sword down onto the spheres and splits them in two perfectly. The force of his strike sent a shockwave into the heartless which fell to his superior strength, breaking apart before fading into darkness once more. Landing on his feet, the SOLDIER turned onto the heartless that were gathering before him, yet he just smiles playfully.

More heartless begin to appear in front of him, more armored soldiers and some large bodies to add to the prowess of the dark. Zack rolled his eyes as he readies himself for more, only for a wall of fire to suddenly sprout beneath the feet of the heartless and consume most of the fragile ones like the book masters and surveillance robots, even a few soldiers. He looked behind him to see Axel spinning his weapon while striking down a soldier and sidestepping an armored soldier. He smirked at the SOLDIER after sweeping his keyblade and severing the soldier's head.

Mickey was already in the air striking at the book masters and surveillance robots, striking them all down with one hit each. He used many of them as steppingstones while jumping at impressive distances and heights, even coordinating himself to never lose track of the enemy and keep himself from harm.

Below on the field near Cindy, Ventus was fighting off soldiers on his own and even keeping his ground. Unlike his friends, he held his keyblade in a reverse grip, but more so to Cindy's surprise, he wielded his weapon quite well despite the difficulty of the style, attacking the heartless with ease and parrying they're well thought and timed attacks without so much as a hint of a struggle. His body glowed in a soft greenish light as he struck at the heartless.

The way he practically flew in the air as he struck resembled a mini hurricane of strikes, and when he flipped in the air, his keyblade's tip touched the ground. With a yell, he swings it upwards creating five slash marks of light on the ground the splits the heartless in front of him to nothing. He backflips in front of Cindy, freehand up to keep her distance from the heartless that prowled in front of him. Luckily the foolish creatures were fixed on the threat in front of them they never thought to look behind themselves.

Axel stood behind them and swung his keyblade, emitting flames and leaving a trail of magical fire behind his sweeps, incinerating the heartless. The older man turned to the boy and grunts. 'Move!', he shouted. Looking behind them, they see a metal troll looming over them, brandishing its massive weapon. Ventus gabbed Cindy's arm and tugged her along to get away while Axel's keyblade was slowly encased in fire. He splits his weapon into two wheels of flames that he spins using his fingers, before outstretching his arms like a T as the flames disappeared and revealed his choice of arms.

His old but very reliable chakrams. He spun them in his hand before chucking them both at the troll's round face. The burning wheels struck between the eyes of it and the other managed to lodged in between the shoulders, bursting into flames while spinning into it. The chakram managed to spin like a saw and slice through the shoulder all the way through, rendering the metallic limb useless as it brought the axe down on Axel.

Zack quickly stepped in and swung his buster sword at the weapon of the heartless, deflecting it and leaving the monster wide open. He grabbed the blade with both hands as he started to glow in a faint white light, before dashing forth and unleashing multiple chain slashes on it, striking it six times before he brought his sword down for the seventh and final strike.

The heartless' metallic body began to fall apart before it collapsed into nothing.

Mickey combines his amazing acrobatic jumps and flips while striking the heartless with his keyblade and magic, firing off high-level spells of light at the horde, widdling them down while Ventus strikes at the heartless to finish them off. Watching all this unfold before her, Cindy yelled out to the party that ANOTHER iron troll was making its way towards them. Its massive feet crushed the stalls of the marketplace while swinging its giant axe to clear the path for itself. Axel lets out a groan. 'Another one? Gimme a break…', he groans. 'What? Done already? We just got started!', Zack teases while mock punching him in the shoulder.

Before the redhead could make a witty taunt, someone rushed past the two warriors like a blur and the force of the movement nearly knocked Axel off his feet. They both looked to see a woman dressed in black running to the troll, boots clacking loudly as she leaped into the air pulling her right fist backward, glowing with blue light. With a yell, the woman punched the heartless right in the face, not only breaking the armor apart but she also sent it flying across the marketplace before crashing into a building and disappearing into nothing.

Punching her fists together, the woman turned to the others cleaning up the remaining heartless, a gobsmacked Axel and a bemused Zack addressing her. 'Looks like I got here a bit late', she sighed, looking at the chaos they wrought. Zack however just shrugged with a grin. 'Sure, but hey no one lost their heart. I'd consider that a win!', he said with a smile as the rest joined his side. 'Sides, I had some help!'.

The woman looked to them before her eyes fell to Ventus. She grins happily and immediately wrapped in him into a hug. 'Sora! Long-time no see!', she greets. If Ventus turned bright red when Yuffie hugged him, then his cheeks perfectly resembled a tomato with his face being buried into the woman's bust. Behind him, he heard Axel snickering profusely while Cindy and Mickey watch on in amusement.

Zack held back his laughter as he patted the woman's shoulder. 'Uh, Tifa? That's not Sora…trust me Yuffie made that mistake earlier', he explained. Tifa blinked and loosened her hug to get a better look at Ventus before her cheeks turned pink and she released the still shocked boy. 'Oh my! Sorry about that!', she said awkwardly.

Tifa has long, roughly waist-length, brown hair that is tucked behind her ear on the left side, showing that she has a silver, teardrop-shaped earring. Eyes are rust-colored and she appears to wear pink lipstick (at least Cindy thought so). Wearing a black, leather tank top with a zipper down the front overtop a slightly longer, white tank top. Also, she wears a black, leather skort with two black ribbons tied on either leg. The back of her skort is quite long and reaches the floor. She also wears black, leather gloves and black and white shoes, with black ribbons tied around each.

'Jeez Ven, out in the big world and already you've had TWO girls hug ya!', Axel teased, making the poor boy even redder than humanly possible. Cindy giggled quietly at this, not exactly enjoying the poor lad's discomfort but he acted so shyly around women. Tifa gave the red-haired man a look before she turned back to Ventus. She ruffled his hair, giggling at how shy he is. 'Sorry again, you look a lot like an old friend of mine', she explained.

Ventus made a small squeak like noise, not trusting his voice for fear he may sound like a mouse again. Tifa looked to Zack. 'So, what's up? Thought you were on flower duty?', she asked. 'I was, but they wanted to see someone about a ship issue', Zack explained. 'What about you?'. Tifa frowned while crossing her arms. 'Leon's been having me and the other captains checking practically EVERY perimeter of the town walls', she explained, 'He's worried about the increase of heartless activity'.

Zack's own eyes turned serious as did the others. 'What do you mean?', he asked. 'Recently there's been sightings of them left and right, but they're just nosing around the place. Like they were looking for something', Tifa says, 'But oddly they haven't done anything either'.

'Maybe they're looking for intel? Gathering information about the town's defenses?', Axel offered, remembering his missions he had from the Organization. 'That's what Leon's saying, but they're going to weird places like the Bailey, the town square and even by the fountains', Tifa says, 'So unless they're sightseeing there's nothing there for them'. She waved her hand with a shrug. 'Maybe he's just overthinking, ya know how Leon gets'. 'Don't I know it!', Zack laughed. They bid the woman a farewell as she starts organizing the repairs for the market, allowing Cindy and the gang to continue with their tasks.

*Castle*

Arriving at the castle, to up-close makes the mechanic feel smaller and more like she was taking a step into a fairy tale the longer she remained here, they entered the office of the "mayor" of the city. In the old room were once belonged to a man known for his wisdom, cleaned and more orderly than the last time Sora was here.

Shelves stacked with the town's lore and history, portraits restored to show off the council of the community, the smell of tea tickled Cindy's nose. With a curving desk before them and in his leather seat was the mayor, Leon.

Light shade brown and short hair with bangs swept to the left side of his face, blue eyes with a very distinctive scar that runs diagonally across the bridge of his nose. He wears three brown belts on his left forearm and has three buckles on his right thigh. Black pants also sport a vertical zipper going down the side of each leg. He is also wearing two brown belts and two black ones around his hips, all of which are quite loose except for one, a black one worn properly around his waist. His eyes are blue, and he bears his distinctive scar, which runs diagonally across the bridge of his nose.

He looked up to the visitors, before standing up to greet them. 'Your majesty', he greets, his voice friendly but tough, almost reminding the woman of Gladiolus. Mickey smiles back at him with a wave while the two keyblade wielders smile in a friendly manner. 'Been a while Leon', he greets as the man approached them. He nods but frowned when he looked at Cindy. 'Who's this?', he says.

'A bit of a long story there…see, Sora and the others are trapped in another world', Mickey explained, 'Cindy here managed to repair their ship but accidentally launched it into space'. Leon looked at him before back to Cindy. She steps forward. 'Long story short, sugar, if ya'll want your friends to get off the world I came from, we need a ship', she says. Leon crossed his arm before nodding. 'I'd like to ask more but knowing Sora I'm guessing it's not as simple as just handing over a new ship and picking him up, right?'.

'Hey, it sounds like you're used to Sora being Sora', Axel praises.

'LEON! Where the hell is that god damn engine, I ordered an hour ago!?', a gruff voice yells from another room. Leon rolled his eyes with a sigh. 'Looks like you're about to meet the guy you're looking for sooner than you thought', he says turning to the door where the voice came from.

The door suddenly kicked open, miraculously still attached to the hinges as a man stormed out with cigarette unlit in his mouth and an old engine underneath his right arm. The angry man wears a light blue T-shirt with dark green cargo pants also wearing a brown bomber jacket tied around his waist and a dog tag around his neck. On his head were goggles, he had short blond hair with blue eyes and a faint stubble. Seemingly ignoring the team of visitors, he turned to mayor.

'Ya want me to fix this piece of junk but that pin headed excuse for engineers don't know the difference between a sodding wrench and ratchet!', he ranted, slamming the device onto the desk rudely. Leon was used to this type of angry outburst turned to the man with a blank look. 'If you didn't scare off the only ones with some degree of knowledge of engineering, we wouldn't have this problem', he remarks.

'You're asking me to build ships fit for space traveling sonny boy! And you give me pinheads who have a better chance of blowing up this castle just by touching the engines!', the blond man argued back. Unaware of the group and being too busy ranting, Cindy took this chance to look over the engine and after some careful searches, she sees a few nicks and knacks within it. While he was busying himself by arguing with Leon, the man stops when he hears the perfect purrs of an engine running smooth a butter.

He turned to see Cindy clapping her hands after putting her tools away with a smile. 'Just saw a few problems with it, and after a screw tightening and some adjustments, I've got your baby purring like a baby kitten', she says with pride. The blond man looked at the engine, before forming a massive smile. 'Hot damn! Leon ya found an engineer who knows what she's doing!', he praised, rage forgotten.

He shook her hand profusely, 'Tell me kiddo, what's your name? And who taught ya?', he asked. 'Cindy…', she says. The man's face shifted into confusion before he rubbed his chin. 'Cindy…Aurum?', he probed.

The woman's face went from smiling proudly to concern. 'Yes…?', she answered slowly. Then the man hummed. 'As in, Cid's Cindy Aurum?', he added. 'You…know Paw-Paw?', she asked, shocked. The man laughed, slapping his knee. 'HA! I knew ya looked familiar! How's that old grouch doing? He still going about that old man Reggie?', he asked. Cindy looked to the others, just as confused and surprised as she is.

'Well, little lady let me introduce myself! Name's Cid Highwind!', he greeted with a grin.

And just when Cindy didn't think this journey could get any stranger…

A/N: …yes, we're doing this.

So, first off, massive thanks to VashTheStampede0409 for helping with Cindy's dialogue! They've been a great help to shape and polish up this story!

This is part one of Cindy's little adventure, and I know some of you wanna focus more on Kairi and company, but I think Axel and the others need a little love to. Plus, for god sake I missed the FF characters ok!? So next time we'll see more of them, whose ruling the heartless now and who knows? We may even see Pete and Maleficent!

As always if you got questions, I've answers (maybe depending on spoilers) but here's mine!

Q1: What did you think of the chapter?

Q2: Who do want to see more of next time?

Q3: Whose your favourite FF character?

Q4: Do you wanna see more action in the next chapter or character?

Q5: Are there any FF characters you feel like should be added in the story?

Q6: Has anyone played Crisis Core?

Q7: Would you like an Episode Noctis and Sora in the future?

Q8: What do you think of Cindy in this chapter?

Q9: What did you think of Ventus' reactions to the girls?

Q10: Are you sick of my questions?

As always, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	44. Chapter 44

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 44

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

*Two days before Party leaves for Niflhiem*

'WHO THE FRICK DRANK MY GOD DAMN TEA!?', Cid growls, looking at his empty mug, 'Yuffie! If ya value your innards being where they god damn SHOULD be, you better say something MIGHTY FAST!'.

'Ya know that girl probably dumped it in your baby plant just to irritate ya, pops', Cindy says, on a board underneath the engine of their current project, communicating with Cid via earpiece. The mechanic from the other worlds was most tuning the up the engines and checking for any more possible hiccups the ship may have. After their last flight test resulting in destroying a tower in the distance and after getting a very strongly worded lecture from Leon, the girl was adamant to avoid causing any more property damages.

Cid grunts in annoyance, blowing a puff of smoke from his lips as he hammered the nails into the plating of the ship. 'How's it looking down there, Cindy?', he asked. 'Just polishing her up here Cid, making her nice and purdy for space after all', she says. After finishing her work, she pulled herself out from below the belly of the ship and hopped to her feet. She looked up to the see Cid on a stand finishing off the hammering. He nods in approval of his handiwork, smirking. Looking at their project the woman couldn't help but feel that sense of pride only a "Cid" could have for a masterpiece in the making.

The ship affectionately called the "Highwind Mark XV", supposedly the best ship Cid had ever worked on in his spare time. Not only would this be their biggest ship yet, but from what the old master had told the woman, it'd be near-invincible by the time it took to the stars. They were currently working on a skeleton of a ship for the moment, of course, the girl on the engines while Cid focused on the armor and structure.

Nearly a month into working on this project Cindy could see the fruits of their joint labor slowly coming to fruition.

It had been an exciting few weeks working on what was arguably her biggest job yet, going from repairing cars to making spaceships. In the time she spent with Cid after their introduction, she had discovered something quite interesting about the legacy of the C, aka the Cid name.

A day after they met, Cid had informed her he knew her Paw-Paw they were once student and master. The Cid here was his student when he was in his teens, having been mentored by the old man years ago when he was hired on as a mechanic to some entrepreneur who was trying to establish some economy between worlds. Sophiar (Paw-Paw's last name) took Cid under his wing and started to teach him some of the basics of handling engines and machines before he returned home to Eos.

He also dropped another bombshell of information on the girl's lap, stating that the name "Cid" was an age-old tradition that spans from many generations of the famous mechanics. He took the name as his own since he wanted to distance himself from his world when it first fell to darkness, something like Leon did once. Except he legit forgot his old name and just stuck with Cid. During their first few days working on the ship, he told her the history of their namesake, making references to a few of them from ages long since passed.

One Cid was a leader of a group of outcasts who still used incredible pieces of technology while resurfacing, even more, older pieces of technology, even an airship. While nowadays it wouldn't be anything spectacular given the fact, it was mostly grounded within that world, back then it was the closest thing to a Gummi Ship without it being a Gummi Ship. Another Cid was humbler and a tad bit of a softie (and a total disgrace according to Cid) who used to run some military place for young students to become mercenaries of sorts.

'So, how's that cranky geezer doing anyways', he says, lowering the platform to Cindy as she wipes her hands clean. 'Paw-Paw hadn't done much since we established our shop', she revealed, 'Mostly just lounging around or tinkering with some knick-knacks he finds'. Cid chuckles as he throws her a bottle of water from his tool belt, 'Yeah, figured that grump wouldn't keep them hands of his idle for long'. Cindy nods as she drank her beverage, listening to Cid going on about the diagnostics of the ship and the other bits she's still a little wet behind the ear to understand.

After the king had explained to Cid what the situation was and when Cindy says she was from Eos, the man immediately told them the reason why ships couldn't function right near Eos. There is some sort of oddity about that world's magic that in Cid's words, "Royally screws up" the systems engines, something akin to setting off an EMP (Electro-Magnetic Pulse). He states that for places like Eos they would need some form of a special kind of crystal that counteracts against the magic.

When Cindy brought up the ship was in utter bits when Sora showed up, the man chucked it up to the heartless or nobodies attacking them while their ship was having a massive fit.

While she and Cid would build a ship that would house the crystal needed for the trip, Leon organized a special task group to locate and find the crystal for them. Not that she minded the work, especially when Cid started to show her the ropes of building the ships from scratch, how they could work so well with anything made of gummi, what kind of engines she could make and to add sugar to this delicious cake of amazing, he even told her the gummi could make amazing cars too.

Never had Cindy met a man who could win her heart but here he is.

Taking a break from their hours of work, the two mechanics headed for the outside balcony's to see the city before them and take some fresh air. Well, Cindy did while the man took another drag of his cigarette. Sipping her water, the girl exhaled as she stares into the distance of the world around her, still mesmerized by how different it was compared to back home. She didn't spend every day there in the engine room, she was often out with Ventus or Axel to explore the town to her leisure, meet the locals and some of the Restoration Committee.

The ninja gal certainly reminded her of Prompto's hyperactivity sure but minus the sad attempts at flirting, nervousness and cute hairstyle. She's one of the leaders of the exterminators apparently, from what Zack told her in massive quotations, a glorified scouting leader for the lands outside of the town. Having said that she is fun to be around, very chipper and spirited too, especially when it came to tease her friends or the occasional harmless pranks.

The woman with a mean right Tifa was also a regular visitor to the place whenever she had time to take a break from making art. The woman was looking for someone who disappeared a very long time ago and eventually took a break from searching to lend a hand back home. Cindy took a few lessons from her when it came to self-defense, just in case some unsavory company found her. In the short lessons she had with Tifa, Cindy effectively learned how to break an arm in at least seven different ways.

Let's see how brave the boys back home would be if they touched her butt again~

'Hard to believe we've come so far rebuilding this place in just short of two years', Cid remarked, leaning on the railing. Cindy looked at him as he puts out his cigarette and then flicked off the balcony, a look of nostalgia on his face. 'What happened here?', she asked, leaning on the railing with him, 'Heartless?'. He nods gravely. 'Eleven years back, when those little critters were popping up all over the place, they swarmed our world and eventually turned it into a paradise for themselves'.

'All because of that witch, Maleficent'.

Ever since she was introduced to the RC, a lot of information was divulged to the other world mechanic, especially the enemies Sora and company faced. Of course, the most present danger to them now was a witch who has had her eyes on this world for quite some time, and after further questioning, she was given the details on how she managed to corrupt this world into her dark image. Sure, she hadn't been seen around here for almost a year now and the heartless were dwindling but the guard hadn't relaxed at all.

'And ya'll sure she'll come back? After Sora kicked her keister?', she asked doubtfully. 'Heh, little lady, do ya see that kiddo running around here?', Cid asked, chuckling. 'Ya'll got Zack, Tifa, and Yuffie, plus that Leon guy, what else do ya need?', she says with a smirk. Cid scoffs playfully at her. 'I get your point, but you've gotta remember she's got more heartless up her sleeves than I've got cigarettes in my pockets!'. The man lights one up and takes a puff from it, exhaling the black air from his mouth. 'Not sure if that old witch had given up on taking over, but ya never know'.

Cindy hummed in response, sipping her water in thought…

*Town*

Humming to himself, Axel strolled through the town in peace after finishing off his ice cream. He gave the locals some nods and greetings here and there, some he remembered from his childhood like the old couple that used to run a store here and some of the retired guards.

It was still such a bizarre thing for the man to be in, walking down the streets of his home when he couldn't exactly remember the day, he had lost his heart and turned into a nobody. Despite how far the technology had come, the old buildings he sees are still here, some of the names of streets too along with faces he knew had grown. The man knew them well but, they don't remember him much, some knew him by his hair and his little quote.

For the most part, he kept himself incognito and often claimed he just arrived here. As he strolled down a street with his hands in his pockets, he begins to ponder and muse. It wasn't so long ago he and Kairi were here with Merlin learning how to become efficient wielders of the keyblade, but they had seldom ever left the forest to go explore. He did more so than Kairi, for the sake of getting the ice cream or just for a breather while the princess was ever the more determined student. A small frown makes home on his face when he thought back to the redhead.

The day he learned he'd be training with her was probably the most awkward time he'd ever dealt with, save for one time when Roxas asked him about sex. She certainly didn't hide her discomfort that her fellow keyblade novice was the same man who kidnapped her and tried to use her against Sora, not that he could blame her certainly. Those first few days were awkward enough, but over time after he apologized profusely (a lot more than he needed to according to her), she started warming up to him and even acted more playful.

They didn't spend every waking moment training sure, she'd be writing her letters to Sora that she never sent or chatting with him about their progress while having ice cream. He remembers those chats, talking about his past life before he became a nobody along with some of the time within the Organization, while she'd tell him her past. He recalled the look of surprise on her face when he told her he was from Radiant Garden too, but much like her, it wasn't home to him anymore. Sure, he did have a place within the world of nobodies, but it wasn't home.

The days they trained, slowly mastering the basics and the sparring matches he had with her were some of the best times he's had in a long, long time. That girl was adamant in reaching Sora's level, or in her case being able to stand by his side, she didn't hold back at all in their fights. He could still feel the bruises on himself when he thought his losses. Then came the days where the looming battle dawned on him, as well as his fears.

There were times in the past few months he wished he never regained his heart, it helped deal with the betrayal he witnessed back in the MOM exam. Seeing Isa in those robes again, still working along with that smug jerk Xemnas, fully intending on fulfilling his boss's wishes. Most nights he'd lay in his bed thinking of how he was going to end up fighting his best friend again, and it would be for the final time. He lets a rueful chuckle escape him as he walks down a flight of stairs leading to the town square, fighting his friends seemed to a common occurrence for him of late.

Looking up at the sky above to see the day was still as bright as ever, he wonders how Kairi was doing and if she and Sora hit it off yet. While he wouldn't say it outright, gotta keep the "cool dude" image intact after all, he was hoping she would have at least sent ONE letter to the kiddo. He remembers teasing her about her crush on the boy, jesting that she was getting stronger just to impress him.

He fondly kept that memory of her blushing profusely and muttering that soft but shy "shut up" to him. If he knew girls, he was dead on the munny with her. This said, he wouldn't lie and say he wasn't worried about her, heck only because she had Sora, Riku and Aqua together with her was how he was able to get some sleep.

Axel found himself sitting against one of the walls near the slope, deciding to rest up after his "patrol" and just have some time to think. His mind went back to the early days of his training with Kairi when she started eating the ice cream and…

And then that girl appeared again…

No matter how hard Axel tried to place her name, it was like it was slipping through his fingers like sand. Despite having no memory of her, seeing her again with that smile, innocent and sweet, he felt a pain that couldn't be described. It as if someone had plunged a cold dagger into his heart and twisted it repeatedly, a wave of guilt accompanying it. It was the first time in so long he cried, he had completely forgotten what it felt like to cry.

Kairi changing her hairstyle when she changed into her new clothes didn't help him either because unbeknownst to Kairi, he kept seeing that girl again and again. Yet her name didn't go with her, every time he tried to remember her it just hurt his heart. One thing he did know was somehow she was connected to him and Roxas (calling it a hunch), their time with the Organization, and for this reason, he refuses to let go of his nobody's name or robes.

Exhaling his breath, the pyro took something out of his pocket that he miraculously managed to carry with him from the day he had lost his best friend. An old nearly withered popsicle stick with the very faded carving of the word "winner" along with a few nicks on it. The last thing he had of Roxas before they had a falling out over…over…something, he remembered vaguely, and after finding this on his shelf he couldn't see himself just throwing it in the trash.

He remembers talking to him about this type of prize, saying if someone finds it, they can redeem it for a free ice cream. Smiling fondly at it, he kept it so he could repay the favor to the boy when the time came.

'I see you haven't changed your diet'.

Axel looked up and nearly choked when he saw a familiar face standing before him. Steel-blue hair is neatly parted into long bangs that obscure the right side of his face and leave only one of his bright blue eyes visible.

Wearing a purple ascot as well as the knee-high silver-trimmed boots worn by the other apprentices Axel's seen. His hair is parted in a messier style. He wears a white dress shirt and a grey sweater-vest under his coat. 'It's been quite some time since we've spoken, hasn't it?', he says. Axel scratched his neck, looking away awkwardly as Ienzo watches him patiently. 'Heh, yeah…sorry about the silence', apologized the redhead as he got back to his feet and greeted his former fellow nobody. Ienzo raised a playful brow at Axel before waving off his worries.

'The same could be said about me. I received word a little while ago you've returned to Radiant Garden', he revealed, 'I've just been up the walls with decoding the Master's data as best as I could'. Axel nods in understanding, despite not understanding HALF of what those guys were doing up there. All he cared about was their end game of being able to help Roxas and Naminé get their bodies. 'Either way, it is good to see you again, Lea', he says fondly, before he frowned. 'Or, is it Axel? I forgot which name you go by these days'.

Axel chuckled, ruffling the younger man's hair. 'What part of "got it memorized" did ya not get, shorty?', he teased. Ienzo rolled his visible eye and gently brushed Axel's hand from his head. 'So, how's Dilan and Aeleus? Still the grumpy silent duo?', he asked with a smirk. 'More less grumpy but as silent as always', Ienzo remarked with a playful tone, 'They've been hanging around the castle more often these days'.

Deciding to go for a walk with his friend, Axel followed Ienzo to Ansem's old study room, after the younger man offered to show Axel some updates on their progress. Despite the amount of time that has passed since they all regained their human forms it still perplexed Axel how forgiving the man was. Not his proudest moment among others certainly, but the man of flames certainly recalled him being the very reason Ienzo had returned to his human form much faster than the rest of them despite it not being by Axel's hand.

After everything that's happened and before he joined up with Kairi, he awkwardly apologized to the man for…killing him, essentially. Yet the man merely brushed it off like it was nothing of concern. He sounded more grateful to Axel for "reuniting" him with his heart.

How often does the person you killed thank you for…killing them?

In the study room, the steel blue-haired scientist had gone over most of their discoveries to Axel, showing off the process to place a heart within the replica and essentially bring them to life. Most of the leader of this world's research was lost however as Ienzo revealed that the main brains behind most of the advancements were done by Even, or Vexen, truly. They sat down after Ienzo brewed some of Cid's tea for the two.

'After we've finished the groundwork for the process, we've explained to Sora the way he could help Roxas become his person', he says before sipping his tea. Axel hummed before asking: 'But they'll be able to, ya know, exist together?'. Ienzo nods, 'Of course. Much like how the Replica Riku and our Riku existed together without the other draining the real one', he explained. He lets a small shudder escape him as he looked down at his mug. Axel looked down as well, remembering that was the person who unknowingly brought Ienzo back as a human.

'Sorry', the man sighs, 'It's still a bit of a slow process…remembering how I was…killed'. Axel nodded in understanding, apologizing once more for his hand in the matter. He was waved off with a light laugh. 'It's done now, Axel. We weren't exactly close when we were nobodies if you recall', he says. The redhead nods before he sipped his tea, then stops. 'Ienzo…can I ask ya something?', he says slowly and hesitantly.

'I am not giving you the ingredients to Cid's tea. I'm more afraid of him than I ever will be of the heartless', the man laughs. 'I'm not looking to get ya killed a second-time buddy, just something's that's been bothering me for a while now', he explained. Ienzo nods with a smile, encouraging Axel to speak his mind. The redhead sighs, placing his cup on the table and leaned on it with his elbows. 'It's just, whenever I look at Kairi sometimes, I…I see someone else', he starts.

'Naminé?', Ienzo asked, raising a brow. 'No, no. A girl, with black hair. But she looks so much like Kairi, ya know?', he says. Ienzo hummed in thought, rubbing his chin to recall a person like her, yet nothing came to mind. 'Where did you meet this person?', he questioned. 'I…I don't…', Axel said, trying to recall her. Ienzo sees something in Axel's face, genuine confusion and worry clashed upon his face like he was desperately trying. 'Was this someone you used to know before or after you became a nobody?', Ienzo tries.

'…after', Axel confesses, 'I know that much…a-and, I feel like Roxas knew her too'. Ienzo stands up as he searches within his memories for this person, thinking perhaps she was part of the Organization. However as far as he recalled the only female among them was that volatile and unpleasant woman who controlled lightning. He couldn't recall another woman among them, certainly not one who looked like Kairi. 'Try to tell me something about this person, perhaps your memory will return', he offered.

Axel sat back in his seat and closed his eyes, digging deep into his memories of this person. Strangely he recalled the old bell tower he used to sit on with Roxas. A routine between these two…three…, finish a mission, get some ice cream and just watch the sunset before returning home. It was at best a repetitive routine, but it was something they could do every day just to spend time together, have a laugh and eat ice cream.

Axel could feel the warmth of the sun on his skin, the sounds of the bells tolling gently and not loudly to break his eardrums. He remembers the salty but sweet taste of the ice cream that somehow tasted even better when he was with those two…two?

Yes, he knew there was Roxas, of course, he was there. Yet when he peered deep into his memories, seeing that goofball's smiles, always right next to him with a sweet smile and cheerful glint in her eyes, she was always there. Smiling, enjoying their presence as they welcomed her. Why? Why couldn't he remember her name? And why did it hurt so much?

With a grunt, Axel opened his eyes and shook his head. 'Nothing! I can't remember…', he started but he sees Ienzo looked shocked. That's when Axel felt them, the warm running tears racing down his cheeks again just like before. He shakily raised a hand to them, unbelieving he was once again brought to tears by someone he didn't remember yet somehow knew was important to him. Why? Why was this person so hard to remember, and why did she bring this excruciating pain to his heart? 'Axel…', Ienzo says, placing a hand on his shoulder.

'Who is she, Ienzo? And why does it hurt so damn much when I'm trying to remember her!?', he pleads, slamming his fist on the table. Ienzo says nothing, he had no words to help soothe the agony within his friend's heart. He stands with him none the less, allowing Axel to let this pain wash through him, all the while wondering if perhaps there was another among the Organization that they all had forgotten.

And if so…who was she?

*Outskirts*

Jumping to the top of the cliff, Ventus surveys the landscape ahead of him. So far as all he could see was a canyon with many crevices within the land, not a single ounce of life ahead of him in this empty landscape of violet-blue rock. With a sigh, he turned to the edge of the cliff and hops back down, landing before Zack.

'Nothing. I couldn't see anything', he said with a pout. The man slumps his shoulders with a tired groan. 'Figures…I guess they must have ventured deeper into the canyon then', the SOLDIER says, straightening up. 'We'll have to search the canyons ourselves than'. They both turned to see Aerith approaching them, smiling. Aerith's eyes were green and friendly while her hair was brown and long, she is wearing a carmine pink and white top held up by a string that wraps around her neck. Underneath this top is a pink dress with a horizontal white stripe near the bottom. She wears yet another dress underneath the first one, this dress being white and slightly longer than the first. Ventus nods and follows him, keyblade out and at the ready for any surprises.

In the following few days that's passed since their arrival, after some discussion on Eos and the reason ships don't function, the residential gummi ship expert told them that making the ship was the easy part (as easy a building a brand new ship from scrap is) the hard part was finding the right source to keep everything from falling apart. Luckily for the team, Cid knew a way to help keep their ship functioning.

There is a special that grows within the outskirts of Radiant Garden, one that feeds off the magic and energies coursing through the land and drew power from the city years ago. It's a rare type of crystal absolutely but seeing as the city hadn't any need to harvest them in over fifty years, the engineer was positive there should be a large abundance of them within the canyons. Leon had sent a special task group to find them three days ago, but when no word was sent back to HQ, the mayor assigned Zack to go and find them.

Along with Ventus and Aerith for back up.

Their journey was uneventful save for one or two skirmishes with the heartless that were quickly taken care of by the boys while Aerith healed them. Among the girls he's encountered, Aerith was already Ventus' favorite. She did hug him but only after she took a good look at him and realized he was not indeed Sora. The reason she hugged him regardless was because she says he looked adorable.

And thus, that was the third time a girl had reduced him to a shy meek little man…

Entering the canyon through the narrow passages, Zack up in front with his hand gripping the buster sword for any more surprises with Ventus trailing behind them to keep the rear guard safe. Aerith had some knowledge of the terrain, having to spend most of her free time learning the landscape when not attending to the people or gardens. This region had been left unattended because of the old fortress Maleficent used to reside in. The darkness from that place spread and almost corrupted the landscape, turning the land into nesting grounds for heartless.

Since her departure, however, the land was healing over time.

'So, who exactly are we looking for?', Ventus asks. 'Just some mercenaries we hire occasionally for scavenging', Aerith explained, 'They're not part of the RC, but they're quite handy when we need them to procure some materials for the town or a few crystals'. 'Provide we pay them in treasure, of course', Zack said with a joking tone.

'Treasure?', Ventus asked, 'Like what?'.

'Literal treasure chests filled with most treasure chests are filled with', Aerith giggled, 'I was worried how we would manage to procure such loot, but thanks to Yuffie we filled the basement of treasure'.

'Sheesh…', Ventus says with putting his hands behind his head. 'Maybe I should sign up, the pay sounds great!'.

The cavern slowly expanded to allow the party of three to stretch out and cover more ground. Bluish white crystals sprouted up from the ground, walls and ceiling white glowed in a hue of white light, showing them their way. Zack raised a hand to halt the movement, frowning when he saw the path splits into two corridors. He sighs and turned to the other two. 'We'll have to go our separate ways for a little while', he laments. Aerith nodded before looking to Ventus, who smiles confidently. 'Don't worry about me, I'll be fine!'.

'Just stay safe alright?', Aerith insists. He nodded, promising her. With that, the group splits up as the couple take the left and Ventus takes the right.

Journey down the corridor while taking in the sights, the boy's mind begins to wander and slowly it reaches the destination, the day he was awoken after nearly twelve years of sleep. The moment he felt his heart return where it belonged when he felt Aqua's life was in danger, the power that ran through him to help protect his friend just as she did for him.

Being reunited with her, seeing the absolute joy in her eyes without tears or sadness was a gift in of itself. Then came meeting the person who willingly let him use his own heart as a place to rest and restore himself, who looked almost like a twin brother to the boy who nearly tore him apart. Despite similar appearances, their personalities were as opposite as fire and water, Sora being a cheerful and hopeful radiance of light.

After gathering the Guardians of Light, he reflects on the promise he and Aqua made, to bring Terra home when the battle was over. She told him what's transpired since he entered his coma, how long it had been since then, what's being going on and where she was. Their time was so short sadly, only a few hours before they got word Sora and his two long-time companions went missing. He remembers how desperate the group was about finding them, especially with the final battle drawing nearer.

And to make matters worse, no sooner did he return to his room by Aqua's request to rest before they started the search, he learned from Axel Kairi used the Star Shard and not only did she disappear to who knew where but so did Aqua. Not even a day had passed and he was once again separated from his long-time friend.

Thanks to Kairi, Yen Sid had ordered everyone to remain at the tower until either Sora found a way to bring everyone back home or they could figure out where exactly they all ended up in. That didn't stop Riku though, taking one of their ships and flying out to track them down. But because of that, they lost another keyblade master, and then there were three remaining. It irritated Ventus to no end, spending those days waiting and pacing around in the tower whenever he wasn't training alongside Axel thanks to Mickey mentoring the two.

In time he decided to follow his fellow teens examples and headed off on his own to find them, but instead, he finds Cindy using Sora's ship. In a way, his disobedience helped them in the long run.

Passing by a clear wall of fragile crystal, he suddenly jumped when he heard a very loud noise that echoed in the corridor. It sounded close by, and not a weapon a heartless would use. He runs deeper into the cavern, keyblade drawn as he rounded a corridor and came to a small clearing where he sees several heartless and two women fighting them off, one of which was carrying those loud firearms he hated. The heartless were just armored soldiers and two large bodies, nothing to worry about luckily.

Ventus jumps off the ledge and dives to the heartless, landing behind them and earning a few soldier's attention. He charges his keyblade with lightning coating it before he dashed in the air, spinning like a cyclone and striking the soldiers, decimating them. He jumps into the air and front flips onto the head of a soldier, bouncing off it with a powerful kick that sent him into the air higher. Reaching behind himself with the tip of the keyblade at his waist, he channeled some of his magic to perform an old technique he learned years ago.

A shotlock attack called Pulse Bomb.

His keyblade tip glowed bluey white and then he swung it over his shoulder down, throwing several spheres down onto the horde of soldiers, detonating and destroying the forces of darkness and reducing them down to one final large body. The crystals were shattered and broken apart, leaving only shards of the beautiful materials on the ground while Ventus got to his feet and eyed the last large body.

Spinning his keyblade in his usual reverse grip until it started to shine with light, Ventus crouched down and placed his hand before him on the ground like he was readying himself to break into a sprint. Instead, Ventus suddenly launched himself forward with his keyblade bursting with light. Bringing his keyblade down onto the fat heartless, he sliced through even the incredible dense rubber-like body of the creature, cutting right through it and flying forward. Sadly, for the boy, he didn't consider the amount of his speed and how much he should've held back because he was stilling rocketing forward.

He then crashed into one of the very people he was *supposed* to protect and practically tackled the poor woman into the wall. They crashed into the ground and wall with a thud, but Ventus received a much softer landing. He lets a groan out as he shook his head, his face buried in the cloth and stomach of the woman. He slowly raised his head and came face to face a pair of cleavage before his face. Suddenly the boy went scarlet, steam hissing out of his ears while yelling in shock, jumping off the woman, waving his hands.

'I'M SO SORRY! I-I-I-I-I DIDN'T MEAN…! I….', he tried, frantically waving his hands, stammering and rambling apologizes like no tomorrow. Instead of getting an earful or worse several bullets, he got a giggle instead. 'Talk about first impressions, not the typical heroic rescue', the woman says, getting to her feet. Ventus ceased his frantic movement, lowering his hands to look at the woman…and somehow his cheeks went even redder than he thought possible.

She dons a modified halter-neck top with the symbol of a "J" across the chest (that left VERY little to the imagination) and a pink hood. Yellow armbands over her biceps, a black bracelet on her left wrist, and denim boyshorts. She carries a pouch on her left hip over an ankle-length blue and white half skirt and wears laced knee-high boots. Short cropped brunette hair with a red braid hanging down to her ankles. Her eyes were two separate colors, left eye blue, and her right green.

'I told ya Yunie, you'd get all the boys to fall for ya in those!', her friend teased, in more…questionable clothing than her friend. Long blonde hair loose and braided, tied atop her head, adorned with colorful beads and held by a blue bandanna.

The girl wears a yellow g-string bikini and an olive green mini-skirt, carrying two pouches at her waist and wearing ruffle sleeves. A long yellow and red scarf hangs loosely around her neck. Her eyes were strange to Ventus, they were green like her friend's but swirled pupils. "Yunie" giggled shyly at her friend, before turning to the frozen stiff Ventus with his cheeks so bright pink he probably could have been mistaken for a stoplight at this point.

'Anyways, who are you?', the mismatched eyed woman asked. Ventus stammered and gasped like he suddenly forgot his name and his brain was struggling to choose what to concentrate on, staring at the girls or find that name given to the boy. Luckily his brain choose the wiser option and he said: 'Ventus! M-My name's Ventus!'.

'Ventus, huh?', the blond girl said with a cat-like smile. 'Cute~…hey, wait a second'. She approached him, staring deep into his eyes while rubbing her chin bending slightly due to her slight height over the boy. She snapped her fingers and stood up. 'You wouldn't happen to be related to Sora, would ya?', she asked. 'N-No! I mean…I know him, b-b-but he's just a friend!', he explained, hating how much he stammered just to get that one sentence out. How the heck does Axel and the others do this so easily?

'He does look like Sora…', Yunie commented. 'Well, I'm Yuna, and this is my cousin, Rikku'. The blonde known as Rikku gave him a cheerful smirk as the boy shyly smiled back. 'S-S-So, did you guys find the crystal Cid asked you for?', he asked. Yuna nods and from her pouch, takes out a mesmerizing crystal that almost reminded Ventus of that orichalcum ore, except this one was sky blue with red waves around it. 'This is what he showed us in the book, and we've been trying to find our way out of here', Yuna explained, 'But then the heartless kept piling up and forced us to hide'.

'Yeah!', Rikku said with a pout, 'We've been stuck here for two days because of those jerks!'. Ventus rubbed his neck, wondering why they sent these two if they couldn't handle the heartless. Shaking his head, he didn't care so much. He just needed to get out of here and back to Radiant Garden. 'Well, me, Zack and Aerith were sent to find you girls', he explained, 'So if you want, I can show you the way out'.

Yuna nodded gratefully and gestured the boy to lead them out. Taking point, the boy kept his keyblade out just in case more heartless showed, desperately trying not to think on the two's attires. Never had he been so grateful Kairi and Aqua dressed so proper, how the heck does Axel do this so well? Plus, unless it was those hormones of his, he swore he felt their eyes on his backside.

*Eos*

As they all got in their seats as the train announced take off, Noctis couldn't help but watch Aqua. She looked very…ticked. Her eyes burned with annoyance and restraint; arms wrapped around her as she squeezed her arms like she was trying to control her temper. The prince glanced at Gladiolus, equally confused and concerned.

'Uh Blue, you ok?', he asked uncertainly.

'Not…in particular', Aqua ground out with obvious contempt. 'I can't explain it, but I feel like someone has impure intentions with Ven'. Gladiolus and Noctis glanced at each other, uncertain how to answer to the woman's…senses? Then the blue head turned to Donald and Goofy. 'Guys, does Sora happen to know anyone who has certain quirks unsuited for Ven?', she interrogated.

The two looked at each other, both shrugging and shaking their heads.

'Why do you ask?', Goofy says.

'…no reason', Aqua huffs.

There was an awkward silence amongst the party, nobody had a proper response to give nor could they figure out exactly what was bothering the woman. Lunafreya watched on nearby with confusion, before turning to her ghostly companion, Naminé. The blonde had this smile that is a mixture of worry and amusement. When she felt the former Oracle's question gaze, Naminé shyly turned to her and whispered: 'Suffice to say, if somebody does something to Ventus that would taint his innocence, someone is going to die'.

Lunafreya glanced back at Aqua, and using the wisdom of the Oracle, decided to return to her book in silence.

*Outskirts*

By the time Ventus' company left the caverns, they spot Zack and Aerith with another member of Yuna's group. Scarily the woman had red eyes and short, silver hair. She wears a black leather ensemble complete with high-heeled boots, elbow-length gloves, and a folded top. She wears a silver pendant threaded with a barbed wire chain. Next to her was a curved blade with a skull motif that connected the handle and blade. One word to sum up this woman for Ventus: scary. Zack waved at the trio, filling Ventus in they found "Paine" (the scary lady) just fighting off a few heartless, something about tallying up her kill count.

Once they showed the crystal they needed, they made their way back to Radiant Garden, all the while Ventus was on the receiving end of Yuna and Rikku's attention.

*Radiant Garden*

Back at the castle as the day slowly ended, they handed the crystal to the two mechanics, the male of the two grumbled something about "taking too damn long" and went back to work. Cindy gave the girls her thanks but unless it was Ventus, he could've sworn he saw the woman do a double-take on Yuna and Rikku as if surprised to see so much skin.

Maybe the blonde mechanic was more aware of her choice of wardrobe than he thought. Shortly after that, he and the others reunited with Axel before retiring to their beds as Cindy and Cid state the ship will be ready to take off tomorrow. Finally, he thought, they could resume their search for Aqua and the others. As they headed for their rooms, the boy so eager to get some sleep before the big day, he felt two hands on his shoulders.

He was spun around to face Yuna and Rikku, and then the next he knew, he felt two pairs of lips touching his cheeks. Rikku winks at him before sauntering off while Yuna gave him a playful smile. 'To say thank you for helping us', she said, waving and heading off to her room. The boy stood there still as a statue, cheeks dark red as if all the blood in his body went to his cheeks and depleted his brain to cease all function.

Axel just looked at the boy with the biggest cat grin he could make. '*Whistles* Damn Ven! Four girls giving you passionate hugs and then two kisses? Somebody's a girl magnet after all!', laughed Axel.

Ventus did not say a word and just entered his bedroom, closing the door behind him. Axel however just leaned against the wall for a moment…and then heard a muffled scream of frustration. With that sound in his head, the pyro waltzed off to bed.

With his face smothered by the pillow, Ventus lets out several groans and swears (by Aqua's standards) as he tried to control his hormones.

The sooner they leave this world and its many vixens, the better…

*Next Day*

Following day, Cindy and Cid worked through the night to make the final preparations to the GS, apply the armor, weapons, navigation systems, and so on before installing the crystal into the main engines. Several test simulations later and after a quick physical test by the main man himself, the two mechanics declared the Highwind Mark XV ready for space travel.

It was decided Mickey would be the pilot, having more experience in flying than everyone else, while Cindy would be responsible for everything else. Aerith had procured some provisions for the team, potions and other necessities for their journey as well. She also said Zack found something important during a while ago and figured Ventus would know what it is, so she left it in a crate for him to inspect later. Ventus was the first one on board before they even prepared for launch, stating he was just eager to get going and couldn't sleep.

And judging from the menacing glare he gave Axel when he was about to elaborate on the boy's desires to go soon, Cindy had a good feeling the poor boy has had enough of having blood dominate his cheeks.

As the ship powered up with the hanger bay doors opening, the king ordered everyone to buckle up as the ship was tilted upwards. He pressed the button and the ship blasted off into the cosmos.

However, while the warriors of light face an unknown darkness in the new world, a secret group of the dark is already scheming….

*Villains Vale*

Deep within the ruined fortress that was once home to one of the most powerful beings of the darkness, two of Sora's oldest enemies walked through the ruined hallway. The first being is Pete, probably the least threatening enemy to Sora given his track record of constant failing due to his bumbler tendencies.

The second is the most dangerous of the two, the mistress of all evil known as Maleficent. Fair and green-skinned, Maleficent's shining, yellow eyes are heavily shadowed with violet make-up, and her lips are painted red. Her head is topped with a black-horned headdress. Wearing a long, tattered black robe with a purple trim and maroon edges which flare out. She carries a staff with a glowing green orb at the tip and finally wears a golden ring with a circular black stone in it.

'I can't believe we're back here again! What the heck happened to finding that black box!?', Pete complained, 'I thought we were done here!'. Maleficent says nothing and ignores her bumbling fool of a minion. Indeed, however, he had a point, the black box they had been hunting for had been her priority, but the call she received took her attention. Especially when she felt the darkness from it, a darkness so vile and cruel it demanded her attention.

They reached the old meeting room, once she would dominate her council, lead them to promises of power. Now it reminds her of the numerous defeats at the hands of the boy wielding that keyblade, all it was missing were several tombstones of her fallen subordinates. Pete grumbles more about being ignored, yet Maleficent's eyes narrowed upon entering the room as she spots a man dressed in red, leaning against the wall with a book in his hand.

With dark red hair that was tainted by the darkness, with a crimson long coat, crossed leather straps, a symbol she knew nothing of, black boots, shoulder guards in black, and a large sword strapped to his waist. He didn't acknowledge the two, merely absorbed by his book. Pete glared at him, saying: 'And whose this wannabe rock star?'. The man didn't reply as Pete approached him, but then when he glared at them, the fat man quickly went meek and weak at the knees.

'Your servant should know his place, Maleficent', he says indifferently while closing his book. 'Your standards have dropped quite considerably these past few years'. Maleficent glared at the man in red as he stood off the wall. 'Why are you here, Genesis?', she demanded. Pete looked at her, obviously, she knew this stranger but offered no other words beyond that. Genesis says nothing but gestures to the seat where once Maleficent used to use to discuss plans with her former circle of Masters of the Dark.

When she looked to see who had stolen her spot, for the first time Maleficent froze. A skeletal creature with green, rotting flesh and two gnarled horns, wearing a tattered dark red cloak. Despite his frail and grotesque form, the darkness that radiated from him was as if Maleficent was in the deepest darkest part of the realm of darkness, the power behind him felt as if being any near him would rip her heart apart.

She gave the man on her throne a bow, shocking Pete as his jaw fell to the ground in disbelief. 'Your…majesty', she says, furthering Pete's shock. The Horned King formed a crooked grin. 'You've fallen quite below your standards, Maleficent', the king taunts, his voice echoey and deathly cold like he turned the entire temperature to a frozen wasteland. 'Your failings have reached my ears, and I'd like to say I'm surprised by them if I had any form of faith in your plans'.

He lifted his skeletal rotted hand, a black swirl of darkness formed. 'Losing Radiant Garden to the light, our grip on the worlds loosened to the point of becoming obsolete, and now we have been reduced to this', he listed. 'And you waste time, pursing a box that may not exist'. Maleficent grits her teeth in fury but wisely keeps her tongue in check. Pete himself looked horrified and gobsmacked by the exchange, nobody dared to even SPEAK to Maleficent like this.

The Horned King scoffs, dismissing the darkness in his hand. 'No matter…this is an opportunity for us', he says. The two seekers of the black box looked at him as he says: 'The guardians of light have all left this world, they shall not return here for some time'.

'Without Sora or his companions, Radiant Garden's sole guardians are the RC, nothing more', Genesis added.

With a dark skeleton grin, the Horned King declares his plan: 'I believe it is time to reclaim what was ours…'.

A/N:

*Slams face into desk* This has got to be the most scattered chapter I've done.

Mostly humour, some angst and plot. Sorry there wasn't a lot of FF character moments…buuuuuut. This won't be the last time we see them! Promise! We'll be going back to Noctis and company next time!

Questions:

Q1: Does anyone miss Xion?

Q2: What did you think of the character interactions?

Q3: Did anyone care that Yuna and co were human sized?

Q4: Did I go a bit far with tormenting Ventus?

Q5: Can anyone guess who the Horned King and Genesis are?

Q6: What did you think of the humour in this chapter?

So a bit of a heads up, there will be five chapters coming up to the Christmas holidays, so I won't be doing anymore until 2020. Just so everyone knows.

As always everyone, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	45. Chapter 45

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 45

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

*Train to Cartanica*

Unbeknown to the members of the party, Aqua had always wanted to take a train ride to anywhere really. While many would find this to be odd, given the many methods of transports, so even superior, she has at her disposal, she had always wanted to experience a train ride.

Maybe it was something that most folks had used and from what she had been told they are often moments of peace. Plus, she would have been able to sit back and watch the world she was in go by her, take in the landscape and have a cup of tea while doing so, much like how she used to drive for the others.

However, that experience was ruined because of the Eternal Night, casting the world in a dark and cold shadow. Not that Niflheim had a very spectacular landscape, to begin with, much of the land was desolate and filled with abandoned facilities and buildings. A shame she mused, learning that so much of the natural resources were sucked dry because of the empire's need to produce their magitek army in such mass. Aqua wondered how much of the land back on the mainland was ruined thanks to those fools.

A day had passed since they arrived on the train, their destination was Tenebrae first to gain intel on the imperial capital before forming a plan of attack, or at the wisdom of Ignis, infiltration. The occupants of this train were minimal due to the ever-lasting nights, so they didn't have to worry about lodgings. The benefits of the train was despite it not having the same powerful lights as the cities, it was moving quick enough to evade any daemons from popping on board.

As a precaution, Aqua and Kairi both used their light to bath the locomotive in a power ward to repel any daemons. Lunafreya did what she could to assure the other passengers when she could, and thanks to her brief but useful lessons with Aqua she had enough magic to soothe the people.

Looking out the window as the world bypassed them, she lets out a breath, disappointed her first train ride was tainted by such a bleak turn of events. Maybe when this was over, she would take a proper train ride to somewhere. Her thoughts were broken when a plastic cup of tea was offered to her, held by the blonde. Smiling back at him while taking hers with a "thanks", she sipped it as he joined her in the seats.

'Just thought you could use something hot, it's pretty chilly today', Prompto says, sipping his beverage. The woman nodded in gratitude, leaning back into her seat. 'It feels cold every day since Altissia, doesn't it?', she asked softly. 'Yeah', Prompto agreed, leaning forward, 'It's like winter except ya know, always dark and scary'. Aqua giggles softly at him, not entirely disagreeing with what he's saying as she turned her gaze to the darkened world.

'Hey um, Luna says at the next station, there's supposed to be a royal tomb', Prompto says with a shrug, 'But, do you think the arm is still there after everything that's happened?'. Aqua ponders the good question, not certain if the weapon would technically remain there since Ardyn's defilement of the Lucis line and given the fact Noctis was only able to reclaim them thanks to the keyblade restoring him she would assume only the arms he did manage to collect before then have returned to him.

Still, when he was given the Trident of the Oracle, a royal arm Lunafreya obtained in Altissia to summon the Tidemother, he managed to absorb it. Granted it was only temporary because he relinquished it to Lunafreya, but it was still an arm he didn't collect before he lost his powers. While it is possible that the tomb could no longer home the weapon of his ancestors, it would be too valuable to dismiss based on possibilities.

'If the trident was still around when Bahamut was destroyed, it is possible the other royal arm could still be there', Aqua theorized sipping her cup. 'Besides, it would be a good opportunity to gauge Noct's and Luna's skills before we head further into the imperial lands'. 'You sure? I mean Noct's pretty wet behind the ears with the keyblade sure, but he's got the other arms too', Prompto asked. 'Of course, if all else fails he can fall back on them, but it'd be prudent of us to make sure he can use it proficiently as well', Aqua surmised.

'Regardless, Luna's still in need of experience. No sense in her first battle being something a grievous as storming the imperial capital'. Prompto hummed in thought before shrugging. 'Yeah, I guess you're right. We'll grab her some EXP and then boom, we'll be fine!'. Aqua blinked at him tilting her head. ' "EXP"?', she inquires. Prompto laughed with a wave, saying it wasn't anything. She rolled her eyes, thinking it must be something relating to those games they've hooked Riku and Kairi on to. The woman couldn't fathom why they found so much amusement in a game of bright lights and colors, it was more annoying than fun.

And it had nothing to do with the fact it reminded her of another game she played with Terra and Ven years ago…and despised every time…

*Cabin*

Gently stirred awake despite the peaceful sleep he hadn't had for quite some time, Noctis opened his eyes to see smiling down on him was Lunafreya, tilting her head slightly. Gently stroking her king's hair while having his head in her laps alone, she giggled as his cheeks turned pink.

'Good morning', she greets shyly yet happily. The prince stammers a "morning" back, not moving from his pillow. In their room alone, when Noctis was still sluggish and sleepy she offered him to rest his head on her lap to get some sleep before they arrived at the station. The king stared up at her as she kept stroking his hair, trying his best to keep his cheeks from glowing anymore and relish the petting the woman gave him.

'Did you sleep well?', she asked. 'Y-Yeah…', he said. Begrudgingly the king sits up and sits on the bed. Instead of getting up from it to Lunafreya's surprise the king just shifted her and laid them together on the mattress with the woman inside the bed (her back against the wall while Noctis was on the edge). Noctis looked at her as she giggles. 'Are you still intending on staying in bed?', she asked, disbelievingly.

'Would you be surprised if I said "yes"?', Noctis questioned, smirking at her. 'It would seem the stories of your sleeping habits weren't exaggerated by your friends', Lunafreya teases, giggling girlishly at the king. Laying together on the bed with the woman shifting closer to him, gently resting her cheek on his chest and listening to the gentle beat of his heart. The strong heart that restored the hope within the party when despair sank into them.

Shyly the king wrapped his arms around her and held the woman close to him, stroking her unkempt bed hair. Times like these, with just the two of them in peace and security of their solitude, had become scarce or straight up non-existent ever since they had left Altissia. These moments with just the two became precious to Noctis, holding the woman who had been taken from him and locked away for so long still made him fear he was stuck in a nightmare with her being his only solace of peace.

Gently brushing a stray hair from her beautiful eyes that enraptured him, allowing his thumb to brush against the warmth of her cheek was a privilege he feared he may never have. It was still a miracle that he could even share a bed with her, wake up to see she was the first thing he would ever see as a new day dawns for him and her.

He still remembers how awkward he was when he was sharing a bed with her, the amount of blood that went to his cheeks nearly convinced his body it was no longer able to function at such a blush. Yet the woman not only took it in stride, but she was the one who encouraged him to join her in their bed. It still was the best sleep he had ever gotten, when he felt her legs tangling with his own, the way she cuddled up to him and slept on his chest, the security he provided for her.

If things were going well, then he hoped those nights of the two sharing a bed would continue long into the future.

That's not to say she and he went to bed and slept all the time, there have been nights where they would as Gladiolus would have put it "fooled around in bed" but nothing as serious as becoming intimate with each other. Despite how comfortable Lunafreya acted and how Noctis would allow her to be in control, now wasn't the time for them to be indulging in sacred activities as such. With everything happening around them, fornicating isn't a priority.

Not that Gladiolus wasn't hinting at him especially when Noctis was removing his jacket he felt a strange shaped piece of plastic and rubber in his pocket. When he pulled it out, his cheeks burst into flames and eyes widened to the size of a car wheel.

A condom.

Never had Noctis thrown something so far and fast in his life out the window.

'Are you, gonna be ok when we get to Tenebrae?', he asked, soft and low. The woman frowns in worry before speaking: 'I don't know what the empire has done to my former home, with myself in your custody and my brother's passing'. Noctis hummed in understanding, trying not to think about Ravus' passing after Ignis explained to him what's happened when he woke up. He gently rubbed her arm comfortingly, something he noticed she took greatly too as she nuzzled into his chest.

This wonderous feeling within him, he wondered if this was how Sora felt whenever he and Kairi did any lovey-dovey stuff. 'But I want to see my home, unshackled by the empire's chain', she says earnestly. Noctis nods in agreement but then decided that these moments should not be hindered by fears or foreshadows. He smiles softly and pats her head. 'Remember back at the castle, we used to use those secret passages you had for late-night snacks?', he asked.

She giggles mischievously. 'How could I forget? Those nights were we spent indulging in sugary treats and were high on sugar for the entire day after?', she says with a smile. 'And the fact you had a more fearsome sweet tooth then even me?', Noctis asked with a cheeky smile. The woman's cheeks turned dusty red with a small frown, not angry but certainly embarrassed. 'Hush, I was twelve, by the rights of a child I could indulge'.

Noctis smirks at her childish pout, loving this playful side of her she never showed anyone else. Certainly not what one would expect from the proper and pure Oracle the empire dolled up regularly that's for certain. They both share a laugh between them, allowing the other relish the warmth of their embrace as once again sleep began to tug on them. Throwing the blanket over them after Lunafreya settled her head on his chest, both down to just a t-shirt and their smalls.

As Lunafreya drifts off into slumber, Noctis kisses her on the forehead and utters the words he swore he'll be able to tell her one day.

*Later…*

A gentle shake on the shoulders woke the prince up, making him glance to see Kairi placing a finger on her lips. She gestures the sleeping woman near him, likely not wanting to startle her. 'Hey', he croaks tiredly, 'What's going on?'.

'We're at Cartanica', Kairi reveals. At this, Noctis gently sits up without disturbing his lover and looked at Kairi with a serious look. 'How bad is it?', he asked. Kairi gave him a tired look and shakes her head, 'It's pretty much all abandoned from the looks of it', she explains, 'Gladio, Riku, and Aqua went out first to clear out the daemons while Prompto and Goofy checked on the lights'. The moment the train had arrived at the station, Gladiolus organized a party to wipe out the daemons and/or heartless prowling the area while Prompto, being the only real tech guy amongst them, checked for power.

Kairi herself had been put on guard duty with Donald. Not that she disagreed with Gladiolus' choice obviously since she and Donald were the only ones left to keep the trio safe. 'Where's Iggy?', he whispered. 'In the dining car', she says, 'He said he was listening to the news from the radio'. Kairi then turned to the entrance and headed out to give him and Lunafreya time to get dressed, saying: 'I'm heading there to check on him and get him ready'. With a quiet thanks from the king and after she left, he woke Lunafreya up and together the got dressed.

Leaving their shared room and stepping outside the train with the others after Gladiolus texted them the all-clear. On the station grounds, Noctis looks around to see the desolation and disparity of this place, not a soul in sight and everything looked to have been abandoned as soon as the idea of night reigning forevermore sank in. He hears the empty winds whistling, bits of cloth and rubbish blew past them with their only solstice being the light Prompto managed to revive.

The king looked to his guardians approaching him, weapons dismissed. 'Anyone around?', he asked, looking to his shield. 'No one. Looks like they've abandoned this place', the shield explained. 'Daemons were making themselves at home in the abandoned trains, the restaurant, pretty much anywhere'.

'No sign of heartless', Aqua adds with a nod, 'Just daemons'. He looked to Lunafreya and Kairi, they shook their heads. 'Nope, not sensing their darkness', Kairi assures, backing up Aqua. 'Least for now'. 'Let's hope they'll stay away from here while we look for the arm', Noctis said, 'Last thing we need is two of them ganging upon us'.

Before they would go below the station where the arm is supposedly residing, the party had tried to make this station at least hospitable for their fellow passengers, Kairi and Lunafreya using their light to empower the lights to repel the daemons while Prompto tends to Ignis and the others hunt down the remaining daemons that managed to avoid getting caught by the team. Inside the abandoned restaurant, Ignis settles in one of the empty seats, Prompto offering to make him a coffee while they wait.

Resting in the seat, his cane lying across his laps as he intently listened to Prompto's movements and his occasional blunders when he hears things being knocked or shuffled aside. The man withholds a sigh, not out of impatience to Prompto's slow and clumsy searches, the boy was doing the best he could do, no what truly frustrated him was everything else that had transpired for him. The meetings with her grace and the situation unfolding before them, just only hearing the turmoil's the world was facing not only terrified him, but it reminded him just how inadequate he was.

Since Altissia, he had been desperate to quickly adapt to his new disability and master using his ears to fight and detect his foes, but that became more difficult as time went on. He desperately tried to master it but with them moving from one place to another so frequently he had no time to adapt to it, much less fighting with it. Sure his hearing had grown to be more acute than his companions, but a minor privilege compared to being able to combat.

Uselessness stirred within him, unworthy of having even the chance to join Noctis on this journey. What good could he possibly be to his majesty if his party would have to constantly watch out for him? His strategies were no use if they would have to relay every bit of information to him, not to mention how could he become a burden to Prompto and the others constantly caring for him?

Now likely the tomb would be in a place inhabited by man and home to vicious beasts and likely the creatures of the dark. Fear clutched his throat like it threatened to strangle him, but he resisted the cold chill, knowing this is nothing but a trial to him, to test him. If he could provide aid to his company, if he could still find a way to keep Noctis safe, then perhaps there is a chance he may be able to complete this journey with his brothers.

This thought keeps him hopeful and pushes those horrible thoughts away from his mind. He refused to be anywhere away from his family.

*Fodina Caestino*

After establishing a place of safety for the people on the train, the party of ten used the elevator to descend to the lower levels where according to the former Oracle, the royal arm was said to be further down.

While much of the party had their concerns over the tomb still possessing the royal arm after everything's occurred, it would be a waste of a chance to empower Noctis based on speculation. Some, however, were very concerned with Ignis tagging along with his state, but Noctis brought him along none the less. Whether he did this as a sign of faith to his advisor or to keep the team together is up for debate, but none had commented on it as they descended to the lower levels.

No sooner had the group arrived, rain began to fall on them, and the darkness of this abandoned site was greater than above. They couldn't even see their hands in front of them thanks to it, furthering their worries. 'Sheesh…it's like walking into a dark room', Prompto grunts, obviously worried about what resided in the darkness. Kairi steps forward, however, summoning Oathkeeper and bathing it in light. Slowly their path brightened up in a hue of golden light with the redhead leading the way.

She turned to the group with a smile. 'Light bulb Kairi, at your service!', she laughed. 'At you're brightening up our days…', Gladiolus remarked, earning laughs and groans at once. Ignis smiled weakly at that, least it was a relief someone else could fulfill his role as the pun man. With Kairi in front of Aqua and Noctis, they climbed down a slope that was nearly submerged entirely in water, the mud sucking in the footwear of the party.

With Kairi's light helping grant sight to the group they discovered by looks alone this is place was a quarry of sorts judging from the amount of heavy machines that were scattered around the area. When asked, Lunafreya explained this place used to be mined for valuable resources, it was how the citizens of Cartanica worked and how they were able to survive, but after the empire depleted the resources it was the well had dried up.

In time they were forced to give up on mining and find other means of getting by. Mostly through commercial means such as restaurants and using the train to bring in tourists.

Prompto stayed in the back with Donald and Goofy to keep an eye on Ignis along with Lunafreya, the woman with her trident out to help herself with the roots that arched over their feet or tried to trip them.

Reaching the end of the slope, they came to an area flooded with knee-high water and populated by the gurangatch prowling in the waters. They stopped at the edge of the lake, looking at one another. Aqua stepped forward with the shield of the king, weapons drawn. 'We'll take care of them; everyone stay on the bank. If heartless or daemons show up, then you know what to do', she instructed.

Together the two rushed into the lake, leaving the others at the bank weapons drawn. Aqua slashes past one as she cartwheeled away from one of their jaws before they snapped onto her. Gladiolus immediately cuts the long maw off the beast with the Masamune, throwing the dismembered limb into the air. The shield raised his weapon of choice to catch the closing jaws of the beast as it snapped its massive mouth onto it.

With the shield lodged between the maw, it was left open for Aqua to fire a chilling mist that caked the body of the aquatic being in frost and ice until its movement stills. Freezing the beast allowed Gladiolus to sweep his blade as the woman ducked underneath it and he shatters the wildlife's skull into frozen pieces while Aqua erects a barrier to protect the two of them with her free hand as more tried to take bites out of them. The master aims her keyblade and creates one Magenta spell behind the four wildlife, sucking them up.

'Gladio! All yours!', Aqua announces as the shield turned to the grouped beasts. He smirked and ran at them, leaps into the air with his blade and them slammed the weapon upon the grouped beasties. The strike was so great the party felt tremors from his attack as he decimates the opposition, none had even survived a second against his mighty attack. Yanking his sword back from the crushed beasties, he turned and gave an arm bump to Aqua, smiling approvingly.

'Nice work', she praised. He nods and waves down the others to join them, yelling to watch their steps as well.

With the beasts removed and out of the way, Lunafreya deduced that the royal arm was likely to be further down the quarry, deeper into the earth. The group finds another slope riddled with deep mud and roots that reached over their feet, steep slopes and with the rain growing heavier, likely made the path more dangerous. Still, they carried on with a slow pace, Noctis helping Lunafreya while the trio guide Ignis.

'Mind your steps', Aqua calls out, gracefully walking down the slope. A yell caught her attention and down went Prompto with several bumps and curses until he reached the end of the slope. He fell on his back but yelled "I'M OK!" with a thumbs up.

Noctis rolled his eyes as Lunafreya giggles at him, Riku jumping down and helping the blonde back to his feet. 'And here I was worried about Luna or Iggy tripping up…', he sighed, patting his friend on the back. 'I'm not entirely sure if I should feel insulted or relieved…', Ignis muses quietly. Just as the party got closer Riku yelled out to stop. Before him and Prompto is a large piece of machinery that barred their paths.

The silver head breathes in annoyance while Prompto looked around it to see if there was something that could move. He shook his head with a groan, before turning to Riku. 'Think you guys could, I dunno, cut it to pieces?', Prompto suggested hopefully. 'I've got a bad feeling we'll have better luck collapsing the path itself', he replies with a huff. They both climbed back up to meet the others, explaining the situation to them.

'Well now, what do we do?', Donald asked, looking around.

'Destroying the machine will potentially collapse the path on us, and time isn't a luxury can afford to spend willy-nilly', Aqua laments, crossing her arms. Ignis cleared his throat and said: 'Perhaps if we can get the motor running, we may be able to move it'.

'If I recall', Lunafreya says, gesturing behind them, 'There is a station that has several control monitors, perhaps one of them can make the vehicle move?'.

'I'll have a look, just so we're not all trudging back up there', Kairi offers, jogging back up regardless. When she got there, the princess looked at the buttons and system, seeing a faded but eligible warning signs hammered to the wall near the controls. Skimming through it, she looked at the controls and found a generator nearby. Unused and likely devoid of power, Kairi summons her keyblade and jolts the generator with a morsel of lightning, not wanting to overpower it and explode.

She's had enough of explosions lately.

The generator rumbled and shook with the noise of coming to life, and with it, she used her keyblade once more to turn on the machines. Following the instructions, Kairi pressed a few switches while simultaneously praying she doesn't accidentally crush the others doing so. Kairi hears movement, groaning machinery and sounds of wood breaking apart, but also heard her friends call her.

Re-joining them and seeing the vehicle was moved a smidgen but enough for them to pass through, the group ventured onwards and down another slope. Not riddled with gnarly roots and thanks to the large tree acting like cover the ground was more solid and sturdy for them to walk. Closer to their goals and closer to leaving this place, Prompto suddenly spoke up. 'So uh, where are all the daemons?', he says aloud.

'Don't tell me ya miss them!', Donald grumbled, eyeing the blond. 'I miss them like I miss sleeping next to Gladio!', Prompto laughed. 'Aren't you always clinging them him though?', Riku asked with a smirk, 'Every time I wake up, you're always got your arms around him, like a loving boyfriend'. There were snickers and giggles as the blond pouts, but Ignis intervenes. 'Prompto poses a good question', he says, 'We haven't been attacked by daemons since we've arrived'.

This ceased the laughter and put everybody on alert, taking in the man's concerns. Aside from the wildlife, which in of itself wasn't an issue for them by now, they hadn't encountered anything that required them to go on full alert. None complained, however, having Lunafreya as a newbie and with Ignis in a less than ideal state did not boost morale of the party. Goofy also points out they hadn't been attacked by the heartless yet either. Neither beings of the darkness had so much as stalked them since their arrival, and most of them were on the surface earlier.

'It's weird, that's for sure', Riku agrees with the team's puzzlement, before saying: 'But hey, let's not question why and just get going'. 'I'm with him on this one, the sooner we find the arm the sooner we leave', Noctis concurs.

The team climbs down the slopes to find a large lake before them, there was more fauna down there compared to the bleak muddy surface above. Then as they climbed down the bank of the small lake, Kairi groans. 'Ugh, what is that?', she said, covering her nose with her hand. The party shared a collaboration of groans as well, a rancid odor befouled the air around them. 'Incentive to be done with this', Ignis encouraged as they walk into the lake, much deeper than the one above.

Gladiolus called out after some searches that beneath the web of roots, he could see something that be the tomb. Upon getting closer, Noctis sees what looked to be large pink fleshy sacks that Lunafreya clarified were eggs of sorts. Then she frowns with worry, grabbing her trident as turned to the lake with narrowed eyes, earning her new friends' worries. 'What's the matter?', Goofy asked. Lunafreya doesn't respond but her gaze to the waters only grew more intense.

'This smell, the eggs, the waters…these are the all the perfect habitat for a certain creature…', she said. As she finished that sentence, several green tentacles surged from the lake, thrashing wildly like snakes and slowly pulling itself from the depths of the waters, a large green monstrosity lurched from the waters. Not only was the beast as tall as a small building, but it had a mouth as wide as a car with hundreds of needle-like teeth within it, more tentacles on the head.

'IS THAT ITS FACE!?', Prompto yells in disgust and horror, everybody drawing their weapons bar a confused Ignis. 'What? What is it!?', he questions. 'A Marlboro!', Lunafreya yells. The monster slithers to them, forcing the party to split up as the beast crashes into the entrance to the tomb, shaking the ground. 'Prompto, look after Iggy!', Noctis shouts as he summons Night's Sky, 'Luna, stay close to Gladio or Aqua or…Anyone!'.

Noctis warp-strikes the Marlboro on the back, digging his divine weapon into the beast as Riku fired a barrage of dark firagas at it. The spheres exploded upon impact as Noctis warped into the air, and Kairi fires beams of light at it. However, their attacks do little but burn the green monster, filling the air with terrible smells of brunt vegetables. The beast roars from this as it turned around the group, baring its massive maw at them while the eggs began to hatch.

Smaller thralls of the Marlboro began to pollute the lake, slithering towards the party. 'Terrific…', Gladiolus huffs as Kairi blasted one with a ball of fire. 'Now we're fighting its babies?', Kairi groans, 'Least the smell isn't…intolerable…'.

As the largest of the monsters faced off with Noctis, Riku, and Aqua, the smaller ones were being dealt with the princess of light and shield of the king. Some that have passed them were taking down by Goofy keeping on the front of the team, backed up by Prompto picking them off with keen precision and careful aims.

Lunafreya did what she could with the basics she managed to retain from her early years of using a spear from her teen years. She would keep her distance from the biting beasts and stab at them, the power of the trident being more than strong enough to rip through the flesh of these monstrosities. She sidestepped one when it launched forward with mouth wide to taste the Oracle's flesh, plunging the trident into its back.

She spins around to see Ignis beside Donald, swinging his dagger clumsily and recklessly to keep back the beasts, likely trying to place where they were via sound. With all that's happening around them though he may as well be wearing headphones with all the noise occurring. 'Luna!'. The woman turned around in time for Goofy to leap before her and catch the gaping maws of the mini spawn with his shield. With it trying to crush the steel of the shield, Lunafreya took this chance to pierce its side by running around Goofy and pierced it.

Removing the beast from the battle, she gave him a nod of gratitude and stood by his side fending them off.

With the keyblade wielders, Riku and Noctis kept striking at the monster, cutting it and the tentacles off like they were weeds as Aqua fired magic at it repeatedly. Despite the combined ferocity of the trio, it was like the beast seemingly refused to relent or submit to them. It felt as if they couldn't do more than irritate it and delay it. Then as Noctis and Riku leaped into the air using it as a steppingstone, it reeled back while sucking in a large amount of air with its huge mouth.

Seeing this, Lunafreya's eyes widened as she saw Aqua was right in front of it. Quickly she erected a barrier of golden light around Aqua, stopping her from attack as the beast spews a ghastly dense fog of brown and filthy yellow that immediately swallowed up Aqua like a wave. The blue head could only watch in bafflement and disgust at the action of the creature until the air dissipated around her, but she gagged and covered her nose.

'Everyone do not get caught in that fog if it spews more!', Lunafreya ordered as she dispelled the barrier and uses her free hand to fire a force wave at the creature running at her. 'Otherwise, you'll reek of dead fish for the rest of your life!', Aqua groaned, wafting the smell from her as she returned to ensure the death of this beast. Possibly with a vendetta now.

With Kairi and Gladiolus, they stood together striking down their opposition that didn't seem to dwindle at all. Everyone they cut down two more would pop up in their place. Likely the beast had been here for decades judging by the size and old look the body had, it may have mated here, and the entire place could be a giant nesting ground for it. 'Get down!', Gladiolus yells. Kairi ducks to her knees as Gladiolus swings his sword over her and cleaves two in half. He picked her up and to her feet, the girl nodding.

They both looked to the monster slithering towards them with the king and keyblade wielders fending off the smaller ones. Gladiolus grunts, grabbing Kairi's shoulder and pulled her behind him, weapon gripped with both hands as the monster struck him with the tentacles. He swings his sword to slice them while Kairi runs around it and hacked it's sides wildly, but all her cutting did was annoy it. It was like she was trying to get into the center of a dense oak tree with a dull blade, the rubbery surface of the tentacles were too dense even for her.

Gladiolus evaded the massive mouth trying to swallow him whole, punching the beast with his shield. Kairi spins around to slash at the smaller creatures trying to sneak up on her, making her glare at them as they grew in numbers, like weeds refusing to die out.

Over with Donald and Ignis, the two slowly getting swarmed by the beasts. Ignis luckily cuts on enough to get it to back off while Donald fires a whirlwind that blew three of them away from them, spinning around and smacking one with his staff. 'There's too many!', Donald cried out, leaping backward from one. Ignis blindly strikes at them, hitting them occasionally or just the air as he staggered forward.

They were saved by Lunafreya and Goofy joining in with the latter tackling them and her grace guiding Ignis away from them via grabbing his hand. There was no chance to win at this she feared, with the Marlboro was seemingly unharmed despite the numerous slashes and hacks the team struck it with and its children were growing in numbers that could rival a small colony. 'Noct! We need to retreat!', she yells over the battle.

The two were suddenly cut off by the beast as it tackled them both with its body, throwing them off their feet and into the lake with two large splashes. Lunafreya quickly resurfaced, coughing up the filthy water that threatened to run down her neck as Ignis was on his hands and knees, pacing around without his cane.

She spat out the water as the Marlboro slithers towards the helpless man, likely going for an easy meal as opposed to the other predators. 'Ignis! RUN!', she shouts, getting to her feet and summoning her trident. The monster tried to chomp down on the blind man, only for Noctis to let out a beastly roar of his own and brought down the Sword of the Tall straight on the head of the beast with a humungous slam that echoed throughout the abandoned quarry.

The Marlboro roars and sucks in more air like it had done before, almost sucking Ignis in into its mouth. This, however, gave the man insight into the beast. Slowly he rose to his feet, reaching into his breast pocket. In his hand, as he yanked it out, he feels the curve and smooth surface of the flasks he had gotten from Noctis earlier before they ventured forth into this place. If he was right, then if they couldn't harm it from the outside perhaps inside it would be the key to victory.

'Everyone! Get ready!', Ignis ordered.

He spun around and threw the two flasks he carried at the suction and prayed this would work. When the Marlboro closed its maw, it starts to thrash around as suddenly smoke rose from its huge mouth and tendrils, before it burst into an explosion of flames and burning limbs that stunk of burnt broccoli. Its many tentacles were plopping into the lake with splashes and smoke filled the air as the children all started to scatter and scurry away from the battle, defeated and now left to roam.

There was a collection of cheers and praises with some complaining about the smell. Most of the praises went to Ignis as Gladiolus clapped his shoulder and Prompto going off about him even gone blind he was still the MVP of the team. While most had no clue what that meant, none would deny Ignis' quick thinking had once again pulled their rears out of the proverbial fire. Even so, Ignis felt their praises but…he still feels that uselessness plaguing him.

Once everyone was checked for wounds, with most of them assuring they only worry about getting swamp water out of their socks and for Aqua praying she managed to stay safe from that bad breath attack, to which the former Oracle teased her that "Gladiolus will be the first one to complain about the smell if you wish to keep sharing his bed".

For a moment drowning, the Oracle sounded perfectly fine with Aqua.

While his friends talked and bantered, Noctis proceeded to the tomb and see if their beliefs were founded. He used the key (still learning how to use the keyblade efficiently) and entered. In the cold room of stone with only the coffin before him and the physical weapon laid upon it, he takes a deep breath and raised his hand towards it. Slowly he feels a warm magical touch coil around his hand as the weapon glowed blue and slowly turn.

Like all his previous royal arms, the weapon stabbed him in the heart and joined his arsenal of arms. He placed a hand on his heart, allowing a small breath of relief to leave his mouth and felt stronger for it. The journey had paid off in the end, his power grew, and resolve strengthened. "I'm getting there, Sora", he thinks to himself, "We're getting you back…just wait for a little longer".

As Noctis left the tomb and re-joined his team, he could not help but feel like a promise was made between him and the boy. Like, he felt Sora's heart connecting with his own, complete faith within the king.

And for a moment, he swore he heard him say: "I know you will".

*Cartanica*

Returning to the surface with most of the travelers back on the train, the group had decided to use the restaurant to their advantage with Aqua taking over the cooking, following Ignis' instructions using his recipe book. She had offered, assuring the team she used to do it for Terra and Ventus years ago while Gladiolus and Kairi went on patrol just in case.

After getting Ignis settled in one of the rooms of the abandoned inns nearby with Riku chatting with him, Prompto took Donald and Goofy with him to go over some of the photos he took. After some promises from the blue-haired master she would be fine with her light acting as a repellent for daemons, Lunafreya and Noctis went into another cabin in the abandoned inn.

Thankfully they still possessed working showers, so Lunafreya hopped in first while Noctis changed into dry clothes. The inn itself was nothing special as it looked to be a very cheap and decently kept well inn, with very tacky wall paint of propaganda from the empire, some old furniture probably as old as her father and even the bed looked old. But he wasn't planning on sleeping anyway thankfully. As he sat there with his mind swimming with thoughts, he hears the bathroom door open and out came his lover.

Lunafreya smiled at him, looking clean as a whistle and fresher compared to their trek through the quarry. 'Rejoice, I no longer smell like a swamp', she sings. 'You smelled find earlier', the king assured playfully. Lunafreya smirked at him as she joined his side. 'I was always aware of the term blinded by love, but I wasn't sure if it applied to sense of smell', she teases. She leaned and playfully sniffs, recoiling with a giggle.

'Nope, it does not', Lunafreya giggles. 'Oh? So, I smell huh?', Noctis accused, grinning at as he slowly opened his arms. 'My feelings are hurt; I think I need a hug'. Quick as a mouse spotting a cat, Lunafreya leaped onto her feet as Noctis tried to catch her with a hug. She was screaming playfully as he kept cornering her, nearly trapping her and just missing her thanks to her evasive tactics, but in a small room like they were in there is only so much a woman could do to avoid capture.

Noctis eventually scooped her up into a hug, earning shrieks of laughter from her as he nuzzled into her neck and laid them on the bed. 'Noct!', she whines playfully, 'I've just gotten out of the shower! I'm going to be smelly again!'. 'Nah, you're the Oracle, you probably don't even sweat!', he laughed. 'An Oracle and a vampire are two very different things!', she argued as she giggles when she felt his nose brushed against the crook of her neck. A sensitive and ticklish spot of hers that the king of Lucis knew all too well.

As their laughter died out, Lunafreya gives him a pout as he turned her to face him. 'I can already smell the swamp water lingering on me', she sighs. Noctis chuckles, 'So? Not like we're paying the water bills here', he shrugged. 'But now we must have more showers', argues the captive woman. Then in a bold move, she gave the prince what he thought was a flirty smile and with batting her eyelids at him like a teenager who had no clue how to flirt, says: 'Unless we take one shower together'.

This got the king to turn bright red and suddenly his voice went deep into his stomach and would likely never come out for fear of saying…well anything. Flirting wasn't something the king of Lucis had ever practiced, heck it goes over his head most of the time whenever he was in the company of a woman, with only Gladiolus calling out the less than good intentions a woman may have for the king or whenever the shield was teasing Aqua.

Lunafreya's face looked akin to the color of Kairi's hair, slowly she ducked her face into Noctis' chest to hide her face yet he still hears the shy giggling. Least she was just as clumsy and shy at this game of flirting as him.

'ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND!?'.

Quickly the two rose up from the bed, hearing the anger in what sounded like Riku's voice and quickly Noctis ran out of the room and down to his friend's. When he entered, he sees Riku glaring at Ignis and pace around the room while the blind man was sitting on the armchair, face forward on Riku. The silver head turns to Noctis, his angry look fading to surprise and shock that he was loud enough for his voice to travel across the rooms.

'What's happened? You two ok?', he asked, not seeing anything warranting Riku's surprising outburst as Lunafreya joined him. The master gave Ignis a hard look before he approached Noctis. 'You need to talk to him about this!', he says, gesturing the man. 'About what?', Noctis says.

Ignis sighs. '…a way to restore my sight'.

Both representatives of light turned to Ignis with shock, before Noctis' frowns to Riku. 'W-What's he talking about?', he asks, slowly and hopeful. Riku shakes his head with a grunt. 'No, not a way to restore his sight! A good chance to turn into a heartless!'.

He turned to Ignis as the man stands up. 'Riku, we saw Ravus restore his arm, who is to say we can't do the same for sight?', questioned the man. 'Difference is, Iggy, Ravus' darkness was manipulated by Xigbar and Ardyn!', Riku states, 'It turned him into a heartless! The same could happen to you!'. 'Hang on, what's going on? What are you two on about?', Noctis says sternly, looking between his two friends.

Riku's shoulders slouch as he huffs. 'Back in Altissia, Ravus was able to regain his right arm after the darkness was manipulated within him…', he explained. 'Yes', Lunafreya affirms, 'But in doing so his light was fainter, and much longer he would have turned into a heartless'. Noctis looked at Ignis, shock plastering on his face as he approached him. Standing before his sightless friend, gently grasping his arm to alert him, he asked: 'D-Did…are you asking Riku to do that to you?'.

Ignis sighed and said: 'No. I'm aware of the risks but what I want is for him to exploit the darkness within my own heart'. He placed his hand on his. 'You remember what Aqua said, every heart carries a darkness. If Riku can manipulate the one within me, he can restore my sight'. 'And if one thing goes wrong, you'll lose your heart to the darkness!', Riku argued, 'That risk is too much!'.

'It is my choice, Riku', he said, 'If anything should happen to me-

'No!', Noctis denied, 'No one is gonna even think about it!'. He grasped Ignis' arm tightly, pleadingly looking at him. 'Iggy, this…what you're asking, you can't…', he tried but looking at the man only told him why he needed this. The scars on his face will forever remind the king of the price Ignis made for him, the risks he is willing to go to protect him. Slowly he looked down, fearing what could happen to Ignis.

'Noct…I'm not going to pretend this will guarantee my recovery, nor will I ignore the consequences of what may come…but I cannot stand by your side like this', Ignis says, warmly and saddened. 'I refuse to be a liability to you or the others and be used to hurt you'. Noctis looks at him, eyes painted with pain and gratitude. 'Please, let me do this…', begged the man.

Noctis looked at Riku and Lunafreya, the latter holding her pain back as Riku looks away. '…can you do it? Do what they did?', he asks. '…its…possible. But if we are doing this', Riku relents with a sigh, 'Then everyone needs to be here…'.

*Later…*

Once the group was informed of this and after everyone was filled in on the requirements, what was needed from everyone and of course accepting what may need to be done should the worst come abound. Aqua and Lunafreya remained in the room with Ignis and Riku, the two masters of light created a dome around the two with them facing each other on chairs. At Riku's request, the dome was to trap them both inside in case the darkness was too much for Ignis to control and at least Riku would be able to slay the heartless before anything happened.

Outside were the others, giving space to their friends and allowing Riku to do what he can without disturbance.

With the two facing each other, Riku's hand glowing with the dark embers of darkness as he searched for the darkness within Ignis. Though his knowledge is limited compared to Xigbar's, he knew enough from his time spent as Ansem's vassal how to exploit the darkness within the hearts of men. Even as small as Ignis'.

'Last chance to bow out', he warned, 'No one will hold it against you'.

Ignis nodded. 'Do what you must', he says, confidence resonating to Riku. With reluctance, Riku began the process as Aqua and Lunafreya watched on stoically.

Ignis immediately felt the darkness within his heart stir wildly like a ferocious beast just awoken from its long slumber, his heart beating quickly within him while pain surged through him. His grip on the armrests of his chair tightened so badly it was like he was trying to crush the wood in his hands, teeth-gritting as he starts to sweat.

Riku's own eyes glowed with a violet light within them, he finds the darkness within Ignis and slowly stoked the flames of it to expand and grow. The man before him feels the flames burning his heart, slowly spreading all over his body as he slammed his back against the chair with a strangled growl escaping his mouth as he squeezed his useless as hard as he could. Ignis lets out several grunts, breaths, and pants of pain, trying to keep his voice in to hold back the agony that slowly grew.

Riku himself was trying to gauge it, trying to see how much of it was needed to replicate what occurred to Ravus to a smaller degree, but the darkness he found wasn't growing nor does it help him understand it. He had to make it stronger with his own, stroking it until the tiny embers grow into roaring flames that could swallow heart as strong as Ignis. In doing so, would put Ignis in greater danger than before.

Ignis finally allows himself to let out a scream of agony, throwing his head back as he thrashed in his seat, teeth bared and feeling the flames within him grow hotter and painful. The darkness was lulling him in with voices, telling him to accept the gift and be free of pain, take revenge on Riku for making him endure such agony for the sake of his king. He could hear the breaking of the armrest, crackling and bending to his agonized infused strength.

The two guardians could only watch helplessly yet stoically as the sight before them fell, both surrounded by darkness as Riku's eyes glowed more darker and eviller while Ignis writhes in agony.

Outside the party hears Ignis screams of pain, each of them trying to stay strong and bare through it, Gladiolus' back against the door just in case as he cast his head down with his eyes shut. Noctis and Kairi standing together as they withstood the sounds, both clenching their fists in helplessness with Donald and Goofy sharing glances of worry but keeping themselves together.

Prompto by far was handling it the worst, pacing and grabbing his hair as he tries so hard to block out Ignis' screaming agony. He would look at the door and if one was paying attention to the boy, they were sure he would have broken it down and stopped this madness if Gladiolus was not there keeping watch. Tears ran down his cheeks and only when Kairi wrapped him in her arms to offer some form of support to his suffering, he breaks down into her.

Inside Ignis' screaming didn't let up as he felt more and more of his own beliefs, morals and himself being swept under the rug, the darkness telling him these wonderful and hopeful lies to entice him to submit. The power Ravus displayed outclasses him and even a more powerful Gladiolus wouldn't have stood a chance, to hold such power for himself would make him an asset, nay, a worthy advisor to serve his king.

With that power, he could destroy Ardyn, destroy Xehanort even, bring an end to the scourge and keep his king safe forever if he just gave in to the darkness. It was so tempting, so desirable just to be free of this sheer inhuman pain. Not even in the Ring of the Lucii had hurt him this bad, and that was a ring that granted him a taste of true power. He just needed to let go…

"Please, take care of my son".

That day flashed in his mind, the day he first met the young prince. That wonderful innocent smile he swore he would protect. Memories flashed of his encounters with the trio of brothers he had grown to love, but not just them.

Sora, Kairi, Riku, all of them had all flashed in his mind, the sacrifices they had made to help them get this far. The tears that had been shed by the boy before him, the agonizing torture Kairi had endured when she lost Sora and the pain of failure that lingered over Aqua. Yet all of them had found ways to surmount their trials no matter how painful or agonizing their losses became.

As his darkness manifest, Ignis reached deep within his own heart and felt that power, that oath he had sworn so long ago grow within him. He grabbed for it with both hands and then for a moment before his consciousness faded, all he could see was just one thing…

A world…of violet flames…

Entering the room quickly once Aqua shouted for them, the party sees Ignis slumped in his chair with Riku on his knees, panting and heaving with the woman of Tenebrae comforting him. Noctis approached Ignis, checking his friend. The scars remained but he didn't sense any darkness within him grow worse or evil he would go far as to say he felt a strange akin to Riku's. The king looked to the boy, shaking with exertion as he was helped to his feet.

Kairi immediately checked on him, helping him stand as Lunafreya tended to Ignis. 'Are you ok?', she asked. Riku gave her a shaky nod, looking so pale as a ghost and ready to faint. 'H-He's gonna ok…', he says sickly, like he was enduring the worst kind of illness his body had never known. 'You healed his eyes?', Noctis asked, shocked. 'I…I don't think so…not in the…the…', Riku tried but he slumps into Kairi, putting his full weight on her.

Had the girl not grown stronger throughout this journey she would likely be pinned to the floor by Riku's weight. She struggled to keep him up however until Gladiolus helped her by taking him off her entirely. Noctis glanced back to Ignis before turning to Prompto, gesturing him to help carry the man. They had no more time to spend away, the journey must proceed.

As they got on board the train and laid their sleeping companions in their cabins, the train rides off to leave Cartanica behind and proceed onwards to Tenebrae.

None knew that upon stepping onboard the train, that another passenger had joined them…and his plans to torment the group had just begun…

A/N: Done and done. A/N: Done and done.

Sorry it took awhile, I was dealing with a massive headache from the cold, but hey I got this done! WHOO!

So the final tomb has been claimed, the party is now on their way to Tenebrae, what kind of troubles lie in wait for the band? What exactly did Riku do to Ignis? Find out next time (maybe I dunno…)

I know there wasn't much action, but if anyone has played the game then you know there were no daemons in that dungeon (for some reason) so we'll make it more action oriented!

Questions: 

Q1: Did ya enjoy this one?

Q2: Did you like Luna and Noct and wanna see more?

Q3: How was the pacing?

Q4: What would you like to see in future chapters?

Q5: What do you think is gonna happen to Ignis?

Thanks for reading everyone! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	46. Chapter 46

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 46

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

*On route to Gralea*

Late in the evening, with Gralea being only a day away from the speed of this train, many of the passengers had retired to their cabins to sleep or take comfort in companion.

Taking a swig of his beer whilst sitting against the bar table, the shield of the king hums as he turned to see his charges sleeping in their seats. After getting on board and seeing to Riku and Ignis' comforts, the royal couple had at first tried to stay awake by striking up topics of interest before their words slurred and become mumbles to finally going out like lights. He holds a chuckle back to avoid disturbing them, silently placing his bottle down.

The dining cart was empty save for himself, his "drinking" buddy and the two sleeping couples, the cart alit with light that was blessed by her grace before she dozed off to slumber with her king. Gladiolus had offered to stay in the cart as another passenger just in case of any sneaking imperials or worse happened to lie in wait, to which Noctis appreciated and even tried to stay awake before he could not resist the lull of sleep any longer than his precious bride to be.

The shield looked to Kairi stirring her soda with a bendy straw she was adamant in having when they arrived, eyes dimmed and dull like she was sleepwalking. He frowned in concern before he grasped his beer. 'Are you doing alright, kiddo?', he asks, low to not disturb his king. Kairi looked at him with a friendly smile and nods. 'Yeah…I'm ok', she assured, 'Its just…been a long day, you know?'. On that he could agree wholeheartedly, thinking back to the tomb, those Marlboro monsters and of course dealing with Ignis possibly going heartless.

As desperate as Gladiolus, hell he was sure everyone, is to have that man get his sights back, the method of doing so spoke volumes of concern to the shield. If he did manage to get his sight back but end up like Ravus, that price would be too much for anything them to bear. Since they had gotten him to bed, they would rotate between each other to monitor the man and Riku in case he woke up. Currently Prompto and Aqua were tending to them, leaving Donald and Goofy to sleep.

He watches Kairi rotate her straw within the contents of the flat drink, occasionally glancing at Noctis and Lunafreya before returning to her drink. The man near her could read her expressions perfectly, it reminded him a lot of Iris whenever Noctis became the subject. The look of envy towards a couple not in a bad way, but like a reminder of what she had lost. The warrior couldn't deny that the spirit of the group had certainly taken a nosedive since they had lost Sora, and day by the day it was beginning to wear on them.

Truly he wouldn't be sure if he would be able to keep it together if Aqua was captured or Noctis. Kairi had managed to surmount that pain and keep pressing forward after having her breakdowns, which she entitled to of course, and he believed she had come out stronger for it. However, as he learned, strength isn't eternal, and the moments of solitude and reflection often hammer home the losses they endured.

He hummed in thought. 'You know we're gonna get him back', he says, not facing her. Kairi looked at the shield as he stared at his drink. 'Don't matter what the empire, Xigbar or whoever is in charge throws at us, we're bringing that boy home'. After everything that's happened, from the day they met him to this point, saving him was the very least they could do. Kairi nods, lowering her eyes to the drink. '…I miss him so much…', she confesses, clasping her drink.

'I can't imagine kiddo', Gladiolus says with sympathy. He knew their story, how long the trio of friends had remained separated for so long and that this was the first time they could all be together on this grand journey across a brand-new world. If only they knew this journey would have done so much harm to them, from new scars to losing one another to their enemies. It still irritated the man that kids, not men and women, kids were forced to take up such a heavy burden, even more so when he learned from Donald and Goofy Sora was just a child when all this happened.

Kairi rubbed her eyes, sniffling but trying to hold them back. She can't cry again, not until she sees his face and is in his arms again. Sensing this, Gladiolus rubbed her back soothingly, in a brotherly manner. Nursing a wounded heart like hers wasn't too different from comforting Iris whenever she was pining over Noctis or when she got lonely at home without him, he sensed the pain with Kairi was something she had yet to properly nurture within her. It was evident that having Sora helped her with those doubts.

She giggles embarrassedly, smiling up at him. 'Sorry, I thought I was…done with, feeling this crappy', she apologizes. He pats her back. 'We all get weepy-eyed, no need to feel special about it', he teased. Kairi giggles back as he ruffled her hair, surprised by well Gladiolus was at comforting someone despite his gruffer appearance. Maybe it was the pros of being a big brother to a little sister she mused. Gladiolus swigs his beer as Kairi downs her soda, both emptying the beverages, the shield opting to grab another one while Kairi pushes her glass aside.

As he rounded the bar counter, plucking another of the cheap but tasty beverage, he looked at the girl. 'I'd offer ya one, but I'm scared of what Blue will do to me if I so much as say "I'm giving Kairi a beer",', he laughed. Kairi snickers at him, resting on her elbows. 'Don't worry, after seeing how awful a hangover is, I'm pretty sure I'll stay away from it', she assured. A sensible decision Gladiolus would say if he wasn't a lover of the finer things.

Plus, he wasn't seriously considering giving the girl booze, especially when she was still technically a minor.

The girl looked at the counter in thought, her finger making a circle idly as she settled into silence between them with only the gentle breathing of Noctis and Lunafreya filling the air. She then pulled out her GP and opened it to see contacts and Sora's name. A vain hope nested in her heart, but she closed it, the less she thought of it the better. Seeing this, however, Gladiolus says: 'Have you ever, wrote a text to someone but never send it?'.

At this, she looks up to see a raised brow from the man before she looked at her phone then smiled. 'No…but, I do have another idea that helps', she says. She got off her stool and stuffed her phone into her pocket, looked to the shield with a bright smile. 'Thanks for that, Gladio!', she said before jogging to her room. When the door slide closed behind her, the shield smiles warmly as he took another swig of his beverage, humming.

In her room where she'd share with Aqua, Kairi settles on her bed and reached into the pocket dimension they shared to pull out a large note pad with a purple pencil. Laying it on her knees she begins to write her letter.

*Hours later*

Not much had changed as the time slowly rolled onto the morning, a lot of the passengers had opted to stay in their cabins while a small portion of them sat around in the seats to watch the darkened world bypass them all.

In one seat, Noctis and Lunafreya, who was having her hood up to cover herself to avoid gaining the attention of the passengers. It was better safe than sorry after all and the last thing the group needs is to accidentally alert the empire that both king and Oracle were traversing the imperial land. They made small talk to distract themselves with another guest of honor sitting beside the Oracle.

'Still a little spooky…', Noctis remarked as Naminé finished her explanation of how she was able to transfer her heart and connect with Lunafreya's. She pouts at his jest, before smiling back to the memory when she first appeared to the others. During the boat ride to the imperial mainland, the former Oracle had explained a good chunk of how she knew about other worlds to them, backing up the tales of Eraqus and how she and Noctis knew him.

Then when they asked how she knew about Kairi and the others, that was when she introduced the team to Naminé. The ethereal girl appeared, startling Noctis and Gladiolus but near gave Prompto a heart attack when he fell out of his seat screaming "ghost" and even fearing the Oracle was possessed by a spirit.

The former nobody liked the reaction of the gunner so much she did, for a while, started to play hauntings on him for fun~

'Says the man speaking to air', she teased playfully as the king smirked. 'I could be talking to Luna, ya know', he remarked. They all turned to the landscape bathed in darkness as they were growing closer and closer to the Oracle's home, the darkened skies full of bleak and despair along with the occasional scattering glows of the daemon bombs and even some iron giants patrolling the region like the country's guardians. There were some variety of heartless among them, neo-shadows and a few armored soldiers too.

'There are so many of them', Naminé says, 'Soon Niflhiem may become a land exclusively home to daemons and heartless'. Noctis looks to her as the girl folds her hands on her knee, looking down. 'Why would the emperor allow them to do this to his land? If that gave a damn about anything other than the ring of Lucii it was making sure it was his empire ruling the world', Noctis asked, reminding them of the ambitious emperor's greed and lust for power. 'Iedolas has long been afflicted by the darkness Xigbar had brought', Lunafreya says.

'Combined with his blind lust for power and the corruption of the darkness and blight, it is likely to him this is his empire spanning across the world'. Noctis scoffs in disgust as he looked back out to the window. 'He's in for a rude awakening when we get there. That's for sure', he promises. Gently the Oracle places her hand on his arm, making him face her resolute face. 'We shall deal with him when the time comes, but our goal is to rescue Sora first and foremost', she says. Noctis' glare lessens as he nods, not at all forgetting the main reason they're on this dangerous journey, to begin with.

Lunafreya then smiles. 'Besides, I would like to have a double date with him and Kairi', she says. Noctis chuckles back with a toothy smile, nodding wholeheartedly at the idea. A simple date with two couples, knowing Sora it wouldn't be an average or normal one that was for sure. Naminé giggled at her friend. As the two couples chatted about plans or ideas for the date the former nobody stares out the window in thought, all the way linking back to Sora.

After her brief encounter with him during his exam, her "heart" yearns to finally see him face to face again after everything he had been through. Whatever romantic feelings she may have had for him has passed and while she felt traces of it linger whenever she thought of him, she accepted his heart had belonged to Kairi long before she ever came into the picture. Yet despite that, and though she knew he had yet to recall what transpired from their first meeting, she wanted to see him again.

It was thanks to her talks with Lunafreya about these matters, that she affirmed her hopes to finally meet him again with no more illusions or falsehoods. To be able to call him a close friend would be enough for her. The blonde also wanted to be able to join the group in their activities, especially after they had all gotten over her ethereal form. Maybe joining their adventures could help her or make her feel part of the team. It would certainly be a wonderful start…and maybe mend the pain within her.

'I understand that your vehicles have been in the cargo holds?', Lunafreya asked, drawing Naminé back into the conversation. 'Yeah, we're still trying to decide who's driving the Regalia', Noctis explained with a reluctant tone, 'That is if whatever Riku did doesn't work'. The two girls frowned with sympathy to their companion, but he lets himself laugh weakly. 'Hey, come on, knowing Iggy he'll probably be able to drive blind', he says confidently.

'I…fear that may cause some trouble with the law…', Lunafreya says warningly. Noctis waved her worries off with a smile as he turned down to the corridor to see Donald and Goofy approaching. He waves them down as they stood by their seats. 'Everything ok?', he asked. The two looked at each other first, likely deciding whether to inform Noctis of their worries before they nodded and turned back them. 'Aqua's in the driver's cabin with the conductor', Donald said, 'On her way there she heard somebody talking about the long nights'.

'Who?', Lunafreya questioned. 'We don't know', Goofy said worriedly, before glancing around then turned to Lunafreya. 'But she swore she overheard them saying something about the heartless'. This caused the three to frown with worry and suspicion, aware that there was a scant few people who knew about the creatures of the darkness. And likely somebody who had less than friendly intentions. 'Think its Xigbar?', Noctis asked. 'Not sure, but Gladio is already looking around the cabins ahead just in case', Donald said.

Noctis nods in agreement, before looking at Lunafreya. 'Think it's time you go for a nap, your grace', he says. With clarity in her eyes, the Oracle nodded and got out of her seat, Goofy and Donald following closely behind her at the silent request of the king. Naminé got out of her seat and nodded to him. 'I'll go have a peek down at the storage, maybe there's an imperial hiding out down there', she offered.

'Just be careful, ok?', the king requests. Despite her being both ethereal and invisible to their enemies, it didn't sit well with Noctis to send Naminé alone. She nods with a smile and walks down the corridor until she faded from his sight. Alone to himself, the prince stared out the window to watch the world slowly become polluted by more creatures of the darkness, humming to himself. Only a matter of time before they arrive at Niflhiem, only a little while longer before they rescue their companion from the two.

Many nights the king spent awake with worry for Sora, remembering how Xehanort was able to corrupt Aqua and the others to bear his darkness and become the perfect vessels for him. They feared the old man would do the same to Sora, but Aqua stated firmly he wouldn't do such a thing. Not out of the goodness of his heart she assured, but because any further delays wouldn't work for him if it were another who didn't wield the keyblade then certainly. Yet for Sora, as crucial and beneficial he would be to the Real Organization XIII, making him one of Xehanort's puppets would only delay the keyblade war.

That should've alleviated some of his worries, but did Ardyn truly care for Xigbar's grand scheme enough to not lay a hand on Sora? The man had proven he wasn't above using the hearts of those closest to his enemies, that much is certain. His thoughts were interrupted when he suddenly sees a scampering Prompto narrowly catching himself before he ran past Noctis. 'Dude, there you are!', he says, scrambling to his feet.

'What's up? Aqua sending you on patrol too?', Noctis asked with a small smirk. The blond rolled his eyes while patting his shoulder. 'No dude, she asked me to come check on you…and maybe meet her in the conductor's cart?', he said, scratching his neck. 'Something's bugging her, and maybe it's just paranoia but…'. After everything that's happened to them what some may call "paranoia," Noctis would argue it was the master being more cautious.

'Right…ok, I'll go see what she needs', he said.

No sooner did Noctis get up from his seat, however, he froze on the spot. A horrible chill raced down his spine, the air was dense with the cold and that sensation of the dark wrapping around his heart. Immediately Noctis tensed up, fists clenched when he looked around to feel a sudden change in the air, a chill that nearly tricked him into thinking he was wielding the royal arms. The entire cart was in this dark blue hue like he was entering a nightmare yet somehow still being in the waking world around him.

The entire cart was silent and empty despite the few people remained in their seats, still like wax figures. He feels as if he was thrown into a museum with how lifeless and still the cart felt. He looked at his hand and tried to call his light, feeling his power was intact and didn't sense anything had affected him yet. 'Maybe she's just a little on edge?'.

Noctis' head shot up at the voice, turning around to see Ardyn looking at him with that sardonic smile on his face. He was just casually standing there like he was a passenger the whole time and came to enjoy the beverages the dining cart had to offer. The king of light feels his eyes burning with hate, teeth clenched and fists tightening at that smile, the very same one he was likely wearing back in Altissia. That mockery of joy when he plunged the dagger into Kairi, when he stole the ring from him and when he kidnapped Sora.

And here he was, right in front of him…

With barely restrained fury, Noctis stormed over to him as he rambled on about his companions before he took a swing at him. 'You son of a bitch!', he shouted. His rage induced fist was narrowly avoided by Ardyn, who let out a surprised "whoa" and stepped around Noctis as he steadied himself. 'Easy there buddy', Ardyn says, genuinely surprised and startled by his nemesis surprise attack. 'That was a close call. Are you alright?'.

Taunting him, still mocking him and acting innocent despite everything he's done to Noctis and his band. Hearing that weak excuse of an innocent and confused tone furthered Noctis' rage towards him, marching over to him and drawing a royal arm. He swings at him yelling: 'Shut up!'. Again, Ardyn evades his strikes, staggering backward while raising an arm to protect himself. Noctis turned on him as Ardyn raised a hand to stop him. 'Be careful there!', he says. Slowly he was stepping back, the look of fear and shock on his face somehow pleased Noctis.

Maybe he finally comprehends just how much of a dead man he was going to be when the king got his hands on him. Ardyn then began to scramble away from Noctis, running likely for his life and even asking if this was real. "Oh its real", Noctis thought darkly, and a nightmare for the man before the king as he gave chase to this monster. Running through the carts and entering the cart carrying the cabins, he spots the man running into one.

Noctis ran and threw the door open but to his confusion, there was no one inside. He looked around feverishly, unable to believe the man just up and disappeared before him. 'Uh, Noct?', he says, sounding too close for comfort. But perfectly close for a fist to his smug face as Noctis spun around and threw one to the air. 'Bastard…', he grunts, running down the carts for him.

Entering another cart that was empty of passengers, he sees Ardyn at the end of it, alarmed and even scared of the king. 'Noct, come on! You're scaring me!', Ardyn says, indeed sounding terrified as he flees, 'Seriously! Stop it!'. Noctis ran down the cart, eyes dead on the cowardly man fleeing from his wrath. Every word he spoke, every lace of fear in his tone only fuelled the fires of the king's rage. What would he know of being scared? He was the one who nearly killed Kairi, forced Sora to give in to his anger, probably did all sorts of unspeakable things to the boy, and that was just the tip of the iceberg of crimes he's done to his friends.

Another cart in, he sees Ardyn at the end but for whatever reason was still pleading with Noctis to stop. 'Dude seriously! Stop it! You're causing a scene!', he says, strangely he sounded like he was trying to make light of the situation before them. Instead of cooling Noctis' fury, it only enraged him further. He had the nerve to make fun of this, like it was some sort of game between them, after everything he's done? Noctis summoned a royal arm and swung at him.

'You think this is funny!?', he shouted, the blade just missing the man. Ardyn fell onto his backside but quickly scampers to his feet hurriedly to flee from him once more. 'Dude! Are you seriously TRYING to kill me!?', he asked, horrified. 'Why wouldn't I!?', Noctis bellowed. Ardyn runs down into another cabin cart, where before he reached the last room, Kairi was just exiting her cabin with a small yawn.

'Kairi! Grab him!', Noctis shouted. Kairi jumps in surprise and turns to Noctis and Ardyn running, completely allowing the target of the king to run past her. She didn't even attempt to grab the man and just looked at him leaving with bewilderment. 'Why didn't you…oh forget it!', Noctis shouts, running faster towards Ardyn. 'Noct, what's going?', she asked but her question went unanswered as the prince ran past her, nearly knocking her back into her room.

'Noct!?', Kairi says, confused.

Finally cornering Ardyn in the small connecter of the carts, the man panting and raised a hand to stop Noctis, but he may as well have his hands down for all the effect does. 'What are you after, following me around this whole time? It's all YOUR fault!', Noctis yells. He grabbed Ardyn and pinned him to the wall, his arm pressed against his neck and lifting him against the wall. Ardyn struggled against the king, still looking at him. 'What are you talking about? Do you mean that, Noct?', Ardyn asked, in that tone. The tone that was so smug and shit-eating it just made the king want to rip his head off.

'Of course I do!', Noctis yelled, 'You won't be able to talk your way out of this one!'. 'You won't even let me!', Ardyn argued, struggling still. 'Noct…please'. Noctis seethed at him, but before he could rip into this man suddenly the train shook and next thing Noctis knew, his world went dark.

*After*

'Noct, Kairi, are you two ok?'.

The king quickly shot up the moment he regained consciousness, looking around the cart for Ardyn but he sees only Kairi and Prompto, the former getting up and rubbing her head. 'No, where's Ardyn?', he demanded, looking around for the red-haired monster. 'Ardyn? Wait, he was here?', Kairi asked, helping Noctis to his feet. He looked at Kairi with a look. 'Yes! You saw me chase him!', he reminds gruffly.

'W-What? No, Noct that's not what I…', she tried to say but Prompto interrupted. 'Leave it, Kai, we've got a problem, the train stopped', he reveals. The two royalties looked at him before seeing through the porthole of the sliding door of the train. Indeed the blonde's words rang true for the world had ceased movement. 'We better go see if there's something up down in the other carts', Prompto said, 'Luna and Gladio went to check on the engine room'.

'Right…come on!', Noctis said, running down the cart with Kairi and Prompto in tow. Running down the cart as people were asking why they had suddenly the windows on both sides of the train shattered, electing screams of terror and shock from the passengers as the king and princess fell onto the floor. 'Whoa, did they just bomb us?', Prompto asked, surprised.

Kairi got to her feet quickly and helped Noctis to his own, pushing him forward. 'Its got to be the imperials, I don't sense any darkness nearby', she says. Nodding to her deduction as Prompto says they needed to protect the people the king races down to the other carts. When they returned to the cabin cart, people were running through as the glass on the right side of the train smashed to pieces and an armored magitek axe wielder jumped on.

'Everyone get to another cart!', Kairi says, letting the people pass through while the king drew Night's Sky and warp stuck the mechanical solider. His keyblade was plunged into the mechanical heart of the warrior, with the king above and kicked it straight into its face and sent it onto the ground. 'So much for a safe ride…', Prompto remarked, looking at the machine. 'I don't think that's all of them, we should see if there's more in the carts', Kairi says.

They all raced down through the carts, reaching the dining cart as Kairi speaks: 'What do you think stopped the engine?'. 'Hopefully nothing we can't fix', Prompto remarks, 'Besides all else fails Aqua and Gladio will figure something out'. When the party reached the last cart before heading for the storage room, no sooner had Noctis taken three steps in, the wall on his right explodes. The chairs and walls were brunt or destroyed and the force knocked him on to his back, Kairi quickly hovering over him and pulled him to his feet.

All the eyes of the heroes fell to outside and they see a small platoon of magitek soldiers mindlessly walking towards the train, skeletal forms that resembled the undead come to life with how thin their limbs looked. There were other far more cared soldiers in the field, some firing their rifles at the train. 'Damnit, those MT's can self-destruct!', Prompto announced with a grunt. Kairi looked at the horde before a realization dawned on her.

'That's why they stopped the train! They're training to destroy it and stop us from reaching Tenebrae!', she stated. 'Not if we got anything to say about that!', Noctis declared, drawing his keyblade and running out onto the field.

Warping towards one soldier with an axe, Noctis chops off the armed limb before decapitating the solider. He turned around to cleave another in two between the right shoulder and neck, kicking it aside. Noctis then throws the keyblade like a buzz saw towards two running soldiers, allowing the weapon of light to slice them in two as he summoned the Katana of the Warrior and turned to a small group of soldiers. He warps struck to them, swinging his katana from a quick-draw motion before he sliced and severed the limbs of his enemies.

Thanks to the royal arms being a part of him without the crystal and maybe in part to the keyblade, Noctis didn't feel himself being drained when he wielded the weapons of his ancestors, striking down his enemies invigorated him. He used the sheath of his katana to smash the kneecaps of a soldier and then with an uppercut of the sheath broke the robotic jaw off the soldier.

The king warps into the air above the soldiers, both hands outstretched to summon two royal arms, Blade of the Mystic and Sword of the Wise, both he spins around as his blue crystal light begins to manifest around him while he descends to the battlefield. His swords became whirlwinds of destruction, slicing and severing the soldiers before him as each swing of the weapons rivaled the force of a runaway train, decimating the ones when steel meets steel and sending shockwaves powerful enough to break apart those in the distance.

He throws Sword of the Wise like a knife, piercing the stomach's of a row of six soldiers while he grabbed Blade of the Mystic with both hands and uses it's enhanced warp striking powers to fire off three ghostly blades that broke apart the three soldiers he aimed for and then warped himself in front of the forth, swinging the blade to cut from shoulder to waistline, bringing down another soldier.

An explosion caught the king's ear, reminding him of the detonating machine and the train he's supposed to protect. He turned around quickly to see the smoke fading but the train was covered in a faint violet light that covered the entire cart. He sees on top of the cart was Kairi, one hand placed on the cart while he left-hand holds her keyblade stabbed into the cart, her body encased in light. She looked to the king with a nod, encouraging him to worry not about the train and remove the soldiers before they take off.

'They just don't know when to quit', Prompto says, firing off a single shot that took the head off the soldier. 'Gotta love their persistence!', Noctis remarked, drawing Engine Blade as he sidestepped a swing from the soldier's axe. He retaliates by slamming the sword right on the head of the mechanical soldier down between its legs, splitting it in half. The king looks ahead of them to see a fleet of airships were beginning to hover over the battlefield, making the king reach into his pocket dimension and yank out several flasks.

Noctis warps into the air, yelling at Prompto to get to the train for safety. When his friend was out of the blast zone, Noctis begins to throw every flask he had on his person at the imperial forces, hitting the soldiers and ground with flasks. With a total of six already scattered around the field, he used the final fire flask to throw and crash against another flask. The collision caused a massive explosion that created a chain reaction of every flask Noctis had thrown to detonate. The abandon buildings and shacks were reduced to rubble, much of the land was scorched by flames or frozen in a blanket of frost.

The soldiers suffered tremendous casualties from this carnage of magical destruction, the land itself was beyond rescue as a battle between the three elements took place before them all, the soldiers within the cloud of magic wouldn't survive it. 'Wa-hoo! Nice thinking Noct!', Prompto said with a satisfied smirk, taking in all the destruction before them. Noctis looked back at Kairi, sweating and struggling to keep the barrier up but otherwise unharmed. Until her eyes widened when she looked ahead of them.

'Noct! They've got a tank…thingy!', she said, not sure what the actual vehicle was. The king followed her eyes and as she had said, there was a mobile vehicle before them readying to fire. Noctis curses as Prompto whistles. 'Well that's not a good sign…', he sighed. 'Noct! I don't wanna pressure you but I'm pretty sure I won't be able to keep my head from exploding if the barrier takes a hit from *that*!', Kairi stresses.

'Gotcha!', Noctis acknowledges, sprinting towards the tank, drawing Night's Sky once again as he cleaved his way through the soldiers. The tank turned its gun onto the charging king and fired a single heavy shell from it. Noctis phases through it and then warp strikes to the tank. Once he landed onto it, he sees a hatch and pries it off and throws the hatch aside. With his keyblade, Noctis plunges the weapon right into the engine or at least something important into the tank. Sparks and electricity began to flicker and dance as smoke pollutes his nostrils.

Taking that as his cue to leave, he warps away from the tank and found himself on one of the watchtowers. The tank explodes before him, ending that problem. The king looked at Prompto getting back onto the train just as it started to shift before moving away. Kairi dispels the barrier and waves at the king while standing up. He quickly warps back onto the train, being caught by the princess when he staggered and loses his footing.

Kairi hands him an ether and quickly he crushes it, replenishing his mana and strength. He gave her a nod before Kairi turned to the skies. Following her eyes, the king narrowed his eyes when he sees the airships that deployed the soldiers earlier have no begun to chase after them. 'You've gotta be kidding me', Noctis says, looking at the skies ahead of them. Just as he says this, Kairi plucks out her GP and answers it before putting it on loudspeaker.

'Kairi! Where are you? Have you seen Noct and Prompto?', Gladiolus' voice rings out. 'Gladio, I'm here with Noct right now! Prompto should be below us but we've got a problem!', she explains, yelling over the wind rushing past them. 'The imperials have drop ships populating the skies!'. The shield swears on his side as the two wielders of the keyblade watch in horror as the guns on the ships begin to open fire on them.

Panicking Kairi used her magic to erect a dome around herself and Noctis, but in doing so quickly her phone slipped out of her hand and bounces before it falls off the train completely. Kairi lets out a "crap" before concentrating on protecting the two of them. As the bullets bounced off the barrier, the king begins to worry the empire's gunships would tear the train apart. He looked at Kairi. 'Can you make a barrier big enough to cover the entire cart?', he asked.

Kairi looks at him, then to the cart before gulping. 'I-I can…but it's gonna take everything I have! I won't be able to help!', she warned. The king grabbed her shoulder tightly and stared into her eyes. 'Do whatever you can to keep these people safe, got it?', he instructed. With confidence restored, Kairi nodded and stood up, dismissing her keyblade and raised both hands up both spreading them open, her entire body glowing in a golden light that sinks into the cart, quickly covering it in a dense barrier.

The bullets bounced off the barrier like they were made of rubber, Kairi flinched and grits her teeth from feeling each pelt but carried on. 'I'll take them down! You keep this up!', Noctis ordered. 'Sure! Just please hurry!', Kairi pleaded.

Wordlessly Noctis warps to the airships, warping ship to ship until he finds an open hatch. Warping inside, he sees to his dismay that every one of the magitek soldiers were self-destructing, the very same ones he just fought earlier. One of them was strong enough to destroy a huge chunk of a cart, an entire ship could destroy the entire train. Noctis turned to the pilots, again magiteks and draws his gun. Quick as he could he fired two shots that pieced their metallic heads and when he reached the controls, he unloaded every bullet within the revolver.

The controls burst into flames with electricity dancing over it, alarms going off like crazy as the ship slowly begins to lean and fall to the left away from the train. Noctis runs to the ledge of the hatch and warps to another ship to begin the process all over again.

Meanwhile back on the train, Kairi fell onto one knee as the bullets bounce off her barrier, every strike to her shield was starting to severely wear on her as she feels herself sweat and her nerves were on fire. Eyes closed with teeth clenching hard she is almost worried she'll break them, but she keeps the barrier on, thinking of her friends on the train is all she could think about to help distract herself from this pain.

With luck, Noctis will finish off the airships quickly before her body collapses. Lucky for her no daemons or heartless have attempted to show up yet and very likely the imperials had their hands full with Noctis appearing and warping left and right to strike at them.

'Quite the admirable effort, on your part'.

Kairi looked to see Ardyn waltzing up to her with a cruel grin, eyeing her. 'Been a while since we last spoke, hasn't it, your majesty?', Ardyn greets with false warmth no warmer than dipping your feet into a frozen lake. Kairi glared defiantly at him as she tried to keep the barrier up while wracking her brain for a solution.

She was at his complete mercy now. The man knew this as he turned to see Noctis downing more ships left and right, striking them and removing them from the battle. 'Hmm? Odd…I seem to have recalled he should have lost his powers…', he muses with what Kairi sensed was anger and confusion. He narrowed his eyes at the king before he turned Kairi, his smiles gone and now in its place was resentment and spite to the girl. Then he grinned wickedly. 'Tell me, princess', he says, standing by her side. 'Can you survive being kicked off this train in your state?'.

'GET AWAY FROM HER!'.

A gunshot rang out and Ardyn just barely managed to evade the flying bullet, stepping front of Kairi as they looked to see at the end of the cart was Prompto, firing off another gunshot at Ardyn. The slayer of the Draconian evades each flying bullet but Prompto refuses to let up, firing continuously as if he revolver had turned into a rapid-firing assault rifle while taking several steps forward to the man who's brought more grief and pain to their band.

When Prompto was close to Kairi, he hands her an ether before he ran to Ardyn. He kept firing onwards as Ardyn sidesteps them and then moves to strike at the boy with a kick. Prompto rolled away from the kick, taking another shot at Ardyn. The man of no consequence dangerously avoids getting shot at the cost as bullet going through his fiery locks. He fried a black ball of darkness at Prompto, which in turn Prompto leaped over it and tackles into Ardyn.

The two rolled onto the ground as Prompto's gun clutters away from them, but Ardyn throws him off himself and Prompto lands on his back. Quickly as Ardyn fired more dark fire at Prompto, the Crownsguard rolls and flips away from the attacks, recalling his gun. He spun around and fires off a Starshell that soars into the air, just inches away from Ardyn's face. The light from it temporary took away Ardyn's vision as he grunts in pain, clasping his face with his hand while staggering back.

Next thing he knew when his sight was restored, Ardyn was on the end of Prompto's revolver. 'Don't even think about!', Prompto warned, 'I'm not scared to put you down!'. Kairi smiled in pride at Prompto, not only holding his own against this man but have him on the end of his gun. As she watched the ships fall, their retribution had come back in full swing.

Above them, Noctis splits two magiteks in half with his Axe of the Conquer and then threw the weapon into the main controls, demolishing it. The king warped outside of the ship and onto the top of one hovering over the train, but the king falls to his knees in exhaustion having himself quickly burn whatever energy he had regained from the ether. He coughs and pants, sweating and shaking with weariness tugging at his body, so weary.

Yet he pressed on, standing up with some staggering involved before the king shook his head and leaped off the airship, warp striking the soldiers inside the ship and simply going to town with his keyblade. Hacking and ripping apart the robotic pawns of the empire, Noctis plunged his keyblade into the controls after he eviscerated them all. The final airship, and with that, the train would be safe from any more surprises…

Or so he had thought.

The king looked through the windscreen of the airship and saw to his terror, Prompto being on the end of the gun while Ardyn held it at him with a smug look. His blood runs cold as he feels his heart rate skyrocket with horror before that melted into fury. With a roar, Noctis summoned his Engine Blade and smashed through the windscreen as the ship exploded behind him, allowing him to warp down to the train.

This catches the attention of the others, but before anyone could utter a single word, Noctis runs to Ardyn with a yell of Prompto's name, swinging his sword at him. 'NOCT NO!', Kairi screams. But it was too late.

When "Ardyn" staggered away from Noctis' first swing, he accidentally stepped to close to the edge of the train and when he tries to lean away from Noctis' second swing, he loses his footing and falls off with a yell of terror. Only when he sees the man fall was the veil lifted from Noctis' eyes, his best friend could only look at him in disbelief, terror, and betrayal as he falls from the train and onto the ground, disappearing before his eyes. 'PROMPTO!', Kairi cries out. Noctis stands there in disbelief, suddenly feeling like he just watched a part of himself die. His body shakes with revulsion to his actions, his sword drops and disappears as Kairi got to her feet.

He turns to the girl, who gave him a nod and without a word, Kairi leaped off the train. 'KAIRI!', Noctis screams as the train abandoned the girl and boy to their fates. Before Noctis could even put together what had just happened, he felt a presence nearby and then a strike to the back of his neck. He falls onto the train with a thud, as his vision fades into darkness with the only sounds being the rushing wind around him and Ardyn mockingly laughing at him…

What had he done?

*Later…*

Flinching from the pain, struggling to clear his mind. Noctis grits his teeth as he raised his head to see no sign of Ardyn, instead it looked like they were leaving the landscape were coming to a tunnel ahead of them.

Getting onto a knee, he rummages through his pockets for his phone, fearing how far they had gotten from Kairi and Prompto. The long eternal nights and the heartless was bad enough but now they were in the empire's land, that would be three factions of enemies all ganging up on the two of them. As he rang Gladiolus' number, he berated himself and punched the train. Cursing and ripping into his lack of forethought.

He had been played like a fiddle the whole time, that bastard of a chancellor had been playing him from the moment he orchestrated this whole thing. Him chasing Prompto down like he was some sort of thug who stole a woman's purse, the way he spoke to Noctis. The under layer of fear and hurt within his voice, that idea of having his best friend chasing him down and even affirming he was trying to kill him. Noctis feels sickened to his core, tears threatening to spill from his eyes, he didn't want to imagine what was going through Kairi's mind when she saw two friends in that situation.

'Noct! What is it? Where are you?', Gladiolus says.

'Gladio! You gotta stop this train!', ordered the king. 'Prompto and Kairi…Prompto fell, I…I pushed him off the train! Ardyn tricked me…K-Kairi just jumped after him!'. He could hear the distressed voices of the others from the other side, including a swear from Gladiolus. He shakes his head, 'I dunno where they are but we can't leave them!'.

'Noct', Aqua's voice called out, likely she had taken the phone from Gladiolus. 'Aqua, I…I…', he tried, but what could he possibly say to the woman who just lost her apprentice because of him. Before he could apologize, she speaks: 'Noct…I'm worried about them too…believe me when I say if we could we'd turn this train around in a heartbeat'. He heard her sigh defeatedly. 'But if we stop, we'll be inviting daemons and the heartless to come on board. We can't risk the other passengers'.

'What do we do then!?', Noctis demands. 'We drop them to Tenebrae, it's all we can do for them', she sighed. 'What about Kairi and Prompto!?', he says. 'If Ardyn was involved, then there's no doubt they won't be where we left them', she argued, 'Don't give up on them, Noct. Those two will survive long enough for us to find them'. As their conversation continued, the train slowly seeps into the tunnel leading to Tenebrae. He hitches a breath, trying to see the logic in Aqua's plan and explanation, but his actions had cost them more of their friends.

'Noct…can you make your way to the conductor's cart? I'm here with everyone else but Ignis', Aqua explained. 'What? W-Where is he?', he asked, full alert. 'I don't know…I've gotten Donald and Goofy to go look for him, but so far he's nowhere in sight'. 'I'm on my way', Noctis said, ending the call and then make his way to the end of the cart.

No sooner had the train entered it, Noctis sees the entire tunnel was swarming with goblins and large creatures he knew as gargoyles. 'Oh, come on!', he complains, summoning his keyblade. The gargoyles swooped in, meeting with the king of Lucis' steel. Noctis slashes his way past two of them as he jumps over a cart just as more daemons begin to pile onto the train. He swings wildly with his keyblade, trails of bladed light following each swing and slicing the daemons to nothing as he wildly fought his way to the conductor's cart.

The goblins impeded his run, however, trapping on a cart while taunting him as another gargoyle swooped in and slashed his back with its long nail-like claws. Noctis cries out in pain as his clothes and flesh were cut open while being throwing onto his stomach. He grunts in pain before he shoots back up in time to repay the same daemon with his keyblade slashing it's face, decimating the facial features and killing it.

The king stared down the goblins before him as they jumped into the air to pile on him. Noctis dismissed his keyblade and summoned Mace of the Fierce. He swung it with all his strength, smacking all three daemons and throwing them off the train and into the walls, now they were nothing more the blight paste on the walls of the train. Panting as his weapon disappeared, Noctis tiredly jogged on to his destination, sweating and in pain.

With no more potions on hand, not having any clue to how healing magic worked, he was running on fumes at this. Just three carts to go he thought, seeing the end of this forever moving road of his come to a merciful end. That was until when he looked above and sees three gargoyles flying towards him, forcing the king to summon Shield of the Just and hold his ground there. But the combined might of these vile creatures vs the fatigued king broke even his strongest defense. Noctis was then thrown back to the sixth cart, bouncing off it until he fell onto his side.

Noctis tried to get to his feet but he was completely at the end of his non-existent rope. He had no mana to spare; his limbs were aching to the point of feeling unbearable to even so much as twitch, the pain of his back tugged on his nerves and he knew he had lost a good amount of blood. He tries regardless of these wounds to push forward, grunting and cursing at the daemons prowled closer to him.

'Not…here... I'm not…gonna, die here', he grits out, getting to a knee before it became a battle to merely stand on his knee as opposed to standing on both feet. He stared down the daemons as they flew toward him, he would at least meet his demise with his head held up high.

They all tried to pounce on him, only for what looked to be like a spear covered in darkness shot and striking one daemon right in the just. The spear took the daemon across two carts before flying off the train and onto the tracks below where it would have at least a marked grave. The other two went still for a moment before suddenly flashes of violet light shined on their bodies in the form of blades, and then they went down.

'R-Riku?', he asked, before a hand was placed on his shoulder and a potion placed in his hand. 'I'm afraid not, your majesty'. Noctis looked to see Ignis facing him with a resolute look on his face despite the shades. 'I-Ignis…how did…', he gasped, before his advisor helped him crush the potion in his hand. 'Talk later, Noct. We need to regroup with Aqua and the others quickly', he advises, helping him to his feet, 'I've bought us a moment of peace, nothing more'.

Together despite the king's concerns, the two men in black ran down the cart to the conductors, but only when they stepped onto the final cart before the conductors, more goblins leaped off the walls of the tunnel to bar their ways. Noctis summoned his keyblade, stepping forward to keep Ignis back. 'Stay back, I-

Without a word, Ignis suddenly dashes past his king, daggers in hand engulfed in violet lightning The blind advisor struck down the goblins that leaped to him, his daggers moving so fast it was as if they were being stricken by lightning. Ignis slices up a goblin with both daggers crisscrossing over the monster before he spun around and flung a dagger right into the goblin that tried to sneak up behind him. The lightning infused dagger struck the goblin with such power it was thrown off the train.

Ignis spun his dagger in his right hand to reverse grip and then plunged it into the ground, erecting a cylinder of lightning around him the shot up and shocked the monsters, destroying them. He dismissed his weapons and turned to Noctis. 'Now's not the time for dalliance, Noct', he reminded, gesturing the conductor's cart ahead of them. Dumbly, the king muttered a "yeah" and followed him onwards just as the daemons begin to swarm behind them. When they stood on the conductor's cart, the advisor turned to the mass behind them.

Before his king could go all out on them, his advisor lowered his hand to stop him as his right arm was slowly being cloaked in darkness. Hovering over his hand a spear materialized, bathed in black flames as Ignis' own eyes glowed violet. With a yell, he shoots his hand forward, the spear charging towards the daemons like an arrow of darkness. The spear not only obliterated the daemons it hits but it created a massive shockwave that either threw them aside or destroyed them whole as the darkened weapon flew onwards to strike down anyone else.

When they were clear of daemons, Ignis turned to Noctis and assisted him down the ladder and into the conductor's room.

Inside the prince sees his companions gathered up with Lunafreya tending to Riku. Gladiolus, Donald and Goofy by the door in case of daemons attacked while Aqua had her keyblade touching the floor tip first to instill more light within the train. They all looked at the two men, Riku intensely looking at Noctis as the king lowered his head in shame. The master relents and sighs in defeat, wordlessly allowing the Oracle to heal him.

'How bad have things gotten?', Ignis questioned. 'We've gotten everybody to their cabins and ordered them to keep the doors locked', Gladiolus says, 'But Blue's trying to purge the entire train with light until we reach Tenebrae'. The moment he finished his sentence, Aqua's keyblade glowed beautifully and a wave of light washed over them all and spreads from top to end of the train.

Lunafreya revealing that the daemons had indeed been purged completely just as she finished healing Riku and got to her feet. 'We best prepare another veil to protect the train', she said wisely, turning to the others as they dismissed their weapons. 'It shan't be much longer till we arrive'. Most nodded but it was half-heartedly, their eyes downcast with worry as Aqua folds her arms. '…what exactly happened up there? With Kairi and Prompto?', she questioned.

Noctis re-told them everything that had occurred since Ardyn had arrived, from how he tricked him into chasing Prompto down, the fights with the magiteks and to the point where he pushed Prompto off the train and weakly confessing Kairi jumping after him the moment she could. He was genuinely surprised nobody had chastised him or even called him a fool for what he did. After this, Ignis spoke up. 'Likely those two will try to make their way to reunite with us at the capital if Ardyn, unlikely, leaves them'.

'However, and I apologize if I sound unsympathetic, there is nothing we can do for them at this very moment', he said with remorse. 'Ignis is right', Aqua agrees, her tone was strict and neutral yet they could see in her eyes the decision she must make is tearing her heart apart, 'Kairi and Prompto will have to make their way to us'. There is a collection of nods and "right" from everyone, but as they did, Ignis says: 'It looks like we're but an hour away from Tenebrae, provided we don't have any more run-ins with the empire'. Aqua looked at the time estimation on the monitor and nodded. 'Yeah, with luck it should be safer…there…', she said before pausing and then turning back to Ignis. 'H-How did you know that?'.

That is when all eyes fell to the blind man, who slowly took off his shades and re-opened his eyes. They were no longer the same green eyes that they all knew, but instead, they were violet with a hue of dark green. 'C-Can you see, Iggy?', Noctis asked, trying not to give in to false hope. The man frowns with a sigh. 'Somewhat…', he states, 'It is…difficult to explain but I see the world being bathed in fire…'.

'A world bathed in fire?', Riku asked, getting to his feet, 'That's a new one'. 'Without a doubt, I'm certain, but my sight has returned to a degree', Ignis agrees, 'It's just trying to adapt to it, that's all'. He placed his shades back on, smiling at the others though it was weighed down by the fact he wasn't seeing everybody again. The smile dropped quickly, this momentous triumph ruined by the party growing smaller and smaller.

'Least you're back to yourself again…just with bonuses', Noctis remarks softly. 'Yeah, if you're using darkness then we're gonna have to talk about using it more', Riku stated firmly, 'I'm glad I didn't turn you into a heartless so let's try and keep it that way'. 'Yeah, please do', Gladiolus said. 'I'm gonna go look around the carts, just in case'. The shield leaves the room while Lunafreya departs, following him to see if anyone needed healing.

Noctis looked at the four warriors of light, their eyes downcast and painfilled, but he could offer no words to them. What could he say to them? It was bad enough they lost Sora to the enemy but another one, especially one so close to their hearts? The less experienced one, all alone with Prompto in enemy territory with heartless and daemons prowling all over place. As the train moved on to the home of the Oracle, the darkness seemed to have grown…

*Tenebrae*

Upon arriving at the homeland of the Oracle, the mood of the party had dwindled the moment they had set foot on the ground. Like everywhere Tenebrae was riddled with powerful lights while in the distance of the station, they could see the old castle of the Fleuret family being covered in darkness with (using the cameras from the phones) heartless prowling around it like they owned the place.

Noctis looked at Lunafreya yet saw only resolve, like she had suspected her homeland would not be spared from the cruelty that threatened this world. She merely nodded in gratitude to Noctis' worries before they gathered up around the station bay, trying to wrap their heads around the situation they were in and trying to cope with recent losses.

'Well, look whose here'.

They turned to see Aranea strolling up to them, looking battered and weary. 'Aranea…', Riku greets, standing up as she folds her arms. Her eyes narrowed when she likely did a headcount, noticing they were three friends short. 'Where's…', started the woman, but Ignis spoke up: 'The empire's chancellor. He's…misplaced our companions'. The woman gave them all a nod of understanding, before falling to Lunafreya.

'Your grace…didn't think I'd see you come back', she confessed. The blonde princess said: 'It is my home, regardless of the empire's shadow looming over it'. The silver dragoon nodded, gesturing them to follow her. Whether it was to keep them incognito from the citizens or just for some space they couldn't say but none complained when they followed her, more so when she began to relay what's happened to Tenebrae.

After Altissia and with the Eternal Night slowly becoming the norm, almost everyone had abandoned the land, many migrating across the seas to escape. That was when the heartless had begun to swarm and take over the castle, practically consuming anyone that was nearby and walled off any exits from the castle, with barely few people escaping that hell. The king gently squeezed his lover's hand to comfort her as the news is relayed to them.

If that was how bad things had gotten here, he tried to not think of Insomnia. Since she left the empire, the dragoon with her men had joined in the search and rescue department, lending a hand where they could. Given her experience with daemons, the heartless provided little challenge to the woman of the skies as she boastfully claimed, but none of the group bought her claim, as they see her armor had taken several dents and hits from the dark creatures likely.

'So, what exactly are you guys gonna do now?', she asked, looking at the king and Oracle. 'Sora was taken to Gralea, and that's where we're going', Noctis started strongly. Aranea stopped walking and turned fully to them, making the team cease their walk. For the first, since they met this woman, who was like the face of confidence and bravery, they see she was looking at them as if they had all gone mad. Crossing her arms, she addressed them. 'You…you're not serious, right?'.

'Of course we are!', Donald shouted, 'Sora, and likely Kairi and Prompto are gonna be there! We're not leaving them!'.

'Donald's right on the gil there', Gladiolus stated. Aranea looks at them before she said: 'You guys are walking into hell on Eos'. This made them all raise a few brows and concerned looks adorned their faces as Aranea tells them. 'That place isn't just crawling with those MTs, but daemons, those other black creatures, and the white freaks as well. You're walking into a hell and that's without that pirate jackass and creep chancellor'.

'That could be Bahamut's summer home for all I care', Riku grunts, 'If we gotta fight all of them to save those three, then fine by me'.

Aranea rolled her eyes, both annoyed and somewhat impressed by the team's stubbornness. 'Then I'm guessing you're gonna be going by train yeah?', she asked. 'Do any of you know how to run one?'. Goofy raised his hand, much to the surprise of the entire group. 'Aww shucks, I know my way around a few trains here and there!', he argued. They looked at Donald, who shrugs. 'Better him than me…', Donald confessed.

'With that said, we do have a favor to ask of you', Ignis says, turning to Aranea. 'If Gralea is truly in such a state, then we can't take the other passengers with us'. 'So you want me to look after them?', she asked. 'If you could…'.

She nods with a shrug. 'Alrighty, I'll get some of my men to fix up your train then', she said. They nodded while Goofy followed her to meet up with her men, leaving the party to disperse. Much of them needing time alone or procure supplies, which leaves Noctis to walk off on his own and rest on a rock near the cliff.

Clasping his hands together as he exhales a shaky breath, his bearings all over the place while he tries to hold back his agonizing tears. Every second going back to seeing the look on Prompto's face when the illusion was lifted, the betrayal in his eyes as he fell off the train. He should've seen the signs of it all, the way Ardyn's speech resembled Prompto's, how terrified he was running from him and worst off, he should have given him a chance.

Now for all he knew his friend could be in Ardyn's company now, horrible thoughts of what that man will do to him as he waits for his friends to come. His mind wanders to Riku and the others, almost feeling sick with how once more his action had costed *them* their friend. The girl didn't even hesitate to jump off and rescue Prompto, even having better chances with the others to save Sora yet she would still risk herself for her friend.

Noctis looked at his hand before he summoned his keyblade, looking at the strange weapon before he pressed his head against the flat surface of the blade. They had come this far, surmounted so many trials and had lost much in their journey. Now their road may come to an end, ahead would be where the final battle might take place, and their friends merely taken a head start. Whatever may come, a king pushes forward and carries on, regardless of what comes.

'Noctis?'.

The king turned to see Lunafreya approach him, a frail smile adorn on her face. He gets up and approached her, she takes his hands into hers. 'Maria, one of my retainers has informed me of his majesty's sword', she says. Noctis' eyes open wide, remembering his father's sword was not on Ravus' person back in the city of water. 'She told me, the weapon was confiscated by the man in armor with silver hair', she elaborates, 'Likely, Terra is carrying the king's blade'.

"Of course", the king thought bitterly. Least he knows where to look once they arrive at the capital. Lunafreya rubbed his hand with her thumb, bringing him back to her. 'Gralea…it will be a perilous journey', she warned. Her words rang in his ear, if things are truly as bad as Aranea claimed they are to be then this will be the most dangerous journey the party had taken, and with them being down three, one of their best fighters, bod ill news to them…

'We'll make it…', he said strongly, cupping her cheeks. 'We have to'. This is their final moment of peace, their last bit of sanctuary before they would plunge into the darkness. For all Noctis knows, this may be his last time to cherish this moment with the woman he so desperately wished to stay with. For now, he'll give her this one memory with the hopes for more to come.

Gently he pressed his lips to hers, the Oracle stiffened before she relaxed into the kiss and wraps her arms around his shoulders, closing her eyes. In their final patch of heaven, before they descended into a hell, one moment of peace was all she and the king could ask for.

The party boards the train after giving the dragoon one final farewell and gratitude, with Goofy at the helm the train speeds off to Gralea where not only were their companions were waiting for them, but their enemies too.

The final battle was drawing closer and closer…

A/N: Well would you believe me if I said this went on longer than I thought?

So originally Tenebrae was supposed to have its own chapter…but nothing would really happen since Luna didn't die, and with Ravus…not alive, it was more of a stopping point before the party reached Gralea.

Next time we'll be back with Kairi and Prompto for the latter's episode! And depending on how I'm going, they'll get two chapters, and then after it'll be three chapters that may end this. I dunno, we'll see.

Massive thanks to VashTheStampede0409 for the Ignis idea, really helped and now Iggy's badass again! We'll expand more on what he can do in later chapters!

QUESTIONS!

Q1: What did you think of this chapter?

Q2: How was Ardyn in this chapter?

Q3: Do you wanna see more of Namine?

Q4: Excited for Episode Prompto and Kairi?

Q5: What did you think of the fights in this one?

Q6: Originally Lunafreya was meant to stay behind, should she tag along or remain in Tenebrae?

Q7: Did you enjoy the small fight between Ardyn and Prompto?

Q8: Anyone curious to what Kairi wrote?

Thanks for reading! As always stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	47. Chapter 47

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 47

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

* Niflheim outlands, several days later…*

Blustery winds with intense cold, combined with the darkness and the deep snow that made walking a trial. The harsh winds were like slashing the cold onto the faces of those who would traverse the harsh storm, the sound overbearing and muffled any other sounds as the two travelers struggled to press onwards.

Prompto's teeth chatter as he takes short sharp breaths from the cold, shuddering while Kairi behind him struggled to maintain her balance in the snow while following her companion. The gunner's feet crunched the thick snow as he nearly stumbled and fell to the ground, shivering with the cold flakes of snow plastering on his cheeks.

'It's …freezing out here…', he says with a light chuckle, trying to remain peppy as he straightened himself. 'Y-Y-You're telling me…', Kairi replies, her teeth chattering as she helped him reposition his footing, 'I think…I think fifty percent of my blood froze…'. Prompto looked at the islander quickly after she said that, worried about how bad the cold was affecting her compared to himself. By no means an expert, Prompto knew well enough that a drastic change in temperature compared to where a person lived is often devastating and Kairi is no exception to that rule.

After she reunited with him when he was pushed off the train, they had immediately tried to find a place to hide from the daemons and recuperate before making any plans to reunite with the others. Within the day they found themselves on the outlands of the imperials, finding an abandoned faculty just before the daemons managed to catch up to them. Abandoned the place was luckily it wasn't depleted of resources like a winter gear for their journeys.

For Prompto he is wearing a black knitted hat, a black winter coat, and trousers lined with white fur. He wears winter boots and gear that supposedly helped attach other weapons to himself if he had any on him, to begin with. Ardyn had managed to somehow snag his pistol and no matter what he did he couldn't recall his firearm anymore, leaving him defenseless.

Kairi had donned the similar gear to her companion, wearing a dark cream winter coat that wrapped her up entirely with a pair of jeans with white fur lining towards her ankles. A knitted winter hat that was crimson red with what looked like a silver patch resembling Sora's crown, a pair of grey gloves with hiking boots. Unlike Prompto's, these were her adventure clothes that may have recognized the weather the princess must face and changed into this set of clothing.

Once they had gotten an idea of where they were and sometimes reading the map, the two less experienced members of the party had no other choice than to make their ways to Gralea and hopefully reunite with the others in time. Their journey was met by all sorts of troubles, be they daemons, heartless and just the weather, and that was just the easy stuff first.

Without his weapons, Prompto was forced to the side-lines while Kairi did the fighting for them, only able to rush in and distract the enemies with wild yelling and waving his hands like a bloody lunatic or quickly give Kairi a potion to help her out. Days of doing this were taking their toll on the two, however, along with not being able to sleep much thanks to the daemons, their food supplies dwindled until they only had one cup of noodles to eat.

To say they were stretched thin, in strength and supplies, is an understatement.

Kairi had tried to keep them warm as best as she could with her magic, but by the fourth day of doing this, she had to stop to conserve more magic and power for herself. Their walking became more difficult as fatigue weighed down their bodies, their movements steadily reduced to mere shuffles in the deep snow until Prompto fell to his knees, utterly exhausted. Kairi soon fell to her side, panting and shivering, spent.

'What…a way, to go…huh?', Prompto sighed tiredly, falling to the snow as Kairi's consciousness faded. Prompto looked to the skies to see two airships beaming their searchlights down on the two, three imperials jumping down and approached the two.

Too tired and cold to fight, Prompto could only watch helplessly as the soldiers dragged Kairi before he fell to a cold slumber…

* Magitek research facility*

Stirred awake with a groan and mumbles of confusion, Prompto's first thought was he was no longer bearing the full brunt of the winter's chill and a more bearable cold brushed against his exposed cheeks. He no longer felt the softness of the cold snow beneath him and instead the harsh cold steel of a floor with still sounds. Slowly the gunner raised his head to take in the new location he had found himself in.

The harsh yet lifeless cold blue colored room looked akin to a facility of sorts but with no emblem to tell him who owned it. It is empty, devoid of life and sounds other than the young man's steps and breathing when he got to his feet. Looking around he sees he was seemingly trapped inside with one path blocked by prison gates and another a normal security door. The blond then felt a worrisome chill breeze on his right wrist and when he looked down, he sees his usual wrist band had disappeared. He gasped in horror, looking at that strange barcode tattoo that he possessed.

While he didn't know what it was entirely, all he knew was, from what his parents had told him, if any would see that bar…Well, to put it nicely he would lose any chances of staying friends with anybody from Insomnia.

He shook his head, ignoring that reminder on his skin as he looked around this place to find a way out or something to give him a clue to where he was. That is until he looked around and much to his horror, only now had he realized he had awakened alone. Kairi was nowhere to be seen, startling the young man and making him look around frantically, calling her name. Upon one of the tables near him was an old tattered newspaper with an article that had caught his attention and upon picking it up and reading it, he discovered it was focused on Verstael Besithia, the empire's researcher and leader of the weapons division.

All the paper says is he had relinquished from his field duties to fulfill his task as the leader of the "Magitek Production Facility". 'So…is this the facility the papers talking about?', he asked himself, looking around. Prompto drops the paper back onto the table and peering over it, he sees a desk with a small black recording device on it. Approaching it, he picked it up and pressed the playback button.

The recording detailed that the empire's methods of empowering their magitek soldiers were supplemented by using magitek cores. There have been reports of sublimating daemons as fuel that renders them unfit and unstable for battle, but the calculations from someone who had been assisting Verstael, if correct, could possibly solve their problems. He called it the "Deathless Project" using the magitek soldiers as opposed to human soldiers.

The rest is Verstael just gloating about how the empire will raise, and the world would bow to their superior might, much to Prompto's disgust before the recording ended. He placed the device back on the desk and headed for the security door. The door had a small device near it with a touch screen of sorts that is foreign to the gunner. He placed a hand on it but then green light scanned his right hand, tattoo glowing green, making his retract his hand quickly with a gasp.

"Scanning production code", the computer announced overhead, "Unit 05953234 confirmed". His tattoo stopped glowing bright and back to the ink colored as he stared at it in confusion. "Warning: this unit is compromised. Initiating retrieval of compromised unit", the computer revealed. Prompto's heart raced as he staggered backward, looking at the door before him and the device that scanned his barcode, questions running in his mind.

'She still remembers you, after all these years'.

Prompto turned around to see Ardyn standing before him, making him gasp in shock and step back from him. He grits his teeth as the man sauntered closer to him, showing him his weapon in the hands of the slippery silver-tongued man as he smirks. 'Now don't look so shocked, boy', he said, waving his gun, 'We can't have you spilling blood here, now can we?'. Prompto glared at him as Ardyn turned his back on him like he was absorbed in his own world.

'Although to most this compound is known only as the first Magitek Production Facility', he says wistfully, turning to Prompto, 'birthplace of the myriad magitek troopers and daemons the empire holds dear'. Prompto looked around him, trying to understand what the man was implying. If this was the first facility to create the soldiers why was he brought here? Then the man behind him smiled sinisterly sweetly. 'But to *you*, I believed this place should hold some sentimental value. After all, it *is* your birthplace. Your home even'.

Lies... lies, Prompto stressed to himself, he was just trying to get underneath his skin. It is how he did it to Ravus and so many others likely, but not him. With determination in his eyes, he growled "shut up" to the man. Ardyn, however, looked merely surprised by his aggressive demand, teasingly holding the weapon belonging to the man in front of him. 'I'm not sure why you're mad at me. *I'm* not the one who nearly killed you'.

'Shove-

Prompto barked but then the gun was suddenly shoved back into his chest, his hands instinctively reached up to clutch it while Ardyn titters. 'Now, you've had quite the long week, have you not? Why not take a rest? The two of you'. At that, Prompto raised his head to the man and aimed his revolver at him. 'Where is Kairi? What did you do to her!?', he demands. No matter how outmatched he was against Ardyn one-on-one, even alone, he is more than ready to fill this man with every bullet on Eos.

Ardyn smugly smiled and turned away. 'If you want to find her, why not go seek Chief Besithia? I heard he is very curious about the princesses of light…', he taunts. 'And who knows? Perhaps a reunion shall jolt your memories'. Prompto looked down in confusion, a reunion with that man? Why? He had no memory of, ever, meeting this man. But when he turned to aim at Ardyn for answers, the man had vanished into thin air like a ghost. Prompto looked around the room with a grunt, holstering his gun in his holster strap around his chest.

Turning down the corridor, the blond gunner clenches his fist. He would be alone for the first time, in a facility where it could be filled to the very brim with magitek soldiers and daemons, possibly the enemies of the keyblade too. Still, his friend was here as well, and in the clutches of a mad scientist if he was anything to go by. Taking a deep breath, Prompto steeled his resolve. 'I'm no prince charming, but don't worry Kairi', he said.

He ran down the corridor to begin his rescue, promising to himself: 'I'm on my way'.

*Another part of the facility*

Drowsy and weakened, Kairi's eyes slowly cracked opened with a weak breath escaping her. The harsh lights beaming down on her nearly blinded her as if she was staring into the sun point-blank. With a weak groan, she raised her hand to push the light from her, feeling the metallic cool surface against her gloveless hand. Out of her way, Kairi blinked and sat upon the incredibly stiff and wooden plank of a bed, shaking her head and rubbing her forehead.

'Where…am I?', she rasped, her throat dry and body feeling drained, woozy even. When she dropped her hand, she looked around to find herself in what could have been somebody's office or a medical room. There were several X-rays plastered on the monitors, several note pads and papers scattered on desks with many shelves as tall as a gate towering over her full of books. Nearby was one of those basic sets of medical lights and a tray full of tools.

Kairi looked at her arms and found plasters around her elbow's veins, the sting sensation when she folded her arms raced on her nerves. She went pale with fear, worried that during her forced slumber they were taking some of her blood, or worse implant something inside her bloodstream. A wave of nausea coiled in her stomach as it lurched, a sudden sense of gratitude that she hadn't eaten much before getting captured.

Swallowing back some bile that nearly entered her mouth, Kairi threw her legs off the plank of a bed and rested her booted feet on the ground, hopping off the bed. Using a small bit of her magic to heal her marks to effectively use her elbows without that bugging sting, Kairi looked around the place to seek out her missing companion. If they were separated then she needed to make her way to Prompto as soon as possible if he is still unarmed.

With Destiny's Embrace in hand, Kairi approached the doors of her "room" and it opened upon stepping in front of it. She peers out of the door to see the hallways were empty, silent like all the other abandoned facilities. Leaving the room and jogging on, she kept her weapon out and ready for whatever comes her way, running down the sterilized and clean yet stifled corridor. Likely she was in some medical ward of the facility if the smells of sterilizers and the room she was in was any indication.

Strangely as she leaves the corridor and entered another part of the facility, no guards were patrolling the place. The facility didn't look abandoned for years or even months on end given how clean everything looked, which begs the question as to why there was not a living soul nearby? Or worse, why was she left unguarded?

The keyblade wielder found herself in what appeared to be a display room, or likely a war room of sorts, a giant model of the map outstretched on a table with the world of Eos on it. She climbed down a set of stairs and approached the map, pressing a button that opened what were documentaries on the history of the world. Taking some time to quickly skim through them to find some idea on the empire, maybe an idea of where they got the idea for their soldiers. Unfortunately, she only found the documents based on the now-deceased astrals and their knowledge of the Lucis line.

Then…she came to Angelgard.

Kairi listened to the documentary, keenly listening to it and when it came to the supposed monster legend, "Adagium", something that rang out to her. The documentary had little more info on the subject, so Kairi left it and continued her search for her missing friend. Everything about the room felt empty and scarce, nothing suggested people had been visiting or even worked here for such a long time. It feels like she was walking through a less explored section of a museum with all the information about their world.

On her left in the back, she sees a massive portrait of the "Cosmogony", the book of the gods and such Lunafreya had told her about. A device that followed the same role as the map was on a pedestal for her, and she pressed it again, seeing a list of options for her. Kairi choose the "King and his men" documentary, believing it might have some relation to the Lucis line.

It did…but not what she had expected.

Kairi watches the documentary, narrated by a different voice this time discussing the first king of Lucis, also known to the world as the "Founder King", Somnus Lucis Caelum. While she wasn't a hundred percent well-knowledgeable for this subject she did learn most of it from Ignis whenever he could and learned about the founder king as well. However, the narrator pointed out a very concerning fact.

Somnus…was second in line to the throne.

'Second…wait, that means someone else was supposed to be the king…', Kairi whispered. The rest of the narrative was just the imperial (she deduced it via the arrogance and talks of their methods of warfare) boasting and talking trash about the Lucis line. Kairi choose to listen in to the Oracle documentary, seeing the same explanation although more detailed she had received from Lunafreya before and even sees a painted portrait of the very first Oracle.

It astounded the girl on how eerily similar the first Oracle looked to Lunafreya.

More searches had shown the girl the empire developed a fascination with the daemons that according to their studies, had been around for two centuries. Most of it were details they had discovered from fighting them, hate for the sunlight, grow stronger as the night went on and varieties of them. What she didn't know, was the blight that spawns from them is lethally poisonous and…it could also warp someone into a daemon. Nearly akin to a heartless swallowing hearts and turning their victims into heartless.

She found a testing room with a cage that was torn apart, likely this is where they discovered the daemons disdain for being in the sunlight likely. It was strange for her to see all this, wondering that if the empire had such vast knowledge on these monsters certainly Niflhiem would be possibly the safest place from daemons. Or worse, did they have other uses for daemons?

Kairi comes to another portrait, this time with only two documentaries. The first one was based on the "Undying Prisoner", which immediately caught her attention. Adagium was the name the Lucians referred the monster too, and it had been imprisoned in Angelgard for two thousand years. A mortal that surpassed any mortal, practically invincible to all harm to his body. It is suggested that this was why he was sealed away by the Founder King.

Kairi watched the final documentary, and her eyes widened with shock. This was a still shot capture, showing a young scientist, two imperial soldiers dragging a man to him…and that man…was Ardyn. She shook her head, unbelieving. If Ardyn was that old, and if she was right the line of Lucis is over two thousand years old, which means he could have been around when it was all happening when they were first founded.

And if Somnus was not the first in line…could that mean…

'Fascinating isn't it?'.

Kairi turned around and sees Ardyn sitting on a couch nearby, placing down a cup of tea on the coffee table. 'For two millennia, I was locked away in that prison, left to rot but to never be free of my mortal form', he mused, his tone was vastly different compared to how he usually spoke to her and the others. That playful smugness, the flamboyant movement, and the wistful speech, all gone and in their place was bitterness and pain. 'This world prays to the astrals, holds them high regard too, saying we should be thankful for their blessings'.

'…if only they knew'.

He stood up as Kairi watched him, eyes fixed as her grip on the keyblade tightened. 'I am sure you know about the Chosen King's fate? The Oracle likely has told you this…that when the darkness doomed the world, the king of light shall ascend his throne and banish the darkness? At the cost of his life?', Ardyn asked. He turned to her, seeing the look of horror on her face. 'Ahh, of course, she neglected to mention that part to her beloved didn't she?', he taunts.

'Well…do you ever wonder why that must be? Or better yet, did you know it could have been avoided?'. Ardyn looked to the documentary of the Founder King, his eyes glowed with hatred as he dropped the piece to the puzzle Kairi had dreaded to put together.

'If my brother hadn't betrayed me…'.

'Y-You're…you were the one first in line…', Kairi gasped. 'Indeed…my throne that I was denied. Oh ho, but not just that', he says, stretching his arms out. 'My name was struck from history, my deeds of making the sacrifice that none had dared too, my body forever a home to the blight…and even…even…'. He grunts and turned to her with a wicked smile, 'And did you know? It was all pre-ordained by the very gods themselves?'.

Kairi shook her head, wrapping this information around her head as the man's smile disappeared into a grin of malice. 'The Draconian, he would have me be a sacrificial lamb to Noctis' ascension, all to purge the world of the Starscourge so that the gods can keep this world safe'. 'A scapegoat…', Kairi said, shocked. 'Precisely, princess'. 'I have a lot to be grateful for, towards Xigbar. Because of him, not only did I get the revenge I rightfully earned, but now this world can pay for what it had done to me'.

Kairi stared at him with narrowed eyes, 'You're going to let this world fall to the daemons, because of what Bahamut did to you? But why!?', she demanded, 'You have your revenge, you destroyed the Lucis line's power! Isn't that enough!?'.

Her questions were met with a dark red armiger of swords, that rocketed towards her. Kairi rolled away from the attacks as they flew and struck the documentary pedestal, destroying it. She faced him as he was surrounded by what looked to be an arsenal that was near identical to Noctis' armiger, except with them being dark red and infested with the darkness. 'Why keep it going? This world is doomed, princess, without the crystal or power of providence, there is no way to restore the light here'.

'Besides, the crystal rejected me. I did what I could to help those infected by the blight, taking it into my own body to save hundreds of lives, yet I may as well have just been turned into a daemon. When I needed the crystal the most, it rejected me and turned my murderous brother into the king'. He throws two of the red arms at Kairi, forcing her to deflect them. The strength behind them catches her off guard and knocked her on her back with a light thud.

He chuckled cruelly as Kairi got to her feet, the man shaking his head. 'Certainly, your friends can fight all they want, but even the strongest of light will flicker and die when it's surrounded by shadows'. Kairi stared him down as he dismissed his weapons with a flick of his wrist. 'You know, you don't stand a chance against me, child of light', he warned playfully, gesturing to her stomach. 'I seem to recall one of us is capable of harming the other while the other is…still working on it'. Kairi feels a ghostly touch on her scar, nearly making her shudder in fear but she willed it from showing.

Ardyn smugly lifts his hand. 'I had offered to the king's advisor, but I'm hoping you will show more wisdom than he did', he says, lowering his hand, offering to her. 'Why not come with me?'. Kairi stepped back from him, her grip on the keyblade tightening while she tries to find an opening to escape him. The documentary had informed her that any attacks on this man are no more lethal than a bug bite on his fingers, and she already knew he is more powerful than anything she had fought up to here.

Maybe even stronger than Sephiroth…

Ardyn raised a brow at the girl, slowly seeing the doubt and fear grow within her heart as memories of the day where he nearly destroyed a precious light ran in both their minds. 'If you do, I can give you the one thing you want the most', he offers.

Kairi looked at him, he nods. 'I'll take you to see Sora…unlike the gods above, I would never deprive someone of their loved ones…at least, not young love anyways', he taunts. Kairi looked down as her will is tested, could he be telling her the truth? He didn't need to fight her, nor did he need her for anything but to submit and just go along with him. Not like he had any fears of assassination from her or anything that could put his life at risk if he was truly invincible to everything.

This could be her chance to save Sora, maybe even if she could reunite with him and together they could fight their way out together. Her heart cried for her to take this, a chance to be with him again. There is nothing she could do to stop him anyway…

'I know that feeling, my dear', he says, 'Noctis and I share more than just royal blood. We both have a peculiar thing for Oracles'. For the first time, Kairi could see a look of remorse and even sadness in that man's golden eyes, he placed a hand on his own heart. 'Aera…my sweet Aera, innocent in all that occurred between me and the crystal…struck down by my very own kin because of his jealousy…', he whispered. 'Would I have the power; I would give anything to have her back…why not take this chance to avoid my agony and be with him again?'.

Kairi felt that anguish, and for a moment she genuinely feels for this man. Had Bahamut not play favorites, had the crystal not misguided him for his pilgrimage, maybe things would have worked out so differently. Maybe Ardyn wouldn't have gone down this path, he wouldn't have allied with Xigbar, and maybe the empire wouldn't have gotten so far in their mindless destruction of their world. An offer like this, to finally reunite with Sora again…

Then as she gently clasped the chain around her neck, the warmth she gained from it remaindered her of the reasons she fell in love with Sora. His heart. So big and warm, always able to make connections with strangers with that smile, the smile that could lift spirits, restore hope and more. The friends they made here, the people they met and knowing Prompto was still here, in this cold place because of Ardyn.

'No'.

Ardyn raised a brow at the girl, now staring him down with fire in her eyes. 'I want to be with Sora again, more than anything else in the world', she revealed, clutching the necklace, 'But not if it means we lose any more of our friends'. Unaware, Kairi's body glows with a golden light that if Ardyn was certain, outshined even Lunafreya's. A surge of light this world had never see glowed from her, her keyblade bathing in it as she aims it at him.

'What happened to you was unfair and unjust by the gods, but your actions after were by *your* volition! The lives you've ruined, the destruction you brought, the corruption you spread, all done by your hand by your will!'. Kairi lifted her keyblade up over her head, the tip glowing bright as the sun as Ardyn raised his hand to protect his eyes. 'I will see Sora again, but not alone!'. The light shined brighter until the entire cold darkroom was now blessed by the light that caused even Ardyn to cover his eyes in pain.

This pure divine strength was unlike anything he had felt before, not even Aera could produce such a powerful light as this. He was blown off his feet and flew straight through the table, smashing it and colliding into the wall with a thud. He falls onto his knees with his lungs depleted of oxygen and uses his knees and hands to keep him up. When he raised his head, Kairi was gone and up on the second floor a door closes, likely she ran away. A smart girl he thought, regardless of her light.

Then…he coughs. He feels something, something that his mind could not process as he stares at the floor in shock. Splattered on the cold steel floor was splotches of blood mixed with the bile blight, his body didn't feel fine and he swore something had broken within him. Ardyn, for the first time in two thousand years, has felt pain.

Kairi has harmed him…

*Other Side*

Prompto truly had been taking Sora and the others for granted, it was only when he was forced to fight his ways out of battles did he truly realize that he had become so dependent on them that it was a glowing reminder of how far he still had to go. By the point, if not sooner, Kairi could have held her own without the aid of the others despite her being the least experienced amongst all ten, or eleven, of them.

As he thought the only security this facility had been nothing but magitek soldiers and a few of those weird security eyeball drones, not a single living being in sight nor were there any scientists working on projects or such. It felt so unnatural for him, to be in a place where only non-living beings roamed the place as if they were the ones who owned this factory. Along his journeys, he found out more about how these machines were being produced, yet the more he learned the more revolted he felt.

Verstael's projects on these things had hit so many dead ends with most results being mental breakdowns of MTs, but then he came up with a new process. First, he harvested miasma from the daemonized humans, then infect infants with plasmodia. The fact he was willing to use new-born children to create those MTs made Prompto so grateful he wasn't given any food because he knew he'd throw up everything within him.

One more recording log informs Prompto that years ago, a thief, Verstael believes to be Lucian, made off with one of his experiments. While the mad doctor himself admits one loss wouldn't damping the empire's conquest. This piece of information began to set off alarm bells within Prompto as he fought his way through this hellish place, if what Ardyn had been saying is true, and if it was indeed a Lucian who made off with an infant, then could that possibly mean…

He forced himself not to think about it, using the MTs as an excuse to focus on escaping and reuniting with Kairi.

Prompto eventually found himself in a laboratory after using his bar code to access the lab via tunnel. Inside this lab, the gunner found several huge testing tubes that homed humanoids, infected by the blight while half of them had pure skin. It was like the blight was eating away at their humanities slowly, but when he approached one, his skin went white. Despite having no hair or freckles, their facial structures were identical to him.

He was in a room where clones of himself were being made left and right. Those horrible questions that he wanted no answers to were growing heavier on his mind, just what was he?

Prompto swallows back the bile, shaking his head and climbed a flight of stairs that leads up into the lab. Quick though he ducked behind one of the desks, fore inside a large room where he sees those lookalikes were being infected with more blight, he sees Ardyn and Verstael inside. No Kairi though, which made him breathe a sigh of relief. Least she wasn't being experimented on, thanks be the gods. Still, now was a chance for him, if he could take down the doctor may be the production of these things would cease.

Quietly Prompto moves closer to hear the two of the empire prattle, listening closely as he carefully peered over to watch. In Ardyn's hand was a small test tube full of blood, he shook it curiously before turning to the balding scientist. 'Are you certain you have enough there?', he asked, intrigued. 'We've more than enough of the girl's blood to proceed with our projects', Verstael assures distractedly, fixed on corrupting the replicas. 'I've already shipped them to the other lab'.

Prompto gripped his revolver tightly, eyes narrowed angrily. Is that Kairi's blood he wondered; did they experiment on her? As if he didn't have enough of a reason to shoot Ardyn, now the good doctor would get acquainted with his gun as well. What could they possibly need Kairi's blood for, they had Lunafreya for years for all the blood of a princess of light, or maybe it was known to them Kairi was one thanks to Xigbar?

'By the way, do you recall that child, the one who was stolen from this place?', Ardyn asked, stuffing the tube into his jacket. Verstael scoffs, 'The one those Lucians absconded with? Vaguely but yes'. Ardyn clapped his hands with glee, 'Well I have wonderful news, I thought you might want to see what a fine young man he has become in these twenty odd years!', Ardyn sings with sarcastic joy. Ardyn saunters off, going on about paying back the man for bringing his pets to the Crown City, he brought home his lost son.

Ardyn turned to Prompto, almost ducking back down before realizing it would be fruitless. 'Come now, the time has arrived for you to meet your literal maker! I'm sure you've plenty of questions for daddy dearest!', Ardyn sung, outstretching his hands like a performer to a play, 'Father and son, reunited after two decades! Oh, how I love bringing families together!'.

Prompto staggers to his feet, shaking his head looking at the despicable excuse for a human, this vile and heartless monster couldn't be…

'No…no! It's not true damn it!', he cursed. Prompto runs to the door of the lab, his mind running wild with questions, fears of the truth looming over him as he drew his gun. The door for the lab opened as Verstael stands before him with his back turned, so fixed on the machine before him. Slowly and shaking, Prompto trained his gun on him. It didn't matter if this was an old man before him, it didn't matter who he was to the empire, this man…this thing…

He couldn't be…

'What's wrong? Have you never seen a man turn before?', Verstael asked, turning to face Prompto. The blonde swallows dryly at the sight, the blight adorned his right face with a purple sickness that had turned his right eye into a void of nothing. He felt the similar darkness to a heartless being summoned, likely this man, if he ever had one, lost his heart just right there before him. Verstael laughs, gesturing Prompto.

'If those filthy Lucians hadn't intervened, you could have turned out like this as well', Verstael says, lamenting as if Prompto had missed out on the next stage of human evolution. 'Why me…?', Prompto asked quietly, like he just didn't want to hear the truth because a part of him knew that cruelty that was the truth would crush him. 'Simple, you were cloned from this genius's genes, born from my flesh and blood!', Verstael revealed.

The way he spoke of himself and his connection to Prompto, how joyous and superior he sounded made the gunner sick. 'You are but one of millions created to serve the glory of our empire within the magitek infantry!', he states.

'C-Created…to serve you…?', Prompto gasped weakly, his stance weakened as his armed hand fell in dismay. This whole time, the bar code was a permanent reminder of what he is, the reason his adopted parents constantly insisted he never show his bar, maybe why they weren't around so often if at all. The whole time he, the very enemy of his home, lived amongst those he would have fought in the war. A lie, it had to be a lie…this is all a part of Ardyn's game, to beguile him into believing this was reality…but then, why did Noctis attack him? Why would he not listen to him? Why would he say all those horrible accusations without even giving Prompto a chance to defend himself?

'Yes, and now you've returned home to Niflhiem, my son', Verstael says.

BANG!

One bullet shot to the ceiling, to clear the noises spewing from this man, Prompto with head downcast as despair washes over him while the truth crushed his heart. 'SHUT UP! You're wrong…I am a Lucian!', he cries, facing him with tears running down his cheeks. 'I AM NOT ONE OF YOUR EXPERIMENTS!'.

'Oh not anymore. Now, you're nothing but a failure', Verstael states, slowly the blight begins to spread like dark violet veins on his infected side, his hollow eye now glowing yellow. 'But, perhaps if I return you to where you came from, then you could be of some use'. Slowly he raised his darkened hand to grab Prompto's shoulder, the darkness slithering off and clinging to Prompto as the young man gasps and panics. 'Soon, my ascension to power will be complete, and not even the kings of Lucis will stop my reign!'.

More and more the blight corrupts, the less human Verstael sounded to Prompto as he was grabbed by both hands like the man was trying to turn him into a heartless, a daemon or worse. The mad scientist went on and on about his supposed plans of grandeur, the darkness harming Prompto until with a cry of anguish, fear and anger, Prompto forces his arms up and the moment his gun was in direct line of Verstael's face, he pulls the trigger.

With the only glimmer of light being the spark from the gunshot, Verstael's lifeless mortal coil is torn and he falls onto his back. The corruption stopping, no life meant there was nothing left to turn and twist into the dark's image. Yet this was nothing, none of it mattered to the gunner as he drops his gun and falls onto his hands and knees, completely in despair. The truth had been delivered, his origins now laid bare before him as he looked at Verstael's form, his…father's corpse.

'*GASP* What have you done?', Ardyn's voice boomed over the intercom. 'You've gone homicidal- no, patricidal!'. Prompto could barely utter a whimpered "no", unable to find the strength to push onward. Still, Ardyn is far from finished, as he just continues to twist the knife deeper and deeper into Prompto's heart. 'You've lost your friends, and now your family! You've nobody left!'. He laughs with mirth as Prompto screams in despair, shouting to the voice to be silent as he punched the ground.

'Prompto!'.

The older man feels a pair of hands resting on him, helping him sit on his knees and then when he looked, he saw Kairi before him. She was breathing heavily with her face glistened with sweat but otherwise was unharmed. 'Are you ok? I heard a gunshot and came running!', she says, checking him for his wounds. He should've been happy to see her safe and sound, by his side again, relived he had somebody he could fall onto for help.

But now, he was more terrified than ever.

What would she do if she learned he was just like them? An experiment of the empire gone wrong? Something that for all she knew she had been fighting from the very moment she came to this world. 'Prompto? What's wrong?', Kairi asked when she realized he hadn't said a word at all since she got to him. Kairi looked to Verstael with a gasp, whether it was because this is the first she's seen a dead body or because of how much the blight's corruption could do he didn't know.

'Vital functions decreasing. Plasmodium activity index increasing'.

Both looked to the machine before them as Verstael's body turning into liquid before them and his daemon miasma was being sucked up by the machine before them, announcing: 'Daemonification complete. Initiating transfer to project Unit XDA-1002: Immortalis'.

The room went red with alarms going off the moment the miasma was absorbed and transferred to the unit, leaving the two younger heroes looking around in confusion before Kairi gets to her feet. 'Prompto, the darkness! It's getting worse!', she announced, keyblade drawn, 'We gotta go!'. "Go where?", he thought, unable to get to his feet. What was he supposed to do, he was one of these monsters…maybe…maybe he should just wait here and let the daemons finish him off…?

Then suddenly, one of the ceilings broke and falling was a large humanoid beast that fell. On top of the monster was none other than the dragoon mercenary, Aranea. She yanks her spear out of the daemon before glancing at the two. 'Oh, you two always play hard to get?', she asked with tease and slight annoyance.

'Aranea? What are you doing here?', Kairi asked, looking at the daemon. The woman hops off the daemon and approached a table, hands-on it and looks at what looked to be a sketched-out model. She huffs. 'Hunting for some of the empire's secrets, just so happen to run into you two', she explained. 'But no time for explanation, we gotta go!'. Kairi nods, agreeing with their time constraint and turns to Prompto. 'Prompto…', Kairi says, at a loss of words.

Not Aranea.

The dragoon stomps over to the blond and grabs him by the collar of his winter coat and hauled him upwards. 'I'm gonna say this once so you damn well better listen up: That kid is trying to save your ass instead saving hers. So how about you grow a pair and get your ass moving?', she orders. Prompto doesn't reply, just as defeated as they found him. 'Look, you lose the will to live, you lose any chances of me helping you two'.

Kairi takes Prompto's hand, looking at him. 'Prompto…', she pleads. Wordlessly, and somehow spurred by their words, he weakly nods. Releasing her grip on him, Aranea pushes Kairi forward and yells for the blond to follow. No sooner did they escape the room; the entire facility was starting to be swarmed with daemons and active MT units.

They fight their way past them all, Kairi and Aranea hacking and slashing through the daemons while Prompto shoots them, but for he refused to fight the MTs, allowing Kairi to strike them down. Alarms going off above their heads, the dragoon warning them this place was trying to shut down and contain the daemons before they run amok, which means if sealed in the trio would have to get comfortable with their daemonic roommates.

The entire warehouse of the facility was crawling with daemons and MTs, it made the fighting more intense and with so little to work with given the space of the area, Kairi couldn't unleash all her magic without risking a chance of harming her party. The last thing she needed was to give Aranea a reason to leave them, especially with Prompto in his condition.

They make their way to snowmobiles thankfully, but before they got on, Kairi was given a map of the area from Aranea. 'Head to this location, I'll catch up', she ordered. Kairi nods, trusting the woman as she and Prompto hopped onto the vehicle, Kairi riding back. Prompto kicked the vehicle into gear and they speed off out of the bay and into the wildlands where daemons and other beasts prowled the area. The MTs, however, were not giving up on their mission to retrieve the defect without a fight, many of them hopped onto snowmobiles and gave chase.

Through the cold winds and snow, Kairi turned and used her magic to strike back at the MTs tracking them while Prompto drives on using the lights from the vehicle to guide their way. Given how bright they were it's likely these lights were outfitted with more powerful lights to ward off daemons. Down a slope canyon, Prompto drives the two as Kairi used thunder to strike down one persisting soldier and reduced them to scrap metal.

Kairi finally used a large portion of her reserved mana and fired off a dense ray of ice on the ground that created a line from one wall of the canyon to the other. With a raise of her keyblade, a large five stories high wall of blue ice rose up from the ground, cutting off the MTs and making some crash into it. 'Hold on!', Prompto yells over the fights. Kairi turned to see a cliff was their end of the road and before Prompto could hit the breaks and slow down they flew off the cliff. Both cried as they flew temporarily in the air before they crashed their vehicle into the snow.

They were thrown off the device, bouncing on the snow before plummeting into it. Groaning from the sudden force of their throw and landing on the snow, the two rolled onto their backs, finally allowing themselves to breathe.

Kairi pants softly, turning to Prompto. 'Well…we escaped…', she says with a small cheer in her tone, 'Least we got away from Ardyn'. Prompto weakly hums in agreement, slowly getting back to his feet with Kairi. Brushing the snow off herself, Kairi takes the map out from her jacket and opened it to see where the rendezvous point Arana marked was. She shows Prompto this before they hopped back onto the snowmobile. 'We better head there first and foremost', Kairi says, 'Hopefully it's a cave, we can make camp there'.

'Yeah…', Prompto agreed half-heartedly, speeding off with his friend. The princess frowned at his tone yet says nothing. Lowering her eyes to his back, she couldn't help but fear whatever it was he found in that lab must have truly shook him to his core.

If Aranea hadn't been there to get his ass in gear, she knew deep down she would have stayed and fought all the daemons until her dying breath. A vain sacrifice was all she could do. The drive was still silent and awkward, something Kairi was surprised to have with Prompto of all people. They didn't stop at all since they were in the open, whether they would be ambushed by daemons or MT search parties.

For now, all she believed they could do was find that spot, rest up and then discuss what their next plan would be…

As luck would have it, the spot was indeed a cave with perfect cover for them to hide out from the imperials and using some of the foliage nearby to cover up the snowmobile. Kairi used a spell Aqua had taught her to create a veil that was like a cover-up that keeps the users invisible while warding off the daemons. For now, they had shelter and a place to take a breather without having any more surprises.

Kairi got the fire started after Prompto gathered some wood, using the basic lessons from Gladiolus as opposed to magic. Food-wise it was just a bunch of rations she snagged from the facility, tin food that is a far cry from Ignis' cooking but food is food after all. Together they sit in awkward silence, eating away while awaiting for Aranea to show up. Kairi was mostly picking at her meal, not entirely hungry and more so pondering on what she had discovered about Ardyn.

Her thoughts stopped when Prompto made an "mmm" sound and says: 'Almost as good as Iggy used to make'. She could tell he was trying to lighten the mood, which she would have appreciated given the situation they were in, but his tone and speech was heavy with restraint. It sounded like he wanted to cry but couldn't. Subtly she looked at him as he puts his meal down, his face showed his smile was as fragile as a Christmas ornament and cracked everywhere. 'Least it's quiet for a change', he adds.

She looked at her food, mulling his words in her mind. She would have preferred the noise her friends would make as opposed to this suffocating silence. Donald's quacks about being teased by Riku's playful jabs, the brotherly banter between Noctis and Gladiolus with a touch of competition, Aqua sharing recipe's with Ignis while sharing a good coffee, Goofy joking with Prompto and telling them some of his old jobs.

Having herself near Sora so she could rest her head on his shoulders, reveling in the warmth and comfort of having him nearby. Gods above she misses them all so much it nearly brought a tear to her eye, and now further away from them all just made her feel even worse. However she forced those feelings aside, her friend was trying to make their situation as bearable as he could and here she is making herself feel bad.

'…least sleeping won't be so bad…no Gladio snoring like a bear', she laughs weakly. 'Totally…', Prompto agreed. She sighed; unlikely they wouldn't rather tolerate his snores then be alone. Kairi takes a breath before she got to her feet and walks around the fire, walking past Prompto. 'I'm just gonna check the vehicle, be back soon, ok?', she says. He nods and stares at the fire as she walked away.

When he couldn't hear her footsteps anymore, the blond shudders and simpers on his spot, looking down at his right arm to see that brand. A brand to forever remind him of where he truly came from, a cursed mark to forever haunt him. Without his band to keep it hidden, it would be merely a matter of time and chance for Kairi to finally see what he truly was. He didn't want to be alone again, not here without Noctis and the others.

In a spur of the moment, the man grabbed the unburnt half of one of the sticks in the fire, holding it up to look at the golden red-hot part of the stick, slowly casting his eyes to the brand. Maybe, just maybe, he could burn it enough to hide it from her, to free himself of this damn spot on his life. It could be his last chance to escape from Verstael…

With an intake of breath, he made his choice.

Prompto pressed the searing heat into his barcode, flinching and whimpering at the initial intense heat burning his skin before he couldn't bear it anymore. He lets out a cry of pain but still held it against his mark, throwing his head around in agony. Prompto was so absorbed in his determination and pain to be free of this mark he didn't hear his name being called out nor the sound of multiple footsteps being taken.

The stick was grabbed and thrown out of his hand as his wrist was clutched by another hand. He opened his eye to see a worried Kairi facing him. 'Prompto! What are you doing!?', she shouts, her voice was coated with horror and worry for him. Prompto looked at her hand on his arm as she releases and holds him there.

No…it didn't work.

Around the barcode his skin was red, and the smells of burns assaulted their noses as Kairi gasped in shock. 'Oh my god, why did you do this to yourself!?', she demanded, looking at him. Shaking her head when he could just open and close his mouth as a response, Kairi immediately drew a potion from their shared pocket dimension. She held it over his burns, crushing it and quickly his skin heals faster than she hoped.

She checked his arm for more injuries, finally breathing in relief when she found none and released his arm. Kairi then glared at him as he looked away, shame graced his face before she grunts and pushes him onto his back. He lets out a startled yelp of surprise, looking at her. 'Tell me! Why did you do that!?', she shouts, done with being patient. She got to her feet and yelled: 'After everything we've been through, after coming this far, NOW you decide burning yourself is a good idea!?'.

Prompto had never seen Kairi so angry, but what hurt him most were the tears threatening to spill from her eyes. There is a look of genuine sympathy in the sea of anger within her eyes absolutely, which made him feel even worse for putting her through his struggles with the daemons inside his heart. Kairi throws her hands in the air, shaking her head. 'What was it, Prompto? What happened in that place that's making you think this way!?'.

The man looked at his arm, his frustrations and anger boiling to a critical point. He knew he wasn't like the Lucians he knew, he always felt like an outcast before he become a social hermit. To have everything he knew to be a lie, that he was not even a human but a defect MT that was chosen by chance to be kidnapped by a Lucian. Knowing that the moment Noctis and the others see this, he'll lose them.

'Prompto!', Kairi shouts.

'I AM ONE OF THEM!', he shouts.

As the wind howls over them, both finally hitting their breaking point, Prompto couldn't hold his pain back no longer. He faced Kairi as his own eyes unashamedly ran with tears. 'I'm an MT! I was created by Verstael to be part of the MT infantry!', he cries, showing her the barcode. 'This is a code that they give to all of us! THIS! This damn thing has me marked as a freaking MT for all my life! The very enemy of Noct!'.

Prompto got to his knees, his eyes losing the fire in them as Kairi looked at him. 'I…I'm one of them…those bucket heads…those things we've been fighting since Insomnia fell…I'm just like them…'. He whimpers as he looked at his band, shaking and looking miserable. Suddenly he was wrapped into a tight hug, Kairi holding him close to her.

'You aren't…anything, like them…', she assures, softly and lovingly. 'You are Prompto, nobody else. Don't you dare let a stupid mark define you'. Prompto's breath hitches, before ultimately he breaks down into Kairi and cries, while she lets her tears fall too…

A/N: Sorry for the delay, it was supposed to be done for yesterday but I've been decorating home with family for the past three days…and we're STILL not done…kill me…

So we're part one into this episode, we've learned some things, our heroes are struggling against the world alone and now there's this new project of the empire going on. Can these two surmount this new challenge and grow from it? We'll see next time!

Just in case some are wondering, for those who have played Episode Prompto, I think we can all agree that the final boss of that DLC…sucked. A turret section? Really? So as you can imagine, we're NOT going with that boss.

Questions:

Q1: What did you think of this chapter?

Q2: How was Kairi and Prompto in this one?

Q3: Do you think Aranea should have a slightly bigger role in the next chapter?

Q4: Can you guess what the final boss will be?

Q5: Think you know why Kairi had some blood taken?

Q6: How was Prompto and Kairi's relationship in this?

Q7: Can you figure out why Ardyn feels pain now?

As always, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	48. Chapter 48

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 48

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

Rubbing her hands together as she basked in the warmth of the campfire, the princess of light stares into the golden flickering lights, hypnotized by them. Near her, Prompto sits quietly with his back against the fires.

Neither of the two had spoken since Prompto broke down and revealed the truth of his mark, having told her what exactly he discovered in that lab, his birthplace. Killing Verstael had shook the poor blond, admitting to Kairi it was the first time had killed another person despite the horrible act against humanity the man had performed on infants. After that, and then telling her about the research recordings he found, she offered her ears and shoulder for him.

Kairi had yet to tell him about what she discovered about Ardyn, opting to hold off on dropping more bombshells on the poor man after today. As much as she needed to get it off her chest, he needed her to be their pillar of support and keep them going. Trouble is, as she noticed, what came next was a question neither had answers to…

'Glad you two made it here', a voice they knew called. They glanced to see Aranea approaching them, but her usual smirks weren't to be seen. Instead, she had a look of genuine sympathy on her face, Kairi didn't want to imagine how crappy they must have looked compared to earlier. Relaxing her posture she walked around to Kairi's side and settled down with a playful: 'You two could at least look happy to see me again'.

'Sorry, it's…been a very long day', Kairi says weakly, turning to the fires. The dragoon pats her back in a friendly manner, nodding. Before Kairi could offer her some of their resources, what little remained anyways, the woman spoke up. 'I ran into your friends back in Tenebrae', she says, smirking when both younger members of Noctis' party turned to her. 'Are they ok? What about Ignis?', Kairi asked, getting on her knees. The woman waves her hand, 'The guy says his vision got better, thanks to the silver kid', she reveals, 'Says he's better than ever'.

Together the two sighed breaths of relief, Kairi smiling albeit it was small and fragile. 'That's good, that's good…', she says, repeating. 'You've got them worried sick you know?', the dragoon teased playfully, 'You gonna go see them soon?'.

Kairi opened her mouth to affirm that silly question, but one glance over her shoulder to Prompto, and suddenly that question became too hard for her to answer confidently. Resting on her knees and facing the fire, Kairi lowers her head. '…I can't…', Prompto said with such a sullen and grime tone, Kairi had to do a double-take to make sure it was Prompto who said it. Never hearing the cheery and happy-go-lucky man sound so defeated and broken before. It tore her heart apart to hear such a defeated sound from him.

'I'm not like them…I was born here, in Niflhiem…', he confesses to the dragoon. 'Not only did I never tell any of them…but I wasn't born into a happy family…I was made in a facility, created to make Noct and the others miserable'. Kairi clenched her fist and turned on Prompto, still unable to face her. 'Prompto…', she tried but he shakes his head. 'How do I even face them? Knowing that if they knew what I am they would never accept me?', he asked.

'That's not fair…you've known Noct for years and you still don't know what kind of person he is?', Kairi asked, shaking her head. Aranea chuckles at them, making the two face her. 'You're a real piece of work, blondie', she scoffs, 'You know your prince and I weren't always on friendly terms, not as bad as say little red over there but pretty bad'.

Kairi glared at her, recalling the reason this woman made her list of people to keep Sora away from. The dragoon waved a hand, dismissing her friend's glare. 'But ya know something? He pushed that aside, and asked me to make sure you two were safe'. This made Kairi turn to Prompto with hope in her eyes, perhaps hearing that would grant him the assurance he desperately needed to see again. The spark of hope that would relight the fire to make him push forward again, so they could reunite with them.

'…he did?', he asked.

'Yup. That's not the kind of request you'd ask for someone who made your life miserable', Aranea says confidently. Prompto looked to her and Kairi, the latter was giving the man hopeful glances that should have made him feel safe again like he could have the power to see his best friends again…yet somehow, her hope never reached his own heart as he lowered his gaze back to the ground. Aranea lets out a groan and gets to her feet. 'You two obviously wanna go back to them, so why not go?', she asked, exasperatedly.

Kairi got to her own feet and stared down the woman but before she could open her mouth to fight back, Prompto says: 'Even if they did let me back…I'd cause them nothing but trouble…'. Shaking his head, Prompto continues: 'If I brought that all that, I'd never be able to live with myself'. 'And you're doing such a great job living with yourself now, huh?', Aranea challenged, pushing Kairi aside and then when she strode to Prompto, she shoves him onto his back.

She placed a knee on his stomach to stop him from getting back up and stared down at him. 'And what do *you* want then? Huh?', she questioned. 'You worry so much about what other people want from you that you don't even know what *you* want anymore!'. Prompto stammers but when he tried speaking again she places each hand on each side of his head and stares at him. 'How about this? You forget what everyone else thinks for just a minute and try to figure out what *you're* really after here'.

With that, she gets off Prompto and turns to Kairi, before scoffing and then flung a map down to Kairi's feet. 'I'm going after that new model in the morning', she announces and stalks off. 'You two are on your own'. The dragoon stormed out of the cave as quickly as she arrived, leaving the two behind to ponder on her words. Prompto sits back up and rests his elbows on his knees while Kairi settled down on her side.

'…let's get some sleep, ok?', she offered, 'We can think about what to do tomorrow'. Prompto hums, agreeing with her and laid down on his side as Kairi used her hat and gloves for a make-shift pillow. With the sound of the crackling fire, hearts waning and strength low, the two ventured to dreamless slumber…

*Next day*

Prompto awoke with a slight startle, a bark jumping him out of his sleep.

Quickly he rolled onto his side to look outside the cave, hearing a persistent bark call out to him. Blinking and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, the gunner turned to Kairi, still sleeping and turns on her other side, back now facing Prompto. The gunner lowered his head before deciding to go investigate the barking, quietly exiting the cave after scribbling a notice for Kairi using the soot-covered wood.

The barking didn't sound very far thankfully, a small jog away from the cave. At least he didn't have to go so far from the cave that Kairi couldn't track him down easily. Out on his own in the never-ending night, Prompto held his revolver in both hands as he trained his ears to direct him to the barking dog. Following the barks gave him time to think on what Aranea and Kairi had said to him last night, his steps slow and movement careful.

His tattoo was in his sight whenever he looked at his gun, reminding him why going back to Noctis was no longer an option for him. Just the thought of seeing his friend glared at him with those heated eyes every time he saw one of the MTs shook Prompto, to be on the receiving of that look. He hated this, forever knowing he was from the empire was bad enough, to begin with, it got easier over the years to the point where it was second nature to him. His time with Noctis had helped him forget even for a little while he was an enemy of Insomnia.

Now though? An MT. A creature created in a lab to lay destruction to his best friend's kingdom and be a forever trouble-causing magnet for them.

Swallowing dryly to hold back getting ill from those thoughts, Prompto's search took him to a spot populated by thin trees and bushes, likely a place for nature to provide the wildlife before the snow came.

Resting below the tree in front of him is an MT, spread open like it was gunned down despite not seeing a single bullet hole nor anything indicating it was attacked. Somehow though that meant little to the gunner when he stared at the lifeless machine before him. It dawned on him that in some other life, this could have been him, he could be lying there before someone as his last breath is drawn before he sinks into oblivion.

Or many times when they clashed with the MTs on their adventures, he could have been one of those who was sent to capture Lunafreya, one of the few who stormed the capital of Insomnia or even been the very same soldier that helped claim the lands of Lucis for the glory of the empire. He felt his stomach churn as he sat down before the machine, trying to stop thinking of those possibilities. Desperate to believe Kairi's words, that Noctis, the others, would welcome him back with open arms despite knowing what he is…

He closed his eyes, exhaling a shaky breath before suddenly the sound of snow being crushed boomed in his ear. Kairi must have followed him out here, maybe he wasn't as quiet as he had hoped he'd be. Prompto got back to his feet and turned to prepare for Kairi to lecture him about going off on his own, but instead of it being Kairi or even Aranea…

Noctis was approaching him.

Instead of smiling at him, looking relieved he was here and safe, Noctis gave Prompto the most murderous look he'd ever seen from his best friend. No…not the first time, the second. Memories of the king chasing after him on the train, blaming him for everything that happened and even attempted to flat out murder him. Noctis drew Night's Sky as he marched towards Prompto, eyes glowing with hatred and fury.

'Noct…no, please…', Prompto begged weakly, raising his hand. That was when his eyes fell to his metallic limb, and when he looked at his body, now a complete MT. "W-WHAT!? HOW!?", he screamed in his mind, looking at his body. This isn't real he told himself, he pleaded with himself that this was some horrible dream. He didn't think much because Noctis warped in front of him and swung at the gunner.

Prompto leaps backward from him before his keyblade could tear him apart, staggering until he tripped on himself and fell onto his back. With a yell of terror, Prompto crawled away from Noctis as he approached him, ready to put down this worthless scrap of a machine. The blond scrambled to his feet and dashed away from the king, who persisted in chasing him. Prompto ran through the bushes and bypassed the trees, tripping over his feet and the snow as he evaded and desperately tried to escape Noctis.

He felt his heart in his throat, his breathing becoming harder and harder until his foot was caught by a root and he tumbled down a hill of snow. Bouncing with flakes of snow and being smacked in the face by the bushes and getting several face full snow. He falls onto his side when his short tumble came to an end, but quickly he got to his feet and kept running, there is no doubt Noctis was close by and he had yet to give up the hunt.

Prompto runs and slammed his back to a tree, squeezing his body against it and trying to make himself look as small as possible, panting heavily and taking in large gulps of air to replenish his lungs. He tenses when he heard snow crunching again, Noctis must be searching for him, maybe trying to catch him off guard. Prompto swallowed dryly, his revolver in hand, tears threatening to spill from his eyes as he comes to a horrible choice.

If words could not reach his best friend then Six forgive he had to resort to drastic measures…

Closer came the crunching of snow, his breath hitches as he feels his purser getting closer to him. He held his gun up high, trying to keep back his tears and control his breathing, he stressed himself not to pull the trigger on him, no matter what.

When the crunching came close enough, Prompto spins around the tree and aimed. 'D-DON'T!', he begged, eyes trained on Noctis. 'Noct, please! J-Just let me explain!'. The king just stared at Prompto, eyes unwavering and unfazed by his best friend having a gun trained on him. It was like he knew deep down even with his life on the line Prompto wouldn't have the will to take the shot. Prompto's hands shake as he tried to muster his will to speak, even if he won't forgive him or accept him, maybe he could at least assure him he had no ill intentions.

Noctis resumed his march to the younger man, weapon out with his intent clear as Prompto's aim goes askew. 'N-Noct, d-don't make me do this…please…', he pleaded, stepping back from his king. Before another word could get out of him, Prompto was suddenly tackled from his side and he fell on the snow. He thrashes and tried to punch his assailant, on full panic mode in case someone else with Noctis.

He feels his wrist being restrained by hands and then pinned to the snow, sat on his stomach and as he clenched his teeth and thrashed, a voice broke out.

'…ompto! PROMPTO! PROMPTO!'.

The blonde's eyes opened to see not Noctis holding him down, it was Kairi.

The girl was panting heavily, her hands restraining his own, eyes alit with panic and adrenaline. Prompto looked to his left where Noctis stood, only to find no one. When he looked around he sees he was back right where he first discovered the MT body, only now there was snow falling and the wind had ceased blowing. His mind boggled, heart slowly calming down as Kairi stared into him like he was some sort of ticking time bomb.

'K-Kairi?', he gasped, hesitantly. She nodded to him, assuring the man he wasn't going crazy yet. 'W-What, what happened? How did…', he rambled, but Kairi cuts him off. 'You tell me! I woke up and you weren't there, I went to look for you and next thing I knew, you were aiming your gun at the air', she explained. She eventually released her grip on him and got up from his stomach, offering a hand to help him.

Taking hers and allowing her to yank him back to his feet, Prompto looked at the girl's worried face with shame. 'I…I'm sorry', he apologized, 'I just, I heard barking and…'.

A small bark interrupts the blond, making both turn and see a white dog sitting before them, panting happily. Kairi tilts her head in confusion but Prompto smiles in relief. 'Pryna…what are you doing here?', he asked. Pryna merely barks and scampers off, making the two chase after the dog. Questions still boiling in their minds but for now, a distraction was needed, especially for Prompto.

But what the dog leads them to…

Scattered around the snowy plains were MTs, demolished by whatever they had the poor luck of coming across. Whether it was the wildlife, heartless or daemons, they didn't know but none the less the MTs were slain. All but one, anyway. A single MT on its back raised its head to Prompto and Kairi, shakily and weakly raising its right hand to them, in a manner that seemed as if it was pleading them for mercy. Not a sound came from it but its request was clear.

It wanted Prompto to put it out of its misery.

The gunner already had his gun still in his hand, he took a weary breath and took one step forward to the MT. Kairi looked away and placed both hands on her ears, her heart hammering in her ears. This was an execution as far as she concerned, Prompto is far braver than she is. The man steadied his arm, a single tear racing down his cheek as he aimed, trying to tell himself this was the right thing. For all he knew this being was in agony.

Maybe the daemon infusion was twisting them inside and out, warping their minds into ugly messes of humans. The fact it was begging Prompto for a mercy killing, only made him wonder just how much pain these things were in and that this was their last piece of peace before welcoming oblivion.

He aimed …and fired.

His gunshot rings out across the plains, another MT meeting its end, for better or for worse. Taking a breath to steel himself, Prompto looked ahead of his latest kill and sees an all too familiar boy crouched down in a ball. The same position he was always in when he was alone, a desperate attempt to block out those insecurities and find a source of peace he had desperately sought for so long.

Slowly he approached the boy, knelt and placed a hand on his back like a big brother assuring his younger sibling. Doing this, Pryna nudges his side, prompting him to look at the white dog and see a letter within her mouth. He slowly took the letter and strangely, he felt as if he already knew what was already written within it. A message from the Oracle, from many years ago when he was that pudgy nobody that felt unworthy to be around anyone.

A simple request from the divine woman, to be by Noctis' side and continue to be there whenever he needed him. A request he truly wondered if he was capable, nay, worthy of doing for someone who cared so much for Noctis. The letter was encased with photos as well, one of them was the four all together after they got the Regalia back, their first major success as a team.

Another is showing him with his brothers, goofy grins plastering their faces. For the time, it was a photo he kept close to him as it reminded him he was amongst friends. Friends that he wondered if he deserved to call family. The last photo stirred the light within him.

Before they all sailed for Altissia, he got everybody off the royal party to join in and pose for what he believed to be his best photo yet. He was standing next to Noctis with both doing a peace sign, behind them was Aqua smiling kindly with her hands behind her back with her boyfriend Gladiolus flexing his right arm with a cocky grin. On the left was Ignis smiling politely with Riku having his arm crossed with that confident but brotherly smile.

Donald and Goofy on the far right doing poses while smiling away at the camera, playful and innocent. Finally, Kairi and Sora was kneeling in front of Noctis and Prompto, arms wrapped around each other smiling adorably.

"Is this…what the others want from me? Just to be around them?", he asked himself. Standing up with his camera in hand, scrolling through the photos he'd taken with the others. From scenic pictures, catching his friends in and out of the battles they took part in, to the moment of peace that he wanted to keep for them to reflect on and look back on the journey they all had taken.

Memories of the day he opened to Noctis, atop of that hotel and laying bare his fears. Noctis stating he wouldn't make time for any old loser than Prompto, how he was happy to have him along with them for this journey and even going so far as he was more than good enough for him. It didn't matter that he was not of nobility or royal blood, but he felt close to the prince, he felt like he was one of them.

Sora and the others acting like Prompto was just a long-time friend they hadn't seen in years, how even though they didn't know each other long they welcomed him into their group just as simple as that.

All he ever wanted were friends, to be part of something. When he glanced back at Kairi still keeping her ears blocked, remembering that she had been there and is still here for him. Even knowing he wasn't born like everyone else, so if someone who he's known for a few months still accepted him for who he is rather than what he is…

Why wouldn't Noctis?

Looking back to his camera, then back up the sky with resolution in his eyes. With a firm nod, the fears that haunt him will be put to rest here and now. Prompto approaches Kairi and pats her back, making her open her eyes and lower her hands. He smiles at her, bright and warm without force, before nodding. His message got through to her, she returned his bright sunny smile with one of her own, a look of pride shining in her eyes at him.

*Later…*

On the snowmobile and heading towards the facility marked on the map Aranea left for the two, Kairi directed Prompto as they speed through the snow and trees. Without Verstael around the empire loses it MTs, but this new model could have been a backup plan the old man had in case of the event of him losing his life. With their discovery of how the MTs were made from daemon infusion, they feared they might have notes on the matter or worse, they might have even considered using heartless as a source.

This mission for them was not just to stop Verstael's plans, but for Prompto it was for him to put an end to his "father's" legacy. To make amends for what the man did, and it started with taking down whatever this new project of his was.

As they got closer to the site on the map, immediately they could hear a battle waging ahead of them with gunfire and explosions. 'Sounds like Aranea's already making some noise', Prompto says with a grin as he drives up a slope leading to their destination. 'Better give her a hand or two', Kairi teased as they witnessed the dragoon was indeed in the middle of a battle.

Kairi gets on her feet whilst the backseat of the snowmobile and jumps into the air while Prompto drives onwards with reckless abandonment.

Kairi draws Oathkeeper and changed into her Element Form, shifting her keyblade into the bow form as she fires an arrow of ice before her that left a trail of slid ice. She slides on it, taking fire upon the MTs still fighting for the empire, firing arrows of lighting and fire at them. She pulls out two grey arrows of the spell magnet and fires them below the watchtower were two snipers were stationed and firing at her. The moment the arrows struck the ground beneath the tower, the spell activated and pulled down the tower and turned it into a mangled mess of metal.

With the skies handled by Kairi and Aranea, Prompto drives up the slope at full speed and shoots up into the air with his vehicle. He jumps off it while firing at the MTs, his transport flying towards one of the MA-X units and hitting it straight in the cockpit. The force of the attack made it stumble back into a pair of red explosive barrels, creating a huge explosion that manged to scorch some soldiers too close or the shockwave of the explosion sent a few of them flying.

Prompto rolled onto the ground after his jump and rolls onto his feet, quickly taking shots at the MT units that were stationed around the area. His revolver takes down two snipers resting on the roofs of the small warehouses while two ran towards the gunner with what looked to be large switchblades. Prompto smirks at them, already conjuring up an idea when on got close enough. He quickly shoots the other one in the head, then parried the sword arm of the MT by using his gun as a blunt weapon to deflect the blade.

Doing so, Prompto grabbed the arm of the MT that wasn't armed and threw it over his shoulder and onto the ground. He was mighty grateful for those brief but beneficial hand-to-hand drills he took from Gladiolus before they left the Citadel. Prompto shot the MT in the head and looted the blade from it, pleased that the size suited him perfectly as he runs into the battle, sheathing it and strapping the weapon to his belt.

In the air still riding the icy rails, Kairi fires arrows upon their enemies and skates to the dragoon, leaping into the air. She spirals around the silver head's ascent to the skies until they met in the skies as Kairi jumps off her frozen ride. Above the MA-X unit, together the two dive down together with Kairi's magic surrounding them and their speed rivaling a torpedo. Aranea's spear encased in red lightning while Kairi fired arrows while spinning to hit more MT units.

They cleaved their way through the machine, leaving almost nothing left of the cockpit before they dashed off to pick off more adversaries, Kairi firing arrows while she runs, hitting the MTs in their chests, heads or stomachs. Kairi leaped over one with a flip, firing two arrows of ice at it mid-flip. She plucks three arrows from her quiver, stretches the string as far as she could and fires the three to the skies above an oncoming horde of soldiers.

'Rain Fall!', Kairi yells as the arrows were engulfed by a black cloud appearing where they flew. Arrows in the form of lightning bolts fall from the cloud-like rain, striking her enemies and even completely incinerating a few with the intense heat and power from the bolts.

Prompto finds himself running into one of the buildings where more of the MTs were gathering up for an ambush, rushing in himself and drawing a sub-machine gun he managed to procure during his wanderings in Verstael's facility. Unlike his previous one he had lost during Altissia, this weapon was far stronger than his first rifle, the bullets were encased with the empire's technology, the very same one that empowers the MTs, giving Prompto an easier time to put them down.

He takes down one and sees a weapon stack near him, carrying a few more weapons for him to loot. And if RPG's have taught him one thing, its looting.

With just one more MA-X unit guarding the entrance to the facility protecting the newest model, Kairi and Aranea stood before it, not even panting from the battle. 'Kairi!'. She looked behind her to see Prompto on a knee aiming what she sees to be a bazooka resting on his shoulders. Looking between her friend and the unit, she caught on to his plan and plucks one more arrow from her quiver. 'Ready when you are!', she informed.

Prompto yells "fire" as he lets one rocket fly towards the MA-X unit, leaving Kairi to charge up a more powerful arrow that was glowing with intense heat and light. She lets it soar and the arrow pierces through the cockpit to leave only the tail of it out, but the moment Prompto's rocket strikes it, the explosion it caused was enough completely encased the area around the machine to be engulfed in fire and light.

The machine was destroyed, along with the large hatch that kept the entrance closed, now bearing a giant hole big enough to get a truck to drive through it. With the final defense of the facility destroyed, Kairi and Prompto looked to Aranea, looking at the two with a bemused look. She stared at them before smirking. 'Looks like you figured out what ya wanted, huh?', she asks, looking to the gunner.

'You know it', Prompto replied confidently. He looks at the facility ahead of them, eyes steely. Together the three of them ran in.

*Inside*

Much like the previous facility the two former captives found themselves in, this place was just as empty and silent as the first. Not a soul in sight nor any evidence that the facility had been visited for some time, yet it didn't feel like it had been abandoned for years.

Even still the party of three walked onwards, dead set on their joined effort to put an end to whatever the mad scientist had in stock for his empire. The deeper they had gone the more notes and recordings they find, one of which got the attention of the three when Prompto played it back.

'Without the Oracle, I had thought his project would be doomed to leave gathering dust…but chancellor Izunia, once more, brings good fortune to my ears. He tells me that among the prince's retinue, a girl named Kairi bears similarities to her Grace. According to him, she possesses the same divine blood the Oracle carries, but to an even greater extent.

Based on the recordings we manage to recover from our deployed units, the remarkable skills she's demonstrated along with the light she carried within, he assured me she would be a perfect replacement for the loss of our Oracle. And the moment I had the chance to exam her, I can contest to the man's claims without a shadow of doubt.

We've extracted enough of her blood to infuse the subject, and with the addition of the blight, we have created the perfect hybrid that carries the perfect balance of light…and the blight within it'.

Prompto looked at Kairi as she had a pale touch to her skin, suddenly her eyes widened with revulsion. 'He, he experimented on you?', he asked, gritting his teeth. 'I…I don't know…all I remember when I woke up were needle marks on my arms', she says shaking. She shook her head, taking a steady breath. 'Whatever he had planned, it can't be good for this world'. Nodding, Prompto stuffed the device in their pocket dimension, thinking of giving this to Ignis later.

Down one final flight of stairs, they came into another lab. Inside it were several more test tubes like the ones that housed Prompto's clones, but they were devoid of physical bodies and only homed to miasma of the blight inside the liquid. A lot of research notes were strewn on the floor and tables, several vials of what they imagined to be chemicals of the blight or something else entirely. Slowly walking in with their weapons out, the party looked up to see one large machine holding up a test tube that housed someone inside it.

'Hey Kairi…is that…?', Prompto gasped.

'Luna…', Kairi whispered.

Inside the large glass container was indeed what looked to be the Oracle, her hands crossed her chest with her head bowed, but inside her home was the miasma of the blight. Her hands were a far cry from the pure snow-white skin she had, instead, they bore the same horrible burning look of the blight infecting a victim, dark reddish-purple veins that stretched to her shoulders, her fingers were claws like a goblin, and upon closer inspection from Kairi, she sees the heartless emblem adorned in her chest.

'Holy shit…', Aranea comments with a scowl appearing on her face, 'This is his big project?'. 'Better than what he had in mind'. They all turned around to see Ardyn standing by the entrance, smirking at them all. Kairi immediately got in front of her friends, eyeing the man as Prompto trained his gun on him. The man chuckled, amused by the sudden bravado the blond was displaying after everything that's happened.

'What is this?', Aranea demanded. Ardyn shrugged. 'Well, there is always the fear that one day the empire's precious Oracle would either be spirited away from them…or more common, perish', he listed with a dismissive hand, 'So I suggested to Verstael, that perhaps if he could create thousands of MTs using his cells…then why not create an Oracle of the empires?', he explained, 'And lo and behold, he managed to do it'.

He frowns playfully, however, 'But there was a problem he couldn't solve~ You see, to recreate the Oracle as perfectly identical to the real thing, he would need more of divine blood to make her'. He laughed. 'Not that he didn't try mind you…but many of her "sisters" didn't share the same fortitude as the real one, and tragically, many of them were put to…rest, as it were'.

Aranea scoffs in disgust while Kairi and Prompto stared at this loathsome excuse for a man, speaking so playfully about the lives he and his partner had destroyed. "How many of these clones of Lunafreya existed, and what made this one so unique?", Kairi thought, griping her keyblade tightly as Ardyn's frown went upside down and returns to the smug looking grin. 'Oh? But wait, how did he manage to keep this one together without her radiance, you ask?', he teased.

The color drained from Kairi's face as realization hits her like she was splashed by a bucket full of cold water, feeling a horrible irritation on her arms. Ardyn sees the girl putting the pieces together, smugly addressing her. 'Oh don't be so shocked my dear. You and the Oracle are the perfect match when blood is involved', he mockingly assured. Kairi turned back to the experiment behind her, a sensation of bile raised in her throat, knowing her blood was coursing through that abomination.

'What the hell is he on about?', Aranea growled, spear sparking with lightning. Ardyn raised a hand before his smile turned sinister. 'I could tell you…but perhaps a test run is a more…preferable option'. With a click of his fingers, suddenly the Lunafreya clone inside her tank opened her eyes as the darkness within her home surged and coiled around her. The entire room shook as alarms went wild, suddenly machines activating and over the group were more tubes that were all linked to the machine.

Through the glass tubes, they could see black liquidation of the blight pumped into the tube of the false Oracle, likely including Verstael's corruption. The machine begins to go wild with electricity sparking from it, the ground shaking as the metal floor beneath their feet begins to groan and break apart. Before they could do anything to escape, the ground gave away and the three fell, Ardyn's cheery farewell drowned out by the sound of steel falling and machines exploding above them.

Aranea dives and grabbed Prompto during their fall while Kairi used Flowmotion to bounce off the falling debris and leaped to a wall. She stabbed her keyblade into the wall and allowed herself to descend with the others, sparks exploding from the fall as Aranea dived to the ground with Prompto in her arms.

Their fall ends with them finding themselves in an open space with many steel girders and structures falling around them, breaking and crashing into the ground. Kairi jumps off the wall while yanking her keyblade out of the wall and landed before the dragoon and gunner. She erects a barrier around them to protect them from the falling objects and structures. Luckily the heaviest thing she had to protect them from was a large chunk of the floor they stood on before their descent, broken tubes falling around them and some even spilled the blight oozing out the machine-like blood leaking from an open wound.

Only when silence and tremors were ceasing, they looked to see slowly descending from above like an angel of darkness was Lunafreya. Now donning the same dress the real one wore in Altissia, except it was covered in a web of darkness and the blight up to her chest, where the heartless emblem glowed red and violet. Her arms looked more monstrous and beast-like with horns on her back elbows, two curved horns on her shoulders like pauldrons, her left face entirely covered in the same veiny surface of the blight with her eye being red.

Even her hair was black as sin with a touch of cranberry within the black void of her hair. With her right arm out, she summoned a black trident that was a far cry from her original weapon, where it was adorned by light and held a holy air, this was a poisonous as the blight and looked closer to a trident. She stomped the bottom of the trident in the ground, darkness burst forth from it and slowly expanded, covering the entire place in shadows.

The moment the place took the resemblance to the realm of darkness, yellow eyes begin to peer and spectate the battle that was about to unfold.

Kairi feels her body go cold as if she was thrown back out to the frozen wastelands again, it felt so unnaturally cold here. Even the dragoon hissed in discomfort. 'Not gonna lie, kinda preferred the Oracle when she wasn't…this, ya know?', she joked without any semblance of humor.

Without another word, Aranea rushed forward to make the first blow the killing blow, her spear outstretched while bursting with lightning. She thrusts her spear forward, but the Oracle lifts her left hand and the next thing they saw was Aranea getting swarmed by a demon tower that sucked her and threw her aside. The dragoon slammed onto her back with a heavy thud, grunting in pain as the tower of heartless begins to soar around the battlefield, hovering near the corrupted imitation of the Oracle.

Kairi grunts in desperation, considering just how much this imitation had the advantage over the trio. For all she knows even if they do take down the tower this Oracle could spawn more, maybe even hundreds. The false Oracle stared at her like she was actively taunting the girl on just how bad their predicament is and she reviled in her struggles. The princess could feel her eyes bore into her heart, but then she feels a hand on her shoulder and turned to Prompto.

With a smile and a wink, he says: 'We're not gonna let this faker stop us, right?'. Kairi looked into his eyes and sees the strength he obtained, the resolution to push onwards return. Clutching the necklace around her neck, the crown that poured the hope and warmth into her heart, seeing the smiling face of the one person she wanted to be with more than anything shine in her mind. Kairi nodded to Prompto with a smile before they both turned to the fallen imitation.

'We're going back to where we belong, and you're not gonna stop us!', Kairi says.

The heartless took offensive to that, hissing at her and calling the tower to remove these beings of light from her gaze. The tower reeled around the Oracle and charged forth to the two, but Aranea jumped on top of the tower and stabbed her spear into the main body of the creature. The spear infused with the power of red lighting blasted the top of raw energy, causing a small explosion to detonate and decimate a few shadows from the tower.

Aranea leaps into the air as the tower twists and turns to fly higher into the air, no longer fixed on the gunner and princess but now out for Aranea's heart. The woman during her jump gave the two a salute and nod, encouraging them to leave this fight to her and deal with the true threat before them. Nodding in agreement, they turned to the heartless that stood before them, the last obstacle that would deny them the chance to reunite with their loved ones.

Kairi runs in first, meeting the heartless' trident with Oathkeeper. Sparks fly from their clash, Kairi's quick footwork and parries against the longer weapon while Prompto covers her by firing at the heartless from the side. The heartless spun her trident at the girl while erecting a dark pillar to eat Prompto's bullets.

With a thrust of her weapon, the heartless Lunafreya's trident catches Kairi's keyblade with its prongs. Kairi had the keyblade yanked out of her hands and thrown aside, disarmed as the fallen Oracle stabbed at her. She evaded and sidesteps the attacks long enough for Prompto to jump in with his short blade, with a leap he brings the trident down onto the ground just as Kairi steps back. His weapon was thrown off the trident as the heartless sank into the dark depths below them. She reappears six feet from the, aimed her left hand and fired thorns of the blight at them.

Prompto rolls away just as Kairi re-summon her keyblade, quickly shifting into her Element Form. Kairi's keyblade didn't change into the bow form however, as she shifted it into the second form the transformation granted her as the thorns reached the princess of light. In a flash of light, the thorns were slashed and cut to nothing more than ripped pieces of paper as Kairi swung in a single arc that shoots the wind up with the thorns being torn apart as if they sucked into a hurricane.

When the thorns were no more, in the princess's hand was a steel glaive that had Oathkeeper's design, the weapon is as tall as Gladiolus, the pole have white and blue designs of Oathkeeper all the up to the long-curved blade, the edge was light blue. Kairi grips the pole with both hands, lowering the blade down to her left foot and with a single stroke, the swings the weapon upwards with such strength it creates a gust of wind so forceful it made the Oracle throw weapon up to block the gale.

'Prompto!', Kairi yelled.

Prompto rushes in quickly, calling upon his machinery weapon, the Drillbreaker. Before the heartless could react in time, Prompto had jumped at her while discharging a fully charged blast into the would-be Oracle. The heartless was thrown across the dark depths and bounced off the ground before vanishing into the dark depths like before. Prompto and Kairi looked to see her shooting out of the depths and flying into the air above them.

She lifts both hands to summon a giant sphere of darkness, much like a Darkside's attack. It levitated over her head before it slowly crackles with red and violet lightning, then she lets out a cry of rage and throws it at them. The sphere descended onto them slowly but it created a vacuum that sucked them towards it, Kairi shifting her weapon back into a keyblade and jumped to the sphere. Brandishing her weapon with light from her heart, Kairi begins to slash and swipe at the sphere like a wild animal.

Her blessed attacks cut away the giant sphere bit by bit until she reaches the core of the sphere and stabbed into it. The keyblade fires a beam of pure light that pierced through and flies to the ceiling of the place. The sphere dissipated into nothing, out charging from it was Lunafreya, grabbing Kairi's neck as she charged back to the ground. Kairi is slammed onto her back with a powerful thud, but the Oracle wasn't finished yet. She lifted Kairi with her blighted hand and throws her into the air with inhuman strength.

Lunafreya's hands glowed with darkness, she claps them together and then four thin pillars of darkness rise and wrap around Kairi's wrists and ankles, trapping her in the air like a sacrificial victim. As the Oracle readied for the killing blow, likely, she was blasted in the back by something strong enough to stagger her. Turning around in time to catch a bullet with her right hand, she sees Prompto with a sniper rifle, imperial made, aimed at her. He takes another shot at her, this time it was deflected to the side by her right arm.

Prompto dismisses his weapon as the heartless rushes for him, her darkness seeping into her right hand and creating another weapon of choice. He drew the short sword just at the heartless is within cutting range. Now in her right hand was a scythe that was as tall as her with a large black steel curved blade that was ripe for harvesting the hearts of humans.

Prompto ducked and hops over the attacks, swinging his sword to deflect the attacks albeit in a clumsy fashion given how little training he had using this type of weapon. It didn't take long for the Oracle to get close enough to strike him in the jaw with the butt of her pole, spinning him around while making him stagger forward from the woman. He narrowly avoided the steel splitting him in half by leaping clumsily from her.

Slamming on his stomach and quickly rolling onto his back, he summoned his sub-machine gun and unloads a barrage of bullets onto the woman. Two managed to hit her before she threw up a wall of darkness to protect herself, least it gave him comfort that the bullets do indeed hurt this monster of a heartless. He quickly gets to his feet, plucking out one of the grenades he looted earlier and throws its right in the center of the four black pillars holding up Kairi.

The device detonates and destroys the four pillars holding Kairi prisoner. The girl wastes no time and dashes in the air to strike at the Oracle while she dismissed her wall. The woman spins around with her scythe swung at Kairi, but the princess of light meets it head-on with her keyblade, yelling. Her holy weapon strikes the dark weapon with such power it rings out in the dark realm they were in, and shatter the blade of the weapon into shards.

Back on her feet, Kairi struck at the Oracle with several hits from her keyblade before with a spin of her divine weapon she swung it upwards, hitting the Oracle in the jaw and sent her flying. Payback can be a royal pain indeed.

She leaped into the air to clash with the Oracle, the latter now drawing a black and red saber akin to Ravus' weapon. Together in the air their weapons clash and ring out in the realm, flashes of light with each collision of steel. Light and darkness battling for supremacy as Kairi puts all her training to good use and fights in the air against the corrupted imitation of her friend. The dark lookalike eventually smacks the keyblade out her way and aimed her corrupted hand at Kairi and fires a blast of darkness.

Striking Kairi in the chest and sending her flying. Kairi flips in the air via backflip and landed on her feet, digging her heels into the ground to hold herself in place. Prompto joined her side instantly, patting her and gauging her wounds, to which he only sees her clothes suffered small burns of the dark, the light of clothes downed the flames quickly. The Oracle above snarls and flies towards them like a fall Valkyrie, changing her saber back into a trident.

Seeing this, Prompto summons his revolver and aimed it. 'Let me brighten up your day!', he shouts, firing a Starshell at the Oracle. The dark being swerved to the right, dodging the shining ball of light, stabbing her trident at the two. Kairi steps up and swings her keyblade to meet with the corrupted blight infested weapon, blocking it and halting the flight of this would be angel. With her weapon caught by the princess, this left the heartless exposed and Prompto took the chance to turn the odds against her.

'Smile!'.

Next thing the heartless knew she was on the other end of Prompto's second-deadliest weapon on his person, his camera. At point-blank the lens flare was so bright it blinded the Oracle long enough for Kairi to dislodge her weapon from herself and throw it aside. Kairi then struck at the heartless with two heavy hits before she swings hard enough to throw the woman away from them. The Oracle digs her heels into the ground, halting her momentum and snarls at Kairi with hatred.

The Oracle's hands surged with darkness, sucking up the shadows around them until her entire body was covered in a miasma of shadow and blight all in one. Her face now completely encased in the corruption of the blight, teeth sharpening into an animalistic set as horns begin to grow on her forehead, along with black vampire wings outstretching from her back. Before the two was now a true daemon Oracle.

She flies up into the air, crossed her arms before stretching them out as a vortex of red and black appeared before her, slowly creating hundreds of black tridents levitating behind her. Prompto's jaw fell and Kairi's eyes widened. There was no way they could outrun that, and if Kairi was fortunate she could keep them safe using a barrier for the first ten hits…

Kairi looks at Prompto, before creating a barrier around them. 'I've got an idea', she said, looking at him. He glances at her and sees the trust in her eyes. 'We've got only one shot, make it count!'. Nodding, Prompto grasps his revolver with both hands as Lunafreya fires her rainstorm of tridents upon them. The tridents strike Kairi's barrier, making the princess flinch with each hit rivaling a runaway train at full force. Instantly she falls to one knee in pain but kept her hand up for the barrier to stay up.

More and more tridents struck the barrier, cracks in their dome of protection grows and extends along the shell, making Prompto grit his teeth in anticipation as the gun grows heavy in his hand but he stilled his shakes. If Kairi puts this much faith in him to help pull their rears out of the fire, then he'll be damned if he lets her down now.

Kairi lets out a yelp of pain as another trident hits the barrier, the cracks representing a spider's web as Kairi's strength begins to wane. To Prompto's shock he starts to see blood running down her nose and plop on the ground beneath their feet, sweat ran down Kairi's face as she struggled to keep it up. She even dismissed her keyblade to lay a hand down on the ground to keep herself up, shaking with exertion and pain.

The final trident struck the barrier, and when it shatters from the impact, Prompto took the shot. He quickly stands up and fires one single bullet that raced towards the emblem of the Oracle. The bullet struck home, the emblem cracking before it shattered completely. 'KAIRI!'.

As quickly as her body could, Kairi summoned her keyblade and with one hand, aimed it at the Oracle. A blue circle formed around the tip before condensing into a small light on the tip and then fired a beam of light straight for the exposed chest of the Oracle.

The beam pierces through the Oracle's void body, uttering a gasp of shock as the light strikes her. Slowly light begins to pierce all over her body, shining brightly as the creature lets out a banshee-like screech of pain as the light expanded all over the body, consuming her. Her cries were silenced as the light purged the darkness, slowly evaporating the darkness they were all in.

As Aranea lands the final killing blow on the tower, she falls to her feet and sees the two younger fighters, weary and exhausted but alive. When the light disappeared, it took the heartless with it. At least in a way, whatever the creature was, Kairi hoped it would find the peace it never would have found in this world. Her keyblade disappeared as she falls on her hands, panting and coughing, spitting the blood that leaked into her mouth out. She looked to Prompto, who gave her a tired but relieved smile.

'W-We won…', she gasped, smiling weakly at him. 'Yeah…we did it', he concurred.

Basking in their victory as Aranea went to check up on them, the two smiled at the other as their confidence grew that day. Even without the others, they could still hold their own together. And now more than ever, did they believe they could follow the others.

It was time to bring the group back…

*After reaching the surface*

Once they healed up and after some placements of explosions to rid the world of Verstael's notes just so no other fool would be cruel enough to repeat what horrible atrocities occurred in this place, the trio of friends found themselves on the road once again.

After Aranea checked Kairi again before they part ways, the dragoon looked at them both. 'You sure you guys know what you're doing?', she asked one more time. 'Nope! Never do!', Prompto laughs, clapping his hands excitedly. Kairi rolled her eyes while folding her arms to mock glare at him, 'That doesn't encourage me to let you drive us to the capital…', she chastised. Prompto gave her a look of hurt before he ruffled her hair, making her whine.

They both turned to Aranea with smiles. 'This is what we want, we promise', Kairi says comfortingly. The dragoon smirked at them, nodding. 'Then say it like you mean it, kid. You both did good today', she praised/lectured. Prompto pats Kairi's back good-heartedly as the redhead smiles softly at him, then turned to Aranea. 'Thanks, for helping', she said.

'Yeah, big time', Prompto agreed. 'We… *I* wouldn't have come this far without you two'. Kairi patted his back warmly and sisterly, smiling at him as Aranea waved off his gratitude, looking away. Kairi could see the faint hue of red on her cheeks and even saw her lips twitching for a smile but for the sake of having this moment of companionship she decided to keep her mouth closed.

…until she found the others anyways.

'Well, we better go catch up to Noct and the others. We've still got a friend to save', Prompto said as he and Kairi approached their new snowmobile. 'Who knows? Maybe we'll save Sora before they do!'. Kairi grinned and said: 'Course we will! Heck, we'll even save the world before they show up!'. Aranea scoffs at them with a smirk. 'Don't get too cocky, brats', Aranea stressed, somewhat worried about their inflated confidence.

Prompto touched the handlebars of the mobile, hesitating for a moment. Kairi's smile drops when she sees the look on contemplation taking place on his pretty looks. He glanced at the tattoo, but then Kairi gently grips his arm, prompting him to look at her. In her beautiful eyes, he sees the faith and unwavering loyalty in their friends, it sparked something in him. Looking back at the mobile, he said: 'I don't know for sure if they'll accept me for what I am…but I guess I won't know until I tell them, huh?'.

Kairi grins at him, nodding excitedly. 'Looks like the boy's become a man', Aranea says, proudly. 'Gralea is straight ahead if you go down this road', she stated, pointing to the direction. They both nodded and hopped aboard the mobile, Kairi wrapping her arms around Prompto's waist as he started it up. They gave the dragoon one more heartfelt thank you before they speed off to the capital.

In the snowy plains with Kairi's light shining to protect them from the daemons, insuring their journey would at least deprive them the dark monsters. '…thanks', he says softly. Kairi looked at him with confusion, then she saw his lips curve into a smile. 'Thanks for not giving up on me, Kairi'. She smiled back warmly, patting his shoulder.

'…they'll accept you; you know that?', she says kindly. Gently she placed a hand over his heart. 'Because it's not the tattoo they'll look at, it's the heart of the person they know'. Hearing the level of faith from her to him, Prompto grins as they drove to the capital.

Nearby watching them, however, Ardyn watches on with coy smirk, singing a small tune. He looked at his hand, remembering that the girl driving off in the distance had harmed him…and now, he needed answers.

He believed it was time Xigbar explained himself as he disappeared into the dark corridor.

A/N:

I am so sorry this took me ALL week to get done. I was literally struggling to finish it without being abrupt or ya know, trash.

That's all the episodes for now, Kairi and Prompto are heading for Gralea as are Noctis and the rest of his party. Next time we're gonna see Sora…and hopefully no one will hate me for what comes next!

…I'm doomed…

Questions:

Q1: Thoughts on this chapter?

Q2: How was Prompto and Kairi?

Q3: Kairi's new weapon? Like or hate?

Q4: What do you wanna see later?

Q5: Thoughts on the final fight?

Update: For those wondering, I changed Kairi's weapon to a glaive. The reason for this is after reading KakeruPB's review, I can see why the choice doesn't fit the keyblade given its significance.

As always, thanks for reading, stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	49. Chapter 49

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 49

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

* Zegnautus Keep*

Home to the emperor of Niflhiem, a place of pure power and with the accomplishments to boot. Zegnautus Keep is home to the throne room of the emperor, among its facilities of the most secret of projects, home to some of the empire's most powerful weapons and prosperous soldiers, and even now it is the prison that keeps the crystal of Insomnia locked away.

Now, it was nothing more than a breeding ground for the daemons and heartless to grow in numbers, many hearts were swallowed by the shadows and many were consumed by the blight. The skies darkened had now turned into swirling vortex of red and purple, the spheres that the Darkside heartless once used now rule the skies over the airships. Much of the streets of the capital were devoid of humans, only the daemons walk the streets as the heartless slither in the shadows.

MTs that had long been decommissioned or damaged beyond repair now resurrected to zombie-like beasts, prowling the streets of the citizens once occupied and even in the fortress there was no one to stop them. The people of the empire had fled long ago when the Eternal Night reigned, some fleeing to their enemies lands, many migrating further away from the capital or some have even tried to wait out the long darkness.

It was safe to say Niflhiem had become Eos' realm of darkness.

Many of the highest-ranking generals of the military had all suffered horrible fates, becoming monsters of the dark or worse. The emperor himself had been reclusive, locking himself away in his throne room. Whether he did this out of fear of the darkness that was slowly eating away his kingdom, to preserve himself as the sole survivor of his fallen empire, or as Ardyn believed, just waited for the day his crystal would choose him as the true Chosen King of Light. The man's delusions had reached a truly pitiful level.

The man of the Lucis bloodline cared not for the trifle matters of this fallen empire, it was doomed the moment that foolish emperor trusted Xigbar to give him the power of darkness. Ardyn's giving nature just quickened their end, and soon enough when the time does come the emperor could rejoice that he was the emperor of an empire of the darkness. Least he had that going for him in the long run.

Walking through the corridors of the metallic palace, the dark beings ignoring him out of fear and like a pack, they knew who the alpha is. He looks at his hand and grunted with frustration, the dried spot of his blood still on his palm like a spot he could never wash out. A reminder of why he needed to speak with the former nobody as soon as possible, and a little reminder of what sort of punishment he needed to conjure up for that princess.

At the spiraling elevator, he saw Xigbar leaning against the machine, looking around at his handy work and smirking at the amount of heartless and daemons that were dominating this place. When his eye turned to Xigbar, somehow the smirk turned even more smug. Ardyn knew that look all too well, he was sure he had invented it at this point. 'Back already? Had your fill with the princess and failure?', Xigbar greets with a question.

'The failure can only provide so much amusement, and with that little rule of yours, I can't do much with the princess', Ardyn reminds with a shrug, trying to act aloof but even his performance suffered thanks to his discovery of pain. Xigbar shrugged with his hands in the air, comically. 'Hey now, a deal's a deal', he reminds, 'I help you get your revenge; you make sure she's still alive by the end of it'.

'Yes…about that…', Ardyn stated his tone underlying contempt. He showed Xigbar his blood-stained hand, eyes narrowed with questions. The playful smirk died on Xigbar's scarred face; he gives the man of Lucis a look that suggested he should've known about it. When there were no words exchanged between these two, Xigbar groans and pushes himself off the wall. 'Ok, if ya want me to spell it out for ya, here's the gist', he groaned.

He turned to Ardyn and gestured the world around him. 'Without the crystal, Lucii, and the God of War, this world loses its magic and astrals, ya know that', he explained. His grin returned as he gestures his friend's hand. 'But, without the big dragon, your curse goes down the drain too'. Ardyn looked at his hand, slowly it dawned on him just the price of his vengeance. 'That's right, with the dragon dead, anything he left behind died along with him. Including your immortality', Xigbar says with smugness. 'Only because of the darkness we made together, can you still use your weapons and more'.

Ardyn growls as he threw his hand, glaring at Xigbar. 'And what is Noctis' excuse?', he questioned. Xigbar raised a brow at him, lost. 'The prince is still able to wield his Armiger as well, but he's even more powerful than ever', he revealed. Xigbar cupped his chin and loudly hummed, before his smug looks turned pensive, and even confused by this revelation. Without the Draconian everything that made the Lucis line as powerful as they are feared the prince shouldn't have anything left to fight with.

'And need I mention he now carries a keyblade?', Ardyn added.

This caught his eye and ears, making the previous nobody look at his partner with shock. 'Wait…what did you say?', he grunts. 'A keyblade, in the prince's hands', Ardyn repeats. Xigbar's eye widened before he grins and then…laughs. He lets out a deep laughter that grew more manically. Ardyn isn't sure if the man had lost his mind or he was just told the funniest twist to a punch line he did not see coming.

He reeled on the man of no consequence, arms out with a grin. 'That explains it! The kid is the Chosen King of Light!', he proclaims, uncaring if the emperor hears his statement. 'The keyblade chooses him as the next wielder, restoring his light and becomes a substitute to the crystal, like your darkness'. Ardyn scoffs with a shake of his head, it would seem no matter how much he would destroy it, the light always finds a way to screw him over. Now his previous deflated rival has become even more powerful, and with him being mortal now…

Ardyn looked at his hand, dawning on his face that the prince was on his way to reclaim his friends, and he had the power to do so. A sensation rushed through him, he could feel his heart racing at the thought of facing him once again. He felt…fear…and excitement, all mixed into one. Then as his mind wandered, Xigbar sported a sinister look. 'Well…this changes everything', he says. He turned around and opened a dark corridor, 'I've got to pay a visit to my patient. You'd better get the bouncers ready for the party guests'.

'Oh?', Ardyn asked with a smirk, 'I thought you wanted to make sure they all survive for the war'. 'Well, may as well make them work for their prizes yeah?', Xigbar offered, 'If Prince Charming has what it takes to be a keyblade wielder, then he'll make it here'. Ardyn nodded in agreement, clicking his fingers and calling the Thirteen Phantoms (the corrupted Lucis line) to him. Xigbar enters the dark corridor and leaves Ardyn to order his slaves to do their tasks.

Instructing his puppets to be stationed at certain spots of the keep, more so on the train tracks just in case the party would use that method of transport, the man of the blight pondered on the words Xigbar spoke, and then ruefully grinned.

Ardyn decided it was time to make sure a good portion of the prince's party would be here, but as he and Xigbar went their separate ways, none were aware of the man of mischief had taken keen interest in what Xigbar was doing…

*Crystal Chamber*

Exiting the portal, Xigbar gives Terra a mock salute as the vessel was standing by the entrance with his arms crossed. The man had barely spoken at all these past few days, ever since Altissia it was though he had lost his voice and only communicated through hums and grunts. The man was carrying the former King Regis' sword by the hip, his keyblade nowhere to be seen and for the most part, all he was doing was standing guard at the entrance to the room where Sora was being kept. Least he was being a good guard dog…

Xigbar entered the chamber with Terra in tow, likely in the case of Sora somehow escaping his prison. The room was dull and grey ever since the crystal had lost its power, the giant rock with a massive crater in the core thanks to the empire using lasers to break chunks of it, held up by chains. Above it wrapped in black chains that restricted his light and strength, Sora hanged in the air with his head down. Half a month in and the boy was resilient to not fade away or wither to a husk, the darkness sapping at his strength and will.

Yet the boy resisted the lull of the dark, despite Xigbar trying to manipulate the darkness within his heart. He must have developed a resistance to it after the last time they nearly had him in their ranks, courtesy of Riku or Kairi likely. Xigbar folds his arms as he stared at the boy with a frown. 'You've been pretty stubborn kid, after last time I had ya in this predicament', he states with a small sense of praise in his speech. Sora weakly raised his head to face his captive, straining himself to meet the man's sarcastic looks with defiance.

Truthfully he was extremely hesitant to start this process at first, remembering the old man's clear instructions to only dabble with the dark in his heart but not enough to turn him. For the war to finally come true and with it drawing nearer, all chosen guardians of light must partake in it.

Until now…

'Good news kid, looks like your royal buddy Noctis? He's a keyblade wielder just like you!', he bragged. A chuckle, dark and grim, escaped him as he raised his hand, slowly darkness coating it. 'Kinda surprised myself, but hey, we live in a time of surprises, don't we?', he asked rhetorically. Sora just glared back, prepared for what was about to unfold. His time here had taught him persistence and stubbornness after all.

Xigbar senses this and grinned. 'Oh no kid, this won't be like our usual sessions…with Noctis being a keyblade wielder, I don't have to be gentle this time'. He aimed his hand at him and then a ray of darkness fired from his hand and struck Sora at his heart. Immediately Sora let out a cry of pain, throwing his head back as he cries echoed in the room. He struggled in his bondage of chains as the darkness seeped into his heart, slowly his breathing becomes difficult to perform and as his eyes widened with frantic panic, he feels as if his heart was sinking into the dark realm.

Terra watches as Sora writhes in agony, crying out and gritting his teeth while Xigbar focuses on the torment. The former apprentice of Eraqus had his arms folded and his hands clenching his arms tightly as if he is retraining himself. Watching this unfold before him, seeing the sheer look of pain on Sora's face reminded him of something…something he was trying to prevent…and seeing Xigbar smirking at Sora's pain, only made the older man want to strangle him.

Slowly Sora feels the light within his heart dwindle and waver from the darkness, like a candle being trapped in the middle of a storm. His strength wanes and he feels himself losing pieces of his heart, his friends fading out in the depths of his heart. He wouldn't give in, he couldn't, not until he saw her again. Kairi's face appeared in the darkness like a glowing flame that could never be put out even in the coldest of darkness.

It tore him apart however, his heart held on by stitches at this point from the claws of the darkness trying to rip it apart.

'Well now…this won't do at all'.

As the scene plays out before him, Master of Masters saunters beside Xigbar, cupping his chin and looking between the man and Sora, clicking his tongue and shaking his head. 'So now that the light has a bit of an ante up in the dark, you suddenly decided the kid has to go? Nuh-uh, Xiggy', MOM criticized with a wave of his hand. MOM turned to the boy in question, still crying in pain, slowly the darkness began to surround him, and MOM knew the light within him was struggling even with the thoughts of his friends helping keep him in one piece.

With a sigh, MOM raised his hand at Sora. 'Sorry kiddo…'.

He fired a small grey sphere at Sora's heart and then, Sora let out an inhuman scream of pure pain. MOM disappeared into nothing just in time for Xigbar to watch in horror of what's happening. He stops his dark beam as Sora's body glowed in that strange grey light, his heart encased in the grey. 'W-What the hell is this?', Xigbar demanded as Terra watched Sora. Finally, the light sends off a shockwave as Sora's screams cease and slowly he slumps in the chains. 'No…no…no!', Xigbar growled, he turned to Terra: 'GET HIM DOWN!'.

Terra did so by dispelling the dark chains and levitated Sora to them. Levitating before them they see Sora's eyes were hollow, near-identical to Ventus when his heart was broken. The eyes were nothing more than blank portraits of blue, dull and void of anything. Xigbar growled and cursed, earning Terra's attention. 'What did you do?', he questioned. Xigbar turned on him and looked like he was ready to shoot him out of insult but reeled back his temper and gestured Sora.

'I didn't do anything but try and seep darkness into him! But guess what!? His heart is broken! Shattered!', he listed, furious. Terra looked at Sora and studied his eyes, sensing neither light nor darkness within him. His heart had indeed been shattered into nothing, but remnants of it remained within him. The faint glimmers of his heart were nearly untraceable and if they were destroyed, he would have turned into a heartless.

Sora now is nothing more than a puppet.

Terra scoffed and returned Sora to his spot, only a single chain wrapped around him to keep him above the dull crystal. 'This is going to be a problem…', Terra huffed, crossing his arms. Xigbar seethed a breath of anger before he opened the dark corridor behind him. 'I'll tell the boss what happened…you make sure NO one gets in', he stressed. Without waiting for Terra to reply the right hand of the seeker of darkness leaves this world.

Terra merely watches Sora and for a moment, his eyes shimmered the color blue and his emotionless face shifts into guilt.

'Ven…', he whispers, looking away…

*?*

Falling…falling…into nothing…

It wasn't cold like the darkness, nor warm like the light, it was a place he couldn't fathom that existed. He feels nothing but the descent into nothingness, the world around him were windows of his past, no sound nor any life to it nor was there danger around him. Sora feels pieces of himself slowly disappearing into the void, windows of his past were slowly growing foggy, slowly blanking out the images that he knew.

Places he had been to that hold significance to his heart were growing fainter and unrecognizable, the things he's seen all becoming nothing more than distant memories that sleep eternally within his heart. As he falls deeper and deeper into nothingness, places change to the people he's known and solidified bonds with, yet their names escape his mind. Slowly their faces in the windows of his past grow foggy and disappear from him.

The two companions who have been with him for most of his journey, the boy he went on a second quest to find, a master who he wanted to save even if it meant descending into the darkest realms. Slowly their names begin to fade and faces becoming unrecognizable go him. The royal retinue he grew close to, nothing remained but fuzzy memories of them that were disjointed and clustered, as if his memories were thrown into a blender.

Finally, as more and more the places and people close to his heart begin to fade away to nothing, the last person who left a mark on his heart. As he falls, he sees her standing there with her back turned to him. She turns to him, he sees her beautiful blue eyes and his crown around her neck, but also on her flawless features is pain. The sadness pooling in her eyes with her face devoid of smiles and warmth. He feels his chest tightening, a strange guilt planted in it as he weakly reached out for her.

'Don't let it consume you', she whispers.

Slowly her body glowed with light, encasing her in a crystal-like shine as her flesh and clothes turned crystal. Sora felt his eyes water and strength slowly but certainly seep back into him as he tried to reach for her. The name and memories her in the windows begin to shine and polish, slowly revealing all those precious moments he had shared and created with her, one memory of having her become his and his alone.

'KAIRI!', he cries out, reaching for her.

The girl of his heart smiles before she was encased in the translucent crystal light and then in a shining light she fades away. Sora's tears float as he falls, but slowly his windows of the past begin to polish and became clear as he feels someone holding him. As his raises, his vision fades…

*?*

Sora sits in the center of a station, not his own but rather someone he knew. Footsteps clinked on the flat surface of the mural beneath him, but he couldn't muster the strength to look at this person. The void within him grows and instead of himself fading away into nothing, he was anchored by his light. The footsteps stopped and then he hears shuffling. Before Sora was an old face he didn't know so well but knew enough to call this person a good friend.

'Its weird we keep meeting up like this, huh?', he says in a friendly tone. Roxas stands up before Sora, allowing his somebody to rest on the spot. Roxas has bright blue eyes and golden blond hair. With spiky hair, as the front concentrates the spikes on the right side of his head as if it was swept by the wind, while the back is smoother and flakier. He still wore his Organization XIII robes as he always did.

As happy he is to see Sora again, Roxas genuine wished it didn't require him to have his heart be torn into pieces for him to regain some form of consciousness again. In this place the two were stationed at Roxas' own Station of Awakening, the murals showing Roxas with both keyblades, Oblivion and Oathkeeper in hands as he stood atop a clock tower that was blessed the light of the sun and the shadows of the tower. The colors were orange, gold and bright red with six circles surrounding the boy like a clock.

The six consisted of Naminé, Axel, Hayner, Pence, and Olette, the sixth was blank for some reason that Roxas couldn't explain but whenever he looked at the blank circle he feels a large tug on his heart. After his heart was developed despite having no physical body of his own, this was where Roxas stayed, granted he used his heart to make a replica of his old bedroom from Twilight Town, least being here gave him limitless possibilities. It was only when he felt Sora's heart shatter did he manage to reach out to him and anchor him down.

At least, in part thanks to his bond with Kairi, he used that link to help him track down Sora. Even though he managed to get a hold of the shell of his heart (Sora's body here), it was an empty shell of a heart. The boy knew most of his memories had been scattered within the dark depths of his heart, along with fragments of his memories and light amidst the depths. The former nobody approached the edge of his station, a bridge made from panels with hundreds of colors appeared before him.

He turned back to Sora with a small but confident smile. 'Don't worry, I'll help make you whole again, I promise'. Roxas turned to his path and ran, disappearing into the distance.

As Sora sits still, he is slowly embraced by someone. 'Shh, it's going to be ok', she whispers. This warmth and gentleness reminded him of Kairi, but this person was a total stranger to him. She strokes his hair comfortingly, gently whispering comforting words to him as she held him close. 'He'll put you back together, and soon, you'll be with your friends again', she encourages. She sounded so familiar to Sora, and her voice made his eyes water with guilt. He didn't know why but while she may not be so close to him as Kairi, he knew she was important to Roxas somehow.

All he could do was enjoy and sink into her warming embrace…

Reaching the top of the pedestal as the pathway behind him fades with each step closer to the light, Roxas stands on the blank broken bit of land that once represented Sora's heart. Looking ahead to see islands of broken blank pieces before him, he takes a deep breath when he realizes just how badly damaged Sora's heart had become.

Whoever or whatever caused this destruction may have spared Sora from becoming the seeker of darkness' vessel but the damage could be irreversible. The former shadow of Sora folds his arms as he looked around the floating cracked and/or foggy windows of his past, hovering around and surrounding the pedestal like a wall trying to keep in the final shreds of Sora's heart. So many memories are potentially being lost and bits of Sora would descend into oblivion. But with a nobody like Roxas, he knew, if he remained here to act like an anchor he could keep his memories in place.

At least until the fateful reunion of the somebody and the princess.

He gently placed a hand on his heart and smiled. 'Don't worry…we won't let you face this alone', he said to himself, promising Sora. Roxas jumped onto the centerpiece of the broken island and summoned Oathkeeper and Oblivion. Two weapons representing Sora's light and darkness, together crossed over each other and held up high, chains of black and white flew from these mystical weapons of light.

The chains flew around the pedestal and all linked the windows from the dark depths to the high skies before linking the islands to the centerpiece with Roxas holding them up high still as his body glowed in grey. This was all he could do, become the anchor to keep Sora in place until the time was right. At least while he might be away from him, his friend would keep him safe.

"Just hold on Sora…", he hoped…

*Battleground*

Gritted teeth as he marched through the forgotten sands, the howling winds that sing the old tales of the great war that had taken place here so long ago and with desolation of this world rushed through him. Xigbar could feel every step he had taken in this place grow heavy and the whispers of the lost hearts and slain wielders of the keyblades all whistled into his ear.

He reached the meeting grounds in a short time, having used the dark corridor to transport him a few minutes away from there just to prepare himself for what ramifications would be laid before his feet by the master. Fortunately for him, none of the other vessels were around to witness his grand screw up of the century. Not those old co-workers he dealt with in the past, not that brat apprentice of the master, or even that replica would show his smug face, and bonus even his heartless and nobody were around.

Very least he'd get chewed out in isolation.

Standing on the tall mountain that overlooked the battlefield, the field that soon the battle would take place once more, on the ledge was the man behind the scenes who orchestrated the whole thing from the very beginning.

Master Xehanort, the Seeker of Darkness.

Master Xehanort is bald except for thin eyebrows and a curled, silver goatee. His ears are pointed, and his eyes are yellow. He has broad, hunched shoulders and a crooked back. His clothing is composed of a white and black coat with a red inner lining, which is worn over a white shirt with two thin black belts, as well as white gloves and calf-high black boots.

Even in his winter years and feeble looks, Xigbar knew anyone with any form of strength could just feel the immense power that dwelled within this old man, the most powerful keyblade wielder to ever walk the world. The former nobody himself sweats in fear sometimes of this man's power, and that was when he was just talking. As the wind howls around them with particles of dust flying by them, the old man didn't acknowledge him yet as he stares into the field before them.

Mustering his will, the one-eyed vessel walked toward him. When he was five steps away from the master, he speaks: 'You've returned'. Xigbar stopped walking and straightened himself up. 'Yeah…figured I come and see how things went', he mumbles, hating this pathetic fear he carried that this old man instilled into him. Xehanort doesn't turn around to face him, instead, he raised his head to see the slowly descending sun.

'You've been in Eos for quite some time, Braig', the master remarked, 'And from what I understand, some interesting development has occurred since you arrived'. Xigbar held back that glare that desperately tried to make a place on his face at the mention of his human name. He composes himself however and tries to light of his master's concern. 'Pfft, been a while since I stuck around in a world for a while. Gets pretty dull sticking around here all day'.

Xehanort hums in thought, almost like he agreed with the man before he spoke again: 'And tell me, were you involved with this sudden appearance of a new light…as well the sudden disappearance of Sora?'.

He turned around to his agent, eyes glowing with contempt and conceit as Xigbar's smug looks shifts into a pale look of dismay. 'I-I, well…', he starts before suddenly he was engulfed in black smoke that solidified around him and wrapped around his neck. Xehanort's hand burning with the darkness but it wasn't even a fraction of his true potential as he held Xigbar in the air. There was impatience in his golden eyes as well as that look of restrained murder, the same kind he had when he discovered Terra's will still live on.

'Trust in my words, Braig, I've been far more lenient with you than you realize', he warned, the darkness slowly suffocating the man as Xigbar struggled. 'I sensed one of the guardians had nearly perished because of you, a new light unforeseen had shown up and now Sora's light had vanished into nothing', he listed. 'L-Let me…explain!', Xigbar gasped, clenching the darkness coiled around his neck in a desperate act to keep himself breathing. Xehanort smirks evilly however as he drops the man to the ground with a wave of his hand.

Xigbar falls to the ground and coughs harshly, clutching his throat. He faces his master with a strained look of pain, contempt and even a trace of fear as he said: 'There…there's this prince, he's a keyblade wielder…s-so I thought, *cough*, with him, we could finally make Sora your vessel instead of that failure…'. Xehanort raised a silver brow at the man, intrigued. 'So you must have tried to open his heart to the darkness', Xehanort deduced.

Xigbar grunts, getting to his feet and coughing. 'Y-Yeah…but, something happened. The kid, his heart just…shattered…', he grunts out. He didn't have to wait very long for his master to show how displeased he was by this news. Xigbar now found himself being grabbed by his neck and lifted into the air by his master, keyblade aimed at his head. There was rage within the master eyes, yet he still carried that air of authority and dominance within them. 'You shattered his heart? Meaning the boy is useless to us now!', he growled.

Xigbar could only gasp and wheeze at the tightness of his master as he struggled to fight for his second chance at life as human. The strength behind this grip was monstrous and he almost lost his vision before his master scoffs and throws him back to the ground. Dismissing his keyblade, Xehanort approached his vessel with a glare.

'Tell me what has happened, Braig, and spare no details', he commands, 'And for your sake…you better have something that might change my mind about you'. Xigbar looked at the coldness of his master's eyes. 'Whether or not I should replace you with the backups'.

And with that promise made, and knowing the man always kept his word, Xigbar retold his story to the master.

*Eos, the train*

In the driver's compartment, Goofy and Donald sat there in silence with the former manning the controls for the train while occasionally telling everyone over the intercom they were getting closer to the imperial capital, along with other updates. Occasionally they'd get some visitors to check on them or make small talk yet, for the most part, it was just the two alone.

Donald sitting on a crate while Goofy handled the train's controls, occasionally humming to himself or make some small chitchat with Donald. The air between them was heavy with silence for most of the journey since they left Tenebrae, smiles were vacant and in place of them were looks of true forlorn and doubt. All it took for those feelings of inadequacy and failure was not hearing their companion who had been with them through thick and thin since this started.

Goofy tried his hardest to keep his spirit up, heck everybody's spirits up as best as he could, but he feels a hollow sensation in his heart every time he had some moments to think and ponder about just how bad things had gotten up to now. Losing Sora, truly it never got any easier whenever the boy wasn't around with them. Sure they had gotten separated in fights but kidnapped? That was a situation he was never prepared for and hoped it'd never come to pass.

The moment Xigbar had stolen the kid away, it took everything for him and Donald not to break down and wallow in despair, especially with Kairi and Riku around. Keeping strong for Sora's closest friends became their priority but also an escape for them to hide from their pain by helping mend the other pain that sowed within their hearts. Now, however, when things had finally looked hopeful for them and with morale back up after reclaiming a new arm for Noctis, it all came crashing down like a house built of glass.

Kairi and Prompto were out there alone in the imperial lands, Riku on edge and trying to keep himself from lashing out while Aqua mediates in vain to try and collect herself.

Goofy lowered his head as he looks at the controls, heaving a big sigh. 'Gwarsh…sure is quiet around here, huh?', he asked as the duck clasped his hands. The mage muttered a "yeah" to the captain's questions, twiddling his feathered thumbs. '…Donald, do ya think we can save Sora?', Goofy asked, trying to keep the doubt from plaguing his voice. Donald looks up at his long-time friend with a frown. 'Of course, we can! What kind of question is that?', Donald says shocked Goofy of all people asked such a crazy question.

'No Donald…I mean, if we weren't with Riku and the others…', he clarified. Donald huffs. 'Sure we could! We did it before, remember?', he reminds. 'Back in that data world, we pulled his butt out of the fire!'. 'Yeah…but then he had to save *us* after', Goofy says with a frown. Donald opened his mouth to argue before he muttered something and clicked his fingers. 'But we saved him from Xehanort trying to possess him!'.

'I guess…', Goofy agreed weakly, though he was more certain it was by pure luck and accident they helped prevent Sora from becoming one of Xehanort's vessels. Truly Axel was the one rescued him, they just arrived later to lend a hand. The captain looked away as Donald approached him and patted his back, his confidence faded away as he tried to comfort his friend. 'Goofy…', he starts, before he relents his futile attempts to boost their confidence.

'Shucks Donald…', Goofy sighed, 'We can't keep up with Sora and the others now…what good are we if couldn't keep Sora safe?'.

'Because strength is everything?'.

They both looked behind them to see Noctis entering the room, his face showed sympathy to their insecurities with some form of annoyance. 'Noct…', Goofy started before the king raised a hand. He looks at them both first before he gestured them. 'This the attitude you're gonna carry till we reach Sora and the others? That defeated tone? The sense of uselessness, however, bull crap it is', he says.

'Hey!', Donald called out but Noctis ignored his squawk. 'The two of you have been with Sora from day one, right?', he asked. 'Well yeah, but…', Goofy says, but before he could start the harsh comparison of them and the others like Riku and Aqua, Noctis stops him again. 'Do you think Sora kept the two of you with because of that? He knows you're not as powerful as the rest of them, heck I'm pretty sure I'm still a far cry from what they can do', the king informs, honestly and truthfully. They looked at him as he smiled.

'Strengths great and all, but Sora didn't need that from you two. What he needed was for you guys to be there when he needed you most', he states confidently. He addressed Goofy, 'From the start he knew he could count on you to shield him and be there for moral support and confide in, right?', he questioned. Goofy nods, smiling back softly as the king turns to Donald, 'You and him may have butted heads, but you both carried each other and had each other's backs when it was needed, surely?'. Donald nods.

Noctis faced them both. 'It doesn't matter if you're strong or weak, because Sora needs you two. Keyblade wielders or not, you two always had his back, and now it's time you both show off what you're capable of', he says. They both nodded happily, confidence restored and renewed. 'We're getting them back, Sora, Kairi, and Prompto. And no one is gonna stand in our way, right?', Noctis asked.

'Right!', the two affirmed.

Just as they finished their pep talk, the rest of the party joined in and gathered around. They all turned to the screen of the train as they entered a tunnel that would lead them to the capital, where within the dark realm of this world their friends awaited for them.

The final battle was drawing near…

A/N: Super sorry this took longer than it should, new job and new hours.

We're in the thick of the finale folks, soon the team will enter the capital to fight…pretty much everything so far to rescue their friends and hopefully bring the light back to Eos. I'm gonna try and get one more chapter out before Christmas, wish me luck!

Questions:

ObsidianUnknown66: Verstael's miasma was absorbed by dark Luna instead of the Immortalis. He was killed by Prompto.

My questions:

Q1: Thoughts on this chapter?

Q2: What did you think of Zegnautus becoming Eos' equivalent to the realm of darkness?

Q3: Do ya hate me for what happened to Sora?

Q4: Anyone happy to see Roxas?

Q5: How was Xehanort?

Q6: Donald and Goofy ok? It was brief but there's not a lot I could do for them?

Q7: What are you excited for most in the finale?

Q8: The name of the corrupted kings? Like or hate?

As always everyone, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	50. Chapter 50

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 50

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

*Nearing Gralea*

Entering the tunnel leading into the capital of the empire, where some of the party of eight gathered up into the dining cars, prepping and checking their supplies while making plans.

Aqua and Noctis had gone to the freight cart that carried Wayfinder II and the Regalia, prepping them for the drive while Donald and Goofy were still in the conductor's cart.

'It shan't be much longer now, until we arrive', Ignis speaks softly, looking at the map of the city on the table. No longer wearing the black shades to hide is scarred eyes, going back to his originals. Lunafreya helping him since she had been taking to the capital numerous times in the past, guiding the man. 'Soon enough', she concurs, 'but where before our biggest concerns were the imperial prowess of the empire's army, now we face the darkness itself'.

'Heartless, daemons, nobodies, the MTs, Ardyn, and Xigbar…and that's just the start', Riku sighed, sitting down on a stool by the bar after he checked his inventory. He glanced at Lunafreya. 'How bad do you think it's gotten since the Eternal Night started?'. The woman clasped her hands on the table, looking outside at the window to see the dim lighting of the tunnel. Truly she had presumed the empire had fallen within the first week of the darkness with so much of it already dominating the land.

Nearly a month into this ever-lasting night, however, she turned to Riku. 'It could be the dark realm by now, were it not for Ardyn and Xigbar keeping it at bay for their benefit', she says. Riku grimaced with a small hitch of his breath, recalling that world. Gladiolus sitting near him with arms crossed and head down in thought, then he raised his head to address the party. 'What's the first thing we need to do once we get there?'.

'First, we make for the Keep, Zegnautus', Ignis answers, pointing to the keep on the map, 'A imperial mega fortress that is said to be impregnable'. Gladiolus raised a brow at him, surprised that their first trek would be to fight their way into a place that claimed to be undefeatable. 'Seriously? That's our first thing to do?', Gladiolus questioned. Lunafreya faced him with determination and said: 'That is where our friends will likely be kept. What better a place to keep some of the King's strongest allies?'.

Riku nodded to that claim. 'Then we'll just fight our way through them all…we've done so before', he claimed. 'But I'm kinda wondering about the crystal'. The three looked at him. 'I know that after Ardyn slew Bahamut, the ring of the Lucii and everything else died, but does that apply to the crystal too?'. 'Certainly', Lunafreya answered with a weary tone, 'It was a gift from the Astrals, and without their presence, the crystal is nothing more than stone'.

'Meaning without its power, we cannot use it to restore the light of this world and purge the Eternal Night', Ignis finished. Riku hummed in thought, looking up at the ceiling in thought. His mind swirled with questions about their plans to help restore the light to the world since even if they stop Ardyn and put an end to whatever scheme Xigbar conjured up, that will not bring the light back. Unlike so many other worlds that had their light unchallenged by the single threat's minor goals, this world had lost so much of its light.

Without Lunafreya's Oracle powers to help keep the light going, even a princess of light alone wouldn't be strong enough to restore the light. At least as far as he was concerned, not without a terrible price to be paid. He grunted as he unfolds his arms, shaking his head and decided to push those thoughts aside for the time being. For now, his biggest priority would be rescuing the others first and foremost.

Then slowly the train began to halt in its drive, making everyone raise their heads at the sound of the brakes. A sense of dread begins to wash over them when the former Oracle pointed out they were nowhere near the train station by another ten minutes. 'I think we've been stopped in our tracks…', Ignis said slowly, trying to get a sense of whatever was attempting to halt the party. Although many of them had a strong guess of what it is. Riku turns to Gladiolus. 'Think you should go tell Aqua we're being held back', he said lowly.

The shield nods and gestured to Lunafreya with a nod. The blond woman nods in agreement as Ignis and Riku headed for the conductor's cart. Keyblade and daggers in hand, they walk a few steps into the resting cart of the train. No sooner had they got halfway through the cart, a loud crashing sound rumbled and shook the train, the glass wall on their left cracked almost instantly and decorated the wall with spiderweb-like cracks. Ignis nearly loses his footing as Riku slammed into the wall on his right with a grunt.

'What was that?', he asked, turning to his friend. Ignis doesn't turn to the direction of the force, instead, his lips tightened to a thin line with brows narrowed. 'Daemons…many of them', he says. They get to their feet just as Donald and Goofy run out of the conductor's room, weapons in their hands. 'Fellas! We gotta go!', warned the driver, 'The tunnel is full of daemons!'. Another attack on the glass wall caught their attention, goblins striking it while some clung to it. 'Riku…there's too many', Ignis says.

The silver head looked to his friend as he dismissed one dagger. 'We need to abandon the train', he suggested. Ordinarily, Riku would have argued they should fight them off, but in a strange development to Ignis' regaining his sight, the man had also developed a unique gift to be able to sense numerous numbers of creatures of the darkness. Much like how his vision had improved even greater than before, he could sense anyone of darkness like a radar.

And if he says there's too many for them to handle, the master knew better to argue with him. Riku nods and pushes Donald and Goofy behind him just as daemons broke through the glass. 'Alright, go!', he shouted. A goblin leaps at him, only for Ignis' dark dagger strike the skull of the beast and pinned it against the door of the conductor cart. Quickly as more and more daemons begin to pile into the cart hallway, the two users of the darkness ran from the monsters.

As the two raced through the carts, more and more daemons find their way into the train, slowly occupying the vehicle. Riku struck down a goblin that tried to go for his face as Ignis waited for him by the door of the cart, a fire flask in hand. The moment Riku got through, he throws the flask into the cart and slammed the door shut behind them and ran. The explosion shook the carts and nearly made the trip in their run.

Ignis helped Riku stabilize himself and pushed him forward. 'Having fun with making your flasks?', Riku asked as they ran. 'There is a satisfaction one gains from the fruits of their own labor', Ignis remarks as they race into the next cart. 'Explosive results?', teased the boy. 'One could say that…though I wished I weren't restricted to just fire'. 'One thing at a time buddy…'. Together they reached the freight cart, seeing Noctis in the Regalia just as Aqua opened the hatch.

They nodded to the other and headed for their respective vehicles.

With Noctis in the driver's seat and his royal party and fiancé in his, Ignis quickly threw his phone on speaker to stay in contact with Riku. As they rolled out of the freight, an alarm went off as well as an announcement.

'Threat upgraded. Activating level 4 security measures. Sealing all gates'.

'They're trying to trap us in the tunnel!', Noctis shouts as the cars sped off. 'Then put the pedal to the metal and floor it!', Gladiolus ordered. They sped off through the tunnel, littered with burning trains with barrels and other debris in the way. Chasing the party were neo-shadows and goblins that crawled on the walls and ceilings of the tunnel while the heartless traversed in the ground. A shadow slithered onto the roof of Aqua's car.

It plunged its claw through the roof of the car, electing a yell of surprise from the four other world party members. The claw retracts and tried two-strike again blindly, the black claw piercing the metal and nearly stabbing into Aqua's shoulder. 'Donald, get that heartless off my car!', Aqua yelled, making a sharp turn to avoid crashing into an abandoned burning train. Donald summoned his staff and aimed it upwards to the roof, firing a shockwave that went through the roof and threw the heartless off.

More shadows leaped onto the car, all stabbing into it rapidly while Donald blasts them with magic to either throw them off the car or destroy them entirely. Aqua turns and swerves her car to avoid the junk on the road while keeping her eyes on the Regalia before they heard a loud groan of metal overhead. Slowly the roof of the car was pried opened like open the lid of a can and threw it into the tunnel. Shadows looming over them but before they could strike them, Riku and Goofy shot up and smacked and slashed them into nothing.

'How far is that gate!?', Riku yelled as he swings his keyblade at them.

Ahead of them, Gladiolus turned in the back of the car to see the others. He swore and reeled back to Noctis. 'They're getting their ride torn apart out there!', he warned. Noctis curses in response as he ran over a shadow. 'Luna, any idea how much more there's left in the tunnel!?', he asked over the wild drive. The woman holds onto the handle of the car above her with a grunt. 'We're almost there, but we still have the gate to get through!'.

'Terrific…', grunted the king.

'UP AHEAD!', Gladiolus yelled. Before them was the entrance to the tunnel slowly getting smaller, and any further delays could spell the end for the party. Noctis slammed his foot into the pedal and the Regalia speeds up as the engines roared to life. Bursting with speed, the car zoomed past the gate and as the good fortune of the king graces his subjects, Aqua's vehicle was not far behind her liege.

On the highway to the keep, the party of eight only gasped in utter horror of how far the city had fallen. Buildings were pouring out the shadow heartless, iron giants prowling the streets of the capital with the skies dark with red magical energies as well as small vortexes in the sickly grey clouds above the empire. Violet lightning sparking here and there in the clouds, gargoyles patrolling in the skies with heartless and nobodies alike.

'This…is Gralea…', Gladiolus grunts out. 'By the gods…it…the darkness…', Lunafreya gasped, placing a hand on her heart. 'Iggy…just how many of them are there?', Noctis asked. 'Enough to populate all of Eos, Noct', his advisor states firmly. Before the king could say more, he lets out a yell as he swerves the car to the left, just dodging what seemed like a missile. Behind them, he sees in the rear-view mirror Aqua narrowly avoiding turning her car into a microwave.

'What was that!?', Ignis asked. 'The empire's trying to shoot us off the road!', Noctis answered, speeding up, 'But that's not gonna stop us!'.

Driving on the rails of the train, dodging both the discarded locomotives and debris on the field, the two vehicles kept dodging and evading the lasers as best as they could. Tragically the Regalia may not have been hit dead on, but the shockwaves and point-blank explosions of the blasts harmed it, shaking it enough that Noctis had to steady his grip to not accidentally drive them off the railway. Aqua's car fared no better with the blasts, only thanks to Donald's magic erects small shields to keep them safe kept them moving.

'Those cannons could tear this car apart…', Gladiolus growled as he gripped the back of the seat occupied by Ignis. 'It's going to take more than missiles to stop his majesty's mighty stead!', Ignis said confidently. 'No one knows her better than you, Ig!', Noctis stated, 'Aqua, how are you guys holding up?'.

'I'm putting my extremely limited driving skills to the test!', Aqua replied with a mixture of panic and focus in her tone, 'Fastest time I've ever gone on this thing was a hundred miles!'. A yell of surprise catches the king for a moment as he saw the Wayfinder II just moving from the landing point of a rocket, the explosion hitting the rear end of course. She re-directed the car straight after she bashed into one of the locomotives abandoned, the front bender dent and bent with the register plate falling off and one of the lights cracked open.

'Aqua!', Noctis yelled into the phone.

'We're all right, she can take the punishment! Just keep moving!', Aqua argued.

The missiles became more frequent, blasting the roads blindly and desperately, nearly hitting the cars dead-on as they reached the gate slowly closing and become almost too narrow for either car. Noctis stomped onto the pedal with all his might as he yelled: 'Hold on!'. Blasting ahead of Aqua as the missiles pelted the ground, the windows of the Regalia cracked and some even broke with steam and smoke slithering from the vehicle itself.

The mighty stead of the king pulled through…

Just as the gates closed on the rear end of the Regalia, the king slammed his foot onto the brakes, loud squealing that pierced their ears and the stench of burning rubber assaulted their noses before with a sharp turn in a desperate attempt to slow down, the Regalia slammed against two crashed locomotives by the side of it with a loud crash. The party bumped into the doors of the car just as more of the windows shattered to pieces and the windscreen broke apart.

Groans from the group with heavy breaths of relief and pants from the surge of adrenaline rushing through their veins, but then Gladiolus looked behind to see the gate had closed with Aqua's car nowhere in sight. 'No…', he gasped. They all quickly got out of the Regalia in a panic, and as soon as they took two steps from the vehicle, an explosion was heard from the other side of the closed gate with more rockets hitting the entrance.

Noctis ran to the Regalia and picked up the phone, screaming into it. 'AQUA!? AQUA!? RIKU!? ANYBODY!?', he demanded. No response, only the dial tone, and silence as the king looked to the gate in dismay while his companions looked on in silence. He looked to Gladiolus, head downcast as his fists clenched tightly and shoulders shook. 'Gladio…', the king started.

'Hey, guys!'.

They all looked to see the four of them jogging up to them, no worse for wear. Riku waved good-naturedly before smirking. 'Sorry about the scare, Aqua's phone fell of that dashboard thing, didn't have time to pick up', he explained. Aqua turned to Gladiolus, seeing his fists unclenched and relax, raising a brow at him. 'What?', she asked as he approached her. Next thing she knew, he enveloped her into a tight hug and held her close to him.

Caught off guard by this sudden but certainly not unwanted display, she hugged him back. 'Don't you scare me like that again, you got it?', he growled into her ear, making her shiver. Aqua smiles warmly as she faced him. 'It'll take more than that for you be rid of me, thank you very much', she said playfully and pecked his cheek. 'How did you all survive that? The gates were closed', Lunafreya questioned, gesturing behind them.

'We jumped, that's how', Riku explained with a shrug, 'When we got close enough we grabbed Donald and Goofy and then jumped over it'.

Noctis rolled his eyes with a sigh, figured a closing gate while on railway being shot with rockets wouldn't do them in. His eyes fall onto the Regalia however, steam hissing from the engine along with the poor thing looked like it was indeed put through hell, and likely will never run again. He placed a hand on her, mentally thanking this stead for all the years she gave toward his father and him and taking him this far. Closing his eyes and thanking it one more time, he reinforced his promise to his father and his companions.

He turned onto the road ahead of them, no turning back now he reminded himself as the others joined his side. 'So we're gonna be marching into the capital like this?', Gladiolus asked, looking around at all the darkness surrounding them. 'Diving headfirst into a den full of monsters along with our enemies lying wait? Seems like it', Ignis rebukes. 'But we best move fast before the daemons find us first'.

Ahead of them is the entrance to the capital with unfortunately a locomotive that must have flown over its rails looming over the pathway. They see it slowly, almost tauntingly, move up and down like it was on a ledge and just a sneeze away from falling. Noctis went first with Donald and Goofy trailing behind him. Just Lunafreya followed him, she was yanked back roughly by Gladiolus just in time as the train finally gives away and falls.

Blocked off from Noctis and the others, Ignis called out to his king before Riku yells out: 'Look out!'.

A single demon tower shoots up from the streets and begins to wrap around the railway as dozens of heartless begin to swarm and populate the bridge. The warriors drew their weapons and gathered into a circle, facing down the horde of monsters. On the other side, Noctis and his companions were cornered by several high soldiers, goblins and heartless wyverns. Demon towers sprouting up from the streets like geysers of water, trapping the heroes.

'You've gotta be kidding me…', Donald grumbled, looking at all the monsters.

On the other side of the train, a demon tower swoops down towards the heroes, moving fast enough that they had no time to properly dodge or defend themselves other than haphazardly leap to the ground and avoid it. Aqua was not so fortunate as when she fell to the ground, her ankle was grabbed by a shadow and she was pulled along into the tower with a yell. She tried to cut the hand that grabbed her but more clawed at her body and pulled her into their tower.

Below, Gladiolus sees her being swallowed by the darkness. The shield of the king looked at the pillar of the tower on the streets and after making doubly sure it was the same, he nodded. He turned to Ignis. 'Look after Luna for me, I'm going for Aqua!', he yelled. Ignis gave him a look of bafflement, and before he could question what made the man think he could do so, the shield runs to the railing and leaped off it. Summoning his masamune blade he plunged it into the tower all the way through, using it to help stay attached to it.

In the air went the tower with Gladiolus as a tag-along, flying away into the capital with only Ignis crying out his name. When they were out of sight, Ignis grunts and turned to Lunafreya and Riku, staring down the opposition as they stepped back. Looking around quickly for another way out, Ignis finds one train's door was still opened and like the others, its other half had fallen onto catwalk leading into the keep. 'Riku!', he yelled. The silver head turns to him just as Ignis stabbed a goblin in the stomach and kicked another aside. 'We're outnumbered and heavily short on numbers, we need to go!', he instructed.

He gestured their exit route, guiding the eyes of the master to his idea. Riku looked back to the monsters and the train, thinking of Noctis before he shouts: 'Noct! We're gonna find our way to you guys! Just go!'. Riku fired a barrage of dark fire at the horde as Ignis guided Lunafreya to their escape, and once they were in the train, Riku followed suit…

Back over to Noctis' group, the king crushes a high soldier with the Sword of the Tall, warps into the air while using the Bow of the Clever to fire down arrows of light at the wyverns. Below him Goofy uppercuts a soldier into the air and spins around to smack his shield into another, throwing it into the fallen train and destroying it. He then throws his shield at the wyvern and slices off a wing, causing it to crash and die. His shield flew and during a flip, Noctis caught it and throws it back down to the ground.

The shield decapitates a goblins head just as Donald smacked it aside with his staff and then blasts two more behind it with water. The water engulfs the goblins and crushes them within the bubble, then exploding sent bullets of water striking several more goblins and heartless near the duck.

Donald pulls the shield out of the ground and chucks it to Goofy, who caught it and blocked a wyvern's talons. The beast received a blade into its back from the king, stepped on and used the corpse of the heartless to jump into the air and summoned Katana of the Warrior. He performed a quick draw like motion, before wildly swinging the sword in high-speed that sliced the wyverns in the air and when he fell back to the ground, the moment he dismissed his ancestor's weapon the heartless above splits and disappears.

As the demon towers start to swarm them, the trio were surrounded by goblins and heartless alike despite the amount they slew. Keyblade summoned into his hand, Noctis grunts, frustrated by this. 'We can't keep fighting them all…', he muttered to himself, looking around for an exit strategy. 'Fellas, this way!', Goofy shouts. The captain runs forward with his shield in front, battering and knocking aside the monsters as he runs into the train compartment. 'C'mon!', Donald shouts, grabbing Noctis' arm and dragging him with the duck.

Together with Goofy smacking aside their enemies along with Donald blasting them magic and the king cutting a way for them, they reach a platform and climbed a flight of stairs before running into the building with a horde of monsters on their tails. Before they could enter the building, Noctis and Goofy slammed the door shut on their faces with a heavy clang. Move behind Donald, the duck fired a ray of ice from his staff that upon hitting the door, froze it until there was nothing but a frozen blockage before them.

They finally allow themselves to breathe and pant together, the king looking around to see the whole place was abandoned. The silence was so deafening it was as if instead of the capital of his nation's enemy, he was treading through an abandoned kingdom long untouched by human hands. The wind was non-existent here, all he could feel was the coldness of the daemon and blight with the suffocation of the heartless.

He placed a hand on his heart, frowning with worry over his friends. Alone with just Donald and Goofy, for the first time without any backup. Goofy must have sensed something perturbed the king because he placed a hand on his back. 'Are you ok, Noct?', asked the captain. Noctis shook his head as Donald turned to face him. 'Can't say I am…', he huffs.

'We're on our own, chances of any using our phones are a no go, and we're in the darkest place in the world right now', listed the king. Not since he lost his weapons, had Noctis feel so unprepared and vulnerable. Then as his doubts grow, he felt a pat on his leg. Donald faced him. 'We know, that's why we gotta keep moving and find the others as soon as we can!', he lectured. Goofy nods. 'He's right, Noct! Our friends are probably fighting their way through this scary place too, and they're gonna need our help!'.

Noctis glanced at the two, both giving him brave smiles and nary a trace of doubt were to be found in their eyes. Is this how Sora was able to get through all his trials before coming here, he wondered. Having these two constantly cheer him up, push him on no matter how dire the situation had become for them, and feel like whatever came his way with them by his side he could topple even the greatest of threats. Turning to the path ahead of them, knowing his, no, their friends were fighting their way to reunite their lost friends.

A king does not turn back, he moves forward regardless of the consequences. A king does not forsake his subjects.

He nodded to them with a smile, summoning Night's Sky. 'Then will you join me in this rescue?', he asked. They summoned their weapons and saluted him by placing hands over their chests and bowed. 'Of course, your majesty!', they said together. The smile of the king widened, and together as more of the heartless begin to swarm, he nods.

'Then let's go!', he declared, rushing into the fray…

*Elsewhere*

Grabbing the head of a shadow to hold himself onto the tower as it soars through the skies, Gladiolus gritted his teeth to keep himself from falling off the tower, even stomping his boots into the shadow tower. He was nearing the point where Aqua was absorbed into, just a few more steps away from her and making this trek was no easy task.

The tower had tried to shake him off by swerving left and right, doing loops and all sorts of crazy formations to throw him off, but he held on by grabbing the tower or using his sword to keep himself steady. Sometimes he even jumped towards the tower when it does do its strange flying formations, and while times he did fall lower on the bending tower, climbing up wasn't an issue for him. All he did to keep himself from not giving up was focusing on the goal.

Gladiolus sees the tower was looping around a radio station tower near the keep, going around and around it like a snake coiling around its victim. This was a chance he couldn't pass up, He summons the masamune sword and waits for that moment the tower would coil over his head, feet firmly planted in the tower's form, he grabbed the blade with both hands. Timing is everything as the tower flew over his head.

With a cry and using all his strength, Gladiolus swung the legendary weapon and cleaves through the tower of heartless with force even he didn't know he possessed. The heartless were decimated from his attack, some flying off the tower while the lesser fortunate ones were almost instantly torn apart from his attack. The tower was split as the top began to fall apart like an old withered pillar of stone falling to pieces, many shadows falling out of it.

He saw Aqua's body amidst the shadows and dismissed his weapon. 'AQUA!', he roars. The woman's eyes turned to him, reaching for him. He grabbed her hand with both of his and practically rips her out of the tower. Doing so frees the master, but thanks to the decapitation of the top, the tower begins to fall apart beneath his feet. Soon there is nothing to hold them up and down the two warriors of light went with yells.

Aqua summons her keyblade though and aimed it below them, crying out: 'Glacier!'. The master of the keyblade fired a large ray of blue ice that formed instantly in the air in the shape of a slope. The two slide on it and begin to slide down the ice as Aqua creates a slide for them to traverse the air while Gladiolus tumbles and curses at each bump and tumble he endured. The woman sees a large glass windscreen that would lead them into the keep and directs the slide towards it.

'Gladio, get ready!', she yells. She creates a ramp using the ice and when they were in the air, she aimed her hand at the glass and used force magic to obliterate the glass into nothing. They flew through the windowless wall and fell onto the floor of the keep. Bouncing and tumbling before coming to a stop after three more rolls. Groaning in pain together, Aqua pushed herself onto her elbows as Gladiolus sits up, rubbing his head.

He looks at her, approaches and checked her anything. 'You ok?', he asks, heaving a breath when he sees nothing tracing the heartless was on her. 'I'm…I'm fine, just a little shaken up', she answered, shuddering from the darkness she endured in the tower. When they got to their feet, they looked around to see they were, and likely not anywhere near where Sora would have been kept. It appeared to have been a storage room of sorts with several wooden crates, cardboard boxes, moving vehicles and a few monitors here and there.

A set of stairs for the two to use and escape with just nearby, there was a second level with catwalks above them with more machines with screens on them.

'Must be below the keep…', Gladiolus hummed, looking around while Aqua rolled her shoulder. 'So to get to the top, we must work our way from the bottom', she remarks with a click of her tongue. The shield smirked at her. 'Couldn't have aimed a little higher for us?', he teases. The blue head rolled her eyes with a scoff. 'Any higher and we'd be kissing the building', she stated confidently. The shield chuckled in agreement, before patting her shoulder. 'C'mon, we better go catch up to the others'.

Just when he made a step to the stairs, a barrier erects in front of it, walling them off. Instantly, the two drew their weapons. Slowly the entire room was being filled with heartless, just heartless of all sorts. From purebloods to emblems, new and old ones that Sora likely had fought before, scaling the walls, occupying the catwalks and bathing the entire room they were in with darkness. Back to back, the master and the shield held their weapons out as they took in the amount of monsters that cornered them.

'This could be bad…', Aqua says, sweating slightly with the amount. 'Can't disagree with you there, Blue', agreed Gladiolus, eyeing them all. 'Ok then, you take the…hundred on the left, and I'll take the hundred on the right', he says.

Aqua scoffs playfully. 'Are you mocking me? I'll take on a hundred and one!', she boasted. 'That's the spirit', Gladiolus sighs. Together they split apart and ran to the heartless.

*Meanwhile*

Peering from a corner of the wall, Riku gazes down the empty corridor. He grunts and gestures the two behind him to follow closely, keyblade out as Lunafreya trails behind him whilst Ignis takes the rear guard.

Passing by a closed gate, the moment Lunafreya was near, she was grabbed by an MT and pulled to the gate with a scream of surprise. Quick as he is, Ignis instantly plunged the dagger into the skull of the man-made machine, killing it and yanking her grace out of its metal claws for hands. Behind her guardian, the woman placed a hand on her heart, panting with adrenaline racing through her veins as the machine falls back, dead.

Riku checked her for any wounds, only when she nodded and clams her breathing did he relax. The two guardians stared at the machine with disdain. 'I hate those things…', Riku grunted out. Lunafreya frowned in concern however when she looked at the mechanical soldier, studying its body before she grasped her trident. 'There is something wrong with them…', she whispers, 'I can sense the darkness of the blight oozing from it'.

'Is it possible the darkness from the heartless quickened the infection of the blight?', Ignis asks, looking to her grace. She nodded hesitantly. 'It is possible…with this place being infested by so much darkness', she theorized. Even as they narrowly evade the heartless and daemons, the princess of light had never felt so disturbed be within the imperial lands, not even in the company of the emperor or his generals had made her feel this level of skin-crawling.

For every deeper they went into this place of hell she feels the darkness seeping through every crevice, whispers of the shadows dooming her ears and the stench of the vile creatures of the blight. Her heart wanes at times from all this exposure, only thanks to Riku and Ignis' darkness that absorbed it or repels the miasma did she manage to reframe from having her heart explode. She did not wish to even fathom how Kairi must be faring in this place as a prisoner.

Thanks to Riku's use of the darkness within his heart, he manages to camouflage their scent from daemons and the heartless alike so they could traverse through the empty metallic corridors. With the party split into three groups on the enemy stronghold, the last thing they needed was to bring down an entire keep's worth of enemies on their backs. Lunafreya's memory of this place were vague and fleeting, leaving to blindly stumble into this place.

Fortune smiled on them after they entered what looked like a security room. Empty like everywhere else in the keep but the power was still running, several computers and monitors functioning in perfect condition. Locking the doors behind them (Lunafreya having more knowledge of how they worked), they approached the plethora of screens before them showing several spots of the keep. 'This must have been where the eyes of security worked', Ignis suggested, 'Perhaps we can locate Sora and the others using them'.

Riku placed himself on a chair and looked at the switches and buttons, before frowning with confusion. 'Don't suppose…you know how to work them, Luna?', the master asks sheepishly. 'I'm sorry to say technology was never included in my education', the woman says with some weak playfulness as she looked at the switches and buttons. There were too many switches and buttons to push, for all she knew the woman could press a button that would self-destruct the entire keep.

Riku cautiously presses a few switches here and there while Ignis watched the monitors changing to show off more of the keep they hadn't seen yet. Many locations yet none showing what they sought other than heartless engulfing an entire room, daemons prowling the area or MT patrolling the empty halls like undead with their broken and dislodged limbs hanging by threads of circuits and wires. The former blind man crossed his arms, wondering if the emperor himself had survived this newest change to his empire.

'Riku, look!', Lunafreya stated, pointing to a screen. The two looked and see Noctis and his party fighting by an elevator, slaying heartless and daemons alike. 'Least those three made it in…', Riku said as he went through the other cameras, hoping to find the others. As he changed seven screens, Ignis sees Prompto at long last.

Bound into what looked to be a torture device, hanging up with his arms bound and head downcast, the princess of light lets a gasp escape her before clasping her mouth in horror while Riku and Ignis stare in horror at the sight of the boy. Until Riku grits his teeth in fury, thoughts already racing to Kairi and Sora. 'W-Where is he?', her grace asked with a shake in her tone. 'It would appear he's nearby the throne room of the emperor…', Ignis reveals, gesturing to the camera numbers on the lower half of the screen.

The numbers labeling the cameras clued him in as Prompto's was labeled "763" while the throne room was "758", meaning the blond was not too far from the others. 'But where are they keeping Sora and Kairi?', the advisor asked the question burning in their heads, 'I don't see Kairi nearby'. Riku quickly tried to go through the other cameras to find the others, frantically going through them as fast as he could blindly.

Just as he did, the doors on their right opened, and upon looking, their eyes hardened. Entering the security room, Terra strode forward towards the trio.

Riku got to his feet as Ignis placed himself in front of Lunafreya, daggers in hand as Riku glowered at the vessel of Xehanort just as the enemy before them summoned Dark Gnaw once more. With a cruel smile, he aimed his dark weapon at them. 'Well, well…look at what I have here…a master, the former Oracle and advisor to the king', he gloats as his golden eyes gleamed with malice. He sees the monitor showing Prompto, and chuckled.

'That boy's still alive? Thought he would've been reduced to a corpse by now…', he mocks. Riku and Ignis glared at this mockery of Aqua's oldest friend, resisting the impulse to charge headfirst at the man. The older man of the two however stared at the royal arm strapped to Terra's hip, looking at the man before them and subtly glancing at Riku and his lady. Curling his fingers tightly around the handle of his daggers, Ignis nods to himself.

Fast as lighting, Ignis chucks one dagger at Terra like a dart, the dagger soaring towards the man of the darkness. However, Terra merely deflected the blade with a simple swing of the keyblade, in doing so he exposed himself to Ignis.

The man dashed faster then even Terra had expected, dagger in the other hand and plunged it into his unarmoured shoulder. Terra roared in pain before Ignis knees him in his stomach and kicked the wind out of his lungs, then he grabbed the royal arm and rips it off the strap. 'Riku!', the man yelled as he throws the arm to the boy.

Riku caught the weapon overhead just as Ignis pushes Terra backward and kicked him onto his back. 'Go! Take Luna and find Noct!', he ordered, 'I'll buy you time!'. Riku looked at the man, then to Terra and the weapon in his hand, and reluctantly he nods. 'Ok, just be careful!', Riku instructs, grabbing Lunafreya's hand and dashing out of the room with her. Terra sees the boy attempting to flee with the princess, aimed his hand at the two but Ignis kicked him in the face to stop him.

Once Riku and Lunafreya escaped the room, Ignis backflipped away from Terra's enraged swinging keyblade and stands in front of the screens, daggers respawned back in his hands. On his feet whilst spitting out some blood from his lips, Terra glowers at the advisor as Ignis crossed his arms over each other and readied himself. Slowly his body emits a dark aura, not like Terra's but more akin to his time using the ring so long ago.

'I do believe, I owe you for what you have done to my friends', Ignis said, his voice controlled and steady. Terra smirked at him, 'Oh, you mean that shield of the king? And breaking poor Aqua's spirit?', he mocks. Next thing he knew, a sharp stinging sensation struck his cheek and then a warm liquid runs down it, making him touch it and look surprised he didn't even see Ignis strike yet.

Pushing his glasses upward, Ignis's violet eyes narrowed darkly as his daggers were now encased with black and grey flames as opposed to the darkness' violet colors. '…yes. And for every moment they were in despair…', Ignis promises as his eyes glowed with violet, 'I'm going to break a bone of yours to compensate their agonies…'.

Terra growls, before letting out a roar and darkness exploding around him, surrounding his body in violet flames. The force of his roar short-circuited the computers and screens, some shutting off while some just exploded behind Ignis, the machines being thrown aside by Terra and more. Undeterred, Ignis held his ground as Terra's display of raw power subsides and his glare returned to the man. Terra rushes towards Ignis as the man, daggers blazing, charges towards him.

Unaware on a screen of a computer, a warning alert flashing red behind him, warning of an unidentified vessel was fast approaching…

*Noctis' party*

Reaching the throne room after several hours of fighting heartless, daemons and MTs, Noctis, Donald and Goofy reached the very top of the keep where the emperor was supposedly waiting. Yet despite the numerous amount of adversaries that stood in their way, the trio slew them all and remained steadfast in their quest. Flipping a switch to elevate them to climb even higher up, they were swarmed by more MTs, allowing them to at least have a way to kill time while they go up.

Slicing an MT in half from the waist with Night's Sky in his right hand while plunging the engine sword into another using his left, Noctis hacks his way through the metal soldiers, crying out with each strike as Goofy punched a soldier with his shield and Donald shocking them with bolts of lightning. The trio were slowly getting swarmed by the MTs as they got higher and higher to the top floor, soon enough the entire ring of the elevator was overpopulated by the soldiers of the empire.

Noctis swings both blades to cleave three soldiers into scrap metal, dismissing both swords in favor of Blade of the Mystic and began to wildly swing at the soldiers. He tears them apart, spinning around with each swing of his ancestor's weapon, front flipping and striking them while using his warping powers to evade the strikes of his enemies sub-consciously and intentionally. He felt his pool of mana deplete quickly doing this, but he pushes forward regardless of the ramifications of his body.

Goofy reached his shield when he saw the king stagger and grow more sluggish with his movements, defending him from the on-coming attack of an axe wielding soldier. Goofy pushed it off himself just as Noctis turned around as the captain side-stepped for the king to deliver the killing blow, stabbing the machine in the stomach. He throws it off his weapon just as Donald rolled to avoid an attack and joined up with the two, now surrounded by MTs with no way out.

Noctis looks at the horde of the red glowing eyed monstrosities of the empire, glaring at them while trying to think of a way out as Goofy and Donald kept moving their weapons to try and choose who to direct their attacks on. The king looked back at them, realizing they were severely outmatched, yet in their eyes, he saw no fear or even resignation of their fates, but rather resistance and defiance to the empire's soldiers.

Sora and the others were close by, they were just within arm's reach of the group. Noctis turned on his enemies as he summoned Night's Sky once more and slowly begins to glow in his Armiger's light. With a cry, he swung his keyblade and a burst of light shined through, ghostly apparitions of his royal arms appeared around him as his own eyes glowed in a blue light. The weapons begin to spin around the king of light, faster and faster until they were blurs and with a yell, Noctis raised his hand and the weapons flew to the air.

Noctis suddenly flew into the air as his weapons gathered around him, with a wave of his keyblade, he aimed his arms at the soldiers. The weapons flew towards the soldiers like a wave made from weapons, sweeping up the soldiers and striking them all. Breaking the soldiers apart and eviscerating them all into nothing but junk. The weapons circled the entire floor, spinning wildly and striking them all while some bashed the MTs or shoot them.

When they were cleared, Noctis yelled at his two companions to run ahead to the next room while the coast was cleared, granting them a safer passage to carry on their trek. The two ran across the catwalk to the room as more MTs begin to deploy from their closet like housing, only being stayed by Noctis' royal arms and wild strikes before he warped to the door with Donald and Goofy. They ran inside and locked the door behind them.

Once they were sure the MTs couldn't break it down, they pressed on despite the fatigue plaguing their bodies. His Armiger state evaporated and returned him to normal, doing so Noctis nearly collapsed to the floor, had Donald and Goofy not caught him and held him. So weary and exhausted from all the fighting, Noctis feels his eyes grow heavy with want of sleep and even nearly fainted from all the exertions he pushed his body through.

He exhales a weak breath before nodding to the others in gratitude, slowly getting to his feet properly. Now wasn't the time for him to lay down and die, not when the others were still in need of rescue. He gives the two one more resolute look before they jogged onwards to rescue their friends.

Soon enough they came to a hallway littered with the dead MTs, but not a single adversary was ahead of them. On the one hand, Noctis was grateful they had a reprieve from their enemies at long, LONG last, yet the other hand warned him something much worse is yet to come. 'Only one way forward…', he remarked with a huff. 'Be careful, fellas', Goofy warned, 'We don't know if that Ardyn fellow has got something sneaky up his sleeves…'.

'He ALWAYS has something sneaky up his sleeves…', Donald grumbled, staff in both hands.

Slowly they walked into the hallway, and as they were halfway through it just nearing the other side, both doors shut closed. Then the door ahead of the party was covered in electricity and slowly moving towards them. As they backed away from the door, the door's electricity struck the MT corpse and destroyed it, reducing it to ashes. They looked to see their exit had also donned a sheen of electricity, trapping them.

'You gotta be kidding me!', Noctis shouts as the door edges closer and closer to the trio, 'Donald, can't you blast that door?'. Donald aimed his staff at it but nothing came out of his weapon, his eyes widened with panic as he started to rummage through his pouches and pockets. 'WAK! I'm out of mana AND ethers!', he yelled. Noctis swears, looking back and forth between the exit and door slowly encroaching closer and closer to them.

Goofy looked at his friends as they start to panic, looking at his shield and then nods to himself. Goofy jogged back to the entrance of the door and aimed his shield forward, taking a deep breath. As his legs ran on the spot like they were imitating a wheel on a car, Goofy suddenly charged forth with his shield in front, completely bypassing Noctis and Donald and charging shield first into the door. At first, the collision did nothing but crack the glass, until they see Goofy tore right through the door while being shocked and charging into the next room.

The flickering lightning died off as they hear a loud crash from the room ahead of them. 'Well, that's one way to do it…', Noctis laughed lightly, chasing Goofy with Donald leading them.

The captain was face-first into a wall with a large body shaped print on the metal. They approached Goofy and together pried him off the wall with some difficulty. Doing so, they could see Goofy's eyes were showcasing dizziness and pain, muttering something about getting the door opened for them. Noctis cast a glance to his feathery friend, who gave the king a shrug and waved off this worry. Likely a regular occurrence of Goofy's.

The room they find themselves in is full of computers and monitors, which Noctis checked while Donald attended to Goofy after getting him to sit down. The only door leading onwards was locked, encouraging Noctis' hope that possibly a locked door meant someone they know was locked away inside it. He presses a few buttons, and by the devil's luck, the door unlocked and opened for him to continue their search. The king looks at Donald, giving Goofy their last potion and once the shield of another king was healed, they proceeded onwards.

The room they were in is a prison ward but full of empty cells without any traces of the original occupants, nor were there anymore MTs scattered around. The dank smell of decay and death lingers on Noctis' nose, almost made him gag in disgust from it all. Then, Goofy lets out a cry of a name the king had desperately wanted to hear again and points ahead of them.

Bounded in that strange contraption, Prompto was ahead of the party with his head downcast and silent as the grave. 'Prompto!', cries the king before he sprints towards him with Donald and Goofy. He opened the cell door up and with the help of the other world companions, manages to undo the shackles binding Prompto to his torturous device, catching him before he fell. It broke his heart to see how horrible the condition the blond was in.

Several marks on his arms that were a blend of fresh cuts and old faded but poorly healed ones, on the right side of his face was a long cut, face adorned in red blemishes and dried blood, eye bags that showed no sleep had been granted to the youngest member of the king's guard. 'Prompto…come on man, say something', begged his majesty.

Prompto hisses and whimpers in pain, shaky and unsteady breathing escaping his lips as he settled on his knees and hands, Donald and Goofy hovering over him like doting parents. 'I…I'm fine…', he gasped out, raising and resting on his knees to look at his friends. His blue eyes show pain but pure relief at the sight of his best friend.

'Tell me. Were, you worried about me?', he asked, looking at Noctis. The king scoffs and gently pats his shoulder.

'Not just me…all of us were!', Noctis said. Prompto looked at Donald and Goofy, who both nodded warmly and even gave him tight hugs, just to show their worries for the young man. Prompto smiles weakly but warmly, saying: 'I knew you were…that's why you all came here…'. The two helped the blond get to his feet when they broke the hug before Goofy asked: 'Prompto? Where's Kairi? Did she get kidnapped too with ya?'.

The mention of the redhead, the man's eyes dimmed into despair, head looking down at the ground. '…no, she wasn't'. Noctis' alarm went off with fear as the eyes of his friends turned wide. 'W-What? Then where is she!?', Donald demands.

'…I'm so sorry…', he whimpered…

*Two days ago*

Driving on the snowmobile while just being only a few hours away from the capital, the two youngest members of their respective party stared ahead of them with Kairi using her light to shield them from the darkness whilst studying the map.

They had some rest earlier before resuming their journey to the capital, at Kairi's insistence to the surprise of Prompto. She hated to say it, but as desperate as she is to rescue Sora she knew better to go in headfirst while struggling to stay awake. Now they were on the home stretch to the capital, both eager to catch up to Noctis and co while saving their friend and likely the world.

'We're almost there if I'm reading the map right', Kairi says over the blistering winds. 'Should be a few more hours!'. Prompto yells back to assure her he heard as he kept his eyes on the road ahead of them. 'Almost time to reunite with your boyfriend!', he shouts with a laugh, making Kairi giggle in response. Prompto feels Kairi wrap her arms around his stomach, sensing she was still trying to stay awake for the remainder of the drive to the capital. He says nothing and allowed her to hold on as they make a turn around a cliff.

He had only a fraction of a second before he saw a rocket flying towards the ground. The explosion wasn't close enough to directly hit their vehicle, but the force alone threw the vehicle off course and Prompto, in a panic, drove it off the ledge. They tumbled down the cliffside while being thrown off their transport, rolling and bouncing off the cliffside with thuds until the fell onto the snowy ground, Prompto hitting his head and then losing consciousness…

Through blurry vision and dull echoing voices, he feels himself being dragged through the snow by something rough that sunk into his arms like thin pins. Prompto tried to make out what was happening to him, the sounds dull and unclear while his vision was slowly cleaning up. The gunner sees two MTs hovering over Kairi, guns trained on her as she laid there in the snow. Panic struck his heart while he was being dragged away, too hurt to speak or even lift his hand.

He sees Ardyn approaching the girl and shook his head to the soldiers. 'Now gentlemen, we've got what we came for', he says. Terror races through the gunner as the soldiers and Ardyn simply turn around and abandon Kairi to the snow, the man looked to Prompto with a wicked grin on his face as the sounds of the engines roared as he is being dragged up the ramp. The next thing he saw before the hatch close, obscuring Kairi from his sight as Ardyn's boot to his face…

*Present*

'After that…I was brought here…', Prompto finishes, forlorn and defeated as his friends look at him. Noctis gritted his teeth as he started to pace on the spot with Donald and Goofy looking close to breaking down into tears. 'Kairi's still out there…alone!', Goofy says with terror clear in his voice, 'We gotta go save her!'. 'How!?', Donald shouts, frustrated, 'We don't even know WHERE she was left! And how are we supposed to get to her from here!?'.

'Guys, I'm-

'That's enough!'.

The three looks at Noctis, turning to them all. 'We can't do anything for Kairi right now! And crying about it won't magically bring her to us!', he stated with hurt but resolve in his tone. He faces them properly. 'All we can do now is save Sora, then see if he's got a way to find in time'. The three shared glances of equal doubt and worry for their lost companion but before they could say more, they hear a set of footsteps approaching them.

They all turned to see who…

*Riku and Lunafreya*

With the royal arm strapped to his hip, Riku followed Lunafreya, using her light to see if she could track down Noctis or the others. After they managed to escape from Terra, they used an elevator to hopefully go up and reach Prompto, but the elevator turned against them and descended deeper into the fortress as opposed to ascending to reunite with their friends.

They were taken to the loading bay of the keep and any attempt to get the elevator started up again proved fruitless, the power was cut. Forced to find alternative routes, Riku and Lunafreya explored the bay. Walking on to an open space, the woman of light stops her walk and freezes on the spot. 'Riku…', she says warningly. Immediately the hairs on Riku's back stand up straight, a dark presence made itself known to him.

He summoned his keyblade as Lunafreya summoned her trident. Looking up, Riku grunts out Lunafreya's name, prompting her to look and in doing so, she lets out a gasp. Floating above them were the 13 Phantoms, glowing ominously violet with both the blight and darkness emitting from their forms as were their weapons. 'What the hell are they supposed to be?', he questioned, 'Never seen a heartless like these!'.

'T-Those are, the kings of yore…Noctis' royal family…', Lunafreya reveals, aiming her weapon at them. 'What? But I thought…'.

'You thought they'd share the same fate as the ring?', a familiar voice rings out. They lower their gaze to the left and see Ardyn sauntering towards them with that despicable smirk on his face, without his fedora this time. Riku bore his teeth and took one step forward to the man, but then Ardyn wagged his finger. 'Ooh I wouldn't do that, were I you', he lectured playfully.

With a snap of his fingers, something descended from a dark corridor from above, held by black chains. Hanging above Ardyn was still the comatose chosen wielder of the keyblade, like a lifeless puppet held by the strings of his master.

'SORA!', Riku cried out, nearly rushing to Ardyn, a mixture of fury and relief washes over him. Lunafreya looked towards Ardyn and Sora, her eyes burning intensely when she tried to see within the boy's heart, only to sense nothing but emptiness. 'Ardyn…', she growled, for the first time showing her anger towards this man of the dark, 'What have you done to Sora!?'. Ardyn gives both enraged warriors of light a look of offense as he clasped a hand over his heart. 'My dear Oracle, how could you be so quick to presume *I* was the one who harmed the boy?'.

'Answer me!', demands the woman, stamping her trident into the ground.

Ardyn sighs like he was being pestered by a child, before with an exaggerated shrug, he says: 'Well…according to Xigbar, he was trying to manipulate the darkness within the boy'. Looking at Sora's blank stare, he resumes: 'Though I was sure he'd make no progress in turning him into his master's next vessel, he did do something with the boy's heart'.

With a cruel smirk, Ardyn says: 'Something about…breaking it?'.

Riku's blood ran cold, shoulders sagged and strength evaporating from his limbs. His light blue eyes fall to Sora's lifeless and unmoving form, trying to sense his darkness, his light, ANYTHING to fight against the lies Ardyn was spewing. Yet he sensed nothing from him, it was like he was looking at the body of a replica that had yet to be used. He could feel his eyes water as despair clutched his heart, lowering his hands in defeat.

'A shame truly…poor Kairi will be devasted to hear all she had gone through to see her precious lover will all be for naught', Ardyn dramatically sighed.

His grip on the keyblade tightened to the point where his knuckles turned white, eyes burning with rage pushing despair aside. With a roar as his body bursts with darkness from his own heart, Riku rockets towards Ardyn, keyblade bathed in darkness. Unfortunately, Riku's assault was barred by two of the Phantoms, tackling him together and pinned him to the ground just a foot away from Ardyn. Lunafreya tried to assist, only for her to be grabbed by the Dynast King via the neck.

Ardyn kneels to Riku's level, smugly reveling in the fury of the silver head. 'Temper boy, temper. You're going to get into trouble with that hot head of yours', he lectures playfully. He gets up and approached the still boy, drawing forth one of his Armiger weapons, shocking the former Oracle. He gestured to his pawns of the dark. 'Fierce and Merciful Kings? Be good sports and put the poor boy out of his misery!'.

Without any words exchanged, the two chosen slaves to Ardyn draw their weapons and flew towards Sora.

'SORA!', cried Riku.

'NO!', Lunafreya cries.

As the two Phantoms reached the boy while in the middle of swinging their weapons, a powerful ray of light pierced through the roof above them with speed greater than anything Riku had ever seen. The two kings of yore were still for a moment before hundreds of slashes of light decorated their bodies and then they fell to the ground, like lifeless mannequins. Sora had disappeared when the ray of light dissipated.

Ardyn raises a brow at this, surprised and even looked at the indisposed woman, who was still being held by the neck. All eyes fell behind the Oracle near the large doors that leads to the crystal chamber, Sora's body laid flat on his back while he was being surveyed by an armored figure.

She was a tall as Sora with the boots, colored in shades of pink, light red, royal cream, and silver. A light red breastplate resembling the Oathkeeper's chain and a dark-visor helmet. Her helmet had a silvery halo over the head with two prongs on both sides of the head, light red. Her cape is that of a royal cream color, more armor near her upper legs and hips.

In hand was a large keyblade that had much of Oathkeeper's looks except with golden red colors instead of the white and light blue, the blade is a blade with two edges with glowing runes of light on surface. The teeth was Sora's crown with a heart holding it, the ring of the hand was shaped like a heart with silver and white colors. The chain is also Sora's crown.

The armored figure turned onto Ardyn and the others, keyblade in both hands as the light shined brilliantly on her armor like she was an angel of the light. Riku could on gasp in awe and joy, knowing only one person could carry Sora's necklace.

'Sora', she says, her voice clear with determination and unconditional love, 'This time, I'll save you'.

Kairi has returned…

A/N: This took a lot longer than I thought…and I didn't even follow the original idea I had for it!

So here is the last chapter of 2020 (likely), we have all the players in centre stage, the final fight is next time and we can end it! Truth be told, the reason I got this chapter done was to have the group back together (kinda?) before the end of the year, so I hope you liked this one!

Questions!

Q1: Thoughts on this chapter?

Q2: What do you think of Ignis fighting Terra?

Q3: Can you guess who Noctis and co are meeting?

Q4: What do you think of Kairi's armour and new weapon? Not sure if I should make it her Ultima weapon, but if I do, what should we name it?

Q5: Anyone wanna guess how they're gonna bring Sora back?

Q6: How do you think this will end?

As always thanks for reading, and truly, thanks to everyone whose favourited, followed and reviewed this story for all of 2019. It means the world to me that you all take the time to review my work and help motivate me to make this a priority. What started out as just a short story to celebrate the KH3 release, has turned into a passion project.

Thanks for reading, as always stay awesome but more importantly, stay safe! Merry Christmas, and whatever holiday you celebrate!


	51. Chapter 51

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 51

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

A/N: Just two small heads up.

1st, for those wondering, Kairi's new keyblade is called: Dearly Beloved. This name was suggested by KakeruPB, so much appreciation for the support.

2nd: It's a long one…be prepared…

Without further ado, let's wrap things up!

*Security Room*

The dark keyblade cleaves through the machine just as Ignis sidestepped the blade, metal and circuits split in half as a dark wave tears through the ground and strikes the larger monitor.

Ignis tosses a dark dagger at the fallen keyblade wielder, skirting around the man just as Terra deflected the attack. The warrior fired a barrage of darkness towards Ignis, destroying the walls and other machines and computers surrounding them while Ignis runs and leaps over the monitors to evade the attacks.

He jumps over a dark fireball while simultaneously throwing more daggers at Terra with an equal amount of speed. Terra raised his armored arm to block the daggers, doing so gave the dark user a chance to cut the distance between them and sped at him. Summoning his spear, Ignis jumps into the air and dives towards Terra. The pawn of Xehanort stabbed his keyblade at the spear, the two tips colliding.

The shockwave of the two weapons hitting shock the whole floor, shattering the glass on the monitor screens, even short circuit a few of the machines in turn. Ignis dismissed his weapon to front flip over the other world warrior, landing behind him and jumping backward as Terra spins around to slash at him. Terra rushes into Ignis as the man drew his daggers and imbued them in black ice. Extending them into near short sword sized weapons, Ignis meets Terra's dark keyblade with precision and deft movement that rivaled even the nimblest of thieves.

Terra's strikes were a cut above Gladiolus without a doubt, yet Ignis had met this adversary with quicker and wily movement, feinting some strikes and using Terra's raw power against him to leave openings for Ignis to exploit. Terra slams his keyblade down upon Ignis, only by crossing both frozen extended daggers was he able to prevent himself from being split in two. The advisor slowly begins to bend at the knee from the sheer weight and might of Terra despite only using just one arm.

Terra's blade inches closer to Ignis, the edge of his keyblade nearly touching his nose as the ice begins to crack and break apart. Terra smirked at the older man, until Ignis's body began to take a shadowy ethereal form, and then his blade phases through Ignis' and he stumbled forwards. Terra turns around to see a foot into his face, throwing him on his back before he stands Ignis. With a flick of both hands, Ignis summons blackish-grey flames from his hands and throws them both at Terra.

The dark warrior sinks into the ground just as the flames reached him, scorching the ground he once laid on.

He emerges from the ground behind Ignis, his armored arm shifting into a red and violet heartless claw. Lunging forward with a swipe of his new deformed limb, Terra's claw tears through the monitors. Ignis summoned his dark spear and plunged it into the ground deep enough to become a makeshift pole, pressing his body against the spear to hold against Terra's strike. The claw couldn't even throw Ignis aside, the spear holding against the powerful limb despite the runaway train like strength of the attack. Ignis summoned his dagger and plunges it into the limb, piercing it. He runs with his dagger imbedded into the dark limb as sparks of lightning trace the opening created by his dagger.

Ignis, using his right hand, channels another dark fire and upon his foot slamming before Terra, he slammed his palm into his chest. The fiery blast explodes and sends Terra flying across the room and straight into the wall. The force behind Ignis' attack almost destroyed the wall Terra slammed into were it not made of superior metal; Terra even spits out blood. Not even Gladiolus damaged him to that degree.

Ignis looked at his land hand and sees his glove burn away to nothing as well as his sleeve covered and licked by black flames. "Blast it…", he curses to himself, "I'm going to run out of gloves by the end of all this".

Terra pries himself out of his wall with a growl, the darkness growing more thicker and slowly his heartless limb returns to a human form. He snarls at Ignis and dashed to him, too fast for even the enhanced advisor to pick up. Toughening his body and crossing his daggers in a defensive stance, Ignis was met by a keyblade striking his guard with inhuman strength, immediately throwing him into the air. His guard broken and the force sends him crashing into the large monitors with a heavy slam.

His back slammed into at least three monitors, the shockwave of the attack shattered the monitors and some even exploded from the impact. He could feel the shards embedding in his back as well as the sparks of electricity and burning sensation of the intense heat. Ignis is certain had he not been empowered by the darkness this would have likely killed him.

Ignis groaned in pain as he falls forward off the monitors and bounced off the control panel before rolling onto the floor and on his side. Blood seeped from his back and the agonizing pain told him he must have broken a few bones from that attack. He grunts out and quickly draws a hi-potion from the pocket dimension and crushes it, restoring his body.

Ignis gets to his feet quickly as Terra approached him, his wounds likely healed, and his strength replenished. But the anger in his eyes, however, gave the advisor a good notion that he might have been underestimated, likely his experience fighting Gladiolus gave him a false impression of the king's men's power. It was no time to feel smug however, most importantly when Ignis knows this man was still holding back.

He loathed to say it, but the gap of power between them is vast, possibly more than his and Ardyn's. Terra's keyblade glows sinisterly as he clenched his armored hand. 'I have to say, I wasn't expecting you to be this troublesome…', he confesses, 'Riku's abilities have truly grown is he can manipulate the darkness to restore sight…'. Ignis draws his daggers out again, in a pouncing stance and begins to formulate a plan of attack.

Truly he knows victory against this man of the dark was not going to be achieved, at best he bought time for Riku and Lunafreya to escape and reunite with the others. But it would seem Terra has lost interest in fighting, or rather, being distracted. 'But the games end here, boy'. He raised his hand to aim, his hand glowing in ominous dark aura. Ignis ponders a form of strategy to evade that attack and not being torn asunder by his keyblade, even wondering if a magic flask could at least buy him more time.

Then Terra was suddenly attacked. From behind him, a strange nobody jumped on his back and staggered him. Likely caught off guard by the sudden appearance and insubordination of a nobody, Terra grunts and lowered his arms to try and shake off the offending traitor. More of those nobodies begin to swarm him however, dog piling on him and some wrapped their long segmented limbs around Terra's arms and legs while others used their bodies to weigh him down.

A speechless Ignis could only gawk at the sight of this, unaware of nobodies having the power to even consider betraying their more powerful allies. One nobody holding Terra with their arms turns to Ignis, making the man raise his dagger in preparation for another fight. It instead, gestured the door on the right leading further into the fortress, like it was telling the man to flee. Ignis slowly lowered his weapon, unconvinced but as Terra trashes and tries to break free, the sandy-haired man begrudgingly had no choice but to flee.

Ignis quickly runs out of the security room as Terra tried to tear apart the nobodies, leaving the room and escaping into the fortress.

He runs down an empty hallway for a while, uncertain as to where he could go or where would the others likely have taken, before he finally stopped to catch his breath. Placing a hand on the wall beside him, the advisor allowed himself to pant and finally cease any more strenuous activities. Collecting his thoughts and breath, Ignis relaxes his posture and tries to think of where could Riku have guided Lunafreya, or perhaps Gladiolus managed to rescue Aqua.

His thoughts were broken when he felt a presence, and it wasn't anyone he knew either. In a place like this, there was only one way to be sure. As fast as he could Ignis elbows the other occupant of the hallway in the face. High on adrenaline and not focusing on the facial features of the other, Ignis quickly placed his leg behind theirs and throws them onto the floor with a "thud" and placed his dagger against their neck.

'WHOA WHOA! Calm down man!'.

Ignis frowns at this person, seeing he was wearing the same black coat as Xigbar before, except he is younger with fiery red hair that almost resembled a porcupine with green eyes. The look in them shows alarm and there was bemusement as if he was used to this form of greeting. Ignis, however, found no amusement in this man, instead, he just stared at him. 'Hey man, no need to go all murder on me…', the redhead answers.

More of those nobodies rose from the ground near them, five in total and they eyed Ignis. They crouched into a pouncing stance. However, before they attacked, the man waved his hand. 'Hold on a minute guys! I think good ole scars here may have been given a bit of a bad impression of me!', the redhead said, waving off his nobodies. This does nothing to curve the worries within Ignis, if they follow this man's command then he had to be a nobody, or something akin to Xigbar. The redhead looked at him.

'Look... you wouldn't happen to know a kid with spiky brown hair? Or a girl with red hair? Wears pink?', he asked. '…and if I do?', Ignis warningly says, pressing the dagger against his neck. The man grunts. 'I'm a friend of theirs…Kairi? We were training together!', he revealed. Ignis' gaze lessens at the information, and upon recollecting, he recalls Kairi mention she indeed was training with another novice of the keyblade though he must have neglected to retain the information on her partner.

'And how do I know you're not another of Xehanort's vessels?', he questioned. The redhead sighed. 'Look at my eyes buddy, do they look like his? Or maybe, Xigbar's?', he asked in a monotone manner. This confused Ignis before he remembered Aqua explaining to them about all vessels of Xehanort carried his eyes color, Xigbar being a prime example of this. His however were green, and his light is more akin to Sora's, just not as strong.

Satisfied by the answers he was provided and after assessing his strength and comparing it to his own, the specs wearing fighter gets off him and dismissed his weapon. The black coat cladded man gets to his feet and rubbed his neck. 'Who are you then?', Ignis asked. 'Name's Axel', he introduced, before pointing to his head with a cocky smirk, 'Got it Memorized?'.

Ignis gives him a look devoid of amusement, rolled his eyes. 'After everything I've seen so far, remembering you could be a trial I'd almost be glad to fail…', he remarks. Axel gives the older man a scoff in a good-natured manner before he folded his arms. 'And you? What do I call ya?', Axel asks. 'I'm Ignis, a friend to Sora and the others'. Axel's smirk disappeared slowly as his face takes a frown. 'Where's Kairi? And what the heck is going on here?'.

Ignis looked down and sighs. 'Its…a very long story', he starts before shaking his head, 'But I'm afraid that will have to be for later. Currently, we're in the middle of a rescue'. Ignis quickly gave Axel a short version of their circumstances, detailing how they met Sora and company to how he was captured, Kairi jumping the train for their friend, and how they were fighting hell and the dark realm itself to rescue them.

'That kid…', Axel grunts out, rubbing his neck before he smirks. 'Well then, let's go find them!', he says encouragingly. He pats Ignis on the shoulder and runs ahead, yelling to follow him. Not too far behind, Ignis chases after Axel…

*Lower Levels*

Gladiolus cleaves his masamune through the guard armor heartless' torso, splitting the steel while he soared through it. Like a wild bear Gladiolus tears through the heartless as if they were made from wet paper, the legendary sword slicing and cleaving through all.

He lands on top of two soldiers, boots crushing their heads as he spins around with the sword, cutting down two large bodies despite their dense rubber stomachs. The man then stabbed an armored knight through the torso and ran with it in front of the warrior. The blade plunges into more of the knights and knocked some heartless aside before Gladiolus stabbed them into a pillar. The stone pillar cracks and breaks apart from the force of his attack.

It was stuck within it, however, forcing Gladiolus to release his grip on the blade and draw his shield from the pocket dimension. Armed in his right hand, Gladiolus slammed it into the ground as the eyes went red, fired a wave of flames that engulfs the heartless around him, killing some while damaging others.

A solid armor leaps into the air and body dived towards the shield. Gladiolus lifted the shield and punched it, firing a blast of ice towards the fat heartless. Upon impact, it was encased in ice, frozen solid and when it was close to the warrior, Gladiolus punched it with the shield, shattering it into a thousand pieces. He spins around in time to deflect an attack from an invisible heartless, the attack pushed Gladiolus backward only by an inch.

Gladiolus punched the shield again as the heartless kept applying force with its blade, leaving itself exposed to Gladiolus' shield firing a breath of flames. The heartless was reduced to ashes in seconds, letting the warrior of the king to recall his blade, dismiss his shield and strike down another large body.

On the far side, Aqua elegantly fights on with grace and magic at her disposal. Aqua leaped into the air as darkball heartless chase her, munching at air like hippos. The master of the keyblade backflips and aims her keyblade at them. 'Stop!', she cries. Glyphs of clocks appeared around them before ultimately slowing down and halting all movement, giving the blue head the chance to wipe them out. Aqua performs her Shotlock ability, the Prism Rain.

She fires rainbow-colored spheres at the dark balls hitting all six of them and she did this a total of four times to the heartless surrounding herself and Gladiolus before she dives back down to the floor the moment her stop spell ended along with the existence of the dark balls.

Back on her feet, Aqua spins her keyblade with on hand and enters her command state, Spellweaver. Her body glows in light as her keyblade hovers around her like she was telepathically wielding it, flicking her hands around to make her weapon slice and slash at the heartless that persisted in claiming their hearts. While her keyblade tears through the battlefield Aqua fires all sorts of magic at the creatures, light base magic in the form of spheres that soared all over and even bounced off the walls and floors.

Aqua jumps over an armored knight and uses several of their heads as stepping stones to hop across the field of the darkness, blasting the slaves of the shadows with more magic while the keyblade zooms and hovers around striking those that would harm its wielder. An arm suddenly launched out from the horde and nearly grabbed the master had she not used her teleport spell to warp above it in time.

Tearing through the mass amount of shadows came a large monstrous heartless with black skin. Its entire body is wrapped in teal thorns and both of its wrists and ankles still have manacles on them. The chains on its arms are broken, but the chain connecting its feet is not. It has a heart-shaped hole in its chest. It has large red, toothy maw, and beady, glowing yellow eyes. While it is muscular and has large hands and feet, it also has rather thin limbs. Each of its limbs sports three digits with long, red claws and has two enormous, orange horns and a massive, orange mane.

It snarls at Aqua and tries to grab her, only for her keyblade to come back and slash it's thin arms, forcing the creature to leap around like a wild animal, crushing its kin. The keyblade soared back to Aqua as she backflipped and catches her weapon with her right hand. The light around her bodies glows more dense and powerful as she begins to spin around, creating a small cyclone of light magic that acted like a whirlpool for the heartless to be sucked up and destroyed.

Aqua moves around the battlefield, spinning faster and faster like a ballerina, even kicking a leg up for the effect. The heartless that were sucked up by her attack were being destroyed one by one while sucking in more of the creatures to even the playing field. Even the dark thorn, while it wasn't sucked in thanks to its massive size, was helpless to fight against the master's devastating attack. It tried to grab her but the spell warded off the unwelcomed touch and nearly tore apart the hand in the process.

Aqua finishes her magical dance and upon stopping her cycle, she waves her keyblade around and creates a crystal made from ice. With one final swipe of her keyblade, the crystal explodes and decimated the horde around her, freezing the area around the guardian of light and killing off several of the more powerful forces of the darkness. While the dark thorn wasn't slain with its brethren, it was wounded enough for the master to leap at it and take a swing at the creature.

With a flash of light brandishing her keyblade, Aqua slices the head of the thorn and allows the body of the creature to fade back into darkness.

Thrown onto his back thanks to a surprise attack, Gladiolus grunts out in pain before rolling backward and onto his feet. He grunts out at the invisible that had the balls to attack him and rewards it with a toss of his shield that lacked the same "grace" Goofy often displays and just ripped through the heartless and even struck another guard armor's floating hand.

Gladiolus pants as his sword is laid on his shoulder, somehow even heavier then it usually is. Shaking his head, he swung upwards and slices through two soldiers in time and after that, he kicked a neo shadow right in its glowing orb-shaped head. Joining him at his back, Aqua glared down the heartless that weren't slowing down in numbers or strength. Sweat glistened off their skins, their bodies wracked with fatigue and the never-ending horde only heightened their weariness.

'Heh, Blue? I'm on forty-four…', Gladiolus chuckled dryly as he raised his sword. 'Pfft…seventy-six', Aqua replied with a grunt, striking down a heartless that jumped at her. 'What? Oh come on!', Gladiolus growls, laying down his sword onto a knight, letting the weight of the blade do the work. Gladiolus scoffs, 'It's because you're using magic!'. Aqua snickers as she fired a shard of ice at the flying rats in the air. 'Oh? And what is your shield using?', she challenges.

Slowly their banter died out as more and more strong heartless begin to show up and swarm them, some of which Aqua glared at, knowing their full potency. It didn't help matters that the darkness in the capital was strengthened them much like in the dark world, these were more powerful than the ones they had encountered previously. Between the empowerment of the dark and the blight as well as only having two guardians to fight, the tides are strongly against Aqua and Gladiolus.

Not unless…

Looking at the keyblade in hand, and then her left hand, sensing her magic, the woman nods. 'Gladio, do you have an ether on you?', she asked. The shield ponders it before he reaches in his pocket dimension and plucks out the only one he'd ever carry. 'Sure, what's up?', he asked, handing it to her. Aqua downs it and feels her magic replenishing to full before she says: 'Remember that spell I used back at Costlemark?'.

'The one that knocked your ass out?', the shield remarked, blocking an oncoming attack from an invisible. 'Yeah…', Aqua states. Slowly her keyblade begins to glow in that same light she used that time, encasing her body. Her eyes took on a more glowing light to them, the magic coursing through her body like she was absorbing every source of mana all around her. She feels an immeasurable amount of magic within her before she lets out a cry.

A wave of light exits from her while her feet leave the ground and slowly she ascends into the air, her keyblade floating around her. She grabbed hold of it and extends herself into a star, a surge of magic covered her body in a grey-green glow. A new command style, Ultima Mage.

Aqua's keyblade shifts into a staff as tall as her, using the same design as her keyblade with a single crystal blue gem atop of the rod, two prongs on the sides with her emblem stamped onto the rod. The master grabbed the staff and aimed her free hand at the horde, firing a cyclone of fire and ice at them all, sucking them up and destroying them like they were nothing more than fodder to her power. She duplicates herself into a trio, the two replicas flew into the horde, bathed in aero and lightning.

They dove into the mass of shadows and monsters, obliterating them all as Gladiolus kept himself focused on striking the heartless near him while he used his shield to blast the flying heartless that flew too close to the real Aqua.

Aqua raised the staff above her and shoots a magnet spell five feet above her head, a giant version that does not even Kairi could replicate. The magnetic spell sucked up the heartless and trapped a massive horde worth of them. The master raised her hand and created a dome of the aero spell around them, but it was closer to a wild hurricane for destruction it wrought, the heartless barely lasted a nanosecond in that storm.

Finally, the master crossed both her arms around her chest as she glowed grey before she opens open and cries: 'NEO ULTIMA!'.

A pillar of the same spell formed around Aqua, acting as a barrier for herself and Gladiolus below as it begins to extend until the entire room was covered in it. The heartless were swallowed by the master spell, consumed entirely and evaporated into nothing. Not even the most powerful of the darkness could last more than a few seconds from this power, and the machines, pillars, and catwalks were swallowed up as well into nothing. Gladiolus had to duck and raise his shield to keep himself safe despite being in the inside of the spell.

When the winds ceased and the ground stopped shaking, he raised his head to see the utter destruction his girlfriend had wrought upon the world. There was practically nothing left intact, almost everything was closer to resembling a ruined dungeon not touched by a thousand generations, even back at Costlemark it looked like a palace compared to this place. Neary darkness in sight or within a mile, he'd go so far as to say possibly Aqua could have destroyed all the capital if she desired.

Speaking of which, he looked up to see her body dimmed and her keyblade disappeared, and then she falls. Whatever magic kept her up there had disappeared and it was only by pure instinct and quick reflexes did Gladiolus catch her in time, grunting slightly with the sudden weight. Memories of her being comatose flashed in his mind, making the shield check her face instantly. He sees her skin was ashen white and she shook in his arms, but her eyes were open instead of being closed.

She could barely make a sound from the way her mouth moves, Gladiolus tried to read her lips, but they were opening and closing to quick and short for him to read. 'Blue, just nod. Are you exhausted?', he questioned. Reluctantly, the woman followed his command and nods weakly, affirming his worries. 'Ok, let's get out of here before more of them come back', he says, shifting her in his arms.

As tired as he is, carrying Aqua not helping alleviate his tired form, Gladiolus quickly raced up the stairs that miraculously Aqua hadn't destroyed on them and finds himself in what a corridor of nothing but emptiness and silence. A massively welcomed change compared to the first few hours of arrival to this hell on earth. The first thing he needed to before they search for the others was to get Aqua somewhere to recuperate.

Behind him, as he walked down, slowly neo-shadows crawled out of their inky portals and then leaped to him. The shield of king Noctis only turned around halfway to protect Aqua, but before he could feel the stinging sensation, the shadows were slain in a flash of light.

Blinking, the shield looks at Aqua, weakly shaking her head. He looked again to where the shadows were before a voice calls out. 'Are you ok?'.

Gladiolus turned around to see a small mouse being approached him. When he turned around fully to face him, Aqua's eyes fell to him and said tiredly but joyously: 'Mickey…'. Mickey looked at his fellow master and gasped. 'Aqua!'.

The moment Gladiolus learned this being's name he allowed himself to relax and gently knelt with Aqua for the king. Mickey's eyes were wide with worry, likely sensing the amount of mana, or lack of thereof. 'What happened to you?', he asked. 'She's used a lot of magic, something but an "Ultima", but she's running on fumes here', Gladiolus explained. The king's face showed worry, but he reached into his pocket and pulled out a blue vial.

He helped Aqua drink it, and the moment the last drop of the vial entered her mouth, Aqua's body glowed a dim blue before she coughed and sat up in Gladiolus' arms. Her skin returned to its normal color and strength replenished. The shield breaths out a sigh as he helps her to her feet once more, a little shaky. When she nodded to him in gratitude, she turned to Mickey. 'How did you find us?', she asked, smiling at him.

'Well, Ven went out to see if he could track Riku down, but instead, he found Sora's ship', the king explained, shrinking slightly when he dropped the info of Ventus once again going on his own, Aqua's sweet smile turned sour instantly for a moment. At that story, Gladiolus folds his arms. 'And you met Cindy, right?', he guessed. 'Yup', Mickey answers, turning to him.

'Thanks to her, we found out where Sora and the others ended up, brought her to someone who fixed our ship and as soon as could, came here'.

He then frowned with worry and turned to Aqua. 'But gosh, what happened to you?', he asked, gesturing her scar. Aqua flinched slightly, realizing that a lot had changed about her since she left the tower and a sudden realization that her new look was radically different from her old one. 'I…we've been through quite a few things since we came here', she explained. Then she turned to Gladiolus, and sees he was smirking at her, and then her cheeks went red.

Mickey blinks at the secret exchange of the two before the human master turned to him, clearing her throat. 'M-More importantly, Sora was captured by Xigbar, and likely Kairi and another friend of ours', she starts, 'We came here to rescue them, but we've been separated from the others'. Mickey nods, understandingly, 'Then we had better go and look for them, the darkness here is getting worse by the minute'.

'Hang on a sec…', Gladiolus started, raising a hand. 'Are you the only one here?'. Mickey shook his head. 'Nope, Axel went off on his own when he sensed a strong darkness nearby…and Ven…', he says weakly before Aqua glared. 'Ven what?', she demands, 'Did he run off again?'.

'…yes', Mickey sighs.

Aqua grunts in annoyance before she starts to run down the corridor, chased by Gladiolus and Mickey in tow.

*Near Crystal Chamber*

With her beautiful keyblade, Kairi brings down the Pious king with minimal effort on her part as she dashes through the battlefield like a goddess of war.

She flipped over the Oracle's magic and trident, parried the stars thrown by the Rogue and deflected the mighty blows from the Tall. She brings up her keyblade to meet with the Warrior quickly swinging her keyblade matching his inhuman speed as if she was quickly drawing a katana like himself. When he tried to swing for her neck, Kairi's cape shoots up from her back and wrapped around its weapon like a snake.

The Warrior's armed limb was held back and gave Kairi the chance to put this unfortunate soul to the rest he was denied by his ancestor. She plunged her keyblade into his heart, expelling the darkness within him and allowing his body to fade into crystals before dissipating into nothingness. Four down, more to go she listed, turning around to parry the Rogue's star and narrowly dodge the Just and her massive shield from crushing her bones.

Kairi backflipped and gives herself space to face down the remaining Phantoms, nine in total remaining if she counted right. They all hovered around Ardyn, staring at Kairi with amusement and spite in his eyes. She took pride in that, turning the odds against him and putting a stop to his plans. After everything, he's done not just to her but to those she held dear, this was a minor revenge in comparison.

The moment the Phantoms deduced that she was the true threat to their master, they relinquished their hold on Riku and Lunafreya, taking the battle to the newest armored warrior. This gave the master a chance to be healed and rest while at the same time guarding both Lunafreya and Sora at once while the former healed him. Kairi just had to hold out for the others to arrive on time for back up, then the usurper could finally be put to the sword for everything he's done.

She lifts Dearly Beloved up into her stance and readies herself for next bout with the Phantoms, until Ardyn chuckles and raises his hand to stop his minions. 'A moment', he states, halting them. Kairi immediately tensed up and fixed her hidden gaze on Ardyn, prepared for whatever trickery he had in store for them.

The man saunters onto the cleared space, eyeing Kairi and for a moment she saw a hint pride in them, however strange it may sound. 'When we last spoke, you couldn't even be considered an expert wielder of the keyblade, yet here now stands a warrior matching, dare I say, surpassing the old kings', he said with small praises. Kairi grips her keyblade tighter, waiting for it. 'I'm curious. Had I not taken your beloved away, would you have gained this power?', he taunts.

He waved his hand mockingly, 'For all you claim that he is your strength, you've certainly accumulated more power without him'. He smirks cruelly, slowly his red daemon armiger begins to form around him, shocking Lunafreya and spooking Riku. 'I'm wondering if you were able to become this powerful with him being taken away…what would happen if he is no longer among us?'. Kairi dashes towards Ardyn like a bullet, yelling and swinging her keyblade at him just a second too late.

A rain of spears falls upon Riku and Lunafreya just as Kairi reached Ardyn. Her keyblade was blocked by a ghostly mockery of the Shield of the Just, she turned her head to the others in dismay as Riku forced himself on his legs and tried to raise a barrier. The spears, however, were suddenly sliced in half before another flurry of slashes reduced them all nothing but broken crystals. Ardyn gave a small look of irritation before he pushed Kairi off his shield and addressed the unwelcome interruption to his ploy.

Warping down from above in front of Lunafreya and Riku, came down king Noctis alongside Ventus, keyblades in hand. 'Sorry, we're late…', Noctis apologizes, turning his steel-blue eyes onto his adversary, 'but plus side, I've brought help'. Ventus smiled back to him before turning onto Ardyn and the Thirteen Phantoms, then looking at Kairi in bewilderment. 'Kairi?', he asked, doubtfully. Noctis looks as well, blinking.

'Long story', Kairi surmised, 'Where's Prompto?'.

'Up here!'.

She looks to see Prompto, Donald, and Goofy coming down via elevator, waving at the girl with renewed hope in the blonde's eyes. Kairi smiled behind her visor, but then scowled when she saw how badly beaten her friend is and turned onto Ardyn. He likely has put two and two together, that the girl was "upset" that Prompto was in less than an ideal condition.

The trio reached the party, weapons drawn and in front of Lunafreya, all eyes focused on Ardyn. The man just chuckles at this, hands raised. 'Well now, it seems we have a full house of guests to entertain', he gloated, not even fazed. 'Noct, it's ever so good to see you again', he greeted, but the king just aimed his keyblade at him.

'That's "King Noctis" to you, usurper', growls his majesty. This made most of the party glance at the king before he nodded and turned to Kairi. 'Prompto told me everything you said…that this guy before me is my ancestor', he explained, then turned to the usurper, 'The true founding King'. Ardyn's smug looks disappeared, now in their place contempt and anger, king Noctis stepped forward, eyes on him.

For now, there is no battle between the light and darkness, there was no heartless, there were no keyblade wielders, there is only the two last Lucis standing before the other. The oldest one and the next generation of kings, dark red vs royal blue. Even within his pools of blue eyes, Ardyn didn't see hatred in them nor that arrogance his brother carried, instead he sees resolution, determination and even genuine sympathy.

It sickened him to his core, that this child would have the nerve to pity his ancestor for what his own did to him. 'I imagine you feel smug, knowing how your great ancestor built his kingdom upon lies and murder', Ardyn bragged. This didn't even make Noctis flinch, he just watched as his ancestor glared at him with hate. 'You lost everything, and were denied your place as king', Noctis says, almost with the wisdom of a king, 'I lost everything on that day when the empire took my home'.

He looked at the keyblade in his hand, then faced Ardyn. 'We both lost what mattered to us…but here's the difference between you and me'. Narrowed eyes, Noctis aimed his keyblade at him. 'You let that anger get the better of you. Everything you fought against you turned into, and now you brought the end of our world'. 'And I did it all in one day before supper', Ardyn bragged mockingly.

Noctis' glare darkened before he smugly added: 'But you also proved your brother was a better fit for the throne'. Now he had the full ire of the usurper, eyes burned with hatred and disgust, his armiger shifting from red to violet and dark. 'So, you're here for revenge then?', he questioned.

'For what you did to Bahamut and the Lucis? Nope', Noctis dismissed with a shake of his head, 'Far as I'm concerned, they had it coming. As did I to an extent I suppose…but'. Slowly his body glowed in that crystal light he had donned back in Altissia, with Riku the royal arm of his father begins to shine a beautiful blue light. 'I'm here for them…my friends, brothers, fiancé…', he lists, 'And bring back the light to this world'.

'But I won't do it alone…'.

The weapon of his father flies from Riku's belt and into the air, turning into the crystal-like others before it and finally, it dives to the king. Striking the king in the back and joining his armiger, all thirteen royal arms re-joined for their king, in doing so the light around Noctis glowed even more beautiful and majestic.

Aiming his keyblade at Ardyn and his legion of disgraced royalty, with his companions at his side. Quickly Noctis warped strikes to Ardyn with a yell, warping directly in front of him and swung his keyblade at him. Ardyn meets the holy weapon with his Sword of the Wise, together they warped into the air and dueled, leaving the phantoms to face the other world heroes.

Riku immediately rushed in first to take on the Conqueror, Brave Heart clashing with the gigantic axe while Ventus fought the Clever. The younger boy dodges and evades the Clever's bolts, flipping and rolling while occasionally parrying or deflecting them back at the phantom. The Clever hisses at the boy when he runs at him, keyblade being surrounded in wind. He flung the mystical weapon at the Clever, it spins around like a saw with wind.

The Clever shoots the weapon, the strength behind the attack was enough to disrupt the attack and send the keyblade skittering across the ground, but it didn't stop Ventus. The boy reaches the king and slides past it, skidding a few feet behind the king on the catwalk behind him. The king turned around to the wielder of the keyblade as it re-appears back in Ventus' hands. Ventus dashes again towards his enemy, his body glowing in a golden aura.

Ventus performed one of the oldest moves he knew that had been adopted by Sora, Ars Arcanum. He struck the Clever a total of thirteen times, striking and smashing the powerful adversary before sending him flying into the air. Spinning his keyblade in reverse, Ventus flies toward the Clever as he readjusted himself in the air and begins to fire a barrage of arrows at the boy. Ventus' body glows in a light greenish glow, and as the rain of arrows drew near to him, he vanishes.

The boy reappears past the barrage of arrows, moving faster than the Clever's eye could see as no matter where he'd fire the boy would vanish in seconds or be gone in a millisecond and then appear in two places at once. Only when the Clever looked up above him did he see his final sight would be Ventus bringing down the keyblade upon him, from head to waist. The boy flies past the Clever as its body evaporates into nothing.

The Rogue kicks Prompto aside before backflipping and throwing her star at him. The gunner quickly sits back up and clumsily swung his short blade at the star to deflect it. The attempt worked as the star bounces off the weapon but it, in turn, knocked the short blade from Prompto's hand. He got back to his feet as the Rogue rushes towards him, swinging the star at him as he just evades the lethal strikes and gets a few scrapes and nicks.

Outmatched by the power of Lucis, he should've been scared or be making more mistakes due to his clumsiness when he's in high stress. Yet Prompto didn't feel fear or anxiety to fight, rather he was seeing these as small set back and just him getting started. Prompto rolled underneath a swing of the star and rolled backward onto his feet, drawing out his Drillbreaker. He flicks a switch and spews forth a dense plume of smoke at the Rogue, completely evaporating her in white.

Next, he dismissed it and draws his pistol, along with a magic flask Noctis handed to him upon reuniting. The gunner tosses the flask above the smoke and shots it with the flawless aim of his. The bullet destroyed the flask and a cage of flames burst forth from above and falls to the smoke, burning the Rogue. The Lucis dashes out of the smoke, her clothing on fire but still she fought on against the gunner, now taking a quick aim and with a laugh, fired a single shot right into her stomach.

The attack staggered her, but not enough to take her out of the fight. Prompto steeled his heart, not afraid and ready to pay his dues. One glance to his king fighting for his life, and another to the girl who reminded him of the bonds that could never be broken, was enough for him to push his fear and doubts aside.

'I owe Noct and Kairi everything…', he says as she charges to him and raises her arm to make a swing. Instead, Prompto performs a backward roundhouse kick that knocks the weapon out her hand mid-swing. This wasn't the end, however, Prompto caught the weapon mid-air, turning around and jumped backward while he threw the weapon at her. The star spins around until it landed right into her chest, stabbing into her.

'…for standing by me always…', he continues. Staring down the Rogue, his determination shines through. 'And now…its my turn to stand by them!'. With his pistol drawn, Prompto spins and shoots the Rogue two times with powerful shots that not even the heartless shields could even hope to deflect back. Upon the third shot, the blond gunner of his majesty fires one more time to put an end to this relic.

Rogue staggers and stumbles, before she falls to her knees in defeat, but beneath her horned crown for a moment, Prompto saw in her eyes hope rejuvenated when she looked at him. She gives him a small respected smile before her body disappears along with her fallen comrades.

Riku's keyblade locks with the Conquers axe, both warriors staring down at each other. Riku's body glowing with his darkness as he pushes the warrior back and further away from Lunafreya and Sora's sleeping form. The giant throws him off his weapon and backhanded the boy hard enough to send him flying across the clearing. He falls on his back, grunting with pain just as the Conquer jumped and brought the axe down upon him.

'Riku!'.

Together, two of Sora's oldest companions jumped in front and combined their might to hold back the Conquer with a loud clang of weapons rumbling in the air. Despite the Lucis possessing greater size and strength over the two weaker members of the party, neither Goofy nor Donald budged an inch. Together they held him back to protect Sora's best friend, to his surprise and admiration. He then got to his feet and raises his keyblade. This prompts the two to yell and push the Conquer back enough, giving them space.

The Conquer staggered backward, but before he could retaliate and strike them, Goofy was already wailing on him with his shield, smacking him in the face and slammed the front body of his shield onto his chest, knocking him back. Donald aimed his staff and fired a powerful flare spell at it, the ray of flames was more than enough to push it back while nearly breaking through the incredibly powerful armor.

Donald stops his attack and with Goofy turned to Riku, keyblade now glowing in a dark light and slowly being extended via the light. With a nod, the master soars in the air with his keyblade. With a roar, Riku stabbed the Conquer in his chest, piercing all the way through and taking down another of the corrupted members of Ardyn's entourage. When the body stilled, it vanishes into nothingness, allowing Riku to breathe. He turns to Donald and Goofy, giving them a thumbs up.

They responded in kind, but then they turned behind them to see Lunafreya being attacked by the Fierce. Her barrier erected and repels the attacks but the strength behind the giant was too much for her to keep up forever, cracks begin to show in the dome. 'Luna!', the three of them cried out, running towards him. Riku was however intercepted by Wanderer, striking him and throwing him across the playing field while Donald and Goofy were attacked by the Wise.

As the Fierce breaks through Lunafreya's shield, the Oracle stumbles backward before she summoned her trident and stands protectively in front of Sora's sleeping form. The giant raises his mace again despite the woman before him, yet Lunafreya wouldn't budge nor cast her eyes aside in fear. A roar boomed from above, and next thing Lunafreya saw as Gladiolus slamming the masamune down upon the Fierce, his strike so strong it knocks back even a massive giant as the Fierce.

It dug its armored heels into the ground, staring at Gladiolus as the shield of the king stands in front of his king's fiancé. 'Are we late?', he asked, panting. Just when Lunafreya was about to ask, another voice called out to Ventus. The boy just avoids being chopped in half by the Mystic, now being contended with Kairi, he turned to see Aqua and Mickey leaping down from above and joining the fray. His eyes and smile widen with joy at the sight of his best friend, quickly running to her.

'Aqua! You're here!', he exclaims with joy, hugging her. Aqua, in turn, smiles back warmly and holds him close. They break their hug, the boy's eyes widened at her scar and new looks, but before he could ask, she gestures the battle ahead of them. 'Questions are for later, Ven, our friends need us', she instructed, summoning her keyblade. Ventus nods, and together the two apprentices of the Eraqus race towards their foes.

Before the Wise could strike down Donald and Goofy, Mickey leaped at him and struck his sword with his keyblade. Despite his much smaller size compared to the human-sized warrior, Mickey easily repels the attack and even forces the warrior to float back from the king. Now on his feet and staring down this man who would dare lay a hand his loyalist and oldest friends, Mickey readies to put an end. Donald and Goofy looked in awe and joy of their king, before nodding and getting to their feet, reinvigorated to join him.

'Good to have ya, fellas!', Mickey praised. Together the three charges to the Wise.

Gladiolus' masamune meets with the Fierce's mace, both equal in strength and speed as each strike was like two giants swinging pillars of steel at one another. Gladiolus blocks an overhead attack from the giant, not even buckling his knees or pushed back as he holds his blade up to hold against the giant. It was strange to fight like this, despite this is one of the Lucis bloodlines more powerful kings, a just and kind to his people but a complete daemon to his enemies.

If the shield of the king had the nerve to fight him back then, he would've been killed at the very first strike, shield be damned. Here now, however, Gladiolus wasn't afraid nor even worried. All he had to do is think of how far he, his king, and the others had come so far on this journey, more powerful but wiser than ever. Now, it wasn't just a king he had sworn to protect at all costs, a certain blue head had claimed his heart and that, combined with his oath to Noctis, is all the strength he needed to win this fight.

Gladiolus pushes back the old king enough to call upon his shield. The Fierce then brings down his mace on the chosen shield of the king, Gladiolus blocked it over his head. 'I served as your shield through thick and thin.', he says, reminding himself. He overpowers the might of the Fierce and throws his mace off himself with such inhuman power, even the Fierce was staggering backward like a novice trannie having be had his backside handed to him. A feat none had ever performed onto him.

The time to revel in victory was not now however, Gladiolus dismissed his shield and held his masamune over his head with both hands grasping the handle. The sword glows with the light from Noctis' armiger as the ground shakes beneath Gladiolus feet, body shook with power. 'No matter what, I've got your backs, now and always!'. With speed he had never known to possess, Gladiolus sped right past the Fierce with one stroke of his sword, the sounds of steel crushing steel rumbled in the area.

The Fierce had fallen to the shield of the Chosen King, slowly falling to his knees in defeat yet Gladiolus heard a single utter from the fallen knight. "Well done…".

Aqua deflects a strike from the Just and his gigantic shield, cartwheeling away from the tower of a weapon. Ventus jumps at him with a yell, bringing down his keyblade but the boy was caught by the giant. He struggles to break free as Aqua fired magic at the head of the Just, but she might as well have thrown dust at her for all the damage she dealt. The Just then throws Ventus into Aqua, knocking them both onto the ground.

The master grunts in annoyance as Ventus rolls off her and together they stand back up. Just merely cracks her shoulders, unamused by their resilience to her strength. 'She's so strong…', Ventus laments, frowning. Aqua, however, stands firm. 'You're going to give up now?', she teases, 'What about that promise you made?'. Ventus looks at her with a look of surprise, he saw her smile at him before she turned onto the Lucis member.

Aqua dashes forth, shifting her keyblade into the wakizashi and shurikens before she vanished into the air. The Just looked around for her, but it was too late for her because Aqua appears behind her and throws her shurikens into her spine. Though she didn't pierce far enough for bones to be broken, it was enough to wound the tall warrior. Just swung around her shield in a complete circle to try and smash Aqua, the master jumping into the air while Ventus takes advantage of there no longer being a wall to keep his foe safe.

The younger wielder of the keyblade dashes while striking the waist of the Just while above Aqua slashes at her shoulders. Together the two repeated their tactic of striking the taller warrior whenever she tries to defend herself from them but their speed and coordination proved to be her match. Aqua was in the air as she channels her magic into her throwing weapons and imbeds them with ice. 'Ven!', she said, tossing the shurikens at the tall warrior.

The shurikens struck her leg, her stomach, and her right shoulder, exploding and covering them in dense frost. This gave Ventus the chance to use his command style, Wingblade. With his body glowing in a bright blue aura, six swords of light hover around the boy in a wing-style formation. Lifting his keyblade for a second to swing back down, Ventus charges forth and with his swords following his strikes, begins to tear into the Just.

Slashes after slashes of light striking at the darkened adversary, Ventus breaks through the armor that protected the corrupted member of Noctis' family line, evaporating the dark with each strike until he performs the final attack. Throwing the swords into the ground, creating a circular magic emblem made of light. Ventus then lands in the center of the swords as a brilliant shockwave of light, enveloping the warrior of the Lucis bloodline and vanquishing her and allowing this old warrior to fall into a long-awaited slumber.

The two guardians of light gave each other a grin before they raced off to aid their companions.

Dueling the Mystic alone, Kairi fends off the possibly most powerful member of the royal family line. Somnus' armor if she recalled correctly, the younger brother of Ardyn and in some ways, the bringer of destruction to his world. Kairi parries one of his strikes as they battled on the catwalk above the others, deflecting and striking whenever she got the chance.

The Mystic's sword swings upwards and nearly splits Kairi's head from jaw to forehead had she not lean back far enough to avoid the strike. Though the tip of the blade did manage to break a part of her visor to leave a crack. Kairi jumps back and shakes her head, seeing her vision was now marred by a web of cracks, forcing her to remove her helmet and dismiss it with the hope it'll repair itself in the pocket dimension like her clothes do.

The Mystic wasn't done with her, he fired three ghostly red apparitions of his sword at her, catching her off guard as she clumsily parried and deflected them from her. Kairi had almost no time to raise her keyblade to protect her from the real sword being brought down onto her. Their blades clashed with sparks flying around them, even making the support beams holding the catwalks groan with stretches and bending the metals. Kairi grunts and pushes the Mystic off herself while swinging the keyblade at him.

But in doing so, the Mystic raised his hand and suddenly a ghostly form of his corrupted hand appears and grabbed the armored princess tightly. Kairi was tightly clutched by this, unable to mover her arms. Before she could cast a spell, darkness wrapped around her mouth, silencing her and stopping any further attempts to resist. The Mystic raised his corrupted blade and placed it near her neck, ready to perform a perfect beheading of a royal blood.

'GET AWAY FROM HER!'.

A ring of flames struck the Mystic right in the side of his head, disrupting his concentration and relinquishing his hold on Kairi and her mouth. Not wasting a chance for retribution, Kairi grabbed her keyblade and slammed it into the waist of the Mystic and throw him off the catwalk and onto the clearing with the others. Kairi looks to see joining the fray is none other than Ignis and Axel at long last, the latter with only one chakram in hand before it reappeared in his hand.

He was looking at Kairi with a two-finger salute and smirk, before gesturing Ignis and the Mystic. 'I'll deal with the wannabe knight, you check on your "friend",', he teases. 'Boyfriend now, actually!', Kairi repeats with glee for the reveal and the sight of her friend. Axel's brows shoot up with surprise, while Ventus yelled out: 'Wait, they're dating now?'.

'Yeah, about time!', Axel called back as he joined Ignis' side. Kairi looks at Lunafreya still attending to Sora, before she leaped over to her and joins her side.

The Mystic turns onto Axel and Ignis, weapons drawn and stood before it. Without another word, the Mystic dashes to them and swings his great blade, but Axel counters his strike with his blazing chakrams, throwing both at him. The Mystic quickly deflects the weapons easily, in doing so he gives Ignis a chance to strike at him.

The man had already set his daggers into a more powerful flame than he'd ever perform before, even with the darkness it shined like a beacon in the sea of shadows. Ignis rushes in quickly and plunges both daggers into the Mystic's stomach, and as he flipped back there was a massive dense burst of flames from the warrior. The Mystic growls in pain as the flames danced on his armor before he stabbed his sword into the ground before him and with a powerful gust of wind the flames were blown away.

Ignis summons his daggers again just as the sword of the Mystic glows in an ominous light, slowly expanding in length and mass until it looked like one of Gladiolus' older swords. Easily the Lucis swung it with a single arm at the two. Axel ducks under the attack as Ignis flips over it, landing on his feet before the Mystic warped to the dark user and tried to go for his neck. He was struck on the back by Axel's chakram, splitting some of his armor open and as the pyro dances around him to create space, Ignis used this opportunity to aim his palm at the helm of the Mystic.

He blasts a firaga at point-blank between them which throws the user back from the force and onto his side. Getting back to his feet, Ignis stares in annoyance and astonishment at the Mystic, though harmed, was still standing and likely ready for more. 'Blast it…what will it take to bring you down…?', Ignis asked as Axel joined his side. The red-haired man smirked in response to the question not directed at him.

'Keep hitting him until he stops moving, I guess…', he joked. 'I fear he's going to employ that tactic against us, and likely follow through with it…', Ignis responded. He rubbed his chin, before snapping his fingers, a new plan. 'I've got an idea, do you have a keyblade by chance?', he asked. Axel's smirk widens as he shifts his chakrams back into his keyblade, Flame Liberator. 'What'cha got in mind?', he says, staring down the Mystic.

'Everything we got', Ignis replied.

Together, with their weapons blazing wildly, they rush in toward the Mystic as he swings at them. Ignis skids around him as Axel meets his mystical blade with his keyblade, blocking his attack. This allows Ignis to leap onto his back and plunge both daggers into the shoulders of the ancestor. The warrior attempts to throw Ignis off him, but that was when Axel swung with all his strength to strike the weapon right out of his hands and into the air.

Ignis jumped off the Mystic with his daggers still stabbed into him, drawing his spear and encasing it with darkness as Axel's keyblade is spun around in his hand until it creates a wheel of flames. With a yell, Axel swung the weapon at the Mystic, the ring flying off his weapon and over the head of the Mystic before it entrapped him in a ring of fire. 'Ignis, all yours!', Axel called out. 'Roger!', calls back Ignis, pushing his glasses up and grabbed his spear.

He leaped into the air as the darkness ejected him higher than he hand ever performed, flipping until his spear was below him with both feet pressing down on the hilt of the weapon as he dropped like a boulder onto the knight. The spear is plunged into the Mystic's chest through until the entire blade of the weapon sinks into the ground with the body of the Mystic firmly planted. A wave of darkness washes over, unharming Axel and dousing the flames surrounding the Mystic.

Panting from the use of the dark power, Ignis gets off the defeated Mystic and is helped standing up by Axel, grinning at him. The Mystic's body slowly disappears into the shadows like his brethren, not before however it leaves one message for Ignis within his mind.

"Undo…my greatest failure…".

Together with his friends for the first time in what felt like forever, Mickey flips and hops over every strike the Wise performs, desperate to rid the world of the small keyblade master. But whenever he had an opening, the king's loyal shield would be there to deflect and protect him or that mage would blast him with magic or heal his companions.

Goofy uppercuts the knight with his shield, throwing the weapon aside when it in the middle of a swing, allowing Donald to shoot a ball of light magic at the chest and strike it with enough power to crack the chest plate open. The chance at hand, Mickey soars at him and strikes the Wise with several light-infused strikes that expelled the darkness within in the knight, breaking the armor until with one final stab of the keyblade the Wise perishes under the barrage of the combined might of the trio.

As the party gathered around, wounded and weary, they looked to the air and see Noctis battling Ardyn with the fury of a storm. The king of light struck at the man while they were almost flying in the air, his keyblade glowing in the Lucis blue light against the darkened red light of Ardyn. Ardyn's vast arsenal of weapons should have made him an equal match against Noctis, but with the keyblade and rejuvenated king, not even the royal arms of old could match the king's might.

With a strike of Night's Sky, Noctis' attack was enough to throw Ardyn through a catwalk and into a wall with a force that nearly broke the entire structure. The king stood on an unbroken catwalk and faced his ancestor, panting. The man before him raised his face to meet him, blood trickling down from his lip with his face contorted into pain for the first since Noctis had met him. A twisted side of Noctis took pleasure in that, about time this man felt what he's been causing onto others.

Ardyn barked laughter, as mad as he. 'Impressive, "King" Noctis…', he praised, mockingly, 'I thought without your precious crystal, you'd be no more than a bark pup!'. Noctis glowered at this man, and said: 'Laugh while you can, you son of a bitch!'. He grabbed his keyblade and aimed it back at him. 'This is where it ends!'.

Noctis warp strikes towards Ardyn, keyblade in hand. It was here, he could finally make this man pay for everything he's done to his friends, his home, his world.

Unfortunately, not yet.

Another member of the Phantoms appeared before Noctis to guard for his master, a sword lifted to block the keyblade. In the air, as the sparks from their weapons boomed, Noctis could only stare in horror at who would dare protect the Usurper after all he had wrought. The final phantom…the Father.

Noctis' Father.

Wielding the darkened version of his sword in his armor while hovering in the air, standing between his master and his son. The strength that Noctis had gained all disappeared and was replaced by despair at this turn of events. 'Dad…', he gasped. The Father says nothing, throws the weapon of his enemy off himself and without any hesitance or mercy, struck Noctis. The king gasped in horror as he feels the blade slice from his right shoulder to his left hip, throwing him back across the field and back to the others.

He crashes onto the wall over Lunafreya and the others, bounced off it and fell to the ground with a thud. His friends cried his name in horror mixed with fury, all eyes turned to Ardyn as he warps back to the party, rubbing his jaw. The Father standing by his side like a dutiful shield as the party raised their weapons, some standing front of Lunafreya for her safety. Ardyn chuckled as he takes in the numbers of heroes that had arrived at this world.

'What an astounding amount of guests we have here today!', he says, 'More keyblade wielders, a former member of Xiggy's group? And lo and behold, another one of Terra's "friends". The royal retinue drew their weapons and glared heatedly at the man as the warriors of light stood ready for him. Yet despite being outnumbered and even daring to say outmatched by some, Ardyn feels no fear or even hesitance. Instead, he was given an opportunity.

'Are all of you here to rescue the puppet? I hate to inform all of you that dear Sora's heart had been destroyed', he says with casual disinterest. Riku snarls at him as the others unaware looked horrified, but none more so then Kairi. She turned to Sora, realizing he hadn't so much as breathed since they rescued him. 'No…that's, that's not possible…', she gasped, trying to sense his light.

Nothing.

Not light nor darkness, she feels nothing but a hollowness within the boy. 'Sora…', she whispers, her strength seemingly evaporating as the others felt the pain tear into their hearts. Ardyn just laughs on, taking their misery like it was the sweetest bit of revenge he could ever have. 'All your struggles, all the pain you've endured, all for nothing but disappointing results', he mocks. 'What now I wonder? I hope you have eyes on someone else, princess'.

'Shut up!', Riku roars, charging towards him.

Instantly, the Father intervenes and strikes back at the boy, who just narrowly blocked the attack but was thrown off his feet. A yell tipped off the warrior and the Father turns to block Donald and Goofy's joint attack, easily using his free hand to backhand them and throw them aside like they were nothing.

The Father looked up to see Ventus jumping towards him and bringing down his keyblade with a cry of fury. The Father raises his hand, creating a silver barrier that upon Ventus striking it, reflected his attack and throws the boy up into the air with a loud *shing* sound. The four of them were defeated and being too weary to continue, leaving only the others to battle. Unamused by this vain attempt to rebel against the fate in store for them, Ardyn sighs.

'An unfortunate turn of events and you're all suddenly as useful as an empty bottle of water in the middle of a desert', he chastises like a disappointed uncle. 'Ah well…normally I'm not meant to "accidentally" extinguish the light of those for that Keyblade War…but if dear Noctis can become one, I'm sure they'll find more'. Ardyn clicks his fingers, immediately a swarm of heartless and daemons manifest around him and the entire room itself.

'It's been fun, guardians of light…but all the fun has to end sometime', he grinned. The monsters begin to attack the party, going for the downed ones first. Aqua instantly jumps to protect Ventus while Mickey guards for Donald and Goofy, leaving Axel to save Riku.

Kairi stands as the heartless surrounded her, head downcast in despair and defeat. She came this far for him, survived all sorts of hell for him, and gained so much strength to save him. What good was all that now without his heart? As the darkness begins to pool around her, almost accepting defeat to spare herself from this pain, to at least be with him again in the next world…until she grabbed her keyblade tightly and exclaims: 'FAITH!'.

Six pillars of light surrounds her, spinning quickly and evaporating the dark inhabits around her. This gains Ardyn's attention, surprised by all the ones who still had that will to fight on was her. With eyes burning with a fire that was cared for and nurtured by her journey, she gets into her stance and charges into the fight once more.

"Sora…I know you're not gone…I can feel you", she thinks as she strikes down a yojimbo, "You're here, we're all here to bring you home". As Kairi strikes down more and more creatures of the darkness, she makes one final prayer for her heart's strength. "Please, come back to us".

Noctis gritted his teeth as he pushes himself to crawl to Sora, Lunafreya being protected by Ignis with Prompto as Gladiolus is in the thick of the fight. The pain was so agonizing but he needed to keep pushing. They needed them, but more importantly, they needed Sora. True the words Ardyn spat played on his doubts, and for all, he knew that was nothing more than an empty shell of the friend who had become important to Noctis.

However, if there was anything he had learned since they joined up, its that the light always has a trick up the sleeve.

Reaching Sora, he draws his keyblade and helped place it in Sora's hand. 'Hey, buddy…', he grunts out, 'Really hate to do this…as a guy who adores sleeping for as long as he can…', he chuckles weakly as his vision goes fuzzy with blood loss. 'But…we, we could use your help right now…'.

He placed his hand over Sora's clasped on the keyblade. 'Come on buddy…', pleads the king…

*Station of Awakening*

In her embrace against the darkness, Sora hears them…

The voices of people who had left a print on his heart, the voices of those who had been with him for so long they would forever be apart of him. He feels something stir within him as he feels his limbs move and fidget, the strokes of his head from her.

'They're calling for you', she says, 'Your friends'. Sora gently raises his head to face her for the first time, but she was obscured by the light. He saw her smiling, a smile that was laced with pain and isolation. 'Its time to go back to them, Sora', she says warmly. She helps him to his feet, slowly his strength is coming back to him as his eyes get their color back. The pathway where Roxas walked slowly appears as before when they approached the ledge.

She gently pushed him onto the stairs, like a sister encouraging her nervous brother. 'Go, be with those you hold dear to your heart', she encouraged. Sora looks at her before he asked: 'Who are you?'. Gently she leans into his ear and whispers the name before the station behind him slowly fades into light as she disappears with it. Sora stares at the vacant space, then slowly walks up the stairs to where he is supposed to be.

Every step he took filled him with strength and courage he had lost, every step he felt company. As he looked to his sides, the two companions who had been with him from the beginning followed him by his side, ghostly crystal forms. He felt a surge of confidence whenever his best friend smirked at him like he had total faith in his skill. Behind him he saw the master and her long-time friend trailing close by, both smiling warmly at him.

The master's eyes shined with pride, proud of him, the other's eyes were warm and cheerful. A gentle pat on the back prompts him to look and see the smirk of the pyro, once an enemy now a friend who bears similar traits as he does. And then to his lower left, he saw the king of his companion, always cheerful and hopeful.

He feels the presence of three more people who even for a short time he has known them. The shield of a king, always protecting them no matter what, the advisor of the king, always has wisdom to spare and is one of the kindest souls he's ever met. The friend of the king, a person who desired friends, and is the first to perk everyone up to keep going. Strength of those he held dear to him, the people he is willing to face the worst of the darkness to save, the power he gleaned from them puts any keyblade to shame.

Atop of the Station of Awakening, he sees the king smiling at him with confidence radiating from his stance, and on his left, he sees her, the princess of his heart. That wonderful smile that could take his breath away and her warmth rivaling the sun. Everyone was here with him, pushing him to come back home where he belonged. Stepping onto the broken fractures of his heart, Roxas still holding the chains to keep him together with a grin.

Slowly he stepped on, walking towards Roxas as he sees the islands coming together. 'You ready to go?', he asked. Sora placed a hand over his heart, frowning with worry. He turned to his friends, each of them watching him with smiles and hope. Looking down at his heart's broken land, feeling everyone's light, he faced Roxas and smiled. 'Yeah…', he says, confidently. With a returning nod of his own, Roxas holds out the black keyblade for him to take. Sora grasped the weapon, their light shining brilliantly and engulfing the floor beneath their feet.

Slowly the station is put together as light covered it, the friends that helped put him together turn into light and when it was finished, Sora sees the station restored. The mural shows him standing before what looked to be the door to light, keyblade placed in front of him. The combination of dusk and dawn, night and day in an x formation over the door with circles holding those precious to his heart around his body. Donald, Goofy, Riku, Aqua, Ventus and Axel with a seventh shaped like a heart showing Kairi.

The colors were a perfect blend of red, golden red and blue.

He feels himself leaving the ground as the world grew brighter around him, the dark keyblade still in his hand. He sees Roxas standing there watching him ascend, a promise between them made as the boy of light returns.

'See you soon…Sora', Roxas says before he returns to his slumber…

*Eos*

Noctis grits his teeth in pain, watching his friends being overwhelmed by the monsters and the Father taking on Kairi. The girl parried and evaded his attacks but landed none of her own. Kairi was pushed back by another strike from his father, her heels digging into the ground. She fell to one knee in pain, tired and wounded, but she still faced him with fire in her eyes.

Ardyn mere watched the battle unfold, or rather slowly conclude as the warriors were being overwhelmed one by one. He gave Noctis a victorious smug look as the Father approached Kairi, blade lower and gently pressed the tip beneath her chin. The king growls, but his wound was too grievous to join the fight, and his heart screamed for him to call Sora more. 'It seems you're at the end of the line, "King" Noctis', Ardyn bragged.

He turns his smug look into a sinister grin, before saying: 'Let the princess, be the first to enter the never-ending sleep'. The Father raised his sword…

The sound a sword swiping the field rings out, loud and clear like a crystal. The Father's blade drops to the floor beside Kairi, prompting her to look at the Father in confusion before he fell to his knees, his body disappearing into nothing. Her eyes went wide with surprise when sees before her, two keyblades in his hands, standing tall and glowing like a beacon of hope, is Sora. One keyblade was Night's Sky, while the other was Oblivion.

Ardyn snarled and glared at the boy, shocked that he was suddenly back to his feet and sensed something had changed about him. Sora spins his keyblades in his hands before he holds them over his head in an X formation and cried out: 'Light!'.

The two keyblades fired what seemed like an unlimited amount of blue-whitish rays of light from them, striking at every dark creature like they were trapped in a storm of arrows. The heartless and daemons were skewered into nothing, while the light struck his friends, not harming them but healing them. One ray hit Noctis and he felt his skin repair itself, now only remaining was nothing but a scar from his Father.

The room was free of heartless and daemons, the light faded from Sora's body as he lowered his keyblades. He turned to face Kairi and there is was that beautiful smile that helped her through the darkest times, the smile she wanted to see again after what felt like an eternity apart from him. 'Thanks, for bringing me home', he said with a smile. Kairi allowed her tears to run down her cheeks, not pain nor sadness, but utter joy.

Slowly the others took in the scene before them, their long-time friend had returned from the brink. 'SORA!', Donald and Goofy cheered as Aqua chuckles happily, her own eyes shimmering with joy. Then the boy turned to his majesty as he approached him, smiling at the chosen wielder of the keyblade. Surprisingly to everyone, Sora turned, dismissed Oblivion and held Night's Sky before Noctis.

'Your Majesty', he said with a grin. Noctis smirks at this sudden courtesy, taking the key from this boy and placing a hand on his shoulder. 'Welcome back, Sora'. They both turned to Ardyn, his body now emitting a dark aura as the two warriors called their keyblades. 'Looks like the game is still going on', Ardyn growled, the blight beginning to show on his face. He became more daemonic and grotesque. His sclera turn black, his irises and pupils turn gold while appearing clouded, his skin becomes paler, and black markings appear across his face.

'Wrong', Noctis corrects as both he and Sora glowed in the light of Lucis line, 'Now, they END!'. Together like arrows of light, Sora and Noctis launched themselves at Ardyn. The Usurper blocked their attack with a combination of armiger, but that did nothing to halt their momentum as they rocketed the three of them upwards to the ceiling. Smashing through the ceilings, they break away until the returned to the surface, now a raging storm of lighting and thunders with rain booming as their battlefield.

In the skies, Ardyn throws both warriors off himself with a cry of hate, using his armiger to keep himself as Noctis and Sora fall. Until Noctis cried out: 'POWER OF LIGHT!'. All his royal arms swirled around him and a surge of power he had felt before only when he fought Leviathan rush through his body. He flies towards Ardyn while Sora called upon Oblivion to give him power.

In the sky, Noctis fires two of his royal arms at Ardyn, the Sword of the Tall and Shield of the Just. Ardyn meets these weapons with his mimics, both exploding in a fiery blue and red smoke upon colliding with each other. Both members of the Lucis line clashed in the smoke, Night's Sky meeting with Ardyn's Rakshasa, immediately clearing the smoke of their attacks while booming loudly like thunder.

They both warped all over the air, striking each other at every point they appeared, and each strike echoed so loudly all of Eos could hear the strikes. Ardyn brings down his blade onto Noctis' keyblade, enough strength to send the king falling back down to the ground. As Ardyn charged down to meet the king, he was intercepted by another weapon of light. Only a millisecond to protect his mortal form, Ardyn raised his mimic Blade of the Warrior to match Sora.

Sora's strike was far greater then Ardyn had ever dared to think, he was sent across the capital like a ball smacked by a baseball wielded by Titan. He smashed through a radio tower before crashing onto the rooftop of a six floored building he knew nothing off. Sora flipped and landed on the rooftop, in a new form that only furthered the hatred Ardyn was slowly starting to have for the boy.

Crownsguard Form.

In this form Sora wears a black vest with skull patterns around it with a black crown around his neck, a long black and red trench coat that reached behind his knees, the sleeves coated in red lines that connected to his back to form a red skull. His pants were baggy with a black belt around his waist, pouches that resembled his second adventure clothes, his boots were smaller than his usual, but they were combat boots.

Oblivion appeared in his hand, he takes up his stance and charges at the man of no consequences. Ardyn throws his armiger at the boy, only for Sora to either deflect them or flip around the weapons, air dashing at the man. He slams the blade of Oblivion onto his side before striking him at several parts of his body before Sora strikes him hard enough to send him flying into a small wall. When Ardyn bounced off it, cracking the wall and making it collapse, he faced the boy.

'That…was for Kairi', Sora said.

Ardyn smirked at him before his eyes glowed with darkness. He vanishes on the spot and reappeared behind Sora, Mace of the Fierce being swung over his shoulder. Suddenly Noctis reappeared in front of Ardyn and blocked the mace from crushing Sora. The force behind the mace cracked and decimated the floor beneath the trio, and then it collapsed beneath their feet. As they all fell through the crumbling floors, they all clashed with Ardyn's horde of weapons fighting against the two keyblades.

When they reached the last floor, Ardyn fires a wave of darkness that tossed the two outside the building through the glass walls and onto the streets of Gralea. The two skidded on the ground before rolling to their feet, Noctis firing more of his armiger at the inside of the building with Sora aimed his keyblade and performed Ragnarök, firing golden-red lasers into the building. Their combined attack destroyed the building with an explosion of golden red and blue reach over ten feet.

Within the fires, they see Ardyn was being protected by his armiger, although they saw he is wounded from their joint attack. The Usurper dashed at them, grabbed Sora by the neck and threw him into another building, then turned back to Noctis. The king performed a quick draw using Blade of the Warrior, slashing at Ardyn's torso. The attack was enough to knock back the monster only two feet from Noctis, but the king was relentless with his strikes.

He swung the blade like a wild man but with the precision of a seasoned master of the blade, hitting everywhere while simultaneously struck at Ardyn. The armiger of the Usurper kept him safe for the most part but Noctis' tenacity is something even the chancellor had to admit was impressive. He draws his Shield of the Just to finally repel Noctis' attack, throwing the king off guard and he summoned his Trident of the Oracle and lunged forth.

'STOP!'.

Ardyn's body froze with time, giving Noctis a chance to jump away from him and drop a magic flask in his steed. Less then five seconds later time resumes normally and Ardyn's foot lands on the flask, detonating it in an explosion of lighting that gave some life to the street lights for a moment. Ardyn is thrown into the air thanks to it and landed on his back with a thud. He snarls in fury as Noctis warped above him, his spear in hand. He tried to stab the man with it, only for Ardyn to warp away from the king.

Noctis was then grabbed by Ardyn, clutching his neck in a death grip. Together Ardyn ascended to the skies with his prey, chased closely by Sora from below. Ardyn uses his free hand to fire his armiger at Sora, but too add further fuel of hate for the boy, Sora warps around the weapons, much like Noctis and even himself. Except his light was closer to silver than blue or red. He even used the pommel of the Sword of the Tall as a steppingstone to leap off it and launch himself higher to Ardyn.

Sora was now on the same level as Ardyn, keyblade drawn and he brings it down upon Ardyn. The blight infested man raised his glowing hand to catch the weapon, in doing so Noctis called on the Sword of the Wise and tried to stab at Ardyn. Ardyn simply warps away from the two, a few feet before them in the air. He crosses his arms, his armiger appeared behind him as they start to take on more of the blight than the normal red color.

Slowly the dark clouds around the three begin to swirl and twist as lightning flashes faster and thunder booming louder as if it boomed in their ears. Dark lightning surges around Ardyn's body, his eyes glowing with darkness. Noctis and Sora quickly rush to him to stop whatever plans he had for them, but the lighting around him shocks them both so bad they were thrown back to the streets.

They land on their feet as Ardyn lowers himself, slowly the armiger begins to grow in numbers, now coated in dark violet crystal than his red. Soon the entire sky was full of the Usurper's armiger, like a horrible rainstorm about to be unleashed upon the world. As Ardyn laughs madly at this, Noctis looked at Sora and their keyblades, before he offered his hand to him.

'You with me?', he asked.

With a grin, Sora grabbed his hand. 'Ready whenever you are!'.

Ardyn unleashes his storm of weapons upon them just as a burst of the Lucis light surrounded the two, white crystals fluttering around them.

'Noctis!'.

'You're going down!'.

Together both warriors were shining with the power of the armiger, unleashed at its full potential. As the royal arms swirl around Noctis, Sora was surrounded by keyblades he's obtained throughout his adventure, glowing in a golden red. Together they grabbed first weapons, Kingdom Key and engine blade, their light covering them until they were ten feet long blades of light. At the same time, the performed over the shoulder swings of their blades, slamming them into the ground.

The strike was so powerful the gust of wind they created was enough to scatter Ardyn's weapons like they were falling leaves. As more of Ardyn's weapons flew towards them, Noctis and Sora aimed their hands together at once, eight weapons from their arsenals rotates around their arms. Forming a large beam of golden red and blue, before the weapons flew forth like missiles towards Ardyn while destroying the other weapons.

This forced Ardyn to call back some of the weapons to protect himself by having dozens in lines of two wrap around him like a protective shield, protecting him but not making him entirely safe from their attack.

Back to back as all their weapons appeared around them, eyes glowing with their colors, the wielders of the keyblade stare down Ardyn's storm of weapons. With Oblivion in Sora's hand and Night's Sky in Noctis' grip, they nodded.

'Let's go!', cried Sora.

'This ends now!', Noctis stated.

They both warped as their entire arsenal flies at Ardyn. The man had no chance to move so he used more of his blighted armiger to shield himself from the weapons, but he turned aghast when Sora and Noctis both appeared before him and together struck him with downward slashes of their weapons. With yells, Sora and Noctis had their entire armory of weapons fly around them as they began to destroy Ardyn's storm of weapons.

They keep disappearing and reappearing, striking all the weapons while grasping their arsenals with their free hands, combing dual-wielding with the power the two of them possessed. Soon the skies were clear of Ardyn's weapons, even his link of weapons that shields him had been destroyed. Sora and Noctis reappeared above the man, aimed their weapons at the Usurper and the rest of their arms charged forth and struck him with explosions of blue and golden red.

Together, the two wielders appeared and dropped down with their weapons, hitting Ardyn at the same time and creating an explosion of the same colors that burned so bright for a moment the light had been brought back to the world. As Ardyn was floated in the air weakly, barely holding, but the two were far from finished with this.

They both reappeared back on the ground, panting from exertion and the power they used. Noctis' engine blade begins to glow in a light Sora hadn't seen for a very long time. The weapon levitates in the air and fires off a single beam behind Ardyn, and there it was.

Eos' Keyhole.

Together the two wielders of the keyblades grasped their weapons with both hands and aimed them, Sora's crown appearing beneath their feet. Blue light circles the tips of their keys, before condensing into beams that flew towards Ardyn before melding into one powerful blue beam. The beam pierces through the Usurper, making him gasp in shock of pain as they struck the keyhole.

Instead of simply locking it like always, the keyhole created a vacuum of air as the beams dissipated, and next thing they could see, they saw the blight was being extracted from Ardyn's body. The man screams in sheer pain as his power was stripped from him and absorbed by the keyhole.

When it was over, Ardyn's body falls as the keyhole creates a loud "click" noise that shook the world, before it disappears in light.

The two wielders pants together, weapons disappearing as they finally fall to their knees, and then slumped onto the ground…

*Elsewhere*

'This way!', Aqua yelled, quickly chasing Kairi as the girl was practically flying up the stairs to reach the outside. The party climbed the stairs and reached the highway once more, taking in the destruction the three had caused as the rain begins to wither away. Then, Lunafreya lets a gasp escape her as she looked to the mountains.

They follow her gaze to see the sun slowly arisen from below and bath the world in its light once more…

A/N:

Q1: How did you find these chapters?

Q2: What did you think of the fight?

Q3: Thoughts on Sora's new form?

Q4: Sora and Noctis' limit break?

Q5: Did like having everyone fighting together?

Q6: Excited for KH stuff?

Q7: What are hoping to see next time?

Q8: Thoughts on how Sora was brought back?

Q9: The final fight with Ardyn?

I wasn't expecting to get another chapter out, especially ones that long for New Years, but I thought it'd be one last gift for 2019, especially since this is officially the longest story I've written for this site. As always everyone, thanks for supporting this story for nearly a year now.

Stay awesome but most importantly, stay safe and HAPPY 2020!


	52. Chapter 52

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 52

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

Dawn had broken before them, bathing the destroyed city of the Niflhiem empire in the light the world was deprived of, most the daemons that had owned this city once had all perished under the sunlight and the ones strong enough to resist were put to the sword by the warriors of light.

Not even a minute later after seeing the world's light had been restored they all ran into the city to find the king and hero, splitting into groups while Ventus took to the skies with his armour and glider to cover more ground. Some had to remain behind to heal up, mostly the ones who used exhausting magic or took more hits than they had thought. Traversing one of the now empty streets of the capital, Kairi was running through the empty roads as quick as her aching legs could.

Panting with her helmet still in their pocket dimension, her hair sticking to her forehead with sweat as her eyes scoured the land before her using the destruction as landmarks and hints to where and how far the battle was. She jogged through the streets looking for them, despite how the armour was significantly heavier than it was prior to the battle and her limbs pleaded for a respite from strenuous activities, but no. She refused to rest.

Not until she was back in his arms again.

The party that were currently being tended to by Lunafreya and Donald had promised the moment they didn't feel like their limbs would snap like chopsticks if they so much as took a step, they'd join the search immediately. Though Kairi knew deep down they could have all their legs broken and crawl their way through the city for them.

The downside to this splitting up plan was she was still devoid of her GP, which she had lost back on the train and had to rely on her hearing (and the powerful vocal cords of yelling that Donald possessed) if the others had found them. If she had more energy and strength she would have joined Ventus in the skies with her own glider but given how weary her body is and with only her will persisting her to keep going, the last thing she needed was to crash into a building.

The light had done a good job keeping the daemons at bay and there is no trace of the heartless around them, likely because of the keyholes light residue or something close to that coating the world. Even though the darkness would still be a looming threat she knew at least daemons were no longer an issue in the day times.

Standing in the street, panting still while feverishly looking around for them. Gently she places a hand on her heart and closes her eyes while exhaling. 'Sora…', she says softly. It is there she feels something, like a gentle beacon to her for the moment she opened her eyes, she sprints forth and makes a turn around a collapsed building that takes her to another street.

Before she saw more ruined and demolished buildings before her, the road was broken and split like something dragged an anchor through the tar and rock. Yet in the road she sees them, Sora and Noctis on the ground unmoving.

'SORA! NOCT!', Kairi cried out, rushing to them.

Upon reaching them, she called for Dearly Beloved and aimed it to the skies, firing off the last bit of her magic to make a signal flare of sorts to the others. After that, she knelt to Sora and helped rest him against her while holding him up. Kairi took in just how bad he looked, no longer in the middle of a fight or having her attention merely fixed on him awakened. His skin was pale and sweaty, she chucked it up to the fighting he did, but what worried her was the circles under his eyes. He looks as if he hadn't slept at all since he was taken, and to make her worries rise, he felt lighter than before.

Did Xigbar even ensure he was getting something to eat, or did the keyblade stay off starvation to keep him going?

'Sora…Sora, wake up', she whispered, shaking him lightly in her arms. Call her selfish or childish, but she wanted to hear his voice again, see those beautiful eyes and smile directed at her again and just know he was safe in her arms. She gently cupped his cheek, her eyes fixed on that calm unconscious expression painted on his face. Kairi pressed her forehead against his, holding back a breath and a hiccup of a sob, she won't cry she swore.

'Please…wake up…', she pleads.

A warmth spreads across her cheek as she heard something stir and then…

'You came for me…'.

Kairi looked to see a tired and pained smile on his face, eyes half lidded with exhaustion, but she sees the love and warmth she had missed so much glow within them. Kairi giggles as tears ran down her cheeks, her promise kept as she hugged him as hard and tightly as she could humanly do. Sora hugged her back with equal effort, resting his chin on her shoulder as he allows his own tears to run down. 'I knew…I knew you'd come for me…', he whispered, shakily despite how happy he was.

Breaking their hug, they turned to Noctis, awakened and facing them with a weak smile. He raised a hand and gave the girl a thumbs up, informing her he wasn't entirely dead yet. 'Love the armour…never got a chance to say it…', he groaned out, hand dropping onto the ground. The two laughed lightly at him just as the others came around.

There were cries of joy, hugs given to the king and rescued hero, tears shed and warmth throughout their hearts. Kairi happily allowed Donald and Goofy give the boy a hug that he was in need off, both two loyal friends sobbed in relief to have him back while Sora thanked them for keeping the others safe. He was given a sisterly hug from Aqua; the woman was apologizing so much for taking so long to reach him, yet he didn't even bat an eye.

He kindly reminded her she was returning the favour.

Then came Riku…and never had Sora known just how brotherly his hugs were. The older boy was shaking and apologizing for his short coming to keep him and Kairi safe. It tore into the boy's heart, but he hugged him back, stating he was just happy they were all safe and here now.

The Crownsguard each gave the boy a hug, ruffled his hair and Prompto even joked he's a Crownsguard member now, and unless it was Sora, Noctis looked like he was considering hiring him. Despite how bad Prompto looked, he was still grinning at his friend and even took a photo of him in his uniform of sorts. Beaten and broken, he'll still take pictures. Axel ruffled his hair, jokingly saying they needed to stop meeting up with them rescuing his spiky butt while Ventus gave his "brother" a pat on the back.

Mickey was smiling at the boy, relived he was safe again and apologizing they took so long to get here. Sora just waved off the worries, saying they're here now, and more importantly everyone was safe again. His easy going to their worries only warmed Kairi's heart, because he'd be no different when it came to be apologizing for his late arrivals. Finally he was introduced to Lunafreya and he even bows to her.

The former Oracle just smiles warmly at him, but then Sora's grin widened when he saw Naminé appear beside the woman. The girl just had a joyous smile on her lips, wishing she could give him that warmth everyone else could give. He just grinned at her and told her when she got her new body she could hug him as much as she wanted.

That was a promise the girl was more than happy to keep.

Sadly it didn't take long for Sora to stagger and look closer to collapsing and Noctis fared no better, barely standing without the aid of Ignis. The moment Sora staggered, Riku and Kairi were instantly by his side holding him up.

'I believe we are all in need of some healing', Ignis remarks, gesturing the battered and weary party of fourteen, 'And we are far from capable of dealing with anymore of the darkness'. 'Speaking of which, what happened to that son of a bitch Ardyn?', Gladiolus growled, taking Noctis from Ignis. The two keyblade wielders shrugged weakly. 'Kicked his ass, giant keyhole appeared, sucked the blight out of him, and then…we were out', Noctis sighed tiredly.

The trio blinked before turning to Aqua for explanations. The blue haired woman sighed and clears her throat. 'Basically Sora and Noctis found this world's keyhole, and upon trying to lock it away from the darkness, the keyhole may have absorbed the blight from Ardyn. Unknowingly cleansing this world of the Starscourge', she explained in short. Lunafreya nodded to confirm her explanation and reveals she can't sense the blight anymore aside from the traces of the daemons. 'Does that mean Ardyn's out of the picture then?', Riku asked.

'I can't sense him', Lunafreya says, 'Therefore he has either passed on to the next world or he has fallen into darkness'.

'Can't say I'm gonna miss him…', Noctis grunts out, 'Good riddance…'. 'Any rate, where do we go?', Axel asked, looking confused, 'Because I literally have no idea where this is…'. Upon that sentence, Noctis' team all had apprehensive looks on their faces when they thought back to their wrecked transports. Not to mention even if they were functioning they had no room for everyone. They couldn't even call their chocobos to help them out.

That was until Mickey's own GP went off and he answers. 'Hello? Oh! Wonderful! Can ya find us on the map?', he says/asked. Next thing they all hear were the sounds of a roaring engine and the wind blowing, making some cover their eyes from the dust. A shadow loomed over them and only when a few managed to crack their eyes open, they dropped their jaws in utter disbelief to see a large gummi ship that could rival an imperial dreadnaught loom over them.

'HOLY SH-

Before Prompto could finish that statement, they were all beamed up to the ship, taking them out of the capital.

Next thing they all knew, everyone fell to the floor with thuds and crashes accompanied by swears and curses with moans of pain from the sudden teleporting. The party were nothing more then a pile of bodies on top of another. 'Hey look…she got it working…', Axel groaned, having Donald and Goofy on top of his back. 'Least she didn't teleport us outside the ship this time…', mumbled Ventus, face buried in Prompto's stomach.

'Everyone here?', a familiar voice called out.

All eyes fall to Cindy approaching them from the winding stairs, looking at the pile of people with a bemused look. Prompto's jaw falls when he saw her new look, blushing as the tangled group disjoints and gets to their feet. The mechanic's smile weakens when she takes in how beaten and bruised the team looked, more so Sora and Noctis. 'Ya'll look like roadkill…what happened do ya?', she asked, gesturing the more beaten members. Mickey stepped up with a hand raised. 'That's for later, everyone's pretty much beat for the day', he explained.

The mouse king turned to the others. 'The medical ward is on the second floor, so anyone who needs a bed go on ahead', he instructs. 'Anyone who isn't so beaten up, could one of you help us navigate this world?'. Ignis immediately stepped up and offered his aid. 'However, I hate to make more burdens, but does this ship have a garage or a bay of sorts for vehicles?', he asked. 'That a trick question?', Axel teased, gesturing to Cindy, 'Blondie over there demanded that room the moment she worked on this ship'.

'Porcupine's got a point', Cindy remarks with a smirk, before it softened to Ignis. 'Why?', she asked. 'Its about the Regalia…she's in less than an ideal condition', he laments, letting out a sigh. At this Cindy frowns with annoyance, directed at the empire of course before she nods and together she, the mouse king and Ignis headed to the control room while Ventus and Axel guide the others to the medical room.

Getting everyone settled in with Sora and Noctis being priority, given how exhausted they were and the state Sora was in. Most of the party were dealing with a few wounds that a hi-potion managed to patch up and with Lunafreya healing most of them out of her own violation, only the slayers of the Accursed were bed ridden. It didn't take long for them to fall asleep, both passed out the moment their heads hit their pillows.

They were in the same room just so they could be monitored together, the room had the smell of a hospital with the sterilized air and cleanliness of the room. Light green colour scheme for the walls and furniture with a large opal shape window to show off the world and sun. Pale green curtains closed to give the occupants some privacy, low hums of the machines were the only sounds in the room save for the light breathing of the sleeping patients.

Kairi was sitting beside the sleeping Sora, back in her adventure gear and armour in the pocket dimension. Once they had gotten Sora settled into bed, she hadn't left his side and would occasionally run her hand through his hair, rub his cheek lovingly. Riku gently patted her shoulder kindly, making her glance up at him. 'Let him rest up', he suggested, 'After everything he's been through he's gonna need a proper sleep'.

'I'm not going anywhere', she stated firmly, shaking her head. Riku gives her a frown but says nothing, exhaling a breath. 'I figured as much. But would you at the very least let me bring you something to eat?', he asked hopefully. Her stomach growled at the mention of food, loud and growly, in turn making her blush softly. Riku chuckles at her, patting her shoulder and walking out with a small wave. Once he exited the room, Kairi glanced at Sora, then leaned and kissed him on the forehead.

'You're safe now…', she promises.

*Cockpit, three hours later*

The Regalia was reclaimed and moved to the hanger bay at the insistence of Cindy, who was less than thrilled to see the remarkable god worthy vehicle in ruins thanks to the empire and had not Mickey reminded her of the wounded party she'd probably blast the capital to kingdom come. And having Gladiolus, Prompto and Axel cheer her on with that destructive idea did nothing to help get priorities straightened.

Only when Aqua told them to shut up and remind them their friends need respite did they silence their desire to see the empire go boom.

After that, Cindy was mostly in the bay working on the Regalia with the aid of Prompto, Donald and Goofy helping her to hopefully bring the car back to life. Back in the cockpit, with Mickey piloting the ship at a slower pace to give everyone a more comfortable flight with Ignis using the map holograms on the centre piece to help guide the mouse king. Using the ship's cloaking to remain invisible and keep themselves anonymous as best as they can be while heading back to Hammerhead.

Aqua had reported to Mickey about everything that's occurred since their arrival to this world, how she had to reveal to Noctis and company about other worlds, their duties as keyblade wielders, the heartless and everything else. Surprisingly to the master the king had been lenient with her, even commending her for the bravery she had to reveal such details to them. Regarding Noctis becoming a keyblade wielder, Yen Sid was the one who discovered a new light had shined.

He tells her that thanks to Cindy and Ventus' search they finally had found out where the rest of the guardians had gone to. They were in Radiant Garden for nearly two months to help build a ship that could traverse the world without it going haywire.

'After she finished it, we came here as soon as we could but the darkness here was too much for the ship to enter the world. That's why she had to beam us all down here within the capital', the mouse king explained. 'Explains why you were all separated when you arrived', Aqua sighed, turning in her chair to look at the king. 'I didn't think the darkness of the heartless and the blight wasn't so powerful it made the world impossible to enter in'.

'Has such a thing ever occurred in other worlds?', Ignis asks as he looks over the hologram of the world. 'Not as far as we know', Mickey replied, 'It takes a great power of the darkness to accomplish something like that'. Ignis grimaced at that info, it was truly a miracle they had someone like Sora and Noctis to prevent their world from going into the darkness. He refused to think of what could have been had they not remained in their world.

'Might I ask…what exactly comes next?'. It was a question the advisor had been dreading to ask ever since they rescued the boy, and he felt regret for asking. However with their own battles to fight, their tasks here complete and now transport had been secured, there was no reason for them to wait any longer to remain in their world. Aqua's face fell, gazing back down to the controls as her eyes dimmed while Mickey turned to Ignis.

'Well first, we need to make sure everyone's ok, and after we get Sora back to full strength, we'll be leaving Eos', the mouse king explained. Ignis nods and returns to his work as the king rotates his chair to face the controls. Stupid question really, he thought to himself, what else was he expecting them to do? It was here he realized that their journey is coming to an end, if it hadn't ended with Ardyn's demise, and in turn they would be going.

A sorrow was created within his heart, realizing that for all they knew this might be a permanent farewell. One glance to Aqua and he saw her placing a hand on her heart, a look of pain appeared on her face. 'I uh, I think I'm gonna go lie down for a bit', she announced to no one, getting off her seat and leaving the room. She gave Ignis a small but sad look before she entered the elevator and left the cockpit.

*Second Floor, lounge*

As the elevator descends to the normal living spaces of the ship, the blue haired master leaned against the cool metallic wall of the elevator while staring at the floor, only the low volume music playing over her head accompanied her. Her mind was trying to distance away from the question Ignis had asked, but every thought leads her back to the subject that she herself hadn't consider.

It is so strange to think that in the past few months that had passed feel like merely a day ago she and Kairi had landed in a new world, like another life time had passed them. The adventures here, the people they met and the trials they faced and triumphed over. Now it was time for them to leave this world to fight another great battle that would decide the fate of all worlds. And she thought she'd be ready for it, mentally prepared for what comes, but her heart ached.

When the doors opened, she entered the lounge room to enter the lounge room. It felt like a gigantic bar room to put it simply, there was a small bar nearby with a giant glass wall behind it with a shelf obscuring it, filled with bottles of sorts. Probably Cindy's suggestion. There was music being played over head, low jazz music that nearly put her asleep, the colour scheme felt like a bar with wooden designs and flooring being varnished.

There are several chairs, couches and seats in the area, all having the typical bar style design of them. Aqua spots Gladiolus sitting down with Ventus and Axel on the couch with the boy on a chair listening to Gladiolus' stories. Her steps faltered at the sight, seeing Gladiolus again only made the ache grow within her heart. The shield spotted her but his smirk dimmed at the look on her face, yet he kept talking about something they had done in Eos.

When Ventus and Axel see Aqua, they both gave her a friendly wave before Ventus' smile brightened excitedly. He pats Axel's arm and hops off the chair, saying while dragging the pyro they'd be right back before exiting the room. Once they were alone, Gladiolus gets off the couch and approached Aqua, her sorrow clear on her face. 'Hey, you ok?', he asked gently, patting her shoulder. '…yeah…', she sighs weakly, brushing a lock of blue from her hair.

Frowning the shield placed a hand on her cheek, prompting her to look at him. 'Come on, why so…down?', he says slowly, likely if she were a betting girl he would have said "blue" to describe her feeling. He saved himself a glare from her, that's certain. Aqua held back the pleased sigh, forgetting the gentleness he had for her whenever he was being affectionate as she gently placed a hand on his own, facing him.

In his eyes she sees he's aware of what is coming next for them, that once they reach Hammerhead it'll be time for them to go their separate ways. Their final moments together before she and the others would go to fight the XIII Darkness, a battle she feared will be her very last. 'I…you know when we reach Hammerhead, after we recover, we have to go…', she whispered softly.

'To kick Xehanort's ass and save the worlds…yeah, I uh, kinda figured…', Gladiolus sighed in response, his own voice heavy with lament. Aqua stared at him as she was gently pulled closer to him, resting her head on his chest as his arms wrapped around her smaller body. She had gotten used to these warm embraces of his, waking up by his side and fighting with him, the idea of being away from him now hurt her heart.

Of course she should have been prepared for it to happen, they both knew that one day their jobs would ask them to be apart. She a keyblade master and he a shield of the king, to ask them to forsake their duties to be selfish was inexcusable. Yet for once, she thought duty could go rot in a dumpster for all she cared. Gladiolus gently strokes her back as she listened to that powerful heartbeat in his chest, the beat she could fall asleep to.

'Blue…I know I said we were prepared for something like this…but truth be told?', he says warmly, 'I'm kinda thinking of just keeping you here and let Sora handle the fight'. She giggles softly, not entirely against the idea either if she were honest. 'But we both know that's not gonna happen, huh?'. 'I'm…sorry to say no', she sighed back, 'This is…this is something I have to do'. Gladiolus' hold begins to tighten, like he was scared if he lowers his guard, she's going to disappear on him.

'I wish…I wish we had more time…', she whispered.

The shield holds her there in silence, basking these final moments with her before the time came where they would separate for however long it may be…

*Medical Ward*

Staring up at the ceiling in thought as the gentle hums of the machines in their room fill the silence, Noctis lies in his bed with a pondering look on his kingly features. He hears the gentle breathing from Kairi and Sora on the right, the girl having only eaten a small portion of her meal before she joined Sora in the sleeping world.

Not that the king would blame her, he would be no different were it he and Lunafreya in their roles. Speaking of which…

'Soon we'll be returning to Hammerhead, that's…the gas station Cindy resides in, yes?', the blond asked softly, hesitation and uncertainty in her tone. 'That's the place', he assured her as he kept staring at the ceiling in deep musings. His lover smiles softly at him before she placed a hand on his, he in turn clasped it around his. He smiles at her, warmly as she rubbed his cheek. His eyes however speak of another emotion that spoke in volume to her, a concern he was at war with.

Even as short as her time with him is since Altissia, she knew him enough to know what the storm was in his mind. The times she had caught him staring at his keyblade in deep thought, the days he'd spent pondering over the information Aqua had told him, his fights with the forces of Xehanort. And now him constantly watching over Sora and Kairi as they sleep like a protective sibling, warmed her heart but she also knew he was thinking of something drastic.

Something that the world Order would be shaken by…

It only furthered her love for him, knowing that this was beyond his duty as king, it was a duty of a wielder of the keyblade. He gently glanced at her as she kissed his cheek. 'I know what you must do', she whispered lovingly. He sits up and takes her hands in his, looking at her with the intense love she always knew deep in her heart he would have for her. The boy she became so fond with, now before her a king beyond kings who defied his fate and surmounted the tragedy that befell their world.

'I'm sorry, but I'm gonna need to you look after Insomnia for me', he asked hesitatingly. The Oracle gently kissed him, pressing her forehead against his as he returns her affection and runs a hand through her unkempt hair. This will be their last moment of peace between the two, for however long the king will be separated from her. Yet she feels no sadness but pride in its stead, the boy from her youth had grown into a man beyond what she, or the Astrals had expected.

For the sake of the light, and knowing he will return to her, it is a small price to pay.

*Hammerhead*

Upon arrival to the small outpost that was populated greatly in the past few months and looking more of a hunter's base than the old Hammerhead outpost. They landed the ship at least a few miles from the outpost at the insistence of the mouse king, last thing they would need is to stir up more trouble.

The walk to the place was rather quiet and sullener than it used to be, even with everyone back together. Some tried to stir up the spirit of the team, Axel being the one to speak up and make jokes about everything that's happened thus far, even poking a bit of fun here and there. But for those who've traversed this world, the playfulness of his banter was welcomed but unchanging of the mood of the team.

Reaching the fortress of an outpost, the first thing the team did was inform Cid that his daughter had not died and is more informative of the worlds beyond their own. That was until Cindy confronted him about knowing of other worlds, the legacy of the C and even brought up Cid (to which shocked Sora, Donald and Goofy with amount of swearing she claimed he spewed). The old man chuckled in response to her questions, saying "She wouldn't be a Cid if he held her hand".

It was the first time they ever saw the woman hold a wrench so menacingly she could have struck fear even into Ardyn's heart.

The old man did confess he knows about other worlds, obviously after Cindy brought of the Cid legacy, and stated he knew enough about gummi ships to fix them but left it to Cindy to discover for herself. While some have called that extremely irresponsible of the old man, more so Aqua, they wouldn't disagree that this experience had certainly opened Cindy's eyes and expanded her horizons. The old man had some information for them, mostly the news on what's happened since they left.

After the light had been restored to the world, he says most of the Crownsguard were working with the hunters to get rid some of the more persistent daemons that had taken up the land as their own turf. As far as he knew most of the Lucis land were reclaimed because of the joint effort, and even bigger news he heard was some of the guards had begun to reclaim Insomnia back. When asked, he says whatever happened at the empire had caused all the MTs stationed there to become nothing more than broken dolls.

Anyone who from the Lucian capital who could fight had joined the cause, and from what he had heard they were proud to claim that Insomnia was back in the hands of the Lucians.

They even had some help from Aranea, who as far as he was told, said she only helped because she owed the youngsters of their party for something. Kairi and Prompto just smiled back in response to this. The old man said by the time Noctis' group came, they were already working on rebuilding and rehousing the city, thanks to the joint effort anyways.

In regards to the empire, the old man says there hadn't been so much as an imperial dropship sighted around here for weeks now, and after the group told him just what exactly had happened within the capital, Kairi and Prompto revealing how they were made, that the main boss behind the operations was killed, Cid strong deduced that whatever military might the empire once had is now a thing of the past.

With the news dispensed, the team had all split up before they ultimately had the other world heroes go off on their journey once more. Riku had wandered around the place, deciding he merely wanted to be alone for a while before they would make their way back to the Mysterious Tower for a briefing on the situation. He wondered if Xehanort had done anything while they were trapped in this world and pondered on where Xigbar had disappeared to.

Even with everything happening back at Niflhiem, he couldn't sense the second to the big boss anywhere in that place. The fact he didn't help Ardyn out during the whole thing only leaves Riku with more questions about that one-eyed son of a gun. Maybe they had a fallen out and he decided there was nothing more to be gained in this world. Or maybe Xehanort had demanded he'd return to the place where the clash would take place, who knows?

Sitting down on the railing near the road as the sun begins to slowly shift the day to dusk, he takes out his GP and taps it to contact Iris…only to feel a pat on his back. He jumped slightly and turned to see a smiling Iris, beaming at him. His phone forgotten as he stood up to approach her, she gave him a hug. 'Welcome back!', she greeted warmly and happily. With her thin but strong arms around his waist, Riku was taken aback slightly, before he wrapped his arms around her.

He hated this…hated the fact that their reunion would be so short and bittersweet. The two loosened slightly to look at each other, the girl smiling warmly at him, but then Riku cupped her chin and decided Gladiolus' wrath was worth this. He leaned in and kissed her. Iris tensed and stiffened, before she melts into his kiss and wraps her arms around his neck as he held her closer to him, eyes closed.

A wonderful warmth spreads through their bodies, Riku feeling as if he was soaring through the clouds above. If this is how Kairi and Sora felt whenever they did this no wonder, they were always so mushy and happy around each other. He ran a hand through Iris hair, earning a moan of approval from the girl as she tightened her arms around him to pull him closer to herself. They broke apart when their lungs required air, panting softly at each other.

'Well, that's one way to say hi', she teases, her cheeks flushed red and her smile more breath taking then usual. Riku chuckles back softly, caressing her hair as she giggled.

'Uh…'.

They looked behind Iris to see an awkward Prompto standing there, hand raised like a student about to ask a teacher a question. Together the cheeks of Riku and Iris turn bright pink at being caught by Prompto, who equally had the color of a tomato on his freckled cheeks. He just raised both hands and said: 'Just…come to the garage when you're ready…'. Without another word, he walks off to the garage.

The blush on Iris' cheeks darkened while Riku groaned. 'Why? Why does he do this? HOW does he do this?', he asks, wondering where Prompto got his seemingly pinpoint timing to ruin moments like this. 'Better than Gladdy seeing us…', she muses cheekily. Riku couldn't tell if she was being playful or genuine, likely the latter due to the threatening presence Gladiolus had whenever he just stands by her.

It gave the silver head the impression he was her first boyfriend…and he took great pride in that achievement.

Soon as night had fallen, everyone had gathered up in the garage, including Iris. Cid was the only one not participating, claiming he was long done with other world affairs. Inside the garage, Aqua spoke up. 'So as you're all aware…tomorrow, we will be returning to the tower and relaying what's happened to Master Yen Sid', she starts, looking at everyone. 'Master who?', Prompto asked, raising a brow of confusion.

'Old keyblade master that retired. Mickey's mentor', Noctis surmised shortly, 'And apparently the…what, leader of your group?'. 'Uh…sort of?', responded the blue head, before she shook her head, 'My point is, we'll be leaving tomorrow'. The other world heroes nodded, before looking at their new friends with sad smiles. Aqua folds her arms, relaxing her shoulders and showing sympathy after a short glance to Gladiolus before returning it back to the group.

'We have stopped Xigbar and Ardyn, but Xehanort's plans will still effect Eos, and other worlds as you are aware'. She closed her eyes, exhaling softly before she turned to Noctis and gives him a nod. The king responds in kind and address the group.

'Which is why, we're tagging along'.

This got all the other world folks to perk their ears and heads up to look at the king. Donald and Goofy's jaws fell to the ground, Mickey looked shock, the Destiny Trio just grinned while Ventus and Axel gave each other a shrug. 'Seriously!?', Sora asked excitedly. The king nodded at him before turning to everyone else. 'Look, we know about the whole Order, and we know we're breaking an old oath…but let's be upfront. If Xehanort isn't stopped, if we don't do what ever it takes to win, there won't be any world that keep Order'.

Noctis looked at Sora and said: 'If Sora hadn't helped me out, I couldn't have beaten Ardyn alone. And let's be honest, we made it this far because of them'. The king summoned his keyblade and held it high. 'My duty as king is to keep the world safe, and I'm not gonna be able to do that sitting on a throne all day', he laments, 'This keyblade choose me, Eraqus bequeathed this to me, so I owe to the old man to stop Xehanort'.

He turned to his brothers and arms. 'You three with me?', he asked.

Gladiolus smirks and nods, Ignis confidently nodding and Prompto threw his arms in the air. 'HECK YEAH! NEW WORLDS!'.

'Let's not get crazy here!', Donald lectured hopping off his chair, 'What about Yen Sid!? You know he's gonna be furious with us!'.

'With *me*, Donald', Aqua reminds sternly, 'I was the one who broke the Order, and by all accounts, I'm willingly allowing Noct and the others to come with us'. The duck opened his mouth to argue before Riku stood up. 'Hang on a second, shouldn't we all take the blame? I mean, we didn't exactly do a good job keeping up the pretenses either', he says, gesturing to Iris. She gave a cheeky smile, reminding everyone how she discovered about other worlds.

'Eavesdropping doesn't count', Aqua says with a smile. 'I made the choice to reveal, therefore whatever consequences fall on my head I will bear it'. The others frowned at this, before Noctis speaks up: 'If that old man is wise, he'll look the other way'. He says: 'You guys need all the help you can get, especially with Xehanort is as strong as you say, and he even dwarfs Ardyn, right?'.

Ventus frowned and nodded. 'Yeah…he's inhuman. He beat all four of us when we fought him', he laments, shuddering at the memories of that day. 'And not to mention his other vessels…Terra included', Riku sighed. Gladiolus clenched his fist at this while Ignis lowered his head, remembering the man was far above their powers. Despite the gap in strength however, none had opposed joining the battle, if nothing else they were determined to join.

'What about Luna?', Goofy asked, 'Shouldn't we have someone watch her in case they come back for her?'.

Lunafreya speaks up: 'I will remain within Insomnia to help with the restorations. If needs be, I shall hire Aranea to be my guardian'. Kairi and Prompto both chirped in agreement, reminding everyone she could take on the heartless easily. 'And if what Sora said about the Organization's intentions with the princesses of light is true', Axel joined with while crossing his arms, 'Then they won't bother Luna if she's safe'.

'And I'll be the one flying the ship', Cindy added. Donald groans as the others looked at her. 'You sure about that? What about Hammerhead?', Ventus asked. 'Paw-Paw can handle it, he's already got new folk to manage without me anyways. Besides', Cindy replied, getting to her feet and grinning like a mad scientist. 'Have ya'll seen what them gummi blocks can do? Imagine using some of them on the Regalia! I could turn her make into the most purdy beast Eos will ever see!'.

She paused a moment, before turning to Noctis who was sporting an amused smile. '…with your permission, your majesty', she squeaks. 'Cindy if you can fix her then you can do whatever the hell you want with her', promised the king, 'Just make sure Ignis can drive her. Its his baby as much as it is yours and mine'.

Ignis pushes up his glasses, nodding in agreement as Cindy grinned, already coming up with brand new ideas for the Regalia. 'Then tomorrow, we return to the tower and report. Then after that…', Aqua says, hesitantly but then shakes her head. 'Then we need to decide what happens next with you four'. They gave her a curious look but nodded none the less, likely it'll be explained after the report. 'For now though', Mickey says, 'We should get some sleep, we'll have to head off early'.

Goodnights were bid and after sleeping arrangements were made, the party had all drifted to slumber…

Except for Noctis and Lunafreya.

They stood upon the roof of Hammerhead's garage, Noctis warping them up, to stare at the stars in silence and peace, hands clasped as they sat down on the edge of the rooftop. Their final night together before her king would be whisked away to fulfil his duty as a wielder of the keyblade. They turned to each other as the Oracle placed in his hands her moon necklace, placing her hand on his. She stares at him with her wonderful blue orbs before they both lean in and kissed.

An oath made between them, that the king of light would return…

*Dawn*

As dawn arrived the party of thirteen bid farewell to their new friends, with Naminé re-joining Kairi's heart after a teary farewell to her closest friend. Promises were made to come back and pick Lunafreya and Iris up to join the celebration when the time came.

As Highwind Mark XV soared into the skies, with the XIII Guardians of Light together, a new had begun…

A/N: Not really a great chapter, just more of getting the team back together and having Noctis and company joining them on their quest.

Next time we'll be exploring how Kairi got her armor, what the next arc will be and what the plans are for the chocobros!

Question:

What do you wanna see in the next chapter?

Thanks for reading, as always stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	53. Chapter 53

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 53

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

*Space*

This is the first time Noctis had ever been grateful to not have had any of Ignis' dinner, otherwise, he'd probably be no different than poor Prompto. In his seat still a touch green in the face with his head in a hand, shakily breathing and swallowing dryly.

'You guys…could have told us this could happen…', groaned the king, gulping back the bile. 'Sorry, but too be fair Cindy didn't get motion sickness', Sora says with a friendly smile as he pats the king's shoulder. They both cringed in disgust at the sound of Prompto vomiting in the bathroom nearby, hearing him groan and moan in the usual agony of one who is forced to spill their guts out. No sooner had the party reached space, almost all the royal retinue had gotten motion sickness.

Gladiolus having fared better than the rest, stubbornly refusing to kneel to the strain on his stomach and just sat in his seat until the ship moved a slower pace for comfort. Ignis just exhaled and relaxed upon entering the cosmos. Prompto…not so much.

He was being cared for by Ventus in the bathroom, hoping to help adjust the gunner to their new surroundings and methods of transportations. Every one else fared much better, while some like Kairi and Aqua were still unused to takeoffs with the ships merely held onto something or someone's hand to control their anxieties. It impressed the others how Aqua didn't end up breaking Gladiolus' hand from how tight she held it, based on the excruciating pain the shield implied on his face.

Cindy in the main seat of the ship switched off the main engines for warp drive and started to steer the ship into a slower drive to alleviate the others. 'Estimating time of arriving at Ole Yen Sid's tower? Two days, folks', she announced as she switched on a few other devices for a more leisure cruise worthy of the trip. Once she announced it, everyone had gotten out of their seats and started to walk around the ship, some still groaning with the launch and a few stretched.

'That long? Jeez, I'd thought we'd be there in, like an hour or two', Noctis says looking at Sora. The boy shrugged in response while putting his hands behind his head. 'Well for me and the other two half-pints', he said with a cheeky grin, 'Its usually just an hour'. Mickey approached the two with a smile. 'We're taking our time with the trip to help you and the others get used to being out of your world', he explained, 'Besides, it'd be nice for some winding downtime before we discuss the matter with Xehanort with the master'.

The word "master" probed a concern the king of Insomnia, that alone was a subject he needed to bring up during the meeting. After everything that man had done to him and Kairi, and if he was a betting man may have done something to Sora in turn at some point, it'd be a wonderful chance to finally get some clarity on the guy.

Once he assured Sora he wouldn't be puking up his guts and let the boy wander off to Kairi, the king turns to the windscreen beside him and stared into the sea of the cosmos. His breath was swept away from the awe and majesty that was the beauty of the stars, several nebulas, smaller meteors, crystallized rocks and stars blinking beautifully before him. Back home whenever they'd be camping the stars were out were breathtaking but now those views feel like half-baked photos of those moments.

It still amazed him just where he and the others were and are going in this time, the thought of other worlds just waiting for them to explore them all. A sense of excitement that he'd ashamedly admits would be the inner child within him was bouncing within his heart. Placing a hand on the windscreen, his thoughts went to his father and he wonders what he would have said had he seen where his son and his friend ended up.

A door shifting open caught his attention and when he turned around, he sees a less than stellar looking Prompto shuffling out of the bathroom with a groan with the youngest member of Sora's team ushering him and patting his back. '*Shudder* Please tell me you'd get used to that?', he asked weakly, wiping whatever traces of vomit from his lips. 'Sooner or later yeah', promises Ventus, 'But hey, we've got time to kill on board'.

'We should also decide on the rooms too', Axel yawned, 'I'm already heading for a nap'. 'You just got up three hours ago!', Aqua remarked while crossing her arms. The pyro shrugged. 'My point exactly, plus I helped with the heavy lifting!', he argues. 'Oh yeah, the "heavy lifting",', Gladiolus jokes with using his fingers for air quotes, 'All you had to lift was a box of vegetables and that's it!'.

'I think Kairi got the heavier stuff', Riku laughed, turning to her, 'Didn't you carry some of Cindy's tools?'. Kairi smirked at the redhead with a cocky look in her eyes, wiggling her eyebrows. 'Three of them actually', she bragged, 'And I'm not even tired'. Axel rolls his eyes as he leaves the room with a smirk. 'Like you'd go to bed without Sora by this point', he teased. Out went Kairi's smug look and in its place was dark red fluster.

'…he's not wrong', Noctis muses quietly, low enough for no one to hear him just as Axel leaves the cockpit. Kairi pouts at the disappeared man, muttering something under her breath while Sora smiled on, not bothered or remotely embarrassed. Aqua sighed and shakes her head good-naturedly, 'He's got a point though, best we all know where everyone's sleeping', she announced. There was a collection of hums agreeing with her, and most dispersed to claim their rooms.

Subtly she glanced at Gladiolus, smiling shyly at him as he smirked at her in response. Together they entered their room and found it to be close to what the Galdin Quay had to offer. The room was spacious like a five-star hotel with a large king-sized bed taking most of the space, a nice color scheme of blue and teal with two lamp desks on each side of the bed. The patio was locked with a large dome of glass around it.

Aqua looked around while Gladiolus smirks at the décor and whistled. 'Eat your heart out Galdin Quay…', he says to himself, crossing his arms approvingly. She couldn't disagree there, the space her was larger than the one they stayed in before heading to Altissia and the fact she had it with Gladiolus only made it the better for them. As the shield got cozy on the bed she removed her armored pieces of clothing, deciding to spend the next few days not armored to the teeth.

No sooner did she get her boots off, she climbs onto the bed with Gladiolus, amazed by the softness of the mattress and the smells of jasmine-scented sheets. It immediately wrapped her senses in the sensation of ease. She exhaled softly and rested her head on Gladiolus' chest as he wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her closer to himself.

Letting a yawn escape himself, which causes Aqua to yawn too, they both opted to follow Axel's example and go for a nap together. 'Feeling up to catching some z's?', asked Gladiolus. 'That sounds so good right now', Aqua agreed.

The two throw the sheets over themselves, Gladiolus pulling her against his bare chest (she had to resist the girlish giggle in return) and let their legs get tangled up before they both drifted to sleep.

*Lounge Room*

In the comfortable space of the ship, Kairi watched in amusement as Prompto was showing Ventus some of his photos of their adventures in Eos. The two had immediately hit it off the moment they spoke to each other, the older blonde's grin was as infectious as Sora's and combined with Ventus being Ventus, it was like these two were old buddies that had recently caught up to each other. It was a joy to see the more peppy and cheerful Prompto back again, given what they endured back at the MT factory.

She regrets not spending more time with him after they had all reunited but after being separated from Sora for such a long time she wanted to be selfish for a change and focus on them. The spiky-haired boy was sitting on the lounge chair with her resting on his laps, snuggled into him as she watches Prompto bond with Ventus. Behind them using the nearby kitchen was Ignis using the makeshift utilities to whip up a dinner for everyone.

Despite the group's insistence he'd take some downtime for himself, the man is adamant he cook something as he stated he feared he might have gotten rusty since he lost his sight and with how little time he had to whip something up in the past. The man assured them all he was more than happy to do this to help pass the time.

'Huh? Wait, what were those?', Ventus asked, pointing at the screen. Swiping it back, Prompto showed the team it was him and Kairi in a selfie with their chocobos. 'Oh those are our feathered buddies', Prompto says with a sigh, 'One last photo before we had to go and be heroes'. Kairi pats him comfortingly, agreeing with his lamenting tone. It was so brief to be reunited with those feathered creatures that had done so much for them with transport, to be spirted away from them so soon hurt her heart.

'They're called chocobos', Sora said helpfully, 'And the one with the red medal was Kairi's'. 'I named him Feathers…', Kairi pouted, 'He was so fluffy…'. The trio laughed at the name despite her blushing cheeks.

*Chirp*

They all jumped at the sound and looked around the room, even Ignis' propped his head up at the noise. They glanced at each other as they stood up, confused. 'D-Did you guys here that?', Ventus asked. 'Yeah…was that a bird?', Sora asked, looking around.

*Chirp*

Kairi looked alarmed and searched around her. 'That sounded too close to my ears', she says worriedly. Saying that Sora looked at his girlfriend's hoodie and saw subtle shuffles in the pink cloth. 'Kairi, hold still', he said, placing a hand on her shoulder to stop her from moving. Kairi stiffens at the command as Sora reached into her hood but then immediately retracts his hand back with a startled yelp. 'What what!?', Kairi squeaks, suddenly feeling extremely uncomfortable. 'Something pecked my finger!', whined Sora.

Ignis strolled over to the children and approaches Kairi. 'Allow me', he says, not waiting for her permission to see the source of the noise. With his gloves on, he felt something try to peck his fingers but thanks to the roughness of his gloves all he felt was a slight prod. Carefully his fingers brushed against something soft and feathery, which made him groan internally. Gently as he could, he lifts out the culprit of the noise that spooked the poor redhead.

'I believe we have a stowaway', he says, showing their mysterious passenger. All eyes fell to the small bundle of golden feathers with a small beak and tiny wings, chirping innocently with its black eyes opening and closing repeatedly. A chocobo chick.

Kairi squealed in delight at the small bird, grinning happily at him as the bird chirped at her, fluttering its small wings. 'A-A chick? A chocobo chick?', Sora asked, looking at Ignis. 'Without a doubt…', Ignis confirms with equal sounds of exasperation and worry. He then turned to Kairi with suspicion, surprised and equally worried it took the poor thing to chirp for her to take note she was acting as a vessel for the small creature.

The girl, in turn, looked at Ignis with a shrug. 'How was I supposed to know? I didn't even feel him enter my hoodie', she argued. 'What I wanna know is how he got into your hoodie to begin with', Ventus asked with a smile as he gently rubbed the top of the bird's head with his finger. Prompto and Kairi looked at each other since they were the only ones with the chocobos before they left Eos. That's when a realization begins to dawn on their faces, and with reluctance, they turned to the older man.

'I think the little guy might have jumped in when I was playing with them', she explained sheepishly, 'They were mostly fluttering around my shoulders and head'. While she might have gotten a tad bit carried away with them, namely fussing over them and being extremely playful with them to the point where she would stand as still as possible for them to use her like a tower for them. However, as lovable they were she was adamant in making sure they would be with their families and even thoroughly checked herself to make sure.

Curious, Sora peeked into Kairi's hoodie to see if there was something else in the hood. He sees nothing but tiny fluffs of yellow and some bits of dirt which could have been from anything. The little bird was chirping insistently, fluttering its little feathers at Kairi. 'I believe they wish to return to Kairi', Ignis said, allowing the girl to cup her hands and let the bird jump onto her hands. The bird fluttered into the air, chirping at her happily.

'…I'm keeping you', Kairi stated. The bird chirps at her, like it, understood what she was saying. Sora looked at the bird and Kairi before turning to Ignis who simply sighed and pushed his glasses up his nose. 'We can't turn back now, seeing as we're not even certain of its gender nor do Kairi or Prompto know who the parent is', he lists, 'Like it or not, I fear Kairi has become a mother of a chocobo'.

'What? Aww how come she gets to keep them?', Prompto complained. 'Because she is responsible and will care for it…and it seems to adore her more', Ignis says. Prompto opened his mouth, turned to the two and with a frown, accepts defeat. 'Congrats Sora, you're a dad now…', Prompto teases as he and Ventus returned to the couch. Ignis chuckles softly and heads back to finish what he was doing while Sora looked at the bird and Kairi.

She smiled at Sora and said: 'We should make him a nest, so he'll have somewhere to sleep'. Together the new parents ran off to build a baby room for their child. The start of the journey had certainly taken a strange direction after all.

*Mysterious Tower*

The entire flight was not just for the party to unwind and be at ease, for the masters it was prep time for them to prepare for the battle of debates with Yen Sid. Gladiolus had informed Sora and the others that Aqua had been practicing her speech and argument for the entire day, only stopping to use the bathroom or when she and he quote: "Wanted comfort snuggles".

Kindly he said that when Axel wasn't in earshot of the conversation.

Truth be told even Noctis was envying Aqua's work ethic now because upon meeting the old man who had the scowl that even Ardyn would wet himself from being under the end of it, he wished he prepared for this. The negotiations with Camila couldn't hold a candle to how tense and severe the atmosphere of the room was, none but the master who broke the Order had spoken between herself and Yen Sid.

After arriving, taking the time for the four brothers to take in a unique and different world compared to Eos. Whereat home was modern (at least for them) this place feels like he stepped into a storybook his father used to tell him. A time of fairy tales, the light and stars around the tower felt welcoming and friendly to the king. Prompto had took dozens of photos of the place just from the outside and made everyone swear they'd take part in posing for him.

That was a subject the king was surprised none of the masters had caught him on, none had even attempted to persuade him to reel back his need for photography.

The climb up was odd and just perplexed him on the tower itself since on the outside it didn't look as big as some towers in the stories he read. Climbing it was another kettle of fish, that was for sure. From one door that lead them into a spiraling stairway in the middle of the cosmos to another, he almost held his breath the whole climb up before Donald assured him they could still breath even in a place like this.

He kept himself quiet as Aqua and Yen Sid spoke, the master before the retired keyblade master was stiff but resolute with her speech and arguments. She left very little detail out of her report, explaining the circumstances of how and why they were trapped for so long, what Xigbar's goals, presumably, were, and of course how Noctis became a wielder of the keyblade. At least that part the old man was more forgiving to an extent.

She finished her story finally, allowing the master to take in all that had transpired. To say he was displeased was an understatement if that seemingly permanent scowl on his face gave any idea. His grey eyes fixed on the blue head. 'Aqua, while I will not discredit yours and the others work for stopping Xigbar and preserving another of the Seven Lights…what you have done…', he lectured.

The master stood firm, but her friends could see her shoulders tensed as the deep baritone of the master shook their spines. 'Revealing not only the Organization to another world…but speaking of other worlds to them, disregarding the Order that has been in place for eons. That is a serious crime against the balance'.

'I know, Master Yen Sid', Aqua replied, not taking her eyes off him. 'And…whatever the consequences are, I will bare them'. Yen Sid shook his head. 'Aqua, a crime such as this, the only fitting one I could think of, would be to renounce your title as a master…and even denounce you as a keyblade wielder'.

It took all her strength not to gasp or even tear up at that as Aqua held firm. This, however, did not sit well with the others. Sora immediately stepped up. 'What? But, you can't', he tired but the old Master raised his hand. 'Sora be silent', he commands. Noctis scowled at this dismissive tone but before he would join Sora, Gladiolus caught his shoulder, shaking his head. The last thing the four needed to do was give more incentive for the man to reject their aid.

The boy clenched his fist as Riku steps forward. 'Master Yen Sid, with all due respect, Aqua was put in a position that would have put us in a state a lot worse than informing Noctis and the others', he argued. 'Riku, it's…fine', Aqua said weakly, raising a hand to silence his arguments. Aqua faced the old master. 'If I must renounce the keyblade as punishment, then so be it. But until Xehanort is stopped I will continue to wield it'.

The man nodded at her, then turned to the Island trio. Call Sora presumptuous or a pessimist, but he had a good feeling he wasn't particularly liked by the old man. Maybe it was because of how casual he spoke to him or likely he wasn't chosen by the keyblade, but he knew whenever he was under his eyes he always felt like he was nothing more than an afterthought or just another lesser student.

'Sora…Riku and Kairi…you three are just as guilty as Aqua for your faults and actions', the master lectured. Sora opened his mouth to argue but the master cuts him off, glaring at the two. 'Riku, your use of the darkness upon others, reckless and foolish without proper training of it', he lectures, gesturing to Ignis before to Kairi. The princess held her feet firm, but her eyes should anticipation of fear. '…I didn't believe anyone could match, nor surpass Sora's penchant for recklessness, but you princess, you may have exceeded him'.

'Misuse of the star shard, taking another vital ally with you and getting yourselves stranded, all the while disobeying strict others to remain within the tower', he lists as Kairi shrank under his glare and even cast her head down in shame. 'Were we not in desperate need of assembling the guardians of light…', he threatened with a sigh. If she felt bad now, Kairi felt as if someone had just kicked her in the face and stomped on her heart.

He couldn't take it anymore of this, Noctis strode forth. 'You've got a stick up your ass if you can sit here and lecture these guys', growled Noctis. All eyes fall to him but his brothers did nothing to stop him. He gestured the accused, 'Hate to break it to you old man, but these four are probably your best shots against Xehanort, along with us'.

'You have no right…', Yen Sid starts but Noctis draws Night's Sky and holds it in front of him. 'I think going by your old training buddy Eraqus, I have a leg to stand on', he said. Facing the old man, he says: 'We put Aqua on the spot to talk, she would've left us unaware of the other worlds if we hadn't pressured her into speaking. So you want someone to pin that "crime" on, you're looking at him.

'Actually, …that's on me…', Gladiolus said with regret in his tone, hand raised like a student. Noctis gave him a look but the shield just smirked. 'Don't take my credit of me discovering of other worlds', he taunts. '…saves me to crime I guess…', Noctis huffs, before turning to Yen Sid again. 'Riku managed to heal my brother, and not only giving him the strength to fight back against your enemies but restored his sight as well. Plus, something tells me teaching how to use the darkness wasn't part of keyblade school'.

Riku subtly gave the king a grateful smirk, as well as Aqua though she directed hers to Gladiolus while Yen Sid's eyes were focused on Noctis. The shield mouthed "Your welcome" to her with his smirk shifting into a smile. Noctis then turned to Kairi and gestured to her. 'She's the reason we got Sora back from Xigbar, she's responsible for him being alive long enough to get this far, and you're telling me if she hadn't done anything, he'd be with us still?', he accused. 'Plus, she came fresh out of training right?'.

'She was trained as a keyblade wielder, as was Axel', Yen Sid argued, but then Sora stepped in. 'So why the heck did I barely sense her strength when we fought together?', Sora asked. All eyes fell onto the glaring young man. 'Back when she first arrived, she wasn't any stronger than me when I started, and she had training!'.

'It's true…'.

Then all eyes fall to Axel, who gave the old man a look. 'Me and Kairi trained, but without a master. When we got out, I barely felt any stronger, so imagine how worried I was with her'. Kairi wouldn't exactly harp on Merlin for his negligence, to be fair she would prefer to be independent and rely on her training to work out the kinks, but Axel did point out a massive flaw in their training. 'Neither of them were ready for Xehanort, and you would've let them go anyway?', Sora asked.

The old man said nothing, the odds having now turned on him. As much as he would've loved to give the old man a tearing into he rightfully deserved, Noctis reels back his temper and using the wisdom Aqua had displayed numerous times, dismissed his keyblade.

'You know, as well as everyone in this room, what Xehanort is capable of', he says, 'And right now, your outnumbered and probably outmatch by him and his other vessels'. 'Not to mention he has legions of heartless and nobodies', Ignis added in. 'And unversed', Ventus pipped up. The four turned to him, confused before Aqua raises her hand. 'We'll explain that later…', she says, gesturing Noctis to continue. He was certainly doing a better job holding his own at the master.

The king returned to Yen Sid. 'The Order is important, trust me we get the dangers of other worlds knowing other worlds, but think of it this way. We don't stop Xehanort, that Order is gonna mean jack to him'.

Yen Sid looked at Noctis, secretly impressed by the king's determination and bravado against him. In so many ways he was like Sora, having that power to connect to people's hearts, but in a way to lead them, not bond. While he was firm in his beliefs of Aqua's crime, the level of loyalty they displayed moved his heart. The Order was sacred, but as the king pointed out, there is no time for him to be picky and decide the rule must take place.

In a turnabout of chance, Sora had brought forth champions of light that could help stay, no, defeat Xehanort and his Organization XIII. The king's light and power was almost comparable to Sora.

With a great sigh, he faced them all. 'Then…I have no choice but to acknowledge you four, as Guardians of Light', he says. Noctis nods with approval as the three brothers bowed to him in gratitude, while the other nine guardians grin excitedly.

The celebration was cut short however when Kairi stepped forward. 'Master Yen Sid…there's, something I have to report', she says courteously. The team glanced at her as she summoned Dearly Beloved, placed her hand on Sora's crown still resting on her chest. Glyphs of a silvery pink of her Wayfinder charm appeared around her and then she glows with light. Once done, she was clad in her keyblade armor, minus the helmet.

This made the master's brows shoot up, surprised by this display. Behind the group, Ventus was grinning excitedly at Aqua, not aware of the smiles on his face. Kairi faced the old master. 'Kairi, how…where did you obtain this?', he questioned. He turned to Aqua, who shakes her head. 'She donned this back at Eos, long after we were separated from her', she explained. 'What does that have to do with the armor?', Sora asked, confused.

'When myself, Terra and Ven got ours, they were given to us by Eraqus', she explained, 'Only a master can help create the keyblade armor and pass it on to their students. They also help protect us from the darkness'.

All eyes went back to Kairi as she faced Yen Sid. 'I was given this armor after myself and Prompto were separated', she says and regales her story.

*Eos, near Gralea several days ago…*

Shivering with intense cold, teeth chattering like they were doing the river dance and every movement felt like her limbs were caked in rigid frost that slowed her movement. Every breath she took she feels the cold seep into her mouth, partially she was amazed her tongue didn't catch frostbite as she tried to navigate through the dark and blizzard.

Kairi had her arms wrapped around herself as she trudged through the deep snow, shivering and whimpering with the cold as she blindly makes her way forward. Too cold to even concentrate for a spell to warm herself up as the frost cakes her cheeks, her hat pulled down to nearly covering her eyes as the cold seeps into her legs. Her strength slowly is being sapped away from the cold, the darkness around her only put her on edge for daemons, heartless or wildlife.

The moment she had awoken she was alone and without transport, their snowmobile had been reduced to scrap with the flames of the engine barely living long enough to grant her some warmth. She guessed it was the empire, more so Ardyn's intervention to divert hers and Prompto's course to the capital. Figured he'd abandoned her to freeze to death, not the first time he's left her in such a dire situation.

She pressed on however despite how weary her bones felt, her thoughts going back to Sora and how close she had to be to see him again. Yet for all she knew she could be walking AWAY from the capital, her sense of direction had been thrown in for a loop thanks to being knocked out. No way to contact the others since she lost her GP days ago, she had no clue where she was or even how much further her destination was.

Truly, she was in a hopeless situation.

Kairi falls onto her knees with a weak grunt, shivering and shaking profusely as she thought her body went numb with the cold. Fear grabbed at her heart, fear of perhaps this was her fate, the last thing she would do would be to die from the cold.

'No…', she whimpers, 'Not here…'.

Alone in the dark cold, her breathing getting lower and shorter with each moment passing her as whatever strength she had left disappears on her. The howling winds grew harsher and whipped against her nearly numbed cheeks like a harsh cut of glass against herself. She raises her head with chattering teeth to see nothing but the darkness of the night ahead of her with flakes of harsh winds and snow flutter ahead.

'Come on…get going…', she grunts, trying to push her tired form to press forward.

Suddenly, the cold that had wrapped around her had disappeared as the did the sounds of the blustery winds. Kairi weakly raised her head, a horrible sense of déjà vu washes over her at this familiar situation of halting the world around her. Prepared for that snarky jerk, she tried to get to her feet to meet him but with so much of the cold still left in her body, she was amazed she could raise her head to face him.

But approaching her was not the Master of Masters…

Before Kairi stands girl, hiding her face under a white fox mask that has a blue trim. Her pink, hooded cloak is decorated with light green tassels and covers a white robe, light purple shirt, and light purple sash. Her presence felt familiar, kin to MOM but oddly there was something peculiar about this girl who couldn't be any older than herself. The fact she could halt time in the world alone gave her a clue she may be in league with the MOM.

'Princess', she greets, soft and warm like Kairi's tone. It was odd how similar she sounded, Kairi could compare her voice to hers except it was a little more mature and older. 'W-Who are you?', she asked, shivering. The fox girl says nothing but raised her hand, and then a light shined in her palm. When it stopped, appearing levitating in her hand was Sora's crown.

Kairi panicked and quickly checked her neck to indeed find the chain wasn't anywhere on her. She turned on this stranger who remained still. 'A powerful light resides within this chain, a link connecting a princess of light to a wielder of the keyblade', she muses, 'A link so strong, even apart your hearts remained connected'. She heard a touch of envy in her tone as if she admired this bond she and Sora carried and hears lament in her voice.

'Give that back, or I swear I'll…', Kairi growled before she hesitates as memories of the MOM flashes in her mind. If this girl was in league with him then surely she'd be just as powerful, and the last thing Kairi needs is having all her bones broke in the middle of a blizzard. The fox girl turned to Kairi. 'Tell me, what is it that kept you from succumbing to despair? Why has your heart not given in to the darkness?', she asked.

'Because there's someone I want to see again', Kairi says firmly, 'Somebody who I care for more than anything'. The fox girl's lips curl into a small but genuinely soft smile. 'Love then?', she asked. Kairi's cheeks were already red from the cold, but now they glowed from that question. 'Yes…', she says, getting to her feet. The girl hummed and looks back at the chain before she made it disappear and Kairi felt the chains wrap around her neck again.

'You will never make it as you are. The distance to great, but even should you do…your strength won't save him', she warned. Kairi places a hand on her chain over her heart yet does not writhe with the despair this girl was trying to coax her into feeling. Instead, she only feels courage and power swell within her heart. 'He did it for me, and many times my life was saved by him', she stated, firmly. 'I promised myself, I would protect him this time, and that's a promise I will keep'.

Kairi tried to pass this girl, but she was suddenly stopped by a keyblade in her hands. Kairi instantly jumped back from her and draws Oathkeeper, narrowing her eyes at this woman. However, the girl merely shakes her head. 'A promise like your own, is meaningless without the strength to back it up, princess', she lectured with wisdom beyond her years. She lifts her keyblade to aim it at Kairi, and then says: 'The power within that chain is the key to inner strength within you'.

Kairi plucked the chain from her jacket and holds it out with her keyblade still in hand, looking at them both. Closing her eyes and following her heart with the fox girl's hint, she unchained her good luck charm and attached Sora's crown to it. Slowly in a brilliant light, it shifts into Dearly Beloved. Holding the weapon while laying the flat surface on the palm of her hand, Kairi feels the power coursing through it as if she was holding the legendary X-Blade itself.

This was the bond they had created with her promise, to be his guiding light to whenever he was lost in the darkness. Kairi faces the fox girl but before she could speak, a beam of light touched her. 'May this shield you and him from the darkness…', she says. A brilliant light surrounded Kairi and when the light fades, her world is darkened by a visor and the cold no longer touches her body. She looked at her body to see herself encased in the keyblade armor.

Looking around she couldn't see the fox girl anymore, the world's flow of time restored, and everything is as it should be. As the wind howls, Kairi looks at her keyblade and nods. She remembers how Aqua and her brothers managed to use their weapons to create gliders, and calling upon her light, the keyblade begins to shift and turn into her glider. The glider takes the form of a bike with two wings in a downward angle on both sides of the crimson and light pink glider with a seat and handlebars.

Kairi jumps on board and the moment her hands touch the handlebars, it sings to life and blasts her off to the capital…

*Present time*

'After that, I made my way to Gralea and…well you all know the rest', finishes Kairi.

'Another keyblade wielder? But she didn't tell you her name?', Sora asked, confused and having her in his arms for a warm hug. He did this during her story, and she has yet to tell him to let go. She nods. 'She was strange too; her light was something else entirely. Even Luna's wasn't like it', she says. 'But she didn't seem like she was with Xehanort'.

'But you think she's with that ass Master of Masters?', Noctis questioned with his arms crossed. 'Yeah? I mean, she gave me that the vibe that he and she were somehow connected in some ways', Kairi tries to explain. Yen Sid was very quiet, however, hands clasped as he mulled over the princess' story and as much as he would have like to say it was an impossibility that the man she and Noctis have met was nothing more then a guise Xehanort was using to snare them into his scheme, he knew better.

Not even Xehanort was that brave to earn the ire of their master.

'But who is that guy? I mean stopping time, making Kairi see all that weird vision stuff and being so tough he could one-shot her with a finger? That's like, a hundred Sora's into one!', Prompto says, running his hands through his hair. Aqua and Mickey looked at each other, the question lingering on their minds as much as the others, while Ventus frowns at the description of the fox girl. He couldn't help it, but somehow he feels like he knew her…

'It is a matter of which we can put aside for now', Yen Sid assured the team with wave of his hands, 'Let us return to our main point of concern'. While many of them had questions, as the great war loomed over them those would have to be answered another time. As they all stood ready for the next part of this meeting, the old man address the trio of Noctis' party. 'While I admire your courage and loyalty to Noctis, I fear your powers are far below those of Xehanort's vessels', he warned.

'What? Me, I get! But Gladio and Iggy!?', Prompto questioned, pointing to the two men. 'Though they have greatly extended their strength, Prompto, they will have little chances against them', explained the old man.

'I fear he may have a point, Prompto. Even with the dark power, Terra was more than I could handle', Ignis states humbly. 'And hate to join the pity party here…but I don't think me and Ven over there fare any better…maybe worse', Axel huffs. Ventus gave the man a look before Aqua frowned in silent agreement, memories of their clash with Xehanort boomed in her mind. Noctis folds his arms and pondered a solution to it, but with time against them and likely Xehanort's tolerance to the guardian procrastinating probably dwindled to the point of Ignis going a day without ebony.

'So what do we do?', Donald speaks up, 'We can't train long enough to go up against Xehanort…'.

Kairi frowns in agreement as she clasped the necklace around her neck, seeing the trouble. Until Axel swung his arm around Kairi's shoulders and dramatically sighed. 'Damn, what a shame, huh Kairi? If only we had somewhere we could train without worrying about time…', he dramatically said. 'Yeah…that'd be great…', Kairi mused in ignorance. This didn't sit with Axel, and with a tad more force then he needed, pats her shoulder.

'Gee whiz! If ONLY *we* knew SOMEONE who could do that for us!', he stressed. Kairi rolled her eyes. 'Yes Axel, I get it…', she huffed. Then she paused, mulling his words, before clapping her hands. 'The forest!', she exclaimed. Axel makes an exaggerated "duh" noise as Kairi steps up. 'If Merlin takes us there, we could train for as long as we need!'.

'With no time waste and plenty of it to brush up', Riku adds with a smirk as everyone else nodded in agreement. 'Wait…like, time never moves?', Prompto asked. 'No, time will flow much slower there than out here', Yen Sid explained, 'One day out in the worlds could be a month in there'. 'An eternity of training…with Gladio…', Noctis breaths out, 'That sounds like hell…'. 'Oh dude…we're doomed…', Prompto adds with flashbacks of the training.

'Splendid', Ignis says, ignoring their concerns as he turned to Axel and Kairi. 'Then how do we get there?'.

'…we have no idea', they both said together.

'Well gee fellas, we just need to find Merlin', Goofy reminds with a smile, 'I'm sure he'd be happy to take us there if we ask'. 'But where do you think he is?', Donald asks, 'You think he's still in Twilight Town?'. Yen Sid shook his head and said: 'No, Merlin has long returned to Radiant Garden. I sense his magic there'.

'Then we know where we're going! Back to Radiant Garden!', Sora said with a grin. They all gave Yen Sid a bow before they all sprint out of the tower to continue their journey. Once the room was emptied save for Yen Sid, he lowered his head and closes his eyes.

"After all these years…he still wanders …", he thought.

*Space*

With Cindy at the helm and giving the quick run down by the others, the team was resting in the lounge room reading for the trip while going over the world with Noctis' company. Sora was talking about his previous adventures there as Kairi laid her head on his lap. She was taking every chance to be close to him, apparently filling up on her Sora gauge. Something Noctis teased her about earlier.

And she informed him he'll be doing the same when they return to Lunafreya.

'By the way, Axel', Ignis says as he hands everyone their drinks, 'Back at Zegnautus, the nobodies that stopped Terra, you control them correct?'. 'Yeah, guess even after getting my human form back they still listen to me', Axel muses while sipping his drink. 'Learned how to resummons them during training with Kairi'. 'But how many can you summon?', Ignis asked. The pyro shrugged and claims that every assassin nobody technically bowed to him, much like the sniper nobodies bowed to Xigbar's command.

He says only Xemnas, Xehanort's Nobody, was able to create more powerful new ones, and even then sparingly. 'But unlike good ole X-man, I have my own set of bodyguards', he bragged. He snaps his fingers and then five nobody assassins sprouted from the ground before the team. Some of them were a little uncomfortable with them due to their past histories with them, but they were docile and bowed to Axel…and Kairi strangely.

'Hey boys', Axel greets. Kairi waves at them and says: 'Hi Regis, Grey, Hikaru, Sebastian, Walt!'. They kindly bowed back to her with more enthusiasm while everyone just looked at Kairi. She blinks at the stares and asked why. 'D-Did you name them?', Axel growled. 'You never gave them names when you summoned them for the first time', Kairi argued, 'I felt bad for them'. 'B-But they're my bodyguards!'.

'First name first serve', Kairi giggles with cheek in her smiles. Axel huffs and crossed his arms, not going to argue with the girl. Sora though looked at her. 'How do you know which is which?', he asked, curiously. 'Oh simple. See Grey is slightly taller than the rest, Regis always stand proper like royalty, Hikaru is feminine with her movements, Walt is playful, and Sebastian is super quiet', Kairi explained.

'…you got all that just from watching them?', Noctis asked, somewhat creeped out. 'Uh-huh!', Kairi says.

'Speaking of naming', Aqua says, looking at the chocobo chick in her little nest on the table Aqua sat at. 'What's hers?'. 'Oh, well me and Sora agreed on "Koko" since she's a girl', Kairi explained. 'I still think Bartz was better…', Sora muttered. Kairi rolled her eyes at his compliant before Cindy's voice called out on the radio. 'Folks? Ya'll may wanna come on up the cockpit for this', she said worriedly. The party quickly headed for the elevator with Kairi picking up Koko carefully.

Once everyone was there, they could see through the monitor displaying the world before them was Radiant Garden…except unlike the first time Cindy and her bad arrived, it was now like the second time Sora and his friends returned on the second adventure.

It was covered in darkness…

*Keyblade Graveyard*

'So if I am understanding you correctly…the light will expire and the darkness will prevail, as it is foretold?'.

'That's correct', Xehanort states as the world is slowly reaching into the night stage. With the sun slowly descending behind the mountains, the darkness slowly encasing the world. 'You and I know that Noctis will come here, the keyblade demands his light to clash against the darkness'. His companion chuckled knowingly, looking at the new weapon in his hand. 'Oh I know', he chuckled, 'And likely his boyband will be joining him'.

Xehanort chuckled darkly. 'Not that you would mind correct? All more to fall into the darkness, and plenty of chances to return the punishment for their interferences', Xehanort questioned. 'Not at all…however I do have some issues with this… "heart tank" thing your lovely vixen has been spouting', he says. 'And?', he asked, 'What do you have to fear?'.

'Oh no my good friend, I have no concerns over it', his partner remarks as he dismisses his weapon, 'I'm just wondering if it bods any concern when I get to finally put dear Noct's neck to the sword', he asked. 'As far as we are concerned, rest assured, the king of light is yours to deal with', Xehanort says, 'But you know about your end of the deal, yes?'.

'Oh certainly, so long as you get that curiously named weapon of yours, I can do whatever I want with the king?'. Xehanort nods. 'Any other concerns?', asked the older man.

Opening his eyes to reveal golden eyes, Ardyn smiled wickedly. 'None at all'.

A/N: I'm much happier with this chapter! YAY!

As you can see, the party are now heading for the next story arc, the battle for Radiant Garden! And now Ardyn is a vessel for Xehanort, even more powerful than ever. What fun we'll have in the final war…help me…

The chocobo chick was suggested by jikker jack because…yes, we need more chocobos. Thanks for your support.

The names of the nobodies were from a conversation with VashTheStampede0409, so kudos to ya for the talk!

Now remember how I discussed Kairi getting her armour and with KH not going into details how? Well thanks to talking to KakeruPB, we have a smidgen of an idea how they work so thanks for the talk!

Also this will be the last time we see MOM and you know who for the rest of the main story, just so we don't have to worry about anymore characters!

Questions!

Q1: Thoughts on this chapter?

Q2: What did you think of Yen Sid in this chapter? I don't regret making him a jerk :3.

Q3: Thoughts the names of the chocobo and nobodies? Can you figure out the significance of them?

Q4: Kairi's Glider? Like or hate?

Q5: What are you excited to see in the next chapter?

Q6: Ardyn as a vessel? Like or hate?

Q7: Any FF characters you wanna see possibly?


	54. Chapter 54

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 54

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

The very first time Sora has ever set foot on Radiant Garden, he knew that the world was a home to the heartless from the very moment the air of the world reached his lungs. When it was known as "Hollow Bastian", a world that was warped and twisted into an ugly place that the dark ruled over, Maleficent's place of power and home to the final keyhole to the darkness.

When they reclaimed for Leon and the gang, after seeing how far their work had come in restoring it to the glory days brought hope to the boy that even after so long in the clutches of darkness, a world can return to its purity.

Now seeing Radiant Garden, surrounded by the darkness once more, memories of the dark world resurfaced back in his mind.

With the Highwind XV merely orbiting the world from a safe distance after their first attempt to get close, the guardians could only gaze in worry at the world before them. Cindy had tried to get into contact with Cid and the other members of the Restoration Committee, only getting static or silence on their ends. 'This ain't good, nobody's picking up', Cindy announces, 'The heartless are probably blocking the signal or took over the darn place'.

'What the heck caused them to suddenly take over?', Ventus questioned, looking at Mickey, 'We didn't feel ANYTHING like this when we were there'. Mickey nods in agreement as he crossed his arms and pondered. 'Could a more powerful heartless has spawned, and the lesser ones are following them', theorized the mouse king. 'What about the Organization? Maybe they're doing this?', Prompto asked.

'I wouldn't say so…', Riku huffed, 'They've never shown an interest in worlds before, and with the war getting close I doubt Xehanort would waste anything on conquering worlds now'.

'We can figure that out later, but right now we need to go help', Kairi says strongly. 'How? Cindy can't get us close enough to land', Prompto reminds. Their first attempt had the ship shake like it was being shook as if they were in the middle of an earthquake with almost everything going haywire with alarms and the power in some parts shutting off completely. And that was when they tried to get close. They didn't want to guess how horrible landing the ship would be, but many guessed it'd be the last thing they'd do.

'I can't land her with all that darkness mucking up the systems, but I can transport ya'll to the world if we use the teleporter', Cindy says while flicking a few switches. 'Trick is though, it's gonna pick a few locations within the city…'.

'Can't you just transport us all to the castle?', Axel asked with a groan. 'Can you stop being ungrateful and appreciate my help?', chastised Cindy with a roll of her eyes. Before the redhead could retort, Gladiolus pats him roughly on the back and says: 'Stop bitching, we've got a way in'. The tone that promised bodily harm shut Axel up quickly. 'Better than nothing, thanks Cindy!', Sora says as the others head for the teleportation room, jogging after them.

'Just let me know if ya'll clear the signal! I'll try to land her then!', she yelled as the party descended via the elevator.

Once everyone was on the platform for transport, the room hummed loudly as a bright light enveloped the others and then they were gone…

*RG, Market District*

Once his vision was no longer blinded by the hyper bright light that was the miracle of technology, Sora could see himself within the familiar yet distinctly different market district. He lets out a gasp of dismay when he sees how bad the heartless had wrecked the whole place, and the idea of so much work Leon and the others had put into restoring this world be washed away tugged at his heartstrings. Clenching his fist as pain turned into anger, he looked around more to survey the world.

The sky was violet and green with the dark with bolts of violet lightning flashing in the skies, darkening the world in a poisonous green, the sounds of combat filled the air with destruction of the world booming around him, it was as if they were in the middle of a warzone. Overhead he spots heartless flying in the skies with giant balls of green flames being thrown across the city like they were catapulted.

This was not the work of Xehanort or his vessels, he knew that the moment he set foot here. This darkness was strong but he knew it well enough to distinguish it from the Seeker of Darkness, and only one person off the top of his head would be so adamant in reclaiming this world for herself.

Maleficent.

'Sora!'.

He turns to see the party had been reduced to only five, including himself. Kairi jogged up to him with Donald, Goofy, and Prompto behind her, the gunner taking in everything of this new world. 'Where are the others?', he asked as Kairi joined his side. 'I dunno', she says, looking around, 'Cindy did say we'd be teleported to different locations in the city, maybe they ended up somewhere else?'.

Nodding, Sora and Prompto quickly whip out their phones and dialed their companions, putting their devices on loudspeakers. 'Hello? Is anyone on?', Sora said as his phone beeped. On his screen he sees Riku answering while Prompto says: 'I've got Noct!'.

'Everyone here in one piece?', Riku asks, yelling, 'Whose with who?'. 'I've got Kairi, Donald, Goofy, and Prompto with me!', Sora answered.

'Noct's with Mickey, Ven, and Axel!', Prompto says. 'Good, I'm with what's left of the party', Riku answers, showing the others behind him. 'Looks like we're at the central town square'. 'We're at the market', Sora answered, 'And Prompto said Noct's at the bailey'.

'So what's the plan?', Prompto asked, looking at Sora's phone. 'First off, Sora, head into the town and find someone from the RC, give us an idea of how bad things are here. Noct, take the others and go for the computer room through the bailey, that's where all the research is on the Replica program', Riku says on the phone. 'What's that?', Noctis questioned.

'Our only way to bring Roxas and Naminé back', Kairi says. Immediately the keyblade wielding king's face turned from confused to resolute and he nods. 'Gotcha, we're on our way'. 'Good, we'll head to the castle and see if we can find the others there, good luck!', Riku says before ending the call. With their tasks set, the party of five ran into the streets to find their old friends, weapons drawn.

Despite how vastly developed and different the town was since the last time Sora had been here, he leads the team through the streets as if he had been living here for years now. Everywhere they went the destruction of the world only brought them more worries for the RC and questions about how strong the heartless were and just how many of them there was to commit such a huge attack on the city. Then again Sora remembered Maleficent hadn't shown how strong she had gotten over the years since he had fought her, and every time they did meet face to face he could never gauge how powerful she was.

'Any ideas who's behind all this?', Prompto asks as they ran down a flight of stairs. 'Yeah, maybe. Remember that witch we told ya about?', Donald says. 'Maleficent? The what, wicked witch of the west?', jokes the blond. 'Something like that…', the duck grumbled at the joke. 'She's been using the heartless for years, but after we put a stop to her plans she was mostly just moseying around the worlds', Sora explained, 'She was looking for some black box or something last time we saw her'.

'Think that box was important?', Kairi says as the reached what could be a neighborhood of sorts. 'I mean, anything she's looking for has to be bad news for us, right?'.

'Knowing Maleficent?', Sora huffs. Just before he could say something else, they hear a building being destroyed nearby for them to stop running and turn to the direction of the noise. 'That way come on!', Sora says, racing towards the noise.

Through the street and into an open area with a fountain in the center, they see several civilians being guided down another street with one guard yelling instructions to them with another fighting off the heartless with a lance of sorts. A horde of heartless had already dominated the square, some heartless soldiers were dancing on the roofs of the homes of the people, neo-shadows skittering in the ground, buildings and leaping at the townsfolk trying to flee.

A rock troll heartless was swinging its massive axe at anything close to it while some crimson jazz heartless flutter in the air leaving explosives spheres in their dances, large bodies body slamming on the ground and buildings.

The large bodies though were being dealt with by Tifa, as Sora points out, punching and kicking them like there were massive soccer balls. Her raw power was more than enough to destroy the durable fat monsters, but the party sees she must have been fighting for some time based on how weary her movements were and the numerous wounds on her body.

On the roofs, the soldiers were dealing with likely another member of the RC, and by far the most bizarre-looking one among them all. A quadrupedal animal with dark red and orange fur and a thin brown mane. They could see the right eye is scarred, and the remaining eye is ochre. The animal is adorned with a variety of beads, earrings, and feathers around its head, with golden pastern braces and brands on the legs. One of these brands is the number XIII". It also has a flaming tail. There is also black patterns on the legs and what appeared to be face paint.

The beast was clawing and biting the soldiers while performing summersaults and backflips to destroy the soldiers. Whatever it was, obviously it wasn't a regular beast based on how quick it was eating the heartless numbers like it was in a buffet.

'They're not gonna last much longer!', Kairi says as they rush into the fight, 'Let's give them a hand!'.

Splitting up as they reach the square, Sora immediately ran to the rock troll when it marched to the two guardians of the people. He jumped over the troll and landed right before it, Oblivion in hand and stared down the giant heartless. Upon seeing the slayer of its kin, the troll forgets the easy meals and pounds its chest with its huge hand and brings down its axe on Sora.

'Reflect!', Sora cried out, hand raised. A dome of light covers him entirely and the very moment the weapon of the heartless lands on Sora, a blast of magic shots all around Sora and strikes the troll. The power behind his attack was enough for Sora to slay the troll as it's body disappears, the heart fluttering to the skies to return to its host. He turns to the two guardians as more people flee the city, his face went from determined to surprise when he finally has a better view of the two. One of them was very likely the human form of the nobody, Xaldin, if Sora remembered right.

"Xaldin" merely glanced at Sora after he struck down a crimson jazz, giving the boy a reluctant look before he nods. 'Your aid is appreciated, Sora', he greets. Taken aback by the genuine noble and benevolence in his tone, Sora clumsily nods in response. 'You're welcome…err…', he says slowly, not sure what his name was before becoming a nobody. 'Dilan…', he reveals, 'And here is Aeleus'. The other guard merely glanced to Sora, before returning to ordering the people to flee with his weapon on his shoulders.

Aeleus wears the same guard outfit as Dilan: a grey uniform with white cuffs and a red heart on the chest. There are blue hearts on the cuffs of both of his gloves. Aeleus's Axe Sword also appears much closer to an axe than a sword. He has very angular and strong features, with a square chin, straight nose, and sharp cheekbones, blue eyes, and small eyebrows. His hair is auburn and slicked back into rather odd, messy spikes, and that was coming from Sora of all people.

Dilan is a tall, broad-shouldered man that wears a dark slate grey guard uniform, which is adorned with a curled heart symbol and white gloves. The front of his jacket sports two rows of gold buttons, silver highlights, and a red and white heart like the one on his gloves. Wearing a belt and knee-high boots, both of which are black. Dilan's hair is black and worn in long dreadlocks. He keeps most of his dreads tied into a low ponytail, but one dangles over the right side of his face. He also has thick sideburns, eyebrows, and violet eyes.

Sora turned back to the fight and re-joins as the two guards protect the people.

Just as Tifa punched a large body into a wall and follows it up with a powerful roundhouse kick that sent a crimson jazz into the skies like a football, she was struck in the back by another large body's tree-like arm. Tifa lets out a yell of pain and lands on her side, grunting with pain as she rests on a knee. Clenching her fist, she turned to the large heartless suddenly being destroyed.

Behind it stood Prompto with that switchblade before he sheathes it and takes shots at the large bodies nearby. 'You ok, miss?', he asks as he busies himself with shooting the heartless. The girl grunts a "yeah" as she staggered back to her feet, grunting with pain. 'There's too many of them…wait, who are you?', Tifa asked, not recalling seeing this person. 'Oh nobody! Just a friend of Sora's!', Prompto replied as he takes down one large body, 'And name's Prompto!'.

'Sora?', Tifa says, turning to see the two familiar friends of his taking down the soldiers near the red lion with magic and shield while seeing a girl vaporizing the crimson jazz heartless in the air. Then finally to her heart's delight, she saw Sora joining Kairi in taking down the floating red lantern-shaped heartless with his keyblade hacking and slashing through them all. No doubt about it this time, the way he fought and how quick he moved was clear to the martial artist that this was the real deal.

She felt something brush against her arm, making her look to see Prompto holding out a potion for her. 'Here ya go!', he says with a cheesy grin. The woman nods and takes it, crushes it and feels her pain disappear. 'Thanks, now lets clean this mess up!', she says with renewed vigor. The woman dashed towards more of the large bodies as Prompto helps pick off the shadows on the rooftops for the two members of Mickey's court.

With the combined effort of the RC and other world heroes, the heartless were routed swiftly and what remained of the civilians had finally escaped to wherever safe point was left. After he looks around and sees no more of the shadows, Sora nods and dismisses his keyblade, turning to Kairi as did the same, smiling at him for a job well done.

As he was about to speak, Sora was then enveloped into a hug by Tifa. 'There you are! It's great to see you again, Sora!', she says giving him a sisterly hug.

Kairi however, frowns at the woman and approached them. Sora chuckles shyly and hugs the woman back, grinning softly at her. 'Long time no see Tifa!', he greets with equal measures of joy. She loosened her hug, smiling brightly at the boy as his friends with the red canine joining them. The raven turns to Kairi's forced smile as she patiently waits for this woman to release her boyfriend. Only she was allowed Sora hugs.

'A friend of yours?', Tifa asks as she relinquished her hug on the boy. Sora brightens as he addresses Kairi. 'Yeah! Well, kinda. This is Kairi, she's…', he starts before Kairi cuts in. 'I'm his girlfriend', she says in a matter of fact way. This brings a light hue of pink to the boy's cheeks as he bashfully smiles at her while their trio of friends snickered quietly. It was as though he would never get used to her announcing she's his girlfriend.

Tifa, however, remains ignorant of Kairi's possessive and slight jealousy as she nods. 'Oh? So you're the girl he's always daydreaming about?', she asks warmly. And Sora's pink hue upgrades to intense blushing as he waves his hand at Tifa to stop. 'N-N-NO! I mean, yeah b-b-b-but not as much as you're saying!', he denies. Kairi looks at the boy, smirking at him as he stills and sweats more. With a playful wink, she turned back to Tifa. 'It's my charm', she says like it was common knowledge.

Tifa rolled her eyes at the confidence radiating from this girl, but their town was saved by them and her butt was pulled out of the fire because of them. Deciding that the poor boyfriend has had enough being teased for his obvious affection for Kairi, Prompto steps in. 'What's happening anyway? Was this world always filled with heartless?', he asked. At this, Tifa frowns and shakes her head. 'We get heartless sure, but not like this. Its an invasion, a full-scale attack by Maleficent', she reveals.

The three veterans looked at each other, confirming their belief that the old witch was indeed behind this assault. 'But how? She doesn't have that much power over the heartless anymore', Donald asked, recalling one of the members of the previous Organization XIII managed to snatch control from her. 'Donald's right, she hadn't been this strong since she first took over Hollow Bastian', Goofy concurs with his long-time friend. 'And something tells me Pete isn't the one calling the shots either', Sora adds with a scoff.

Tifa shakes her head with a sigh. 'It doesn't matter right now', she says, gesturing to the Dilan and Aeleus, 'Right now we've been trying to get the townsfolk to safety but with all the heartless around we're stretched thin'. 'Indeed. There are still districts filled with people we've yet to lend our aid to'. This information came from…the red canine. All eyes of the other world heroes fall to the animal, now looking at them with a bemused yet curious glance. 'What?', he asked.

'Y-you can talk?', Sora said, blown away. The canine growls. 'Yes, I can talk, boy'. Tifa, however, ruffles his mane playfully. 'You're the last pup to call him boy, Red', Tifa remarks with a grin. Red growls and shakes his head to rid his mane of her hand. Kairi's eyes widened with utter glee as she knelt and scratched his chin, cooing him. 'Aww, he's a cutie, a warrior and a talking dog!', praises the princess of light. Instead of growling at the attention, Red strangely enjoyed her scratches and even nuzzles into her, earning a giggle from Kairi.

'…you're not keeping him, Kairi', Sora said, crossing his arms. Kairi looked at him with a small pout but before she could argue her desires to adopt an awesome creature like Red, Prompto jumps in quickly. 'So what can we do to help? I mean, heartless butt-kicking is what we're good for!', he offers. Kairi ceases her puppy time and stands with the others as Tifa goes over their roles. 'Right now we have to get these people to safety, then we can deal with the other districts', she says with remorse, 'I wanna help, but dragging all these people into the warzone, we may as well leave them to the heartless'.

'Where do you plan on taking them?', Sora asks. 'The castle', Tifa answers, pointing to it. 'Several roads are leading to it and we have a security room for our residents in this district. There's more for each one to save us from clustering everyone up'. Sora nods and gestures himself with his thumb. 'Then me, Donald and Goofy will head to those districts, Kairi and Prompto can help you guys protect the people here', he suggested with a grin.

Kairi looks at him with a frown but before she could argue, Red speaks up. 'Not a bad idea. At least with the six of us, we can keep the people safe, and Sora's group clears out the other districts', he surmises. Tifa nods in agreement, patting Sora on the shoulder in gratitude before she yells to the two guards to go ahead of them. They nod and guide the people to their designated safe zone while Red chases after them in case more heartless spawned.

'You know where to go, right?', Tifa asks. Sora nods, informing her that the layout was different but finding people in need of a hero was a gift of his by now. This gets a laugh from her as she hugs him again before she jogged off to catch up to the others. Leaving the six guardians behind to talk about their change of plans. More so Kairi and Sora, seeing the two members of Mickey's court were better suited for sticking with Sora while Prompto, having no clue where to go, was better off with protecting the folks.

The three of them split off to their tasks, leaving the keyblade wielders to talk. Sora scratched behind his head awkwardly as Kairi's frown softens to worry. 'I don't like this', she states. 'I know, but they need our help', he argues before Kairi shook her head. 'Not what I meant, buster', she chides with a wag of her finger. Her stern looks change back to worry. 'I don't want to be away from you', she confesses. Sora's looks lose the seriousness as Kairi, bashful and guilty, looks away while rubbing her arm self-consciously.

'I know I sound like a brat and shouldn't be acting like this right now…but, I just got you back and, well', she mutters softly while shrinking more and more with every syllable. Gently Sora takes her hand and prompts her to look at his confident smile. 'I know, believe me, when I say I'm regretting this…but you don't know the town like I do, and getting lost isn't something we can deal with right now', he explains with wisdom she always believed he carried. He cups her cheek and warmly smiles.

'But I need you with Prompto and the others in case Maleficent or whoever's behind all this shows up. You're probably the second strongest one among the six of us'. Her eyes widened at that statement, the praises she got from him before warmed her heart but now she felt as if she was on cloud nine from it. In the eyes of her beloved, she saw complete confidence in her and the level of trust he would only give to someone like Riku or Aqua. To be on the end of those looks, her heart soared.

'I don't have to worry about you holding your own anymore, right?', he asked. Kairi nods enthusiastically, grinning happily at his question. Sora's smile widens to a grin and to seal the deal, he leans in and kisses her. Kairi wrapped her arms around his neck and pulls him closer to her, both eyes closed as they exchanged warmth and love. She had forgotten how wonderful it was to be able to do this with him, experience a sensation of love she could only compare in fairy tales.

They broke the kiss with themselves panting lightly, blushing but grinning. They heard their friends calling for them to join them on their respective tasks, making them snicker. Sora nods to her, 'Show them what you can do', he encourages. With that and gesturing his necklace on her neck, he winks and runs off to catch up to his friends with more spring in his steps than a jack-rabbit. When he runs around a corner, she hugs herself and squeals with delight before calming down and summoning Dearly Beloved.

Placing a hand over her heart, she calls upon her armor and dons it, helmet and all. With confidence at an all-time high and strength breaking her limit, Kairi races to Prompto. Today is the day she would stand by Sora's side as his equal…

*Hallway to Computer Room*

With another heartless air soldier brought down by Noctis' crossbow, he warps across the pathway to bring the Shield of the Just down onto an armored soldier, crushing it into nothing. Another armored knight tried to stab at the king, Noctis merely phase around the attack and once he was on the side of the knight, draws his engine blade and splits the warrior in half via waist-section.

'How are we doing?', he asked over fight when he saw Ventus cast a bolt of lightning on a large body. 'Getting there!', the younger boy remarks as he rolls away from the morning star heartless from crushing him. Once it lands on its gut, the youngest apprentice of Eraqus swings his keyblade and strikes the heartless and cuts through its dense armored body. He jumped into the air to chase down more of the air soldiers while Mickey flips around the battle striking heartless wherever they were.

It still amazed Noctis that someone so small like Mickey was able to one-shot the heartless and move with such speed and agility, then again he is a master like Aqua and Riku. The king of Insomnia turned on an armored knight swinging its blade at him, only for the king to call for his spear and plunge it into the heartless. This horde of minions started to gnaw at his patience and the idea of him just going wild with his Armiger was starting to become preferable, but as Mickey had suggested, going all out on the small fry would be a waste of their strength.

Axel joined his side with a swing of his keyblade, slicing through two-minute bombs that tried to detonate on him. He fires a large sphere of blazing fire at the two-morning stars, detonating upon impact and lightening up the room with his attack. The pyro smirks at his handiwork as Noctis repels a dual blade's choice of weapon and throw it over his head. 'Axel, above!', called out Noctis. Axel jumped into the air, grabbing his keyblade with both hands and splits the heartless in half with a grunt.

Mickey leaps in front of Noctis just as more dual blades rush in, waving his keyblade to fire off several pearls of light. The three spheres of light danced in the air while striking the heartless, the powerful magic immediately disposed of them for the four wielders of the keyblade. 'Quickly before more show up!', the mouse king orders, sprinting ahead. Together the four ran down the corridors that had been marred by the war taking place outside, smells of smoke and intense heat filled the hallways.

Several alarms were going off with a few corridors being doused by sprinklers in a vain attempt to put off the powerful flames as the warriors picked off the heartless that tried to halt their progress. Noctis would occasionally glance at Axel's determined dead set look on his face, every heartless they slew only made him more antsy and impatient to get there in time. The king still had questions about this replica thing they were going on about, but the moment he heard it was Naminé and this Roxas guy's only chance to be reborn again he saved them for later.

He already promised Lunafreya she'd get a chance to see Naminé again when this was over, and a good part of him believed Roxas might have had a part in saving Sora back in Eos.

Reaching a clearing with only one corridor remaining that at the end of it had a very large ornate door, they see several heartless trying to break down the door by bashing it with the large bodies and hammer frames attacking the door. Luckily the door itself as Mickey points out was protected by powerful magic based on the shine on the door and energies surging on the white door. That wasn't what entirely captured their attentions, all eyes fell to the two, or really, one leader of the horde.

Standing behind her minions with her staff glowing with dark green fire, Maleficent waits patiently for her lowly subjects to open the door. Pete kept yelling at them to work faster, bragging that the scientists inside wouldn't stand a chance against a horde of heartless. Before Axel and Ventus could announce themselves, Noctis pats their shoulders and had them face him. With a malicious smirk, he lifts two magic flasks in his hand and then gestured the horde.

'Time to make an announcement…', he whispered evilly. The king throws his keyblade above the door and warp strikes to just inches below the ceiling, planting his feet against the wall and displays the flasks. Maleficent and Pete's eyes turned upwards to the king, the cat man looked surprised while the witch raised a brow. Noctis throws the flasks into the heartless horde, warps away from them as the flasks smack two soldiers in their helmeted faces.

A massive explosion of lighting and fire cloaks the corridor leading to the door, consuming the heartless and would have done the same had Maleficent not erect a barrier of dark flames to protect herself and begrudgingly Pete as well. The king of Lucis warps back to his friends as the corridor is now doused in small embers and crackles with lighting, the witch turning on the four keyblade wielders.

'You three!? And this guy!?', Pete shouts, shaking his fist at them. Mickey stepped forth with Noctis, the two kings staring down the two troublemakers. 'You never change, Pete. I thought after the last time you and Maleficent's scheme failed you would've learned by now', chastised the mouse king. Maleficent scoffs at the tone of the keyblade master, 'I had hoped whatever world had taken the brat Sora away would have imprisoned you as well, you little rodent', Maleficent threatened. Noctis placed a hand on his hip with a smirk.

'Well, jokes on you, that happened to be *my* homeworld…and guess who's decided to go sightseeing?', Noctis taunts. The witch's eyes turned to Noctis; a look of unfamiliarity shifted onto her fair-skinned face. 'And who is this? Another wielder guardian of light? Or just another lackey of yours?', she mocks with indifference.

With confidence, Noctis announces: 'The name is Noctis, king of Lucis and fishing!'. He then draws his keyblade as while as summons his Armiger. 'And official keyblade wielder'. His Armiger shoots forth and tightly hovers around the two villains, Pete looking around in horror of the amount of ghostly weapons trained on him as Maleficent glances around her. She turns back to Noctis as he aimed his keyblade at her. 'And in a few minutes, witch slayer', he warned.

'Why are you attacking Radiant Garden, Maleficent?', Mickey interrogates. 'I am merely reclaiming Hollow Bastian, it was mine once if you recall, your majesty', she replies tersely while condescendingly. 'This world belongs to me, after all'. 'I'm calling bullshit on that one', Noctis spits, 'Sounds to me like somebody lost to a certain keyblade wielder and is a bit of a sore loser'. Maleficent glowers at the king as the Armiger presses closer to her, warning her of how quick and easy it would be for Noctis to rid Sora of his old enemy in a blink of an eye.

'You won't win, Maleficent! Sora and the others along with new guardians are here, you won't stand a chance', Mickey says confidently. Pete, however, laughs arrogantly at the mouse king's statement. 'Is that what you think, squeaky?', sneered the oaf, 'That brat was nothing last time we saw him, and I got a good feeling he ain't no master still!'. Mickey crosses his arms at his former captain while Noctis moves his ghostly weapons a little closer to Pete, happy to say the idiot was right below the Mace of the Fierce was right above his head.

'Besides, even if he's gotten a little tougher, we got our boss leading the charge!', cockily said by Pete. Mickey's frowns, his eyes narrowing at Maleficent, now glaring at Pete. 'Be silent, you gibbering oaf!', she hissed angrily.

'What are you talking about?', Mickey demands. As far as they know no one ruled or commanded Maleficent, even Xehanort would have no sway over her. 'Who is leading the heartless now!?'. Maleficent's looks turned smug as black flames suddenly sprout around the two of them, protecting them from Noctis' arms. 'A king of our own, your majesty', she snidely hints before the two villains disappear into the darkness.

Gone with the wind, Noctis dismisses his ghostly arms as Mickey clenched his fists. 'She couldn't mean…', he muses quietly. Shaking his head, Mickey turned to the door and raced on with Axel and Ventus trailing behind him and soon Noctis joins them after some thoughts on the witch. The moment they approached the door, the magical barrier disappears and there is a slight crack in the door, opening slightly.

'T-They gone?', a voice asked from behind the door.

Before Noctis could say so, Axel steps up. 'Wait a second…I know that voice', he sighed. Axel approaches the door and pushes it open, forcing it back with the "guard", who stumbled back with a loud yelp and tumbled onto his back. Entering the office of the mayor, the king takes in how messy and "fortified" it looked compared to outside, with the table being thrown on its side as a barricade, papers scattered on floor like they were all in rush to get things done.

Several sounds of computers beeping and alarms going off could be heard from the corridor on the left, voices yelling over one another. On the floor in front of the fallen table, to the king's shock, was a young man who couldn't be much older than himself looking at the group. What immediately put him on guard was the fact he was wearing a black cloak similar in style to Xigbar's, with somewhat close-fitting sleeves and pointed shoulder pads. He has golden eyes like Xigbar and dirty-blond hair, the latter of which is quite distinctive since it is an odd mullet-like style, and he has several individual bangs that fall over his face.

'Demyx', Axel states before he approaches the young man and heaves him up to his feet by grabbing the collar of his cloak. He pressed him to the wall as the young man squeaks with fear while the trio watch with careful eyes. 'What are you doing here? How'd you sneak in the castle anyway?', questioned Axel. 'W-W-W-WHOA! Dude calm down! I'm not the bad guy!', pleaded the former nobody, waving his hands in cartoonish speeds.

Axel scoffs at him, disbelievingly. 'Oh sure you're not, you're just here for what, to take avoid doing any work from your boss?', he accused. Demyx gulps and meekly looks away. 'I mean…kinda…b-b-b-but I'm not working for cue ball anymore! Swear on my heart!', he says, before weakly chuckling, 'Never thought I get to say that again…'. While Axel refuses to let go, Noctis just watches on while trying to get an idea on the guy. Truth be told, Demyx reminded him of Prompto when he first met Gladiolus, the nervousness and the attempts of humor, pitiful as they were, were genuine.

Interestingly, unlike Xigbar and even Axel at first glance, he feels no ill or malice from Demyx. The guy was truly afraid of Axel, and if he was right he should still have all the strength he possessed as a nobody. Yet he hadn't even attempted to fight back. A gamble at best, but the king uncrosses his arms. 'I think he's telling the truth, Axel', the king says. 'Y-Yeah! Listen to that guy! He knows what he's talking about! …I think so anyway…'.

'Noct', started Axel, before he was suddenly whacked on the head by a long polearm. 'Get your hands of Demyx!', cried a sweet voice.

Axel releases his grip on the previous nobody while vainly trying to defend himself from the polearm. Quickly putting Demyx behind her, Aerith turned to Axel with her staff in hand. 'Axel, I will not tolerate any roughhousing in the mayor's office, especially when we're in the middle of a war!', stated the woman with a very strict motherly tone. Axel opened his mouth to argue while rubbing his head, but the woman raised a hand. 'No excuses! Apologize to Demyx right now!'.

'What!? B-But he's…', starts the red-haired pyro but Aerith merely patted her staff, warningly. Axel groans and while glaring at the previous nobody, he grits out an apology. It took all the strength within the trio not to laugh at this sudden change. Aerith turned to Mickey and the other two with a kind and warm smile. 'Its relief to see you returned', she greets, then eyeing Noctis. The king waves and says: 'Noctis, friend of Sora's'. This put an even warmer smile on her face at the mention of the boy. 'You found him then?', she asked.

'Yeah, and likely he's cleaning your city of heartless', Noctis informs, 'Along with everyone else'. Demyx nudges Aerith with a cheery grin. 'Ha! See? Looks like we're not out for the count yet!', he says. Aerith nods as Mickey approached her. 'Aerith, what happened here? How did Maleficent even get into the city?', he asked. 'And do we even know who's helping her with all these heartless?'. Aerith nodded and gestured them to follow her into the main computer room.

Walking on the glass walkway the gave Noctis a visual marvel of the technology Radiant Garden displayed, it was no wonder why Cindy gushes about this place. It was large like the labs the Niflhiem had, but there were more skeletal parts of what could have been GS for all he knew about engines and vehicles, several computer voices booming about the current threats and situations. Leading them on, Aerith explains to the party that this invasion had started merely three days ago with on the third day Maleficent's heartless managed to fully enter the city.

Ventus points out the last time they were here heartless popped in parts of the city, Aerith explains while their security wasn't perfect with keeping them out, the numbers here would never be a common thing. If anything she believed because of their abilities to track keyblade wielders they managed to sneak in.

'We've tried to keep as many sections closed off from the heartless, but Maleficent found a weak point in one of our city walls and used that as an entry to the city', she explains as they climb a flight of stairs. 'Leon tried to keep the fight within that part of the city, but the numbers were too much and soon enough, our defensives were overrun by the darkness and whatever hope of keeping them in one place became a pipe dream'.

'Ever since that, we've been holed up here trying to keep the spooky witch out of here', Demyx joins in, 'Aerith was the only one keeping the barrier up the whole time!'. 'You guys don't have anyone else who can fight here?', Ventus asks, 'Where's Zack? Yuffie? Heck ANYONE else?'. Aerith lowered her head with her face shifting to worry, immediately Demyx chimed in. 'Zackster was the first one to the other sections of the city to fight off the heartless, but he…he's probably too busy kicking butt to say something'.

He gives the woman a sympathetic smile as she nods gratefully to him for trying. 'Everyone else of the Exterminator Squad has been radio silent since then, we've tried to get into contact with them but haven't heard anything since then', Aerith explains. 'And as much as we want to head out and help, we can't afford to leave this place without proper security'.

She finally takes them to the main computer room where inside they could see Cid busying with trying to get everyone up and running again while two scientists with Ienzo were trying to finish something. The young man turned to their visitors, relieved to see back up had arrived, smiling at them and greeting Aerith and Demyx, prompting everyone else to look.

The first scientist sports platinum blond worn long with two slightly shorter bangs that frame his face. He also has a rather large bright shade of blue. He is wearing a long white lab coat, grey vest, white collared shirt, and a purple ascot with black pants and silver-lined boots. He frowns upon seeing Axel, who was giving him the look of "oooh this awkward".

The other scientist is wearing a periwinkle lab coat, identical to those worn by the other two scientists save for the color. Underneath this, he w a dark grey vest, white collared shirt, and a violet ascot, as well as black pants and shoes. He also draped a red sweater or coat of some sort over his shoulders. Blond hair worn long and slicked back, sporting a mustache and goatee. His eyes are bright orange.

'Ansem?', Mickey asked with gasped, 'You're…'. The old man smiles nostalgically at the mouse king with a nod. 'Mickey, it's relief to see you and your companions', he greets warmly. His eyes fell to Noctis with a look of familiarity, like he's seen the young king before. Before he delves deeper into his memory, the old man shakes his head and gestured them to come closer. 'I'm sure you've seen our world is under siege by that wretched witch', he says.

'Just how bad are things?', Noctis asked.

'We're elbow deep in crap, that bad!', Cid shouts as he works on the computer, inputting commands. 'That old horn head screwed with our security! Must have had those little bastards damage some of our generators, without them, we barely have enough power to keep a freaking light bulb on!'.

Ansem nods with an obvious look of disapproval to the language of the man. 'Indeed…', he hums, turning to Mickey's group. 'Cid has been trying to reboot the defense systems but I fear he may have more results slamming his head against the monitors'. 'So far all he's managed to succeed at is keeping the lab up and running', Even says, 'And tragically until we can repair the generators, all the power we have is being diverted to this one room'.

Noctis crossed his arms at this with a very unamused look on his face. 'Seriously? I know you scientists LOVE your experiments, but maybe you could put them aside for, I dunno, protecting the city?', he questions. Even scowled at the boy before Ansem raises a hand at him, stopping whatever harsh retort he could conjure up. He turned to Noctis. 'I understand it may seem we have our priorities mixed up, Noctis, but we have someone of great importance being kept alive here'.

Axel's eyes widened as Even turns to him. '…the replica we have for Roxas is being kept on life support', he laments, 'When the systems first shut down, we had nearly lost the body. The only way to keep it alive was for Cid to transfer all power to the lab'.

Slowly it dawns on the king of Lucis the urgency of this sacrifice because on glance to the other room through a window he sees a large test tube with a body dressed in the Organization's cloak inside it. Monitors beeping from within as the lights flickered on and off, strongly implying the power was growing weaker and evaporating quickly. 'Then what the hell do we do? Can't you guys get more power from somewhere? Anywhere!?', Axels growls.

'We cannot with the heartless', Ienzo laments, 'Myself, Even and Master are the only ones who know how to keep the replica alive, Aerith is our only defense against the heartless and without Cid, we won't be able to keep the power going'. 'But is there a place with a back generator?', Mickey asks hopefully, 'Surely there's gotta be one'.

'Yes…but the pathway there is littered with heartless', Aerith says with sigh. Noctis stepped forward. 'Do you know the way?', he asked. She nods, which prompts Noctis to look at Mickey and Axel. 'Then me and Ventus will go with Aerith and get that generator going, you guys stay here and hold down the fort'. They nod while Aerith smiles in agreement along with the scientists. The woman picks up her staff and guides the two of them back to the entrance while Mickey goes over the plans with the scientists, leaving Axel to glance at the replica.

"Don't worry buddy", he promised, "I'll make sure your new body is safe". He was patted on the back by Demyx, now sporting a "cool dude" smile. 'I'll take that "thank you" whenever you feel like it', he teases. Axel raises a red brow at the guy, then the water user smirks. 'Who'd ya think brought the replica here?'. 'Oh? So you stole from Xehanort?', Axel asked with doubt in his tone. This made Demyx frown, then his face turned white as a ghost.

'…oh shit, I did…', he gulps.

'…dude how are you still alive?', Axel asks.

*Town Square*

Arriving at the town square after fighting their way through the heartless while saving some of the townsfolk, the four heroes ran for the gates. 'We're almost there!', Riku announces as they neared the exit. Before they could climb the slope towards it, they stopped when they heard something hit the ground. Turning back, they all witness Leon being thrown and slammed into the ground with a heavy thud, bouncing off the ground and skidding slightly before he stilled.

The mayor of the city grunts in pain, slowly getting to his feet while grasping for his sword. The four raced to him and Aqua immediately tended to him. She sees the man had taken quite the beating from whatever he fought, several wounds varying from cuts, bruises, and likely broken bones if she was certain. 'Hold on', she says, summoning her keyblade and healing him.

Leon grunts in relief, taking Aqua's help to get back to his feet. 'Thanks…', he grunts out. He looks at them before he says: 'Friends of Sora's, I'm guessing?'. Riku smirks in turn. 'Whatever gave you that idea?', he playfully asks. 'Meddling, showing upright when you're needed…plus, keyblades', Leon lists with a scoff, laying his gunblade on his shoulders. The weapon immediately caught Gladiolus' eyes, brows raised and awe.

'Holy…is that a gun…combined with a sword?', he asked. Leon turned to the larger man and nods. 'Yeah? Never seen a gunblade before?', he asked. The shield shakes his head, sporting a grin. 'Where'd ya get it?', he inquires. 'Gladio, you can't use a gun', Ignis remarks, 'You have horrible aim!'. 'Who needs to aim when I can cut AND shoot at the same time?', questioned the tall man.

Ignis opens his mouth for a counter-argument, but then before he could get it out, a horrible presence is felt by them all. Leon turned back up to the high wall were standing atop of it, his attacker is revealed to the party of four.

Looming over them beneath the corrupted skies, with a single black wing outstretched on his left while in his right hand was a long red blade emitting a red mist. Genesis smirks at Leon and the other world heroes. 'And who's this?', Gladiolus questioned as everyone draws their weapons. 'Don't know, probably someone Sora fought before', Riku confesses. All the while with their eyes on the man, the masters couldn't help but sense his power.

Not since Xehanort had they felt such imposing darkness like his, the sheer amount of power resonating within was on a whole new level. The darkness too wasn't anything like the keyblade master, there is no trace of the heartless on him nor could they sense he possessed a keyblade. They feared this man before them was not the commander of the heartless, but rather someone else who had something to gain from conquering the city of light.

Genesis flies into the air and then dives towards the warriors. He was so fast he managed to get right behind them all before they could even see him rush past, and because of their experiences, they just narrowly avoided his sweeping blade. Some evaded him while Gladiolus blocked his attack with his shield, but even he was pushed back from the attack. Scrambling to their feet, the five warriors stared down the man in red.

'I must say, I'm quite disappointed by the poor defenses this city has to offer', he chastises with a touch of arrogance. 'I heard there was someone here who once slew a thousand heartless alone, and what a disappointment it is to see, it wasn't any of your Restoration Committee members'. Leon barely reacts to the taunts, instead he dashes to him and swings his gunblade at the warrior in an upward arc.

Genesis parries Leon's strikes with just simple swings of his red blade, sparks flying off their weapons as Leon's speedy strikes were all blocked by Genesis', the man barely moving at all against his attacker. Leon brings his gunblade down onto him, just to be deflected by a lazy swing of Genesis that threw his weapon up in the air. The man in red aimed his hand at Leon and fired a blast of fiery energy that struck him and threw him back.

Leon lets out a yell of pain as he is thrown into the air, slamming onto the ground as his gunblade stabbed into the ground near him.

Genesis sighs with disappointment, turning to the others. 'With luck, you four will provide a decent challenge', he said without any form of belief in his hopes. As the guardians raised their weapons, prepared for their fiercest battle yet, a sudden dread settles within their hearts.

The battle for Radiant Garden has finally begun...

A/N: …part one…

So I'm not sure how many more of RG I wanna do, maybe two more but ya never know.

I'm sorry if this one isn't so good, I dunno why but I wasn't getting much ideas for this chapter and I feel like I might be hitting a wall with this arc. I'm not sure how to feel about it, but please let me know if you guys want this arc to continue, or I can do something else.

Please leave me your thoughts!

No questions this time, until I hear back on what you thought on the arc.

Thanks for reading, stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	55. Chapter 55

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 55

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

*Nearing the Castle*

'Quickly, fall back to the castle!', Dilan yells over the fight, guiding the civilians to the castle.

With the horde of people slowly growing smaller and smaller to just a handful of citizens, the forces of the darkness grew in numbers and desperation to consume as many hearts as they can get their evil claws on.

Only by the combined forces of light stayed their claws and prevent more hearts from being lost, Tifa beating down the trolls and bigger heartless with the force of runaway trains, Red XIII ripping and tearing apart the shadows that prowled the ground, his flaming tail scorching the soldiers.

Kairi, armored up, hacked and slashes her foes to nothing like a gardener cutting weeds, her strikes precise and clean. A morning star tried to crush the armor heroine, only to have itself be parried by Kairi and thrown into the skies. She leaps up into the air and once she was right above the armored heartless, Kairi smacks it with a two-handed strike of her keyblade and sends it careening towards a troll. Like a baseball to the skull, the two collided and were destroyed by her strength.

While still in the air, Kairi looks to the wyverns diving towards her with bullet speed. She raised her left hand at them and fires a barrage of ice shards at them. The crystal blue chilling spikes pierce their wings and forces them to crash into the ground as the princess of light dives back down to the ground.

Prompto rolled away from a mechanitaur group's charge, just narrowly avoiding being trampled to death. Rolling on his sides until he gets back to his feet, Prompto calls on his bazooka and turned it on the group. Firing one rocket at the group, the explosion consumes them in a fiery cloud and reduced them to nothing, liberating a problem for the young man. The gunner turns to the skies to see Kairi landing before him, nodding at his performance as they turned around to see a troll about to crush them both.

Kairi instantly erects a barrier to protect them, repelling the attack and protecting the two. The moment the weapon bounces off the shield, Prompto calls for his machine cannon and rushed in. With a pull of the lever, he discharges a fully charged blast the destroys the troll with a single charge, leaving a giant hole in the chest before the body disappeared. He gives Kairi a thumbs up in appreciation, then turned to the last of the civilians running into the castle before the giant blue steel doors closed behind them.

With a fist pump to the air, Prompto hoots in victory. 'We did it!', he cheers. Kairi smiles behind her helmet just as Tifa and Red XIII joins them. 'That all of them?', Kairi asked, gesturing the castle gates. 'At least in this section of the town', Tifa says, prompting the gunner to take out his phone and dial the others for an update.

He managed to get through to Sora luckily and the boy responded to his worries with a hearty cheer and says they were just finishing up with the marketplace before heading for the last district. Red gave everyone a genuine look of amazement by the speed of Sora's work while Tifa whistled, bragging he wasn't this strong last time she saw him. Kairi smugly took all the praise for her boyfriend in, if they saw him in action their jaws probably be hitting the other side of this world.

'Looks like Sora's doing good', Prompto comments with a grin before hanging up, 'Kinda worried Noct and Iggy didn't check in yet'. 'Maybe they've got their hands full?', Kairi remarks. 'But whatever comes, they'll handle it'. He nods, recalling who was with who and Noctis was far stronger than any heartless this world could throw at him. As the four were debating on what was next, Red XIII growls.

'Red?', Tifa asked just as Kairi's shoulders tensed. Kairi grips her keyblade tightly as the shadows of this new threat rises, a darkness she hadn't sensed before. A coldness and terrible scent of death and decay loomed over the air, the evil behind it was inhuman compared to everything she had faced thus far. Prompto squared his shoulders and raised his pistol, likely he too must have sensed something evil approach.

Slowly a mist of cold seeps around the party of four, the chill of death of sorts, unlike anything Kairi had seen before. The scent of the heartless was thin and minimal as if it were a minor power compared to the true darkness that threatened them.

'Disappointing', a raspy cold dead voice speaks. The chills racing down Kairi's spine was as if the cold froze it entirely and warmth of the world around her had died even within her armor. Slowly leaving the mist that threatened to consume them, a skeletal being slithers out of the mist with piercing glowing red eyes. 'I warned Maleficent of intervention of the light…and a minor inconveniences like yourselves', he sighs.

'W-What the hell is this guy?', Prompto asked, gun pointing at the Horned King. Kairi had no words, this being of the dark was something entirely unholy. Even Maleficent could not put her in such a state of uncertainty, a sensation of fighting something that could not possibly exist in this world. She sensed not even the smallest glimmer of light within this monster, just the cold bleak darkness of what she thinks could be his heart.

Yet strangely his heart was faint and weakened, like in a moment's notice he would pass on to the next world but somehow it was being stayed by something. Magic or something far darker, she couldn't say for certainty. The king raised a skeletal hand at them, with corrupted and rotting flesh barely hanging onto his hand. 'Interlopers of the light', he curses, 'Your futile resistance ends here'. Tifa steps up with her fists, glaring at him. 'Who do you think you are? This is OUR home, and we're going to let some bag of rotten bones take it!'.

Red XIII snarls in agreement at the king, baring his fangs and teeth while Kairi and Prompto readied their weapons. Even against this opposition, the king scoffs. 'Fools', he says coldly as the cold air coils around them and slowly they could hear the ground crack and break apart. Kairi looked below her feet to see rotten fleshy hands sprout out from the cobblestoned ground like weeds. She jumps back in shock and horror with the others as more hands begin to claw their ways up from the ground.

'Arise my army, reclaim your master's land', the Horned King commands as the legion of the dead begin to climb and crawl from their unmarked graves. Slowly the road is infested with a horde of the undead, many of them wearing armor that had become rotted and rusted beyond use from ages past, their bodies a mixture of just yellowed and filthy bones with green rotted flesh, sockets where their eyes once laid often emptied or carried pure grey orbs.

Kairi holds back to urge to vomit at the sight of these creatures, even the blight infecting people didn't startle her this bad. Tifa and Red XIII growled at the horde as Prompto looked close to fainting or screaming. Kairi couldn't fault him, she was keeping her screams back in her throat. The undead legion carried broken and rusted weapons, swords, axes, maces and other means of medieval weapons that had long advanced through time.

'Zombies!? Nobody said anything about fighting zombies!', Prompto shrieks, frantically aiming his gun at them all. The Horned King stands behind his minions as they marched to the defenders while more are raising from the ground, polluting the hill leading to the castle gates, his bony hands encased in black and greenish flames. He subtly begins to chant as the heroes backed up from the horde until Kairi stepped forward.

'Stay back! I'll take them on, Prompto give me covering fire!', she ordered, 'Tifa, and you Red XIII head into the castle and warn the others!'. 'What? We're not leaving you two!', Tifa admonishes strongly. Red XIII, however, nudges her leg, shaking his head. 'We can't fight them like this, one wrong move and we may end up part of his legion', he speaks wisely, 'Kairi's armored and the boy can keep his distance'.

Tifa looks back at Kairi, now giving her a thumbs up, 'We'll handle these guys'. Reluctantly, Tifa nods and together with Red XIII, they sprint off to the castle as the entire path is filled with the undead. Prompto gulps as Kairi clutches Dearly Beloved in both hands, the girl then runs into the horde swinging. Her holy weapon cleaves through the undead like they were nothing, splitting them apart easily as with each hit with her keyblade against their brittle forms they went down like haphazardly put together towers.

Their movements were luckily too slow for Kairi to be caught off guard, her sharp reflexes and senses kept her on her toes with each strike, calculated and already deciding who needed to be removed first. Dearly Beloved's powerful light not only brought them down like they were nothing but because of the keyblade's light and magic, the moment they fall they would be entering a permanent sleep without dreams.

With Prompto behind as the horde desperately tried to take own Kairi, he managed to pick several of them off with well time shots of his revolver. Thanks to their thin skulls and helmets, the bullets pierce through to hit more than just the one. He kept his aim short and timed, hoping to avoid hitting Kairi despite how quick she moved and if he was sure, she'd know where he was aiming but he didn't want to test out how durable her armor was against bullets.

Spinning her keyblade in her right hand like a buzz saw, Kairi begins to march towards the Horned King while spinning her keyblade and slowly cutting down the undead horde. She flips over a collapsed solider, spun around and widely strikes down three soldiers with a single stroke of her keyblade. As unsettling as it was fighting monsters like this, Kairi remembered Sora telling her nearly a year ago now that spells or curses like these stood no chance against the keyblade's magic.

Back in the world of pirates on his first touring of that world, he told her about the cursed gold that turned the pirate captain and his crew into the undead. Only when the moonlight shined on their cursed flesh would their decaying forms be revealed and exposed to the magic. Still, though she feared the more she'd cut down the Horned King would just replenish tenfold, for all she knows this could be a graveyard that was buried beneath their feet.

She cuts down another soldier, leaving the Horned King defenseless before the princess of light with only the flames of his dark magic lighting his hands. 'You're done for!', she exclaimed, dashing towards him.

Then the dark being gave her a cruel skeletal grin as he lifts both hands. The moment Kairi's foot touched the ground, a barrier of red flames and darkness erects around her and traps her in place. Kairi yells in shock and fear as the flames closed on her, her armor and cape protecting her as the ground turned into a swirl of black ink darkness. 'Foolish child of light…', he gloats as Kairi begins to sink into the darkness. She struggled to yank her feet out but like quicksand the more she struggled the quicker she sank. Kairi tries to use her magic as an escape but by the time she could think of a spell she was already neck-deep into the darkness, her head and right hand the only things still out of the darkness.

'KAIRI!', Prompto shouts. Quickly he dismisses his revolver and brings out his switch-sword, rushing in and hacking away the horde. His desperate adrenaline-fuelled strikes helped him to a wondrous degree as he nearly reached Kairi's prison, only to see her hand sink into the darkness with her keyblade disappearing into the light. Prompto cleaves the head off a soldier as the Horned King's body was slowly being cloaked in the reddish flames he use to trap Kairi before with a rueful look, he disappears.

'Consume his flesh my soldiers…', his voice rumbled overhead. It was there the gunner realized he was in the middle of a horde of flesh-eating zombies. Panicking, Prompto begins to hack a swing at ANYTHING that came close to him, cutting a few limbs of the skeletal monsters while using his free hand to shoot at them after recalling his gun. He needed to escape, get some distance from these freaks, but they grabbed an tugged on his body, trapping him in place.

Prompto thrashes around wildly like a caged animal as his gun goes off in his blind panicking, shooting the skies and sometimes the undead, his thoughts going back to Kairi and how this may be his final moments.

That was until a gunshot went off and struck down the zombie that tried to take a bite of his neck. More gunshots go off, particularly off on the undead holding the gunner in place which gives him more freedom to fight back and escape. 'Over here boy!', a voice calls out. Not questioning who was saving his skinny backside, Prompto slashes his way out of the horde and scrambles back up the hill to the voice who rescued him.

He raise his head to see a man standing near the castle gates with what appeared to be a rifle in his hands as he takes shots at the horde. His hair is brown in a ponytail and has blue eyes. A black cowboy hat, a purple vest, a long khaki-colored jacket, black fingerless gloves and brown chaps over black trousers with black boots. He has grey earrings and a red and yellow beaded necklace. The cowboy tips his hat to Prompto and offers a hand to him.

'Irvine Kinneas, Radiant Garden's number one sharpshooter, at your service', he greets to the gunner. Prompto takes his hand with a grin and is pulled back to his feet as more of the undead resume their march to the castle grounds. 'Looks like we've got a bit of a pest infestation', he says with a casual smile, 'Least it ain't heartless…'. Prompto chuckles weakly at him as he reaches into his phone while Irvine begins to unload bullet after bullet upon the horde.

"Time to call in the big guns", thought Prompto, dialing Sora and Noctis.

*Nearing the generators*

'Just a little further ahead!', Aerith announces as the boy cleave their way through the heartless.

Noctis was already going all out with his Armiger, though at the basic form as opposed to his full potential, becoming a whirlwind of blades that cleared the hallway for the trio while Ventus would use his Shot-Lock skills to take out the ones the king may have missed. The hallway like pretty much every other one they had entered was crawling with heartless, mostly the bigger dense ones like morning stars and large bodies with a few air soldiers.

The king figured without the security defending the place and with little manpower to contest with the heartless, the creatures must be busying themselves with occupying every bit of the castle they could before Sora or the others could attempt to reclaim it. Noctis wondered about this supposed ally that fat cat was bragging about earlier, wondering if this was someone Sora had fought previously and likely beaten. Yet Mickey was as clueless as he was when Pete bragged about him, could this be someone new?

Ventus brings down the air soldiers with his unique shots just as Noctis brings down Sword of the Tall onto a morning star, crushing it. Aerith runs past the fight and approaches the door's keypad, entering the code while her bodyguards do their thing. Noctis throws Night's Sky at a diving crimson jazz, spinning it around as it slices through the bright heartless while Ventus jumps off the walls and cuts down the pesky heartless in the air.

Noctis had to give credit to the kid, for as inexperienced as Aqua said he is, he knew how to handle himself in the air.

With the heartless slain just in time, Aerith opens the door and the two join her side. But before they could walk in, Noctis quickly pushes Ventus on the left side of the door while he grabs Aerith and throws them back against the right side of the door. Bullets flew out of the room along with some bolts of lightning. 'Back off! I've got bullets for everyone one of you!', a female yells out. Noctis tries to shout over the sound of the gunfire and light but his voice falls to deaf ears.

Aerith raises her staff and gently waves in front of the now cleared doorway. 'Yuna, calm down, it's me!', she yells, waving her staff like a flag, 'I've brought help!'. Thankfully the barrage of attacks stopped in a matter of seconds, making the three of them sigh in relief and enter the room. Inside Noctis sees tables had been thrown on the side for makeshift barricades, a large computer screen behind it with several tools scattered on the ground near the control panels.

There are clear signs of fighting that took place within the generator room but luckily none of the machines were damaged, scuff marks on the metal with some steel torn open and smells of smoke. Jumping over one of the tables was Yuna, holstering her guns and waving at Aerith. 'Good to see some friendly faces', she greets tiredly. Noctis glances at her and does a double-take when he sees her choice of apparel, and promptly looks away with a hue of red dusting his cheeks.

And there he was thinking Cindy's attire was questionably hot…

Resting down against the wall behind the table barricade was Paine, her skull blade resting against her shoulder that was wrapped with dried blood staining it. The woman gives Aerith's worried glance a wave of assurance with a tired smirk. 'One of those dual blades got me, just a scratch', she replies with assurance before grunting in her namesake. Aerith rolled her eyes and approaches her as Yuna turned to Noctis and a blushingly awkward Ventus.

Yuna raised a brow at the king who waves and reveals his name to save time. 'What's the story of the generator? Have you girls got it fixed yet?', he asks. Yuna gestured to the platform behind her and when the two keyblade wielders leaned to the right to see behind Yuna, they saw Rikku with her back facing them with a door plate off the machine. 'Rikku's been trying to get it going ever since we lost power, I think she said she'll have it done soon', Yuna assures.

'With all the heartless that kept trying to break in and the ones that managed to teleport here, we've been split between fighting and trying to get everything going', explains Yuna. She then frowns. 'We've been here for a while, how bad has it gotten?'. Ventus frowns with worry. 'Pretty bad, Cid said the city's hosed without the defenses and there's heartless everywhere we go', Ventus explains. 'But lucky for you guys, Sora's here with some help from my gang and more', Noctis said confidently, 'So if you guys get that security thing up and running, then we've half the work cut out for us'.

Yuna grinned with relief as Aerith finishes healing Paine, just as Rikku yells: 'Yunie, whose there? Is it that Irvine creep?'. Yuna giggled. 'Nope, its Aerith, a guy name Noctis…and Ventus~', she says, adding a hint of flirt when she mentions Ventus.

The reaction the party got from dropping Ventus' name made Rikku shoot up from her crouched position and turn on the boy, now blushing more intensely. She beamed happily and immediately dashes for the boy, enveloping him in a tight hug. 'Aww, welcome back Venny!', she coos. Ventus stiffens like a board, his blush reaching his ears and burning so bright Noctis could see the steam rising from them.

The poor boy couldn't even squeak out a greeting to the affectionate blondie while Rikku grins at him. 'This is the second time you came to our rescue, you little hero you!', she coos, pecking him on the cheek. Anymore blushing and Noctis fears the poor boy was gonna faint, much less function if all his blood went to his face. The girl turns to Noctis with a confused look, but he quickly answered her questioned look with a quick summary of he and Sora's group came back to help. 'Look not to be rude but can ya maybe pick up the pace and fix that generator?', Noctis asked impatiently, 'The others need back up'.

Rikku pouts at him as she releases Ventus from her hugs. 'I'm working on it, and nearly done thank ya very much!', she says. 'Then could you please finish it?', Aerith asks with a touch of authority, 'Right now we're on the end of our ropes'. Rikku opened her mouth to speak but Aerith gave her the motherly glare that promise a horrible punishment if the child disobeyed the mother. Rikku shuts her mouth quickly, weakly muttering a "yes ma'am".

'Rikku, fix the system and you can hug Ven all day after, ok?', Yuna bribed. 'WHAT!?', Ventus shouts in shock. 'Ok, sounds like a fair deal', Noctis agreed. 'NOCT!', Ventus yells again. 'DEAL!', Rikku chimes and rushes to get the job done.

'DON'T I GET A SAY IN THIS!?', Ventus questions with his cheeks rivaling a tomato. 'Sorry kiddo, but in war, we've gotta make sacrifices for the greater number', Noctis says with the "wisdom" of the king. This was a matter of a political negotiation, sacrificing the comforts of one to save the lives of many is a noble sacrifice. 'I think it's a fair trade', Aerith concurs with a giggle, 'Besides, Rikku is very affectionate'.

'DOESN'T MY PERSONAL SPACE MATTER!?', Ventus asks while grabbing his head with both hands. 'I'M NOT A TOY FOR SOMEONE TO CUDDLE!'.

Before he could rant more about this "horrible" situation, Noctis' phone goes off and he quickly answers it. Just as he does, the room lights up with bright lights as the machines roared to life, the hallway behind them bathed in blue light. Rikku grinned victoriously as she radios Cid to update him, throwing back on the comms for everyone with a phone and/or earpiece. The monitor begins to show off parts of the city with security cameras watching over.

This gives the team a perfect lay of the land and displays the heroes fending off the heartless and more. Rikku presses one of the buttons to communicate with Cid. 'Gramps, we got the power going!', she says. A tough laugh rumbles through the computer's radio before a monitor showed Cid with a smirk. 'I can see that ya little gremlin! Bout damn time ya got her going!', he praises/chastised, his hands working on the keyboards. 'Time to give those little bastards a taste of Radiant Garden's new defenses!'.

'How are things over there? Are you all ok?', Aerith asks. 'Axel and his majesty's been kicking out any heartless that so much as sniffs the door, we've got that replica thing up to speed, it'll be fine without all power going in!'. Then he curses and starts to yell at one of the scientists to help with something before he turned back to the group. 'Rikku, gonna need ya to stay there and keep things running! Radar showing a lot of heartless heading your way!', he ordered. 'You got it pops!', Rikku affirms with a salute.

Ventus turns to the entrance to see Noctis storming out, making the boy run to him. 'Noct, where are you going?', he asked, sure he had heard Cid's orders. The king turned to Ventus with a grim look. 'Prompto called, Kairi's been captured', he reveals. The young keyblade wielder gave him a strong look of worry before he turned to Rikku. 'Rikku, can ya find Kairi on that thing?', he pleads. 'Hang on a second, Venny!', she says, going through the cameras monitoring the city.

'…and please stop calling me that…', he begged weakly.

Several scrolls of the monitors, she calls out one that was overseeing the outskirts of the land. Near the old fortress occupied by Maleficent, just on the cliff that overlooked her old base, they see Kairi was surrounded by heartless with the Horned King atop of a cliff, summoning heartless for her to battle. 'There she is!', Ventus cried out, 'Where's that?'.

'That's by Villains Vale, Maleficent's old fortress', Aerith explains. 'Then that's where me and Sora are going!', Noctis says. 'Might wanna hold off on that for a second', Paine grunts, pointing to another screen. All eyes turned to see Riku's group facing Genesis, with only himself and Aqua faring against him while they saw Ignis and Gladiolus being thrown aside like they were nothing. Noctis' eyes widened in horror before that fear melted into anger.

'Ven, stay here and guard this place, I'm going after that wannabe Rockstar!', Noctis orders and before Ventus could argue, the king races out of the room. Running down the corridor as it begins to flood with heartless, he draws Night's Sky and roars, bursting into his Armiger and flies through the heartless. His weapons tore them apart and decimated the area around him as flies into the air, firing a blast of his Armiger and destroying a wall.

He flies through the hole and to the skies. Looking around the city in the middle of battle, he spots he senses Genesis' power and without a second thought, flies towards the battle…

*Riku's Group*

Gladiolus brings his large katana down onto Genesis rapier with a bellowing roar just as Ignis rushes in to slice at the one-winged warrior's hips. The redhead raises his blade to easily block against the much larger and heavier weapon while he caught Ignis' blade hand with ease.

The shield tries to press down on the man with all his strength as Ignis struggled to break free from him, yet the man looked to be putting less than little effort in holding back his adversaries. The fight had gone from the group taking on what they believed to be the ring leader of this attack, but in less than half an hour this man or monster would be the better description for him, had quickly repelled their attacks with ease.

Not since their fight with Terra had the two loyal members of Noctis' retinue been so outmatched it was like a sick joke. Every strike Gladiolus tried to land was either repelled with minimal effort, his attacks hit mostly air and finally, Genesis barely reacted to any meaning damage the shield did to him. For the rare times Gladiolus managed to hit him with his sword or shield, he shrugged them all off like they were nothing but bug bites.

Even Ignis had trouble with him, the man's speed was something dare he say comparable if not superior to Sora. Genesis' strength overwhelmed the man and despite Ignis' dark abilities the man in red countered and trounced his own.

Genesis pushes Gladiolus off him which sent the shield flying into a wall while he tossed Ignis aside. This allowed Riku to rush in with Brave Heart and strike at him. Unlike the two, Riku was honored by Genesis putting slight effort in repelling the master, paying attention to him when they fight as Riku keeps up with the precise and planned strikes. The silver master managed to duck under a sweep of the rapier and stabs for Genesis' chest, that was until Genesis caught the blade between his thumb and finger and halts any momentum Riku had for the attack.

Above them, Aqua dives down with a swing of her keyblade and cuts Genesis' shoulder. Once on her feet, she tried to bring down her keyblade into the skull of this man in red, but even with obvious marks of a wound upon his shoulder, Genesis lifts his blade to deflect her attack easily. Aqua's keyblade flies out of her hand as Riku raised a hand to fire a black firaga at him, only to have Genesis grab his face.

He fired a blast of dark energy and sends Riku across the square as the boy yells in pain. Aqua recalls her keyblade in time to clash with Genesis, eyes fixed on this monster of a man as they struck at each other. Their wild and yet somehow well-aimed strikes create a large radius where it seemed like they were striking everywhere around them. One final strike of their weapons ended them in a deadlock that they broke through with a loud clang of steel.

The ground, the walls and even the street lamps nearby were all slashed and riddled with marks of blades, the lamps sliced into ribbons. Aqua grits her teeth as the strikes Genesis managed to land on her erupts in blood, even her armor barely held against his attacks. Turning her head to man, again not even hindered by the strikes she lands on him turn on her with a dark smile. He pulls his sword back before he dashes towards her with the rapier outstretched.

With her wounds, she had no chance of moving to avoid it.

'AQUA!'.

Time slowed down for the woman, suddenly Gladiolus was right in front of her with his shield held out in front. She heard steel meeting steel, but even the mighty shield that had survived strikes from the XIII Phantoms couldn't hold against Genesis' attack. Gladiolus grunts out and coughs, Aqua's skin turning white as she realized the shield had been broken.

The man stiffens and coughs out blood, splattering the ground beneath him as the Defender shield is split in half and falls to the ground. Aqua could only stare in horror as Gladiolus' knees buckle with strain of keeping him up, yet he refused to stand aside and just defiantly stare down the man with a single black wing.

'How noble of you', Genesis remarks coolly, 'Despite knowing your metal would do nothing but delay your inevitable demise, you still leap in front of the damsel'. Gladiolus grunts out as the blade was lodged into his chest, he feels both the cold steel and darkness of the blade seep into him, any further in and he'd be a dead man. But Gladiolus growled as he recklessly grabbed the blade with both hands. The sharpness instantly causes bleeding but with a roar of pain and adrenaline, he lifts Genesis and throws him aside while pulling the sword out of his stomach.

The fallen angel is thrown back on his feet just as Gladiolus falls onto a knee, bleeding profusely from his chest and hands while Aqua hovers around him. The man in red scoffs in irritation, a meaningless effort and judging from how the supposed masters were along with those of the king's court, the challenge had greatly diminished.

With a dismissive sigh, he aimed his free hand at Aqua and Gladiolus and fires one dark sphere of darkness at them. The blast rockets towards them, but before it collides with them, a yell rings out and then the blast was repelled.

The darkness explodes within six feet of the two downed warriors, smoke covered them for a moment before it faded into nothing. Out of the smoke with his buster blade in hands, Zack stands before Genesis with a cheerful smirk. In perfect timing, a blade struck the ground near the warrior and appearing in a blue light, Noctis appeared alongside him. The king turned to his shield with shock, but then grits his teeth and turned on Genesis.

Genesis addresses Zack with a look of mirth and nostalgia before he lifted his rapier and slowly runs his hand along the blade, imbuing it with red darkness. 'Its been too long, Zack', says Genesis with a nostalgic smile. The black-haired SOLDIER lowers into his stance as Noctis calls for Night's Sky, 'Why are you here, Genesis? Shouldn't you be looking for Sephiroth?', taunts Zack, 'Or did you hear the latest addition of Loveless was released?'.

'Humph, I don't believe that. You don't read', chastised the man in red with a bored tone. The raven snickers caught. He turns to Ignis, getting to his feet while Leon helps Riku up. 'Leon, I'll take it from here, you get these guys to safety!', requests the captain. The mayor begrudgingly nods as Ignis helps Riku while the mayor lends a hand to help Aqua with Gladiolus. The shield grunts weakly as Aqua thankfully manages to close the wound on his stomach but the pain and blood loss weakened him.

'Noct, don't die on me…', he grunted out as his arms were thrown on Aqua and Leon's shoulders. Noctis turned to him with a nod before he looks at Aqua. 'You keep him alive, got it?', he ordered. With a firm nod, Aqua says: 'If he tries to punch in, I'll kick his ass'. With that promise, Aqua and the others leave the town square as Noctis turned back to Genesis as his body glowed with red darkness, his angelic wing covered in a red miasma.

Noctis calls upon his Armiger, glowing in the blue light as Zack readies himself for the fight. The three warriors rush in, their steels meeting each other…

*Villains Vale*

Kairi yells as she fires another barrage of Rays of Light onto the never-ending horde of heartless surrounding her while in the air. The princess' attacks detonates upon hitting the large swarm, creating small explosions dome sized that consumed the heartless nearby as more flew up towards her, mostly dual blades varieties like heat saber, chill ripper and stalwart blades.

She meets them all with Dearly Beloved, parrying and deflecting their attacks while using her free armored arm to deflect some attacks. The armor is more durable than she thought, even a fully powered stab from an armored knight hurt her minimally. It saved her skin more than she would like to have admitted given how many managed to hit her, though she swears in her defense she was fighting what is an army of heartless alone.

Atop a cliff watching her struggle was the Horned King with of course Maleficent and Pete, the latter spawning more heartless to contest with.

That walking dead king had taken Kairi here away from the others, and judging from previous experiences she feared this was a plot to try and lure Sora away from the others and then be rid of two guardians of light. Credit where credits are due, Kairi would say that was a smart tactic, but she also knew those three have been greatly underestimating the heroes. She had been fighting these monsters for over two hours now without any form of slowing down and while she feels the weariness seeping into her, she held out.

Kairi knows if she just holds out a little longer Sora would arrive and together they could wipe these heartless out like a powerful wind blowing out a blazing fire.

She fired a force attack that shoot the heartless across the ravine and into one of the walls while bringing down Dearly Beloved down onto a chill ripper from head to toe and splits it in half. The last one had its blade repelled by a smaller barrier she made in her free hand and then Kairi shifted it into a bolt of light that obliterated it. She turned down to the group of heartless but was struck in the back by the blade of an invisible that knocks her back into the ground. She crashes through some of the heartless, killing a few until she was thrown into a wall.

Bits of rockfall around her as she groans in pain, shaking her head. Kairi raises back to her feet and sees four parasol beauties aiming their namesake weapons and firing purple energy bullets at her. She erects a wall of ice to protect herself that reached as high as the cliffs that overshadowed the land. She could hear chunks of ice being picked away from their attacks as she runs up the icy wall like it was made of stone.

Once Kairi reached the top of it, she jumps high into the sky as the parasols looked at up, her armor glowed in pinkish light as she aims her keyblade up. Kairi is surrounded by six pillars of bluish-white light and then she jumps down into the center of the heartless. She cries out "Faith" and the moment her feet touched the ground, the pillars spun around her and destroys the heartless around her, slowly extending until they split off in six directions around her, destroying each heartless that were touched by it.

She had no time to celebrate her victory, barely having any chance to block three invisibles simultaneously attacking her. The combined might of all three throws her off her feet but not enough to send her flying like before, just enough to knock her back a few steps. That said before she could even turn her head to them, shadows began to leap onto her and slowly overwhelm her. She is forced onto her knees as the weight of the shadows and weariness her body undertook combined to make her feel as if she was chained to a boulder.

Kairi wildly thrashes against the shadows, trying to throw them off her but slowly the soldiers begin to jump the dogpile and pinned her arms down with her face pressed against the ground. Above her watching her slowly being pinned, Pete cackles. 'HAH! Looks like the princess has her hands full!', he bragged as he kept summoning more heartless.

While the oaf brags, the two sorcerers watched the darkness manifest and slowly swallow Kairi whole. 'Her power has grown since last time', Maleficent comments, clasping her staff, 'Possibly greater than the boy…'. The Horned King hummed in silent agreement, slowly raising his hand. This makes the witch look at him with amusement. 'Not going to try and turn her into a heartless?', she questioned.

'She will not become one, you know this. But I will not suffer a new nobody of hers, one who may be the threat that will destroy us', the king lectures.

Kairi's vision goes darker as the darkness slowly consumes her body, but her grip on her keyblade remains tight as a ball of light forms around her hand. Light begins to extend and cover her keyblade and with a cry from the heart, Kairi throws her head back through the heartless as a dome of light forms around her, incinerating the heartless around her like a nuke. Above even the masters of evil were forced to create a barrier to shield them from the divinity of Kairi's untapped power.

Kairi slowly gets to her feet as the dome shields her despite the heartless striking it. Glyphs of light appeared beneath her feet as she stabbed her keyblade into the ground while her helmet disappears, showing her face as her hair flies wildly. Her eyes shined in pure white light as she utters the single word that hadn't been uttered since the age of fairy tales.

'Holy'.

There was a silence as Kairi was enveloped in a pillar of the purest light that turns into a tower, rocketing to the skies like a beacon. The wind rushes by the heartless and the Horned King's allies as Kairi is levitating within the tower, glowing like an angel as she raises her keyblade with both hands. The tower extends and expands, covering the space around Kairi and destroying the heartless and area. The heartless couldn't stand more than a second in her divine light as they were scorched into nothing.

Even Maleficent's eyes widened in complete dismay of this light, not even the purest hearts all together could even compare to this power. She erects a barrier of violet darkness with the Horned King's help, but even their combined power wasn't enough to fully shield them from her power. The barrier crackled and shook under her power, cracks beginning to appear around their shield-like brittle glass trying to hold up against a horrible storm.

As the ground near them is vaporized by Kairi's light, Maleficent could see the futility of persisting in this vain battle and realized her life was worth far more to her than the city. 'We must retreat for now', Maleficent commands, turning to Pete to open a portal. The cat man didn't even hesitate to open one up and run in before his master could follow. Maleficent sees the Horned King persists in fighting, making her scoff.

'Don't be a fool, we cannot hold against her!', she lectures. The Horned King snarls. 'Be silent, run if you wish! I will not let this child of light stop me!', the Horned King bellows as his darkness begins to surge and cloak him.

As much as her pride was on the line, previous experiences with warriors of light had taught the witch the harsh lessons of swallowing her pride and cut her losses. Even as unaware and inexperienced as the girl is with her light, the witch knows better than to take a chance to fight her. 'The perish along with the heartless, you fool!', cried the witch as she disappears in greenish-black flames.

Alone the Horned King's barrier falls apart as Kairi levitates towards him, towering over him as her light slowly encompasses his barrier and pierce through. He tries to fight her light with all the darkness within his blackened soul, but even one as powerful as the Horned King and all his malice, they were nothing more then feeble shadows attempts to slay a master. He tries to strike at her with black flames, but even then the flames were doused by Kairi's light.

His hand was scorched by her light as she moves her tower closer to him, breaking through his barrier and slowly closed a small pillar around him. Without batting an eye, Kairi raised an armored hand at him and raises her arm as the pillar condenses around him. The Horned King lets out a cry of pain before both his rotted body and corrupted soul is consumed by the light, body evaporating into nothingness.

The Horned King was no more.

With the fallen king perishing into the light and the darkness clearing the area, Kairi's tower of light begins to fade out as her eyes return to the beautiful blue color she was blessed with as her keyblade disappears. An exhaustion that no human could experience takes her body as she lies backward and begins to slowly descend as her tower disappears, her strength gone. Beneath her, there was nothing but ruins of the cliff where a great battle once took place, the land vaporized by her power.

Before her descend increased in speed, she was caught by someone leaping from one smidgen of untouched land and landed just a few feet from where the Horned King's grave lied.

The princess whimpers in exhaustion as she weakly glances up to see Sora sweaty and dirty face staring down in concern at her. 'Kairi?', he whispers. Kairi smiles weakly at him before she gently reaches up to touch his cheek but even that was too strenuous for her limb. Sora caught her hand and helped place it on his cheek. She gratefully nods to him.

'I…I think I won…', she wheezes weakly. Sora looked around the destruction she had unknowingly wrought and nods. Never had he seen such power of destruction from the light, even his strongest spells with the light couldn't even light a candle to her own. He wondered if that woman with the mask did more then just gave her armor, maybe she unlocked more of her potential. But that was for another time, he sensed a more powerful darkness back within the city.

The moment Prompto rang him about the Horned King, he immediately raced out here for her after his two friends held down the fort for him. Before he climbed the slope leading to the cliff overlooking Maleficent's old base, he felt an incredible light that the only thing he could compare it to is the light of the worlds from Kingdom Hearts. The amount of power Kairi used, dare he say she could trump even Aqua with it.

He shifts her into his arms and smiled at her. 'Get some sleep Kairi, I'll get us back to the city'. Kairi smiles wearily at him, pouting slightly. 'Kiss…me', she weakly ordered. He chuckles softly and pecks her on the lips, then runs back to the city her sleeping in his arms.

His real fight is about to begin…

A/N:

Forced myself to get this done, had little to no ideas on how to make this work…sorry if it wasn't any good.

I wanted to end this arc here…but I feel like giving Genesis a decent fight since he was requested by a lot of people so next time we WILL end this arc!

Questions:

Q1: Thoughts on this chapter?

Q2: Rikku and Ven? Too weird?

Q3: Kairi's new power?

Q4: What do you wanna see in future?

Q5: Any other FF character you wanna see for fun?

Q6: Can you guess how Gladio will get a new shield? Again?

Q7: Do you think the FF XV crew should get KH based clothes? I'm doing it but curious what you guys think?

Q8: Undead? A bit much?

Q9: Anyone else tired of the fights?

Out of curiosity, but what was your game of 2019? Mine is between Devil May Cry 5 and of course KH3. Your own?

Thanks for reading everyone! Stay awesome but most importantly stay safe!


	56. Chapter 56

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 56

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

*Town Square*

With a warp strike closing the distance between himself and Genesis, Noctis brings down the Sword of the Tall onto the man cloaked in red with a cry. He misses by an inch as Genesis steps back from the attack, the giant blade destroying the ground where he once stood.

He thrusts his rapier at the king in quick succession as retaliation, the tip of the blade appearing as if he was stabbing at the king with hundreds of swords. Noctis luckily warps into the air to avoid the storm of blades.

Genesis chases him to the skies with his wing outstretched. In the skies, the two warriors of opposing sides fought with the king using his vast arsenal of weapons while Genesis using just his rapier. Noctis swings his keyblade downwards onto Genesis, the teeth of the key merely swiping against the hilt of the red blade as Genesis parries his attack with ease. The cloaked man stabbed at Noctis, just missing impaling the king's stomach by reflexes of the king, though not unscathed.

He felt the cold steel cutting his flesh and t-shirt, though not fatal but it was the first blood to be drawn. Noctis warps atop to a building to give himself some space from the man and calls for his engine blade. Just before Noctis re-joined the fight, Genesis fires a large sphere of energy at him. With a yell, Noctis warped back to the square right before the sphere touched him, only a fraction of second before he was reduced to ashes.

The sphere explodes the moment it hit the rooftop of the building, completely obliterating it and even destroyed several more buildings nearby.

Noctis staggers forward in the square with a gasp, turning to the destruction behind him to see how powerful that attack was. Grimacing at the sight, he turned back to Genesis still flying in the air. He sees Zack flying upwards to him, swinging that giant chunk of steel he called a sword at Genesis. The truly amazing sight Noctis witnessed was the sheer speed Zack manages to possess wielding such a massive weapon and to add insult to injury he kept up with Genesis' attacks as if he were wielding a sword of the same size.

The SOLDIER's strikes were strong enough to send Genesis backward while guarding, and even despite the size difference, Zack is fast enough to keep the gap closed between him and Genesis.

Genesis feints an attack that guard Zack to raise his blade with the flat side, like a shield. This gave Genesis the chance to push aside Zack by placing his hand on the flat surface of the sword and fired a shockwave that threw Zack back to the ground level.

The warrior lands on his feet despite how powerful the shockwave was, the moment he lands the earth cracks as if the weight of the world increased ten-fold on Zack. He shrugged it off with a grunt and glared at Genesis before he aims his free hand fires several bullets of fiery rocks at the fallen angel. This magical attack is quickly swept aside like a hurricane blowing out a forest fire as with a single sweep of his rapier, Genesis splits the rocks in half and the gale from his attack douses the flames.

This gives Noctis a chance however, he warps right in front of Genesis while he still had his sword at the end of his sweeping attack. Keyblade and engine blade together, Noctis brings them both down onto his shoulders with a cry. The strike is a success and because of the combination of the king's strength and determination to win, Genesis is grounded. He is thrown back down to the square, using his magic to stop himself from slamming into the ground like he had down to so many others.

The king warps right for him and wildly swings his engine blade at him. Genesis merely swept his blade upwards, throwing dark crimson energy waves shaped like blades at Noctis. Caught off guard by this, the king could only raise his sword to protect him marginally as the arcs struck him. With grunts from every hit landing on his body, the final wave of energy struck his blade and throws him up higher in the air.

Noctis falls back to the ground with a thud and on his shoulders with a bounce before he falls onto his back, his blade landing next to him before disappearing into the Armiger. Grunting and groaning with pain, Noctis gets to his feet while clutching his arm as he bleeds, his clothes in tatters and even his jacket was closer to rags with his t-shirt exposing a lot of his torso. He feels blood leak from his cheeks and even above his left eye.

Out of potions from the pro-long battle with this monster of a human with Zack admitting not having the right tools for healing magic, whatever that meant, the king gritted his teeth in a mixture of frustration, pain, and anger. Genesis just rolls his shoulders as if the attack he had just been hit with had done nothing more than irritate him. He smirked as he popped a few muscles in his neck and shoulders as if just working out the kinks.

The king started to wonder even if he did land a fatal attack would Genesis even register it as a wound or just another irritation…

He had no other option, the only way he could keep up with this guy would be to go all out. He calls his keyblade and with a cry, activates his Armiger. A burst of blue light shines around him as his arsenal of weapons float around him in the usual crystal ethereal form. This change prompted a raise of a brow from his adversary. 'Interesting, you still intend on fighting?', he asked, bemused. Noctis growls at this tone.

'I'm not out of this yet!', Noctis declares.

Noctis dashes forward towards him with a cry, three of his royal arms flying towards Genesis like rockets. The man in red deflects two of them with his sword and fired off another dark energy at the third just as Noctis reaches him with the Blade of the Warrior. With a rapid succession of quickdraws accompanied by ghostly missiles of his ancestor's weapons, Noctis strikes so much space it was like he trapped Genesis in a den of blades that struck at him like a whirlwind.

Genesis parries and deflects as many as inhumanly possible but even with speed like his couldn't cover everywhere and with the hits, Noctis manages to land on him it seemed as though the king had started to gain the advantage of the battle at last. The single winged man raised a hand to create a dome of dark red energy to cover him and push Noctis back from him. The king is thrown into the air but he quickly recovers and then begins to fire all his arms at the dome with a cry.

Each arm that struck the dome explodes in blue fire, destroying the ground around them, yet the barrier held up from the attacks. It was clear as well, given the king a view of Genesis merely standing in his barrier, not even healing from the attacks Noctis landed. He stands still with a smirk like this whole battle was nothing more than just a fun distraction for him before he got serious. That smirk reminded the king of Ardyn, that conceited arrogance on his face.

Noctis calls for his Armiger, all his weapons fly back into his body as he raised his engine blade above his head. Like he had down with Sora in the past, the blade was engulfed in light that extended into a large and long blade of light. He dives to the barrier and with every fiber of power and strength within his majesty, he brought down the blade on top of the barrier.

The moment of impact between the blade of light and shield of darkness, the entire town shook. The blade striking the dome creates a shockwave so powerful the ground breaks into nothing as a crater is formed beneath the dome, the streetlights glass shatters and the metal bends, unrepairable. The houses and buildings nearby shook as windows shatter, the greenery and flowers obliterated by the force and some of the tiles of the roofs are torn off.

The wind rushed with such power Zack had to stab his sword into the ground to keep himself from being thrown into the stratosphere.

Noctis presses the blade harder onto the dome with his teeth bared as Genesis raised his hand to keep his barrier going. It might have been the first time this man had to try and protect himself from Noctis. The cracks in the dark barrier begin to spread as Noctis lifted the blade and brought it down again with another cry. The sword cleaves through the barrier like a hot knife slicing through butter, speeding towards Genesis.

He raised his sword swiftly to meet Noctis' own, their collision shook the ground again as the red blade glowed to counter the blue light. The two warriors fought for dominance as Noctis now stands on his feet as he shortens his blade to a normal size and conserve power against Genesis. In a deadlock that could end with one of them being split in half as their bodies glowed in blue and red lights respectively. Genesis grunts with exertion surprised he was having trouble fighting Noctis while the king grips his sword so tightly his knuckles begin to whiten.

'I admit…your majesty', he grits out, 'I might have underestimated your tenacity'. Noctis growls back in response, pushing the man backward as he takes a step forward. This got Noctis a smirk from Genesis as his wing glowed in red. 'But you're a bit in over your head'. The advantage Noctis had clawed his way for was swiftly taken away as Genesis begins to overpower him, pressing his red misty covered sword down on the engine blade.

Slowly being pushed back despite how hard he was digging his heels into the ruined ground, Noctis hisses through his gritted teeth to push back against this monster but he could feel his power waning from overuse and his bleeding had finally caught up with him. Genesis sensed this, knowing the man is running on his last legs as he sees this king before him determined to fight on but the body is no longer able.

'A noble attempt, but a futile one none the less', were the last words the man would give Noctis. He pushes the blade off his own, throwing the king backward and launched himself towards him. Noctis raises his sword to meet him but Genesis swung his blade so quick Noctis couldn't even see it. The red blade accomplished a feat not even Ardyn had achieved, the engine blade was split in two with the blade being cut from its hilt as a large red slash marked Noctis' chest.

The attack throws Noctis through three buildings, breaking through glass, wood, stone, and steel until the king crashes into another clear square, skidding on his side until he came to a painful halt by slamming into a wall. The impact broke the dense wall and broke the left shoulder of Noctis.

Broken, disarmed and beaten, Noctis could barely twitch from the inhuman amount of pain his body took, nearly convinced he must be too shocked to even register the attack. He feels his breath weaken and it became harder for him to breathe, the slick warm touch of his blood coating his bare chest with his jacket destroyed and his t-shirt reduced to just covering his left shoulder and waist. Cursing in pain as he weakly tries to sit up, using his left elbow to prop himself upwards felt like there was a boulder on his back.

Never in his life did he feel so utterly helpless, even back as a child. This man, this guy was something entirely out of his league, and maybe even stronger than Ardyn if not Sephiroth levels of strong.

His musings were cut short when he looked up to see Genesis slowly walking towards him, his blade by his side. He stood over the fallen king, taking in his victory over the king of light. Noctis stared at him in defiance, though stubbornness would be the better word for the situation he was currently in, seeing he couldn't even keep his determination in his eyes.

Genesis brushes off the dust from his shoulder, flaunting his power over the king and rubbing in how vast their power was compared to each other. 'It seems your at the end of your rope, your majesty', he says condescendingly, spitting on his title. He raised his sword to deal the final blow, least Noctis could say he died fighting.

The blade comes down…upon another.

Zack appears in front of the devil in red, buster sword up to hold back his attack. The warrior glares at him as he held back the red sword without any sign of trouble, showing the king that another had greater strength than he. Genesis' smirks melted into a dark glare while Zack kept his cocky but playful smile on his face. He pushes Genesis off his blade and swings at him, making the man leap back from him.

'No one is dying on my watch', Zack promises, readying for the next bout. The SOLDIER runs at Genesis, commencing the next fight between them. As Noctis is forced to watch them battle, his mind wanders back to his companions and a sense of failure settles in his heart.

His hope now lied with the boy…

*Merlin's Home*

Making back to the city would have took Sora half an hour, but upon Kairi getting weaker and fainter to the point of him constantly shaking her to keep her awake, he reached the town in less than five minutes.

He finds the old coot's home (hard to miss really) and all but barged into the house. He startles what remained of his party along with a few familiar faces he hadn't seen for quite some time. The home looked nearly identical to how it looked long ago, just more clustered with books and a few bits of machinery scattered around the place.

It seemed the place was turned into a makeshift clinic with several civilians and guardians wounded and resting on cots, beds and some on mats. The smells of medicine linger in the air with sterilizations and other smells he'd knew would linger in a hospital of sorts. The computer that Cid used and still does likely was working away with someone the boy didn't recognize trying to do computer stuff. Sora didn't care really for it, both because he had no real interest in technology, and he was more focused on getting Kairi some help.

'Sora!'.

He turned around and sees amidst the sea of people Ignis speed walking towards. The boy grimaced at the sight of the man, he looked as if he had just walked out of a horrible fight that could have been very one-sided for him. His jacket was missing, and his dress shirt showed a lot of scuff marks and tears around his torso. There was a bandage around his cheek and a wrap-around his left arm. The older man glances at Kairi, no longer in her armor, sees the girl looked worse for wear.

'Iggy, I need someone to look at her', pleads the boy. With a curt nod and gesturing him to follow, Ignis guides Sora through the group of people while informing him and Kairi about the situation. Once the defenses of the city had been re-activated a lot of areas that the guardians hadn't reached had quickly cut down the number of heartless that populated the area and with what remained of the RC, they took the rest out. However, despite the shift in the tide against the darkness, the man reveals many of the RC had been severely wounded and are too fatigued to finish the battle.

This said he states that Mickey and the others are working with a group called the "Gullwings" to eradicate what remained of the heartless at the Bastion and then fight their ways to the town. When Sora asked about the others, Ignis takes him to a room with the party were stationed.

In one cot was Riku unconscious and being treated by one of the nurses, frantically calling out for medicine and other doctor stuff that went over Sora's head. Leon, much like Riku, was unconscious and had several doctors checking on him, rightfully so that is their mayor after all. Sora was relieved to see Gladiolus and Aqua were still awake, though the shield had a very foggy look in his eyes. He guessed he must be on some medicine for the pain if the blood on his chest isn't a dead giveaway.

Aqua turned to the three, relief shined when she sees Sora was safe but then worry at Kairi's form. She patted Gladiolus' chest to alert him gently and prompted him to look at the teenagers. 'Sora?', slurred the shield, trying to look at the boy. Sora gives him a small grin before one of the nurses guided the boy to a bed for Kairi. The moment he puts her down, Aqua instantly is by her side and checks her, asking the hero what had transpired.

He gave the master a quick and loose summary of what had happened despite not being present at the whole thing, but when he mentioned Kairi took down the Horned King there was a collection of quiet cheers and hope renewed in the other patients' hearts. 'Next thing that happened, I found her and brought her back here', he finishes. Aqua looks at her apprentice, wearily and weakly staring at the ceiling with clear exhaustion. She sighs. 'I can't believe she managed to use that kind of power, so early too…'.

'I'm sorry, but what is this power Kairi displayed?', Ignis questions. Aqua turns to the two. 'I'm not entirely sure of it, but it might be a combination of her being a keyblade user as well as being a princess of light', she says while crossing her arms in thought. 'She's technically the first to be two of those, and her magic isn't anything I have seen before'.

'Do you think that girl with the fox mask gave her more power with her armor?', Sora asked, 'I mean, she is a keyblade master right?'. 'If a master can unlock more power within you, then Eraqus never told me', Aqua says shaking her head. Then she gives Sora a concerning look. 'Sora, I know you're worried about Kairi, but we've a got problem'. The boy frowns and listened intently when Aqua explained to him about Genesis, telling him how the man had not only defeated Leon, Riku, and Gladiolus but even stood toe to toe with Aqua, maybe even surpassed her.

'We only managed to get away thanks to Noct and Zack', Ignis says with disgrace, 'But I fear Noct may very well be unprepared for this man'. Sora crossed his arms, mulling over the information the two of them gave the boy. The only person he could compare Genesis to is Sephiroth, and if this guy IS anything like they say…could he beat him?

When he fought Sephiroth before, not only was he leagues above the boy, but he wasn't even phased by his attacks. And now this man could be his brother for all he knew. He raises his head to face his friends, then slowly survey the clinic to take in all the people who are hurt or in worse states, like his best friends and even an old-time ally of his. Everyone here he knows had worked so hard to help rebuild their home, their dedication to bring back their home to its glory days.

Looking at Riku's wounded form, Gladiolus state, and Leon's wounds, the fact someone had dared to lay a hand on those close to him. Finally, he looks at Kairi, now looking at him with confidence and hope in her eyes. This world may not hold the same weight of love as the islands do for her, she even admitted the islands is her home, but it was still the world she was born in and came from. A world that could be destroyed by this man.

He feels the weight of his black crown, not weighing him down with doubt but reminding him why he kept pushing. He clenched his fist and pushes his fear and doubt aside and approaches Kairi. She stares up at him as he cups her cheek and with his cheesy smile, he says: 'Wait for me here, ok? I've gotta take care of someone'. Kairi replies to his smile with one of her own small but warm smiles that invigorated him. Weakly and slowly, she reached into her pocket, takes his hand off her cheek and places something within that hand.

He opened it to see her lucky charm, a wave of nostalgia washes over his heart as she says those words: 'That's my lucky charm, you be sure to bring that back to me'. Even as low and soft as those words were conveyed, Sora feels the emotion of love behind them, a surge of hope and strength coursed through his body. He kisses her forehead. 'Don't worry, I will. Promise', he says warmly. Kairi smiled once more before she laid her head in the pillow and allowed her exhaustion to win her over.

He turned back to Ignis and Aqua. 'I'll go help Noct', he says. 'Not without me', Aqua says firmly. Before Sora could argue, Ignis steps in. 'I've contacted Donald and Goofy, they're making their way back here', he says, 'With Donald helping the nurses and Goofy by my side, we can defend this clinic from the heartless or whatever else this Maleficent has in store'. They look at him as he shows genuine fear. 'If this man is as powerful as Sephiroth…then Noct is in greater danger then we thought'.

Aqua nods in understanding, turning back to Sora. 'All the more of a reason we go together', she states. Sora nods, steeling himself and pushing his arguments aside. If that man is this bad, then he'd be stupid not to take a master with him. They give Ignis a nod, Aqua kisses Gladiolus one more time and together the two wielders of the keyblade race towards the square.

With Kairi's good luck charm in his hand and his black chain crown glowing with a friendly dark light, Sora speeds off to battle.

Completely unaware of the man of no consequences watching both master and hero leave from a rooftop, and giving him his opportunity…

*Square*

Forcing himself to stand while his body takes on a pain greater than even his fight with Ardyn, Noctis barely holds himself up while clutching his right arm as he watches Zack and Genesis clash in the street. The SOLDIER lands several hits on Genesis, more than Noctis ever did, and unlike the king, it seemed his attacks left an effect on the man in red.

This minor victory, however, paled in comparison when Genesis seemingly took Zack more seriously than his fight with Noctis, because no more is he playing with his prey and started to retaliate and go for the kills this time.

Genesis strikes at Zack with waves of blade-shaped arcs of energy that forces the raven on the defense, but the attacks broke through his guard and strike the blade out of his hands. The buster sword was sent to the air and left the sole guardian unarmed and worst of all, defenseless. Genesis takes advantage of this shift in battle immediately and dashed to Zack, placing a hand on his chest and blasts him with a blast of dark red fire. His attack sends Zack flying into a building through the roof with a cry.

With him out of his way, Genesis turns on the king attempting to call for a royal arm to fight back. His strength so weakened it took all his will to merely stand up and face the man before him, his knees buckled under the weight of his body.

'It seems your majesty is out of knights to defend him', Genesis says with a curt smirk, aiming his rapier at him. Noctis snarls at him as he flexed his weakened right hand's fingers, trying in vain to call for his weapons to return to him. When Genesis is about to attack him, a loud gunshot rings out in the area and makes Genesis turn around to deflect the bullet with ease. To the horror of king Noctis, he sees Prompto firing at Genesis.

'Noct! RUN!', cried Prompto as he kept shooting at Genesis. Every bullet fired was deflected by the man with minimal effort as he started to stride towards Prompto. Yet despite this Prompto didn't hold back with his firing and shoots continuously. Noctis grunted and tried to stand tall but he collapses to a knee, to hurt to even make a break for it. All he could do is watch his best friend foolishly attempt to buy his king time to flee.

'Prompto, get out of here!', ordered the king, cursing at the sting of pain from his body. The blonde didn't stand a chance against Genesis, and he should have known that, but as the king watches him, there is nary a trace of fear in Prompto's eyes. Just bravery he never knew the gunner had within him as he drew that short blade when Genesis reached him.

Prompto swung at him with a yell, his attack easily repelled with a quick swipe of Genesis' sword. But he wouldn't run at all, he kept attacking Genesis with a mix of novice swordplay along with well-timed and aimed gunshots. He rolled away from a lazy downward strike from Genesis and when he reached behind the warrior, Prompto aims his gun at the man. At point-blank, he could lodge a bullet between the shoulders below the neck, even if he had superior physical strength that could still do enough damage to hold him back.

Except he would never know if his plan would've worked because Genesis turns on him with blind speed and all Prompto could see was a blur of red swiping across him. A splash of crimson covers his vision along with his gun…and his right arm flying up. Too shocked to even register his dismemberment, Prompto's skin turns ashen white as he went shell-shocked, he couldn't even hear Noctis' calling out his name in a mixture of horror and anguish.

Prompto falls backward and too shocked to even utter a gasp of pain or horror as the man before him loomed over the boy. Finally, he musters enough consciousness to look at the loss of his arm as it spurts out more crimson liquid, shaking as he takes in what had just transpired in less than five minutes. He cries out in horror and complete pain, clutching his stump as his heart rate skyrockets in horror.

Cruelly grinning at him, Genesis raises his sword to give this boy the mercy he needs. That is until he senses someone else fast approaching him. He was quick enough to leap away from the blade that could have harmed him, narrowly missing the teeth of the weapon. He raises his head to see it was that boy with the key who had the gall to attack him. Once Genesis was further away from them, Sora looks at Prompto and pales in horror.

'P-Prompto…', he gasps, never seeing such a gruesome scene. The blonde looked to Sora with wide panicking eyes as his entire right arm was covered in his blood, complete terror coating his blue eyes. Aqua arrives on time and upon seeing Prompto, she dashes to him and holds back her gasp of horror. 'Oh my god…', she whispers in horror. She grunts and pulls out an hi-elixir from their pocket dimension and grabbed Prompto's arm. She crushes it and lets the liquid cover his wound despite Prompto crying out in pain.

By the mercy of whatever deity, the bleeding ceases and closes but it would still need medical attention. Aqua tried not to look at his severed limb laying on the ground with his gun broken in half, holding back her bile as she helps Prompto to his feet. He staggers and nearly collapses on her had she not held him up. 'Prompto, look at me!', she orders gently, trying to startle the poor young man, the last she needed to happen is him shutting down. He weakly looks at her as she gestured Noctis, 'We need to get Noct to safety, can you run?', she asked.

Shakily he nods, keeping himself together as he slowly jogged to his king while Sora stares down Genesis. Aqua turned on the boy as he kept his eyes on this man before she lamentingly says: 'I have to get them to safety'. Sora nods in agreement, understanding. 'Leave this guy to me, I'll handle it', he says confidently. He turns to her with a smile, one that gave her hope he could do this. 'You make sure those two get back safely, promise?', he asked.

'I'll guard them with my life', she promises. Aqua runs to Noctis and heaves him up, throwing one arm over her shoulder and grabbed the waist of his pants. 'Follow me, and stay close!', she orders. Together the three escape the square which leaves only Sora and Genesis in the area.

From here Sora could feel this guy is something else entirely, the same essence of power and darkness that only Sephiroth had. It was like he was fighting a duplicate or something, the fact he took down the entire group, Noctis and his Crownsguard, Riku and Leon, and even Aqua struggled against this guy. Even if he had Donald and Goofy or even Kairi by his side, his confidence in winning wasn't as high as it was when he fought Ardyn.

Yet despite this overwhelming power that resided within this enemy of his…he feels not fear. No, he felt anger against him, fury. He had to be working with Maleficent and the Horned King for them to get this confidence to attack the city, to have someone strong enough to fight the champions of this world. His thoughts go back to the destruction of this world, to the people in that clinic, and now his friends.

Seeing his best friend in such a state, an old companion who helped guide him on the start of his journey, Gladiolus taking another hit for the team, Kairi getting captured and battered by his enemies, now seeing Noct and Prompto in such near-dead states. So many of his friends were in some way or another hurt and scarred from all this, all of them fighting for this world, for him and the other guardians of light. The pain they carried, he felt them all, the look of horror on Prompto's face at his loss of arm, the anger and pain Noctis carried.

Aqua's worries for her boyfriend, Kairi's own weary eyes showed him a sense of uselessness that still anchored her confidence. Seeing that, all this caused by the man in front of him along with Maleficent, ignited a fire within Sora's heart.

'Chosen wielder of the keyblade', Genesis greets, amused, 'I've heard much about you'. He chuckles casually as Sora draws Oathkeeper. The keyblade glowed softly when thoughts of Kairi and the others filled his mind as he removes his black crown and clenches it. 'Saviour of worlds, slayer of countless heartless, nobodies and more, a hero to the people', listed Genesis, though he spat the "hero" part out with bitterness. As a wicked smile appears on his face, he lifts his rapier at the boy as his body glows in dark red energy.

'Sephiroth might have failed to claim your head, but I am nothing like him', he promises. Sora faces him with utter determination as he lowered his left hand clenching the black crown. Slowly light begins to shine on Sora's clothes as well as a darker light, surprising Genesis that a warrior of light carried a strange darkness like Sora did. 'I don't know who you are, what you've got to do with Sephiroth or why you're working with Maleficent, but I don't care!', says Sora as his left hand is covered in dark light.

'You've hurt so many people here, everything Leon and the others worked hard to rebuild, and then you hurt my friends!', he lists as the power within Sora begins to grow and raise. He takes a step forward as slowly his clothes turn into a different color. Black and white melding together in a perfect balance as in black flames materializing in his left hand was Oblivion. He aims Oathkeeper at Genesis, body glowing in the two clashing forces, 'You're not going to hurt anyone else!'.

Images of his friends, those he's met and grew so close with all filled his mind and heart, power that could counter even the darkest forces, dare he even say even Xehanort, filled him. Genesis began to sweat at this pressure of power, not since Sephiroth did he feel such power resonate within someone other than himself. How is a boy who isn't a master could call such power from within him, and dual-wielding two keyblades at once?

Sora spins the two keyblades in front of him, creating a spark of lighting when they touched before he holds them by his side. 'I will beat you!', he cried.

Sora speeds towards Genesis, temporarily turning into a small ray of white light before reforming right in front of the man and striking him with Oblivion and then knocking him into the air with a slash from Oathkeeper. The speed displayed with a newfound source of power caught Genesis off guard and soon he was up in the air.

Recovering himself in the air, Genesis fires several violet homing energy spheres at the boy as Sora flies upward to him. The spheres rocket towards Sora, the boy wildly swings both keyblades at them and not only cuts through them all like they were just bubbles of air but he didn't lose any momentum and reached Genesis quickly. The man in red swings his rapier at Sora, their weapons clashing together as sparks of red and light burst from their attacks.

The speed of the two is invisible to the normal human eyes with the amount of space they covered, the sounds of steel clashing rang out so fast the sounds ended as quickly as they would start anew. Flashes of white and black steel clashed with the dark red, light and darkness working together to combat a greater danger to the realms. Sora warps around Genesis and aims both keys to fire a barrage of straight beams of light that struck the man from high and low. The attack makes Genesis growl in pain before he flails his sword around to destroy them.

He speeds to Sora and strikes him. Sora luckily raised both keys to protect himself though it did nothing to stop Genesis' attack from sending him back down to the ground. Sora was thrown back to the square with a bounce on his back and quickly recovered by using a small aero spell to put himself back on his feet. Sora raises his head to see Genesis rushing towards him with a thrust of his sword. The attack fails as Sora sidesteps the attack, again showing off his speed is comparable if not superior to Genesis.

He swings Oathkeeper up to throw off the blade and with Oblivion Sora imbeds it lightning, something he learned from Ignis doing the same with his daggers, and strike Genesis with it. The lighting was violet, using the darkness of Oblivion Sora strikes Genesis three times and together with Oathkeeper, he crisscrosses the attack to form an X like arc and sends Genesis flying across the square.

Genesis uses his free hand to drag into the earth and slow his flight with heels dug into the ruined ground. He curses and bores down Sora with contempt as the boy runs towards him, keyblades teeth dragged on the ground creating sparks. Sora begins to swing his weapons wildly, throwing his beams of blade-shaped arcs at Genesis, creating a mini barrage of blades attacking him. Genesis swings his blade upwards, firing off a large blackish-red arc of energy at Sora's barrages, destroying them and as it splits the earth, heads for the boy.

Crossing his arms with the blades touching his shoulders, Sora spreads them open and destroys the arc before him, closing the gap between him and Genesis with one final leap. He spins around and with both keys strikes for him with a cry. Genesis blocks this attack, but not without straining himself from the force behind Sora's attack. The two warriors glared at each other before Genesis throws Sora off him and attacks him with several thrusts of his sword.

Sora weaves and dodges these attacks enough to prevent himself from being fatally wounded save for a few scratches and nicks around his body before one thrust aimed for his heart makes him fly backflip away from it. Sora lands three feet before Genesis just as the man fired a boulder-sized blast of energy at him. No way to cut it, Sora aims both keys at the thing and fired a large ball of fire at it, the same size.

The two boulders collided and creates a massive explosion that bathed the square in intense heat and even made the two warriors jump into the skies to avoid being scorched. In the skies once more their battle took place, Sora dashes in the air to Genesis and thus their wild strikes commenced anew. Neither running low on mana or stamina, both wounded still though Sora sees Genesis was barely phased by the damage he dealt to him.

Genesis grips his blade with both hands, bathing it in red energy and struck Sora. Though he managed to erect a barrier just in time to protect himself, the barrier only took half of the damage the blade could do. The attack sent Sora back to ground, through one of the stone walls and he found himself in the outer gardens and only by slamming into the old statue in the center did his flight cease.

Shaking his head in pain, Sora narrowly managed to roll away from a stabbing attack from Genesis, his red blade piercing the statue and after he yanked it out, he swings at to cut it down to hit Sora. The boy deflects this attack with a quick swing of Oblivion and while aiming Oathkeeper, he fires several bullets of light that struck the fallen angel. The attack is enough to make Genesis growl in pain, but Sora was far from done.

The moment his foot touched the ground he leaps at him and begins to unleash a barrage of strikes from both keys while yelling at him. Light and dark arcs trailing behind each strike, cutting into Genesis and feeling the brunt of Sora's anger to him. Finally, after what felt like an eternity of a brutal beat down, Sora swings both blades up and smashes them into Genesis, sending him across the old gardens. He crashes through several dead and withered plants before he bounces up onto his feet. Bloodied, filthy with dirt and feeling the pain for the first time in years, Genesis gritted his teeth and stared down at the boy.

Panting from both pain and tiredness, Sora tenses his body for the next bout. Even with all that damage, he did to this guy, if he is anything like Sephiroth then he was far from finished. Genesis lifts his hand and utters a single word: 'Apocalypse'.

Genesis rises into the air and creates a red magic sigil under Sora's feet. Before Sora could make a run for it, Genesis had already gathered enough energy in his hand, channeling it during their clash. He raises it above his head and casts powerful lightning on Sora, causing the sigil to explode. Sora cries out in complete agony as his body is struck by the most powerful lightning he never dared to dream, every nerve was being alit with pain and the dark power behind it only amplified his suffering.

He was being held above the ground by only two feet to prevent him from running away, each bolt felt like a burning blade was piercing his body. Genesis ruthlessness didn't end there, because the moment the lighting stopped, he flew to Sora and struck him with his enhanced sword. Cutting Sora, he fires one final blast of energy at Sora that sends him across the garden and into a wall. Colliding with the wall with a heavy thud, Sora slumps to the ground dropping his keyblades.

Genesis pants himself, exerting his body by using a very powerful spell that combined with the damage Sora did to him bode ill for the fallen hero. But it was done, the world's last guardian had finally fallen to him.

Slumped on the ground, his body wracked with pain and even his clothes in tatters with his torso completely exposed and his pants torn, one glove barely holding on and another in rags, body decorated with burns, cuts, and bruises. Genesis approaches the boy, battered and likely broken as he expects…

But to his shock, even as beaten as the boy looks, Sora slowly gets back to his feet, hunched over and panting, but the moment he raises his head to look at Genesis, the man in red sees Sora is far from down. 'That's…that's impossible…', he growled, none had ever survived Apocalypse, and yet even if by some miracle they could have they still wouldn't have the strength to even raise their head, much less continue the fight.

'How!? How are you still standing!? What power could you possibly possess that could stand against me!?', demanded the man in red. Sora looks at his keyblades and then back to his adversary, glowing in light. 'My friends…', Sora says simply as he readied himself.

'MY FRIENDS *ARE* MY POWER!'.

Body bathing in light, Sora rushes at Genesis, too quick even for him to counter the boy. Sora strikes him with all the light and darkness his keyblades could give him, unrelentingly striking Genesis with power he accumulated throughout his journey. Genesis could do nothing but suffer through his attacks before with a cry, Sora sends him into the skies.

Spinning both Keyblades, he aims them both and creates a large glyph of golden red and silvery-white lights. Sora lets out a final cry: 'ULTIMA RAGNAROK!'. Instead of only twenty-four beams of energy, Sora fires off a hundred of them that all spiral and spun in the air before they all combined into one single beam of golden red and silvery-white that rockets towards Genesis. The attack struck Genesis head-on, utterly consuming him in the beam of light as his body dissolves and evaporates into darkness.

Yet as he faces the final moments of his life, Genesis lets out a chuckle and accepts his fate, disappearing into the abyss as the beam continues to pierce through the dark clouds above the world. With Genesis' body destroyed and removed from the realm of light, the dark clouds begin to evaporate and slowly it was the clear blue skies once again.

Shaking with exertion and pain, Sora pants and coughs, dropping his keyblades and falling back on his back. He lets out a tired chuckle, eyes staring up at the skies and taking in the warmth of the sun.

'There…we, we go…', he pants.

'SORA!'.

Next thing he sees are the faces of Donald and Goofy obscuring his vision of the skies, both showing pure worry on their faces. He figured he may have looked a lot worse than he felt and judging by much of a strain it was for him to just sit up he had a worrying feeling it was much worse. Donald immediately started to heal him up, using what Sora feared was fumes of his magic by how shaky the duck's arm.

'Are you ok?', Goofy asked as Donald helps close the wounds and patches Sora up. The boy hisses in pain, some of his bones were tender and the duck couldn't heal him completely, but after some help from Goofy, he is happy to see standing wasn't an impossibility for him. 'I'll be ok…thanks guys', he says kindly.

'But, I thought you guys were at the clinic?', he asked. Donald says: 'We stuck around for a while, but then when Aqua came back with Noct and Prompto, she told us to help you!'. Sora was about to ask about Prompto before his eyes widened in shock.

'What a performance, Sora'.

His two long time companions turned to see waltzing up to the trio, is none other than Ardyn. He courteously takes his hat off and bows to them in a greeting manner, a coy and sneaky smirk plastered on his face. The three gasped his name and instantly summoned their weapons, but Ardyn is unphased by this expected aggression. 'Now, now gentlemen, I feel as if there has been enough fighting, hasn't there?', Ardyn asks.

He gestures to Sora, 'After all, dear Sora looks ready to collapse from all his fighting'. Instantly Goofy pushes Sora behind him while Donald steps in front of them, staff aimed at the man. 'You take a step closer and I'll turn ya into a roast dinner!', threatened Donald. Sora stares at the nemesis of Noctis, pondering how he survived their fightback in Eos. Until he sees his eyes and then his own widened.

Golden, just like Xigbar's.

Ardyn smirks at the boy's reaction, placing his hat back on. 'Ahh, you seem to have noticed a change in me, have you not?', he asks. Sora grunts and lifts Oathkeeper up. The man clicks his tongue in a chastising manner. 'Oh Sora, as much I would love to have our rematch, I'm afraid to say it is not you I'm interested in fighting'.

'You stay away from Noct!', Sora growled, 'You're not immortal anymore, and even with Xehanort's darkness, we can take you!'. Ardyn hums in response to this bold threat before he nods. 'Oh I know, my immortality has long been taken from me, make no mistake', he muses, 'But your Xehanort is quite the planner if you recall. Granted, I may be killable as you and your friends, I am, however, I'm not entirely the same'.

Then he simply waves his hand. 'But why spoil the fun? I'm only here to deliver a message to you and your fellow guardians', he reveals. 'Master Xehanort is getting a little impatient with you, and told me to tell you, in seven days, whether you come to the battle or not, the war will begin', he warns, then smirks evilly, 'And perhaps you need some incentive to hurry up, perhaps say a world going poof?'.

Sora strode forward, pushing past his friends. 'You stay away from other worlds!', ordered Sora. 'We'll be there, and we won't let you win!'.

Ardyn's smirk leaves his face, for a moment he nearly mistook the boy for Noctis. That light they somewhat shared shined so bright, and the utter faith in the boy's eyes…

He scoffs. 'Such confidence, I truly hope, for yours and your friends, Sora, you have the power to back that up'.

With a curt but sarcastic bow, Ardyn turns around to leave as a dark corridor opens. Then, he stops. 'Oh, and Sora? Perhaps you go visit your dear princess at the clinic? I heard she isn't doing so well', he says dismissively. Sora's eyes shoot open in shock but before he could demand answers, Ardyn leaves the world behind him. In silence with the words burning in his mind, forgoing all concern for himself Sora breaks into a sprint, closely followed by Donald and Goofy.

Sora runs through the city like a man who had but a few seconds of life left, leaping over buildings and dashing through the streets like a bullet. His mind fixed on Kairi and whatever Ardyn could have done to her, especially with everyone unable to fight in such a state.

They reached Merlin's house and before the two could stop Sora, he all but kicked the door to oblivion and ran in. He calls for Kairi's name as he skitters around the clinic, narrowly avoiding knocking into people and/or bumping to people.

He nearly trips and was caught by Aqua. 'Sora, calm-

'Where's Kairi!? What did-

'Sora?'.

The hero looks past Aqua and sees Kairi sitting down near a sleeping Noctis, looking over at him. She gasped in horror over his state and quickly rushed to him just as he slumps in relief. 'Sora, oh my god, what happened to you!?', she questions, catching him and helped him settle on his knees. He stares at her, confused and judging from his looks close to passing out.

'Y-You're ok…', he sighs. Kairi nods and looks over his wounds, rambling over how he was still conscious of all his wounds. 'What happened? D-Did you…', she starts before Sora cups her cheeks and silences her worries and kisses her. Kairi blushes from this and more so when he pulled her into a very tight hug. He breaks the kiss and pants, smiling tiredly.

'You're safe…', he breathes out before he collapses into her, passing out.

Kairi and Aqua helped get him into another bed with the princess staying by his side while Aqua instructs Donald and Goofy on what to do. Kairi gently strokes Sora's cheek lovingly and allowed herself to be at ease.

The battle was over…

A/N: I AM SO HAPPY I CAN TAKE A BREAK FROM FIGHTING CHAPTERS!

Before I get into the usual stuff, just quick response to the guest: Guest-Questioner.

First thank you for the detailed review, and I'm glad you're enjoying the story!

Responses:

A1: Great to read, thank you!

A2: I'm guessing "Shota" is a chibi of the boy or something else?

A3: I understand, but most of Kairi's abilities (if Remind is any indication) is based on light, so hence why I'm focusing on using light with her, otherwise she'd be no different then Aqua. I'll diversify the team so we won't see light as much!

A4: True! But it never hurts to get an idea what people wanna see in future. Thank ya for the support.

A5: I promise Moogles, Cactuars and Chocobos in future!

A6: Good :3.

A7: I know I could use the Kingsglaive uniforms, but I already have an idea on their designs.

A8: Good point, so I'm safe!

A9: I'm genuinely surprised people AREN'T complaining with all the fighting we've been having!

So now we're done with the fighting, we're gonna have some laid back chapters until we reach the final battle with Xehanort and the XIII Darkness. Fluff, bonding, fun and maybe foreshadows. Party time next time!

Questions!

Q1: Thoughts on chapter?

Q2: Prompto losing a limb? Too much?

Q3: Noctis losing his own weapon?

Q4: Fight with Sora and Genesis?

Q5: Happy we're done with the fighting?

Q6: Dual wield done well?

Q7: Sora's new attack?

Next chapter is gonna be a while due to a few changes, so I'm not sure when I'll get another out but it'll be a goodie! As always, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	57. Chapter 57

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 57

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

*Three days later…*

With a pain-filled hiss, Noctis weakly cracked open his eyes. Smells of sterilized air filled his nostrils; the comfort of a warm bed enveloped his body with gentle hums of machines beeping beside him. He hears the voices of people around him, yet they all faded into the background when a warmth spreads from his forehead to his torso.

A light sigh of relief leaves his dry mouth while his fuzzy vision clears up. A gentle glow hangs over his eyes with a warmth radiating from it and familiarity. When his vision is cleared, above him he sees a face he never knew he'd dreamed of seeing so soon, along with that loving smile.

'Good morning', greets Lunafreya, smiling softly.

Noctis breathes out her name, his voice hoarse and dry while tainted by sleep. This prompts Lunafreya to hand him a glass of crystal-clear cold water and with her aid, he guzzles it down in a matter of seconds. Once his throat was moist and after a cough or two, followed by a hiss of pain, Noctis looks down at his form and sees he is close to looking like a mummy with all the wrapping. He spots patches of dried blood with the itchy sensation of what he believed were stitches holding him together, irritation on his sleeping legs.

He looked around to see the room is small enough for just one patient, a window overviewing the city on his left with the jasmine-scented air with the sun slowly setting. The room itself is closer to a hotel room with how comfortable it appeared and were it not for the machines and smells Noctis thought he was on a holiday with Lunafreya.

Noctis looks at his light as she strokes his hair. 'I hope you had a pleasant slumber', she says, 'After what has occurred'. The king grunts out weakly, still in aching pain as his lover gentle assuages his worries. 'How…did you get here?', he asked, laying down. 'Cindy had returned to Eos for my assistance once the battle had been won', explains Lunafreya, 'The moment this Genesis and the heartless had been routed, she came back under the request of the mayor'. Noctis looks at the woman's attire as she explained.

A huge far cry from the normally regal look she always dons, even with her adventuring clothes back on Eos. A simple pink t-shirt with terrible colors that spelled something, but he couldn't for the life of him understand it. A pair of shorts that were (to his secret delight) short for her, exposing her wonderful legs with a belt. Truth be told she looked closer to a slumber party then visiting him in this fancy hospital.

He must have been staring for some time because the previous Oracle looks down at her attire with a hue of pink, clearing her throat. 'M-My own clothes are being washed at this moment, one of Sora's friends loaned me these…', she explains with clear embarrassment in her voice, 'I believe it was… "Yuna" who gave me these'. Noctis rolled eyes his eyes, she couldn't have gone to Aerith or…anyone else?

She clears her throat and looks back up to him. 'I must admit, when they told me of your condition, I feared the worst', she says as she gently strokes his dirty hair. He sighs in peace when he feels her soft fingers brush through his hair and massage his scalp gently, missing this from just those few days apart from her. He didn't want to imagine how bad his state was, even Ardyn hadn't put him on the edge like this where he had to be hospitalized.

'How long was I out?', he asks, hoping to keep those negative thoughts from plaguing the woman. At this question, the former bride of his majesty's smile turned into a cheeky smirk. 'Oh nothing out of the ordinary, merely three days', she says with a casual tone. 'Oh? Just three? Heh, guess I wasn't that tired…', sighed Noctis, chuckling. His smile faded as forlorn takes over his mood, sinking into the bed as he stared up at the ceiling. His silence takes away the smirk from the woman as she frowns.

The fight with the man in red, the power he displayed was nothing the king ever dreamed could exist. His royal arms reduced to worthless tools, every trick he had thrown out the window, and the gap of power between them only deepened his doubts about the battle that is coming forth. Shame settled in his stomach that he had to rely on Sora to once more save him, and even then had it not been Sora, either Aqua or Riku could have been the ones to put that man down.

Noctis looks at his right hand, clenching it in frustration. If that is the power of someone not allied with Xehanort, then just how powerful were he and his Organization? Would he even stand a chance against them in this state now?

His thoughts broke apart when he looked at his right hand, a horrible memory replayed in his mind along with a scream in the back of his mind. 'Prompto…', he gasps. 'PROMPTO!'. He shoots up in his bed, in his haste he not only startled Lunafreya but irritated his wound. He gasps out in pain, clutching it as Lunafreya quickly holds him down by the shoulders. 'Noctis, please! You're still-

'Luna! Prompto! H-he needs' starts the king, but his words were halted by a knock on the door. 'Luna? Everything ok in there?'. Noctis turned to the door as Lunafreya helps him lie back down with a small pout. 'Yes, Prompto, please come in', she said with a small sigh. The door opened with Prompto using his elbow and back against the door, looking like he was carrying something in his arms…arm.

'Sorry I was late', apologized the gunner, 'Donald and Goofy needed some help with some of the supplies'. He turned around with a little jump to keep his balance, grinning brightly at Noctis. 'Noct? Hey! When did you wake up?', he asked.

The king's jaw was hanging, the man looked perfectly fine and his attitude was…well, Prompto. He shakes his head as memories kept hammering in his head about what happened. 'Prompto…I, I'm sorry', he says weakly. Prompto blinked, then made an "oh" look on his face, his bright smile gone and in its place was a look. He frowns as he approaches his king, 'Yeah, that was pretty freaky huh? I mean…it was all a blur for me', he laughs weakly.

That was putting it very mildly, and Noctis knew the guy was trying to lighten the atmosphere between them. After all, it was because Noctis had been in a situation that he couldn't get himself out of and Prompto had paid for his shortcomings. Lunafreya had said nothing during their exchange, likely letting them speak as she quietly sat on the chair. Prompto puts down the bag of food on the small table by the bed, likely breakfast or lunch for her grace, not facing Noctis. Noctis could not even imagine seeing his friend's stump.

'Noct…what happened wasn't your fault, ya know?', says the gunner. Noctis didn't look at him, eyes glued to the end of the bed as his best friend turned his head to him. Prompto heaves a sigh as he runs his left hand through his hair. Letting it fall to his side, he playfully punches the king's arm. 'You'd do it for me, and probably act all cool and say "meh, just a flesh wound", wouldn't you?', he teases. Noctis' lips twitched; he wasn't entirely wrong on that. '…I'd probably be a lot worse than you are right now', confesses the king.

'Nah, you've got Iggy! You could have no arms or legs and he'd turn it into a miracle of laziness!', joked the gunner. Noctis snickers before he shudders, that was not an image he needed in his life. 'Besides, all things considered. It worked out!', Prompto says confidently. When Noctis turned his head to look at him, to his shock he sees Prompto lifting a new limb for a right arm.

The limb was entirely robotic, but unlike those shows where it looked cartoonishly like a cannon, it is a black metallic skeletal limb with several blue and red wires that looked like veins. He sees what looked to be a socket around where his elbow used to be with some patches of bruises and some scarring. Prompto flexes his metal skeletal fingers, making like clinking noises before his wrist rotates entirely as he grinned.

'Check this out! Cindy and Cid made this for me!', he says with the glee of a child, 'A freaking robotic limb!'.

Noctis stares at the limb before looking at the smiling Lunafreya, shrugging in response. 'I was told about his predicament, and after healing him Cindy immediately went to work on his limb', she explained. Prompto grinned at his king as he clenches his metal limb, saying: 'This is just the skeleton work, Cindy's finishing off the structure with some kickass stuff!'. Noctis laughs, shaking his head while a large weight lifts from his chest as he grinned at his best friend.

'Holy shit…your dream came true, you're halfway to becoming a Jedi…', Noctis jokes. Prompto's smile grew even more, not as big as Sora's smiles but close enough. 'Dude…do you think Aqua knows any telekinetic powers? *GASP* Maybe she can teach me how to fight like a Jedi!?', he asked. The king shakes his head as he laughs with Prompto's ramblings, then he looks at a visibly confused Lunafreya as she watches the exchange between them.

The divine woman looks to the king for answers to this banter, which prompted Noctis to say: 'A movie he loves to watch'. Lunafreya makes an "ahh" noise before nodding with lingering confusion on her face. He turned back to Prompto when the blond lifts a chair over to the bed and settles down before Noctis, his smile dampened. 'So…a few things happened since you went for your nap', Prompto says.

*Fifteen Minutes later…*

Once Prompto had finished the summary of their current predicament, the king grunts out in frustration just as Lunafreya finishes healing him. After Sora had defeated Genesis, what remained able fighters had cleansed the city of heartless and any traces of Maleficent's forces had quickly been dealt with.

Much of the destruction was being handled by the workforces of the city, with Zack leading the construction work while Cid was fixed on repairing the town's defenses, something on the lines of making sure not even another MCP could take down their systems. What that meant went over the three's heads but so far after the rebooting nothing has been seen and very likely whatever caused the town to lose their defenses had been dealt with.

Then came the news of Ardyn…

'And Sora was sure he's working with Xehanort now?', Noctis questions as he got dressed behind the curtains. 'Yup, golden eyes and everything', Prompto affirmed, 'But Aqua says Sora didn't say anything else before he collapsed'.

Not surprising given how bad the boy's state was from what Lunafreya told him. He hated how worried she looked when describing his condition and judging from her relief when she told him he'd live to see another day strongly implied he was just an inch away from meeting his old man. 'How the hell did he survive against me and Sora? We beat the hell out of him and even took the blight from him!', the king says as he throws on a jacket left for him.

'It is possible when the keyhole was revealed it only took away the blight', Lunafreya theorized, 'However we cannot discount that Xigbar may have anticipated this outcome and perhaps, rescued Ardyn'.

'So what? You think that one-eyed creep planned on bringing Ardyn into the fray, to begin with?', Prompto asks as his metal wrist started to rotate again. He groans and tries to make it stop as Lunafreya replied. 'It is possible after he discovered Noctis carried a keyblade, he believed it'd be wise to bolster the Organization with someone who could match the king'.

Throwing on the jacket, Noctis walks around the curtain to join the other two. 'How are the others?', he asks as they leave the room. Once Lunafreya assured the blonde gunner that their king is fit for walking anyways, they leave the room and Prompto guides them to Sora's room. 'Well Donald and Goofy were a little roughed up but they've been helping Mickey deal with any of the heartless still hanging around the city, so I guess they're doing good', he explains.

'Axel's been mostly hanging around with Tifa and Irvine with some repairs here and there. Riku and Sora are still in their beds, taken a worse beaten than any of us'. Noctis frowns with worry but he turned to Lunafreya once she takes his hand and graces him with a loving smile. 'Luckily for them, they have been monitored by Aerith and Aqua', she assures, 'Their magic has healed their most severe wounds'.

The three walked down the hall of what Noctis learned to be the main castle, with many workers and doctors with their nurses racing down to meet their patients and a few of the guards were either stationed at the doors of certain patients or were patrolling. After the battle, many of the more severely wounded party members were immediately transferred to the castle's medical ward not just for better comforts and easier workplaces for the doctors but also to keep them safe.

From what Prompto was told Cid had designed a powerful security system that could track anything that even breathed darkness and all the guards here were trained by Zack himself to be efficient and capable of dealing with any heartless that could be bold or stupid enough to make their way here. When asking about his royal retinue, Prompto says after Noctis was safe and taken care of, Gladiolus had offered to act as a bodyguard for Riku and Sora while Ignis lent a hand or two to the RC and their search and rescue operations.

'Oh? So he leaves his king to fend for himself?', Noctis jokes with sarcasm. 'Pfft, no! We had Luna act as a bodyguard for you!', Prompto says with confidence. At this titbit of information, he glanced at Lunafreya's smiling face that was adorned with hues of red. 'A-a choice that, in hindsight, may not have been the wisest…but we had little options…', she muses quietly while shyly ducking away from Noctis' smirking face.

'I never felt safer…', Noctis praises with a gentle pat on her back.

As they reached near the end of the hall, Noctis spots Gladiolus standing in front of likely Sora and Riku's room. He had his arms crossed and back against the door with his head down, glaring at the floor with his fists clenched tightly over his arms. When they got closer to him he raises his head to greet them with a firm nod.

'Up and at them?', he asked Noctis. 'Think I've had enough of a snooze…', the king says with mild amusement, 'You ok?'.

'Other than losing another shield and getting my ass handed to me by another super-powered rock star? Peachy', he grunts out, pushing himself off the door. He opened the door for them to enter with him in tow. Inside the room was much bigger than Noctis given there is two bed occupying the room, a large window showing off the city and landscape of the world beyond the walls. The room carried a warm scent of vanilla with low music being played over the head of the occupants.

He sees Sora and Riku in their beds, both awake to make small talk with Aerith, Aqua and Kairi. The princess of light was beside Sora, talking to him while holding a bowl of soup for him while Riku was going over the recent changes that had occurred since the battle concluded with Aqua frowning with worry with each new update she revealed to the two boys. When the door closed, they all looked at the royal party, Sora giving the king and Prompto big grins and a wave.

'Hey there!', he says before flinching in pain. Kairi places the soup on the lamp table near them and immediately places her hands on him with worry and a frown. 'Hey now, remember Aerith said no strenuous movement!', Kairi lectured as she gently lays him back down. The boy chuckles as a sheepish smile appeared on his face at the pouting redhead. The other occupants just snickered at the strictness of Kairi, surprised she wasn't watching over him like a hawk.

Aqua turned on the four with a tired smile. 'I'm glad to see you've woken up, Noct', she greets, 'You had us worried'. Noctis smiles back at her with a nod. 'I know. Thanks for rescue', he says with a small bow to the master. She, in turn, grants a warmer smile before turning to Prompto and Gladiolus. 'And you two? Anything come up?', she questions.

'Other than my new scar itching?', Gladiolus grunts out with scratching that healed mark, 'Think my feet fell asleep earlier'. Noctis glances back at him, looking at his newly acquired scar that rests as a slash on his six-pack. It had healed as far as he can see and there were smaller marks on him that would fade away over time. 'Just be grateful it wasn't your face again, I doubt Aqua could stomach any more of it if she had to wake up that every day', Noctis teases.

Gladiolus scoffs at this with a smug look. 'I'm still wondering how Luna wakes up to your grouchy ass', he counters, 'It's like waking up a bear'.

'Least she's got something handsome to look at it', replied Noctis.

'Pfft, Aqua happens to like my scars', says Gladiolus.

'…they are attractive, I admit…', Aqua quietly says low enough for Aerith and Riku to hear. Even the princess of Tenebrae couldn't help but giggle at the two bantering, placing a hand on her lips to quiet her giggles. 'Oh Gladio, Noctis is more akin to a cat if we are to compare him to animals', she remarks, 'I'd often wake to find him cuddling into me'. This elects laughter from the party, especially when Noctis turned bright red and crosses his arms, growling at them all. 'Why'd you tell them that?', he questioned.

'Because you DO act like a cat!', Lunafreya teases, 'I'm surprised I don't hear you purr whenever you cuddle with me!'.

'I DO NOT ACT LIKE A CAT!', growled the king. 'You are certainly picky with your food, like a cat', Riku remarks with a grunt, 'I've never met anyone with such fussy eating habits'. 'When did this turn into "pick on Noct" day?', questions his majesty, running a hand through his hair.

Aqua giggles as the party continues to tease the cat king while she looks at Prompto and his limb. 'What about you? How's your hand?', she asks with genuine concern. He nodded to her as he raises his hand and twists his wrist. 'Still feels pretty weird', he confesses, 'Cindy says she's working on making it look, ya know, normal? But it's still in the rough stages of development'. He goes into detail about how it took him an entire day to adjust to not being able to feel things with the metallic limbs while after several failed attempts of trying to hold a cup and even grab things.

'Kinda nervous of using a gun with this…', Prompto says with a nervous smile. At that, Aqua frowns as she uncrosses her arms with a sigh. 'That…brings us to our current problem', she says. The tone shifts as all eyes went to the blue-haired master. She retells the others what Sora had been told by Ardyn, about how they had seven days to prepare for the war to commence, and now they were down to four days remaining.

'And you're sure you couldn't get an idea on what's changed with that guy?', Gladiolus asks Sora, 'Anything off or weirder?'. Sora shakes his head as Kairi begins to finish off the healing at long last. 'I couldn't get an idea on him…', he says with a sigh, 'But I was pretty worn out…'.

'Either way, Xehanort has another vessel with him', Aqua states, 'One who is potentially as strong if not stronger then Noctis'. 'And for all we know, Xigbar could have amplified his power with the darkness at his disposal', Riku added as he gets out of the bed. 'All the more of a reason to get started on the training, right?', Noctis asks looking at the masters, 'I mean, how long are we gonna get in that place?'.

'Before? It'd be a month per day inside', Aqua explained, 'But after Sora told us the time limit, I asked Merlin if there were a way for him to slow down time even more for us'. She gestures to Aerith, 'Thanks to Fairy Godmother and Merlin, they have found a way to slow down time for us within the forest'.

'So instead of getting one month in a day…we get a year', Riku sighed. 'A year!? In just one day!?', Prompto said, grabbing his hair, 'How the heck are we gonna survive!?'.

Aqua rolls her eyes at him. 'We're not going in with supplies, Prompto', she chastises, 'Merlin has already prepared several methods of supplies for us, along with other conveniences'. After she managed to track down the spoony wizard and gave him the rundown of their situation and after he extended the longevity of the forest, he used his magic to create magical household appliances like fridges and freezers for them.

The best thing about them was simple, they would replenish after a day, basically creating an unlimited supply of food for years on end. And of course, Ignis was the one who listed off the supplies they'd be needing and may have added extra vegetables. She had a wondering feeling that perhaps in the year of being together they might finally convince Ventus and Noctis to eat their vegetables. Unlikely she feared but stranger things have occurred.

'But we won't be starting today or tomorrow…', she says with a sigh. 'Why not?', Sora asks, letting Kairi unashamedly ruffle his hair. 'Well first off, I need to go back to Land of Departure', Aqua explains, 'If we're going to be training Noct to use the keyblade more efficiently along with Kairi, Ven, and Axel, then we'll need the books and a few lessons Eraqus had left for us'.

'Do they include summoning tea-cups that attack heartless and summoning giant lions of fire?', Noctis asks with a smirk. This makes the former Oracle look at him with a bizarre look before turning to Sora. Kairi grinned. 'Magical tea-cups!', she cheers. 'No', Aqua said deadpanned, 'I…never knew we could do that'. She clears her throat and resumes, 'But aside from that there are some lessons that could be taught to Gladio and the others, such as magic and other methods of combat'.

'Like the ones you and Donald use?', Gladiolus asked. She nods. 'But more then that, the three of you will need to train your bodies', she elaborates, 'This way whatever training we take on you can join suit'.

'Least that way you guys can take hits just like we can', Riku adds in with wisdom.

'Okay, but why can't you guys go today?', Sora asks. Aqua sighed tiredly while running a hand through her hair. 'Rikku and Yuffie…have already organized a party to celebrate the victory', she groaned.

'Ooh fun!', Kairi said with a smile, 'Wonder what they have in mind for it?'.

*Night*

Looking back on her words Kairi realized that maybe she should have considered the difference of ages when parties are involved.

After everyone had gathered up and healed, they arrived at Tifa's bar with the other members of the RC had already arrived. The moment they entered Kairi realized that this party wasn't just a regular fun type where there'd be cakes, sodas, and small get-togethers. Her naivety is truly something to pity had anyone not known her so well or worst of all think she's worse than Sora's naivety. The first thing she noticed was the worrying fact Rikku and Yuffie were already intoxicated.

And from what Leon had told her, they went through a bottle together. Lightweights…

Next, she sees the food was expensive-looking without the Ignis touch (which was a disappointment since she misses his cooking). The music was loud and more upbeat, the sort Gladiolus remarks you'd hear in some night club and given the explicit language that spewed from it Kairi was surprised Aerith was perfectly fine with it. Maybe it was because she was too busy keeping an eye on Yuffie and prevent her from stealing.

That explains why Leon threatened to tie her hands up and leave her outside…

So far the princess had been trying to keep close to her friends, more so with Sora who is equally uncomfortable as she is. Everybody else bar the lack of residents from Disney Castle who had to go back for something. Not sure what the story was but from what Kairi could glean from the short interaction she had with them before they left, it was mostly a precaution to protect their home from Maleficent.

Standing against a table with an assortment of party food and drinks with her hands fiddling together as she tried to adjust to the noise. It was like she stumbled into the wrong building given how out of place she felt. Her eyes scanned the bar that on the surface and truthfully wasn't one of those scummy filthy hole bars for degenerates, if anything were it not for the music and booze Kairi would even say it was homey.

Tifa took over this place after her search for Cloud turned up fruitless and started to turn it into a home/working place. Good reputation too from what Aerith says, and any drunken brutes that would often plague a nice place like this were often dealt with swiftly by the owner. She spots Axel chatting up with Riku and Ignis by the counter as Tifa, inebriated after her sixth glass. The woman kept screaming "Seventh Heaven", slurred and as excited as a kid while Ignis, ever the gentleman, kept her from collapsing or smash her face-first into the counter.

At least Axel wasn't drinking like nearly everybody else she thought, the man had a rather strong dislike to the stuff. She asked him why and he says it had something to do with Xaldin scarring him with alcohol horror stories. That was enough for her.

Nearby a window she spots Prompto hanging out with Cindy, Cid, and Leon, making small talk while Cindy was going on and on about the robot limb she was working on for Prompto. Based on her excited she was talking and all her hand gestures, Kairi wondered if that was just her being super excited or like almost everyone, she was slightly or heavily drunk.

Surprisingly after two hours in Noctis and Lunafreya had retired to their room. Kairi figured all this was a bit much for the poor Oracle given her little experiences with social gatherings as such. Lucky her, she gets to snuggle with her boyfriend while everyone else (mostly her very likely) had to force themselves through this. Leaning against the table with a huff, she turned to see Sora appear before her with two red cups.

'Sorry I took a while', he apologizes whilst handing her a drink, 'Had to get past a clingy Yuffie…'. Kairi nods in understanding, she was clung to by Yuffie earlier and it took Aerith tickling her to free the poor redhead. Looking at her drink with a sudden surge of concern tackling her, seeing it was a cherry-colored liquid. She looked at Sora who equally had hesitation in his eyes, both wondering if there was a substance of alcohol within the drinks.

'Do you think Aerith is right about these being the only non-alcoholic beverages?', Kairi questioned. Those movies where the drinks were spiked by other stupid students suddenly plays in her mind before Sora scratched his neck. 'Well…I mean, Rikku and Yuffie were pretty drunk when we came here, so maybe they didn't get around to it yet?', he suggests. Kairi didn't put it past those two for being reckless, but a part of her figured one small drink wouldn't hurt.

With reluctance and after a quick count to three, the two keyblade users took swigs of their drinks. Immediately the drink tasted way too sweet for Kairi's tongue, but she drank the whole thing down because the heat of the bar had made her very thirsty and while sweet it tasted nice. After that, the two teens cough from quickly swallowing their beverages, shuddering. 'WHOA…that was sweet…', Sora groaned.

Kairi nodded wholeheartedly, but after the drink settled in her stomach, she sighed and felt warmer. 'That was nice…', she mused, looking at her empty cup. Licking her lips, she turned behind her to see the exact drink was in a large bowl right behind her, they must have had more than one, and she grabbed the ladle and scoops up another cup's worth. This makes Sora raise a brow at her as she scoops up another and offered it to Sora.

'We may as well enjoy ourselves', she says, 'After tomorrow we're gonna be working our butts off to get ready for the clash'. Seeing her point Sora allows his own to be refilled…

Nearby with her cup of Radiant Garden's finest brew, Aqua smiled and listens intently to the exchange between Gladiolus and a very drunk Yuffie. The shield mostly adding his own two munny to Yuffie's rant about how despite being outgoing, cheerful and cute she has yet to land a quote: "Smoking hot boyfriend". Gladiolus smirked at Aqua as he jokingly said Riku and Sora would've been perfect had they not been taken. Yuffie, likely bravery stemming from the booze running through her, claimed she could win Sora over if she wanted.

Aqua kindly warned her if she even attempted to flirt with that boy, she'd never be seen again.

This did nothing to convince Yuffie as she drunkenly claimed she would win Sora over and marched off in the complete opposite direction of Sora. Aqua muses that was probably her sub-conscious working overtime to preserve herself a little longer.

Leaning against the wall with Gladiolus by her side, she sighed tiredly as the noise of the party slowly winds down with voices of the occupants taking over the music. The drink in her hand only touched her lips once as she decided it'd be best to have a clear head for the early morning rise. Arrangements had been made and there is a ship waiting for herself and Gladiolus to take them to her homeworld. She looks at her drink in thought as Gladiolus downs his, humming with approval.

'Hmm…not bad…might ask Tifa if she's got more', he says to himself. Aqua hums in response, eyes half-closed as her thoughts wander. Its been so long since she had returned home, she didn't spend any longer than needed after they awoke Ventus from his slumber. Part of the reason was for her to bring him up to speed and gather the guardians, but the real reason was to escape the memories of her home. Only a few hours back into the realm of light, she refused to allow the sadness and anger she built up to taint her memories.

Bringing Gladiolus with her isn't just for the company, but to help her if she needed somebody to bring her back down to earth. The last thing she wanted to have was a break down in her home. She lifts her drink up and starts to sip again.

'Heads up, Zack's coming'.

Aqua's eyes shoot open as she spits out her drink in shock. This makes the shield jump back in surprise with a "whoa shit" escaping him. She coughs and punches her chest to clear her throat as she looks up in shock to see the familiar young man nodding to Tifa before he approaches her and Gladiolus. "CRAPCRAPCRAPCRAP!" was all she could think when to her dismay, this was indeed the same Zack she had met all those years ago.

Just more muscular, older and admittedly more handsome.

'Hey Gladio, enjoying the party?', he asks with a warrior's arm bump. 'You know it', the shield says, showing his cup while Aqua looked like a deer caught in the headlights and looking close to booking it. Zack then turns to Aqua with that smile before he raises a brow as a look of recognition appeared. 'Hey, wait…haven't I seen you before?', he asked. If someone could read Aqua's mind all they would have heard was her screaming on the inside as her cheeks went rosy.

'I-I-I…uh…', she stuttered before Zack grinned. 'Oh yeah! Aqua right? We met at the coliseum a few years back', he says with memory. Aqua's internal screaming got quite louder at this moment. Gladiolus raises a brow at the exchange, suddenly feeling like Zack needed to leave right now. 'O-O-Oh yes!', Aqua says shyly and awkwardly with a smile that looked like a mad patient was trying to blend in, 'Z-Zack, it's good to see you!'.

'Man, what are you Ven using to look like you haven't aged at all?', he jokes, 'Only thing that changed is your armor!'. Flashbacks flashed in her mind to that question and she quickly pushes them aside as she giggles awkwardly. 'Oh, you know…being healthy…herbal oils and skincare…', she listed hap-hazardously. Zack chuckles at her lame excuse, not buying but certainly not pushing it the subject further.

'Fair enough, but hey, remember that promise I made?', he asked.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!", she screams mentally.

'W-What promise exactly?', she squeaks.

'That once I become a true hero, I'd take you out on a date?', he reminds with a grin. "Date?", Gladiolus mentally growls as his grip on the plastic red cup grows a bit too tight for the poor thing with an eye twitch. This question turns Aqua's cheeks from rosy to flat out scarlet to the tip of her ears. 'O-O-O-OH! T-T-THAT ONE!', she says a bit to hi-pitched for her liken. Zack nods casually, unaware of the growing embarrassment of Aqua and the seething rage that was Gladiolus.

'Yeah?', Zack asks with a grin. 'I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I CAN'T!', she blurts out, shaking. 'Huh? Aww, why not?', Zack asks with a small puppy pout. 'OH WELL! B-B-B-BECAUSE, BECAUSE!', she tries but her mind was overloaded with panic and heat from the embarrassment. Next thing she knows an arm wraps around her shoulders and holds her close, making her squeak a little as she accidentally rests her head on Gladiolus chest.

'Sorry buddy, but Blue and I are dating', Gladiolus says while reeling in both his temper and smugness. As infuriating as it was to see this guy openly ask his girl to go out with him, he needed to remember that the guy probably didn't know they were an item given how shy Aqua is with subject matters like this. Remembering that Gladiolus IS her boyfriend; therefore she had an excuse to say no to Zack's offer, Aqua quickly mustered what little pride and dignity she had before Zack and cleared her throat.

'Y-Yes! Gladio and I have been dating for a few months now!', she says, laughing. Zack blinks in surprise at this, before he grinned and waves it off. 'Ahh, shame! Looks like I took way too long then!', he says with a laugh. He gives Gladiolus a nod and smiles back Aqua before bidding them both goodnight and heads off to talk to the others. Aqua heaves a sigh of relief and falls onto Gladiolus.

Never has romance seem both so exhausting and terrifying at the same time…

'…so, was that the guy you had to come up with some lame-ass excuse to say no?', he asked with a smirk.

'…shut up', she pouts.

*Later…*

Smiling like a complete and utter moron, Kairi was giggling profusely with Sora as they clumsily walked their way back to their room. Both were trying hard to be quiet as to not disturb their sleeping friends but were failing horribly with every step they took.

'S-SH-SHHHH!', Kairi giggles while placing a finger on her lips to try and silence both her and Sora but failing. Sora just laughed at her attempt to enforce silence between the two of them, both were getting closer and closer to their room. 'S-Stop making me laugh Kai!', Sora laughed, 'We're supposed to be quiet!'.

'HUSH!', she fumbles with giggles, 'You're being loud too!'.

'YOU HUSH!', Sora counters.

'NO YOU!', Kairi retorts.

'BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP!', shouted Noctis from his bedroom.

They both clasped their mouths to pathetically stifle their giggles, jogging back to their rooms. Kairi couldn't help laughing, she didn't know why she was feeling so giggly or why seemingly anything was so funny to her. She knew perhaps because they weren't used to alcohol despite only having two cups each of it, they were feeling what she thought was the "buzz" of the drinks. She feels a warmth in her stomach, her vision wasn't blurry, nor did she feel as if she had no control over anything, she still had awareness and memory of the castle around her.

Once they were in their room at long last, they unleashed their laughter without restraint the moment Sora closed the door. She holds her stomach as Sora falls to the ground laughing, she was convinced there was no alcohol in their drinks but liquified laughing gas. It had to be, there was no way anyone who was buzzed could be this giggly.

'W-WH-WHY ARE WE LAUGHING SO MUCH!?', Kairi questions as tears formed in her eyes. 'I DON'T KNOW!', Sora replied as he rolled on the floor. Maybe Kairi should be concerned about this amount of laughter the expelled from their bodies but she couldn't care less why. Soon they managed to collect themselves when they needed to breathe, Kairi leaned against the wall while Sora laid on the floor on his back.

Panting as the buzz begins to leave her, Kairi looks at the patio outside their room as the moon shined down on the city. Silence lingered in the room as her body begins to crave for sleep while Sora gets back to his feet. She runs a hand through her hair and sighs. 'Bedtime I think', she hums. The boy doesn't say anything while Kairi approached the dresser nearby for the PJS.

Then when she touched the dresser handle, suddenly she is turned around and held by the shoulders by Sora. She opened her mouth to speak but he covers her mouth with his, making her gasp. He holds her close to him as he kisses her, pressing their bodies close together. With his arm wrapped around her back and a hand placed on the back of her head, Sora spreads warmth into her. Slowly hypnotized by this, Kairi lets her eyes close halfway before she wrapped her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss.

There is something different about it, the kiss was not just a simple display of affection they'd normally exchange. She feels a powerful passion in it like Sora was trying to communicate something through this act. He deepens the kiss as he runs his hand through her hair, earning a soft moan from her. The feeling of his wonderful hands through rugged still retains a delicate softness she knows he'll always have prompted her to run her hands through that wild spiky hair of his.

Then his hands reached down to her hips and suddenly he hoists her up. Instinctively and a bit startled, Kairi throws her legs around his waist as he sits her on the dresser desk. 'S-Sora!', she gasped but his name is all she was able to get out before his lips begin to go for her neck. Kairi moans as he gently kisses, sucks and nibbles her neck, her breath low and sharp. He lets a small growl emit from him, which made her shiver in delight.

His hands run down her back and gently grip her hips, earning more gasps from Kairi as she runs her hands through his hair. She moans his name like a mantra, feeling him suck her flesh while worshiping her form. He growled her name as he raises his head to face her. In his eyes, she spots the flames of passion within them, love only for her glowed within those sky-blue eyes that made her feel like she was soaring through the clouds.

He carried her to the bed, laying her down gently while she unwrapped her legs. Panting she stares up at the ceiling as waves of warmth washes over her body while she hears her heart beaten madly within her. Kairi hears something being thrown aside and looks to Sora, now bare-chested with only his chain dangling from his neck as his eyes glowed within the darkness of their room, the moon's light shining down on his form.

Kairi feels her cheeks go dark red as Sora crawls to her, grinning with his cheek's bright red from his activities. Slowly he caresses her cheek like he was trying to encourage her. She swallows dryly as she removes her dress and drops off the bed, now wearing a simple white shirt with her underwear, they took their boots off the moment they got into the room. Her heartbeat increases to a new tempo as Sora hovers over her.

Staring into his eyes she feels hesitation leave her as he leaned in and kisses her again. She wraps her arms and legs around him as he sits upon his knees with her holding onto him. Kissing her neck as she runs her hands through his hair, feeling his hot breath on her bare flesh before he kisses her stomach through the cloth, adding fuel to the fire within her. Never had Sora made her feel like this, the kisses weren't the same innocent ones they exchange nor were they playful and sweet. These were full of passion and love with a hint of desperation.

Maybe it was the long separation back at Eos, they had so little time to make up for their distance so maybe this was the result. The built-up desire for each other's company once again had finally been brought out, and Sora wanted to show her how much he missed her. He breathes her name out as he rested his head against her smooth taut stomach, allowing her to pet him. She shifts slightly to get his attention, prompting him to lower her back to the bed on her knees. She smiles softly and beautifully at him.

Gently she cups his cheeks and kisses him. She had forgotten this wonderous feeling of the bond they shared. The way his touches felt, how safe she feels in his arms and how even at her worst he always kicked her into gear. She guides him to lay down with her, throwing the sheets over their bodies as she entangled their legs and wraps her arms around him. Staring deep into his blue eyes she says: 'I love you'.

He smiles warmly at her, before uttering the same words.

Together they fell into blissful sleep…

A/N: Finally! Done and done!

Expositions aside, the team has some down time and hype for the training. I didn't do too much with this one as its to help build up the training to come…and give an excuse for fluff for the pairings (unashamedly).

Next time is gonna be structured a little differently, if any of you have seen Avatar the Last Airbender, the episode "Tales of Ba-Sing-Sei" (Apologizes if I spell it wrong), it's gonna be like that. We'll have our heroes do their own thing, some fluff, some drama, foreshadowing and some fun times. Excluding the Disney trio because obvious.

QUESTIONS!

Q1: Thoughts on chapter?

Q2: Happy to see Lunafreya again?

Q3: Was the small party ok?

Q4: How was Aqua's reaction to Zack?

Q5: Happy with Sora and Kairi having fun?

Q6: Whose tale are you excited for in the next chapter?

Q7: Anyone hype for the training?

Thanks for reading everyone! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	58. Chapter 58

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 58

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

*Land of Departure*

Walking through the empty halls with only the sound of footsteps echoing in the building, the silence was mercifully broken as the sunlight shined through the glass windows.

She hoped coming back she would have felt something different this time, something she hadn't felt for a place in a long time. The only good feeling she got here was the excitement and hope that she was no longer alone anymore, that another of her past would awaken and re-join her. Without it, the feelings she had when she first set foot here again came back.

Loneliness…pain…and the darkness tainting her home.

Even when she stood outside the castle she felt a horrible chill race down her spine, knowing that spot was where her master had unfairly perished. His final resting ground in an unmarked grave, only known by his three students.

Aqua heaves a deep sigh as she climbed the stairs up to the throne room, looking at the seat where she was forced to leave her best friend for his safety. The very room where she should have felt a strong sense of pride, joy, and accomplishment, in this very room she was announced and recognized as a keyblade master. But now whenever she looks around in this place, all she could recall was nothing but fighting here, for her life and her friend.

A place that was forced to be stained by the footprints of a cruel and heartless person, one of the people who tore her family apart like paper.

Every step she takes here she feels more and more of her memories becoming tainted with pain. Would she even be able to live here again without the nightmares? Her own home that she grew up in and she fears just walking around it would trigger her nightmares. She feared Ventus and Terra wouldn't even be able to set foot upon this world after everything that's happened to them.

"So, this is your home, huh?", Gladiolus says, looking around the place with awe. She turned to see the man looking around the open area, eyes glowed with intrigue and awe at the majestic castle. A smile creeps on her face when he whistled at the overall fantasy-like place out of a storybook. Upon arrival to this world, Gladiolus was like a child seeing a new candy store, the way his mouth dropped at the marvelous sight of the landscape, the beauty of this world and of course the castle itself.

"Yes", she says with a smile, "This is my home".

The shield whistled again when he sees the stained glasses that shined down on the cleared space. "Damn, talk about living up in the high life", he comments with a smirk, "You sure Kairi's the princess?".

The woman giggled softly before nodding, "I'm far from being royalty, I can assure you". The weight of this world's tragic history is lifted from the master's heart, the guardian's words comfort her and bring serenity to her concerns albeit however short it may be.

She did hate that they had to leave early in the morning without so much as a goodbye to their friends, but the sooner they get what is needed and start their training the better. Luckily neither had drunk too much to worry about any ramifications and after she packed them basic needs just in case for an overnight stay while he wrestled up some food for them. Aqua didn't get her GP yet nor was Gladiolus' phone of any use outside of Eos, so they'd have to use the ship's communicator when she gets the chance.

She cleared her throat and told him to follow her to her master's study room. If her memory served her well, everything they would need to know about the keyblade, and the training methods would be there for them along with some other lessons for Noctis' group. Guiding through the halls as Gladiolus takes everything in Aqua quietly ponders on how so little has changed here along with there being no evidence of anyone setting foot here.

Then she remembers her world was quite isolated compared to others, being so far apart when the worlds were restored.

"Hey Blue, been meaning to ask ya", Gladiolus says as he joins her side, "Did you live here all your life?". Aqua looks at him confused before he shrugs. "I mean from day one when you were born?", he clarifies. This makes her hum as she turned her head back to the path ahead before speaking. "Not entirely no. I was taken in by Eraqus when I was six…that's when I met Terra for the first time". Aqua lets out a "huh" sound, it had been so long since she had thought back to the days before her arrival.

From the day she met Eraqus, to the day she been declared a master, she never thought back to her childhood. A tug on her heart made itself known to her as she placed a hand on it, looking down and stopping. Gladiolus waits for her with a raised brow, the woman then says: "I…don't remember much…".

"Nothing at all? Your parents? Hell, your homeworld?", he says. "…I remember bits and pieces", Aqua confesses, continuing their walk. "My world is a little vague, but I do remember it was a little village, nearby a castle", she starts before a small smile appeared. Slowly the sleeping memories within her heart begin to flutter to life and resurface, fragments of her past. She hadn't thought of her home in years, even calling it "home" was a bit of an overstatement as this world, however, tainted by bad memories it was, in her home after all.

"It was so quiet and small there, I remember living by a stream with my mother…don't remember my blood father, and I feel like there was a good reason why", she says as they climb another set of stairs. "It was just me and my mother most of the time, save for a few visitors".

Her mother…a woman she had forgotten about. A pang of pain hit her heart for a moment before she frowns. She remembers little of her, only scraps of her memories of the woman. Aqua knows she got her blue hair from her along with her gentle and kind heart, but she remembers she loved to bake pies, she always smelled of herbal soaps that she couldn't place, and nary a time there was a smile on her face.

"What was your mom like?", Gladiolus asked. "Kind…she loves to bake pastries like pies, cakes…other things like that", Aqua says fondly, "I think that's how we used to make munny. Any spares we had; she'd let me have a slice of each". She remembered the smells of those delicious foods; the strawberry and blueberry pies make her stomach growl softly. Part of her wondered if the reason she had taken the role of cooking during her training was because of her mother.

Or maybe she just really wanted more pies. It could be that.

As they approached the door to her master's study, she placed a hand on the ornate door and lowered her head. Gladiolus looked worriedly at her as her eyes darkened with sadness. "…I remember, the day I had to leave home…".

She opens the door and begins to retell her story…

*Twenty-two years ago, *

A six-year-old Aqua was skipping across the small river, playing hopscotch with herself as she carefully hopped from one small stepping stone to the other. Counting each hop, she makes with a small "ahh" or "whoa" escaping her little mouth with each shake of her balance.

She stuck her tongue out in concentration as she was balancing shakily on her right leg and was leaning just a bit too much backward. With a small grunt, she leans forward and hops onto the next stone with a small yell. She grins victoriously and with two more hops, she reaches the other side of the small lake with a cheer.

She has defeated the "broken bridge" and its nefarious water creatures swimming in the giant lake.

The child blows raspberries at the lake before skipping off back to her cottage where her mother resides. She couldn't wait to tell her mother about her amazing battle. No taller than a chair, Aqua's blue hair was longer and messier than she would ever do in the future, wearing a dark blue summer dress with her "adventure" boots covered in mud and bits of leaves sticking to the soles.

Happily skipping down the hill overseeing the cottage ahead of her on their small land, Aqua beamed when she, even at a distance like this, smells her mother's pastries. Nothing like an amazing pie after a heroic battle to make the day even better and her small legs carried her to her home.

Racing to the door, she opens it and proudly declares: "Mama, I'm home!".

Where once her mother would immediately turn to her daughter with that wonderful smile and instantly wrap her daughter up in a hug, this time she merely stood by the stove in silence. The little girl's smile dims to a pout as she approaches her mother. Despite her towering over the smaller human, Aqua gently tugs on her apron. "Mama?", she asked. Her mother turned to her daughter and then breaks a small on her face, except Aqua could see it was a strain.

The woman was quite old even when Aqua was a child, not old and wrinkly but well into her autumn years for certain. Her aquatic blue hair had glimmers of white within them all tied into a neat little bun, grey-blue eyes that the girl loved seeing whenever she laughs. Wearing an old set of robes, a nightgown in her world, with her chef's apron protecting them, or as Aqua calls it her "cooking armor".

"Welcome home, dear", greeted the mother, as if she had just noticed her daughter. The child blinks with a tilt of her head as her mother pets her. "Mama? Are you ok?", asked the child. "I'm fine sweetie", the mother assures weakly, "Just a little…". The words could not be spoken as the mother kneels and gently wrapped her arms around her daughter's small frame. Aqua instantly hugs her back, thinking maybe she just needs a hug to feel better. It's one of the best ways her mother cheers her up.

A set of footsteps enter the cottage and somehow the hug becomes even tighter as Aqua tried to look and see who their visitor was. She hoped it wasn't a costumer, she already made dibs on the first pie. When they broke the hug, her mother greets the visitor. Aqua follows her mother's gaze to see Eraqus standing in the door frame with what looked to be a large case beside him. The little girl frowns, that old beat-up leather box was hers.

The old man gives the mother a look of genuine regret as if what he was about to do was the worst thing he could ever do to this woman.

"Caeruleum…", he says, low. The woman nods and then looks back at her daughter. Aqua looks up to her mother with questions before she kneels before her daughter. "Aqua…do you remember Master Eraqus?", she starts.

She nods slowly, remembering the man was a friend her mother and whenever she could get the chance to play with him, he was always telling her stories. "He's a teacher too…a-and, he says he wants to mentor you".

"Mentor"?", the little girl questions, the word going over her head. Her mother giggled softly, used to her daughter's small vocabulary. "It means he's going to be your teacher, dearest. He says you have great potential in you, and wants to help", she clarifies.

Aqua sticks her tongue out, a teacher means she would have to go to that bad place called "school", and she hated it there. She liked being homeschooled, she could spend all her time learning stuff with her mother and not be teased by the bigger kids. "But mama, I don't wanna go to school!", the little girl pouts.

"No sweetie, it won't be a school…its, more of…a different home school…", the mother explains delicately as more of her smile cracks. She gently brushes her daughter's hair out of her face, eyes shimmering and Aqua feels her own grow wet. "You will have to go with Eraqus for this education, my dearest".

"F-For how long, mama?", she squeaks.

Even behind them, Eraqus looks away, the duty that must be performed tore into his heart. Caeruleum says nothing as she places both hands on her daughter's shoulders. "I don't know", she confesses. This does little to soothe the child's fears as she shook her head, whimpering with lips quivering. "B-But, you're coming with me, right?", she begged. "I can't, Aqua", her mother says.

Aqua shakes her head and buried her face onto her mother. "NO! I DON'T WANNA GO!", she shouts, muffled by her mother's shoulders, "I'M STAYING WITH YOU MAMA!". Caeruleum holds her daughter tightly as the child bawls her eyes out, begging for her mother to keep her here, where she belonged. Aqua's mind raced with all the horrible possibilities that could have led up to this choice, was her mother angry at her? Did she do something wrong to make her not love her anymore?

She cried, apologized and begged her mother to let her stay here yet her mother with tears running down her eyes could not grant that wish. Soon enough Eraqus was given no choice but to take the girl by force after the mother gave her daughter one more hug and wished her good luck.

Aqua remembers she was screaming and crying the whole time she was taken away from her home, her whole world swept from beneath her. She struggled against Eraqus, threatening to bite him and kicked him several times as she cried for her mother to rescue her, yet all she did was stand by her home and watch as her daughter was taken with tears running down her eyes.

For the first time, Aqua had truly hated her master…

*Present Day*

"After that…I spent the next week crying in my room…hating every moment I was trapped here", she says with her hand still on the doorknob. Pain etched on her flawless features as she tries her hardest to swallow that lump in her throat. Behind her Gladiolus had his arms crossed his chest with his head down in thought, taking in her story.

"Holy shit…", he says finally, "Sounds like you were kidnapped, with the way you described it". In many ways she was, and no matter how hard she tried to wrap her mind around it and justify it, Aqua was kidnapped and taken from her homeworld.

So many years had passed, and yet now after what was close to twenty-five years now since then. She hadn't thought about her mother or home since she eventually accepted her place was nowhere, and her old life was nothing more than a life that could never be lived through, her family was Terra and Eraqus now. However, as a child, she persisted in demanding Eraqus take her to see her mother again and thought that maybe if she did well enough to progress her training he'd reward her with a visit to her mother.

But every time she brought it up to him, he would deny her request and plead with her to focus on her training. Thinking back to it, he was quite cruel to her now that she had a greater view on the worlds and after every experience had helped her grow. In time, she shamefully says now, she gave up on seeing her home and mother again and simply accepted her old life was gone. And the rest was history…

Aqua musters up a deep sigh and opened the door, saying: "It's in the past…lets just move on".

Inside the room with a silent Gladiolus, they already begin to pack up the books required for the training. It was a very strange thing for Aqua, rummaging through her master's old room. On one hand, she feels as if she were desecrating it and had to resist the urge to tell Gladiolus to leave the room and allow her to put everything back. As she picks up a few books from his desk which was home to plenty of trinkets of his other world travels, she feels a tap on the shoulder.

Aqua looks to see Gladiolus holding up a journal in blue before her. "Think you should have a look", he says as she takes it off him. The front cover was nothing but a blank cover with only her name on the cover. Curiosity gets the better of her and she opened a page to see it is more akin to a document on her than a journal. Just the first page alone told her that her memories of her "adoption" were spot on from what she remembered, and it was enough for her to close the book.

"We won't need this", she says, head cast aside. "For training? No doubt bout that, but for you?", Gladiolus replied, patting her shoulder, "Maybe it wouldn't hurt?".

"…what if I read is something that could completely change how I see my master?", she asks. With a friendly and caring smile, Gladiolus says: "Or you might find out maybe he felt just as if not worse when he had to take you away". She looks at the journal with conflict stirring within her heart, his words carrying great weight as her questions needed answers to. For all she knows by reading this she may see him no better than Xehanort or something worse…

Reluctantly, she heeds the wisdom spoken by the shield and places it in the pocket dimension, before quietly saying they should finish up their packing. She didn't miss that confident smile on his face, and it was easy for her smile to creep up. She casts her thoughts on the matter aside and resumes their task before them.

They spent a few hours going through the books that would be needed and had to decide on which would be more practical for Noctis and the others while Aqua was fussing over which book would help her teach the lesser experienced keyblade users. Luckily after some input from Gladiolus and after debate on whether they would need more education on how form changes and other bits would work, Aqua had the ship filled with the appropriate books that would likely be perfect for her students.

Once that was done and over with, Aqua took Gladiolus for a tour of her old home. After so many dark thoughts clouding her mind and after Gladiolus' encouragement in the journal, she feels like she needs to give him the sense not everything was grim and dark here.

She took him to their training grounds and tells him that this is their spot of sorts. After training in and out of the castle they'd come here to watch the stars, make small talk or just camp out for the fun. Memories of the days of naivety and innocence after a hard day of honing their skills, her spars with Terra that would often be in her favor for she teases she had a brain while Terra had a rock for one. Gladiolus jokingly asked her if he'd have a chance to spar with Terra when this ended.

She smiled at the question and admits it'd be a sight to see.

Through the castle grounds and talking more about their home, Aqua feels more of the good memories of her home slowly beat down the dark memories that plagued her home. She remembers the days when Ventus would get them to play games with him, Terra always sneaking around to find out more secrets of the old world and Aqua herself remembering how she used to skate around the floor with just her socks on.

Finally as the day shifts into nightfall, in one corridor they came to her bedroom. She stared at her door, ornate pinkish-white with teal-colored door with her name proudly stabled on the door. With a smile, she opened her door as Gladiolus suddenly unbeknownst to her, was blushing lightly, and entered her room.

And she immediately wished she hadn't…

To say the room was NOT at all what the shield was expecting from the woman, would be the biggest understatement in the universe.

Instead of an organized, neat and tidy bedroom given how much of neat woman the blue head is, if Gladiolus were honest he would've assumed either Iris or hell Prompto was living here instead. Her room was messy with strewn clothes on the floor, several dressers half opened with tons of glasses and mugs on the windowsill and by her desk that was covered in notes, books and other bits of items needed.

The shield didn't want to imagine how the bathroom looked if sharing one with Iris was any indication.

He glances at Aqua who looked mortified and almost wishing a hole would just swallow her up to let her embrace a sweet release of life. How could she have forgotten she was useless at keeping her room cleaned, even Terra at the very least keeps his neat and orderly (if you count stuffing your boxers, socks and whatever else you wear into one dresser orderly), at least they weren't on the floor!

"…I'll go whip up something for dinner, why don't you tidy your room while ya wait?", suggest Gladiolus as he casually walks out of her room with all his might going into restraining himself from laughing.

The moment the door closes behind her, Aqua slammed her hand against her head with a loud groan. Of all the things that didn't change in this place…

After calming down and then taking a breath, the master begins the process of cleaning up her room. More memories of her life here began to linger on her mind as she folds and organizes her room, remembering when Eraqus brought her here for the first time. The sanctuary that she spent so much time in during her first year here, locking herself away from him in the vain hopes the next time her door would open it'd be her mother.

Closing her wardrobe after tidying it, she moves to her bed, lifting a pillow up and then spotting a very familiar item beneath it.

Fenrir, the snowy wolf.

She picks up her old stuff toy that has aged a fair bit since she and he last went for a "hunt", his mane that was once white as snow and groomed like a proud partner was wild and grey with dirt and dust, one of his legs still had that wrap around him that was yellow and falling apart. Even his fangs that she believed could scare even the scariest monsters the dark could bring was a little flat with the stuffing depletion.

Jaw opened slightly with dust bunnies and even the red cloth was covered in dirt. A warm smile appears on her when she sits down and studies it. Her little guardian from the dark, his howl so great it could scare the biggest baddies away and always provide comfort to her when she was a child. "Wish I had you in the dark realm…then no one would've messed with me", she says softly with a giggle at the imagery conjuring in her mind.

Then as she stroked his mane…she remembered who it was that gave her this…

*Twenty-Two Years ago, *

*One week after adoption *

Staring at the wall on the inside of her bed as she curls into a ball, hiccupping and whimpering as her eyes hurt from crying. A week since she was taken away, and she had tried to avoid the man who brought her here since then. She would only ever talk to him when he was starting her lessons, answering them and at dinner, she was as quiet as a mouse.

He says she'll be getting a fellow student to train with her, but she didn't care. All she wanted was to go home. Sleeping in this place was so scary for her, the silence was maddening, and every little sound felt unnatural and it kept her awake all night. Back home she could hear the wind whistling through the trees, the sounds of the forest creatures and the gentle hums of the rivers nearby. Would those creatures from the dark here kidnap her she wondered?

A knock on the door startles her and she immediately sits up to see Eraqus entering her room with one arm behind his back. He looks around the room with a frown, as if he was displeased by how dark it was. He exhales and turns to her with a gentle look.

"You haven't been sleeping well, have you Aqua?", he asks, kneeling to her.

At least he is nice to her, her first impressions were completely off. She nods with a hiccup. Her mother taught her not to cry, saying big girls should be brave but never did she feel so scared. Eraqus frowns like he was blaming himself for this level of pain he caused for the girl…even if she didn't think so. A smile appears on his lips. "Well, I have a friend who can help you with sleep", he says.

He shows her a small snowy white wolf, presenting him to her. Her eyes widen with childish innocence as she stares at the small toy, never seeing one finely crafted and made with care, even with the best toy makers in the town. "His name is Fenrir, the Fearless. He guards the dreams of children from the dark", he introduces. Gently he lifts the plush to the girl, encouraging her to take him. Hesitantly the girl does so, but when she has him in her arms, she immediately clutches it against her small frame.

Somehow the toy brought comfort to her, eased her worries and she feels peace. It must be a magical toy after all Eraqus can use magic too. The older man sighs with approval, glad the little wold helped her. He gently pats and rubbed her head soothingly. "Get some sleep, child. You'll be meeting your fellow student tomorrow, alright?". She nods shyly, the toy still clutched. He gets up and prepares to go, but then she muttered something soft and low, not enough for the master to not catch it. With a gentle turn to her, eyes warm and filling her with bravery, the girl opened her arms.

"…c-c-could I, have a h-hug?", she asked.

Gently the master kneels and wrapped her into one, she hugged him tighter than she ever knew. This hug was warm, and she felt safe in his arms. This was the first time she hugged anyone else but her mother, even with the village kids she played with she never so much as bumped shoulders with. Eraqus was strong she sensed like nothing could put him down.

Once she had her fill, he tucked her in with Fenrir acting safeguard by her side, ruffled her hair and leaves the room. But even as Aqua's eyes slowly closed, she remembered seeing him leave a tiny pearl of light on her dresser, glowing in a faint crystal blue light for her room.

"Good night, Aqua", he lowly whispers.

*Present*

Stroking Fenrir's mane as her cheeks were wet with joyful tears, Aqua lets out a watery giggle. This toy was a gift from him to help her sleep, but the significance behind it and how even after he tried to help her deal with the changes.

Through all the pain she had to face as a child, her master…her father, was there with her every step. And this little wolf reminds her of the kindness he displayed for her and the other brothers. She looks around her room as more memories show up, but now she wanted to make a new memory. And luckily for her, she had someone else to help create it…

After some rummaging through their supplies, Gladiolus busied himself with trying to stir up a meal Ignis had written out for them. He would've gone through the pantry in the castle but had a good feeling magical or not time still flowed normally here and he wasn't going to risk giving them food poisoning.

Just as he was about to get started, his phone vibrated and prompted him to pick it up. He sees a message from Aqua requesting him to come back to her room. "Must need me to move something…", he thinks to himself and proceeds to her room.

Luckily he memorized where he was going giving how samey the place looked. When he entered the room, he was glad to see the place was cleaner and neat, it felt so weird that Aqua was the one with the messy room. It was like Ignis having a two-day-old mug on his desk, it just felt surreal to the man. But there was no sign of Aqua in the room, only the shining light of the moonbeam through the open window bathing her room in the lunar light.

"Blue?", he asked. The door behind him locks and before he could turn to her, he feels a pair of arms wrapping around him. Her head rests in between his shoulders. He was about to ask, but then he was pushed to the bed, turning in time to land on his backside and face her. Before he could ask, he sees the woman was rubbing her arm shyly without armor or her boots, her eyes down with redness coating her cheeks.

When she faced him, there is a new shine in her eyes when she walks to him. The shield closes his mouth as the pieces begin to put themselves together in his mind. He is not an idiot; he knew exactly what this woman was about to do and what she desired. She climbed on to him, sitting on his lap and placing her hands on his shoulders, eyes asking him the question. He gently runs his hand across her cheek, brushing below her eye with his thumb asking her with his eyes, did she truly want this.

"I want to make a new memory, one I can look back on without it being tainted by pain", she says, "And…you're the one person I want to do this with".

Her first love, her first time with him…and Gladiolus wasn't sure if he should be smug about it or wonder if he was the right one for her. But after everything that's happened to them, and without knowing if they'll make it back from the battle, this could be his last chance.

"Are you sure?", he asks.

"With all my heart", she says, placing his hand on it.

There are no more words to be exchanged, together they laid on the bed…

*Radiant Garden, Tifa's Bar*

"From royal advisor to an errand boy…".

Ignis was rather looking forward to the day he and Axel would begin their training together, at least the porcupine haired man would make a fantastic target for practicing magic. Call him ironic but he was wondering if the man of fire is immune to the very element he specializes.

Only a few hours have passed since Aqua and Gladiolus left the world for their task, and likely he deduced they'll remain in that world for rest. Not that it bothers him, the two needed some time alone to themselves after everything that's happened so far to them. He had been relieved of his duties for the next few days, by Noctis' orders, so he was mostly lending a hand to the RC and was currently delivering some supplies to Tifa.

The bar is far more established then he thought with all the patrons that gathered up, some teens even were spotted. The man is sure Tifa was above selling alcohol to minors, so he felt no fear or watching rambunctious teens going wild with booze running in their bloodstreams. He entered the bar with low jazz music playing over the head, nodding to some of the folks he's spoken to or met during the three days Noctis slept.

He spots the woman behind the counter with a wave. She gestures one of her staff members to take the box of supplies from him and waved him over to her. "Thanks for that", she says, "Kinda surprised they got you doing the heavy lifting". He raises a brow at that comment, amused. "Oh? This coming from a woman who punches heartless and could break a building with one kick?", he teases. Tifa smirks and nods. "Got me there", she relents.

Then she wags a finger at him. "Still, kinda rude of you to be this late, don't you think?", she chastises playfully. "Strange, I merely gotten this job mere moments ago, I feel like I've arrived in proper time", he argued softly. "Not the job, Four-Eyes", she giggled, "Your buddy's been waiting for you!".

Ignoring the cliché nickname that all poor souls with glasses must bear, Ignis frowned in thought. He wasn't aware of a meeting here, especially not with everyone being busy with their jobs and tasks at hand. He tries to remember if someone did ask him to join them for an afternoon meet up but nothing came to mind. Perhaps he might have agreed to something while being absorbed into something else, it has happened more times then he would have liked to admit.

"My apologies, but", he starts.

"Over here, Ignis".

He turned to the direction of the voice and almost instantly his eyes narrow as his shoulders tensed up at the sight of his "friend". He is wearing the usual all-black attire of organization members, but his cloak is somewhat different than normal, sporting slightly pointed shoulders and very loose sleeves. Platinum blond hair is very short and worn in a Caesar cut, and he has yellow eyes with facial hair, a goatee with the same blond color as his hair. Five silver piercings on his ears; four-helix piercings in the form of two hoops on each ear and one piercing shaped like the nobody symbol dangling from one earlobe.

Luxord, number X of the organization.

Sitting by the table with a deck of cards with grey and black colors and carrying the nobody symbol on the face of the cards with a cup of tea resting near him. He gives Ignis a strangely friendly smirk after shuffling the cards. Concern washes over the scarred man, Tifa seems completely oblivious to the dangers this man could bring, but here in a sea of people the amount of damage this nobody could do would be terrible.

And Ignis had to keep in mind he is on his own, and Tifa may be a vital aid but could she take on someone like this man? He doubted it.

"I hope you're free now, we've a game to finish", Luxord says not looking at him. Ignis feels no sense of urgency in this man nor does he feel any true malice within this man. Is it possible, he's merely here for just a game?

"I'll brew you some of that ebony Luna brought over, says you've a thing for that stuff", Tifa says, walking off. He wordlessly approaches the table and sits down as the nobody deals out the cards. "Have you played cards before, I wonder?", he says as he deals them out, "Or rather, anyone who could follow the rules?".

"Several. But for all I know, you could have known that from the moment you set eyes on me", Ignis challenges. He smirks in response to his question as he and Ignis picks up their cards. A decent hand Ignis muses as Luxord awaits his move. "Admittedly I know little of you and your king", the nobody confesses as he takes a card, "Xigbar is rather useless when it comes to answering questions".

"Is that so?", the scarred man replied. "Quite…though Ardyn is far more talkative and amusing with his little obsession with your king", Luxord muses. Ignis grunts quietly at this, still not used to the knowledge that daemon of a man is still walking amongst the living. Not only that but now he's been empowered by their enemies, for all the man of the king knows he could be a keyblade master by now. Luxord plays with his cards while awaiting for Ignis to draw or skip, watching him ponder his next move.

"Tell me, why are you here?", Ignis questioned as he shuffles his cards with his hands, "If you're intending on causing trouble to be forewarned, most of us still reside in this world". Luxord chuckles with mirth as he picks another card up. "Oh I'm aware this world is now home to the guardians of light, and though Sora isn't here I believe there are more if not equally capable fighters amongst you".

"But unlike Ardyn, I'm only here to play a friendly game of cards with you, Ignis", he says. Ignis mentally scoffs at that, unlikely. When they showed their hands, Luxord was the victor in the first game. Ignis had Four of a Kind, while Luxord had Full House.

"Hmm…a fitting bout, wouldn't you say?", Luxord says as he shuffles the cards again. "Among the thirteen of you, Kairi, Sora, Noctis, and Riku, are one of a kind in their little ways. Sora goes without saying, of course".

"Then you have the princess of light, followed by one who could've been an invaluable vessel to Xehanort, now fighting for the light, and finally, a king of light who defied his fate and becomes something more".

He then smirked at Ignis, showing his winning hand. "But what does all that matter, against a house full of more skilled, experienced and more vitally, powerful adversaries?".

Ignis frowned, not liking the fact the man had a vital point proven. The four of them are indeed unique and gifted in more ways than one, certainly the oddest bunch of the basket of guardians. Time and time again the four have shown their talents and potentials barely scraping the surface of what they're capable of, but there is that doubt lingering in his heart that makes him wonder and think to Noctis' words all that time ago. Even if they trained, could victory be so far from their grasp it'd be pointless?

"You assume numbers alone are enough to win?", Ignis asks as he takes his hand, "Has Ardyn told you of how not only did he have the heartless and daemons at his command, but even the fallen kings of yore at his beck and call…but still, he fell to us". Luxord gives him a "hum" while looking at his cards. "Oh? He seemed to have neglected that little nugget of information", he says with smugness, "But then again numbers were never an issue for Sora".

As the game reached an end, this time the victor is Ignis with the hand Flush and Luxord with the Straight hand. "Quite the gamble you made, going for it after the first loss", Luxord praised in amusement. Ignis, however, scoffed at it as he hands him back the cards. "If one loss is enough to make you hesitate and slow down without plans to move on, then you are a danger to your people", speaks the man.

He thinks back to Noctis after Altissia, at his lowest point with everything going so wrong he still managed to overcome that despair and press onwards for the sake of those who'd follow him. Luxord showed a glimmer of pride in his eyes as if admiring the strength behind Ignis' words and faith in that king. Luxord looks at his hand with a thoughtful look, before chuckling and with a flick of his hands his cards disappeared. "Suppose we never were ones for a straight-forward approach, were we?", he says.

The final game between them as the cards had been dealt and handed, Luxord hummed. "I'm wondering something, are you perhaps a gambling man of sorts?", Luxord asked as he flicked a random card from his sleeves, "From what I've heard, you seem to be". "I'd rather avoid attempting such addictions", Ignis chastised quickly before Luxord chuckled as he turned his yellow eyes on him. "Oh? Yet from what I understand you've taken quite the gambles in your time with the rise of his majesty", he says, gesturing his eyes.

Ignis tightly squeezed the cards in his hand at the mention of his eyes, recalling how they went from his usual green and face unmarred by scars to now being dark and scarred. The two days that changed him for the rest of his life, from one day going blind to now seeing the world covered in violet fire. The man before him had a vital point about him gambling his life away for his family. "The ring of Lucii, a powerful relic from the very day the Lucis line was established. Granting the user, if they be worthy, power beyond imagination", Luxord says.

"But, not without cost, am I right?", he asked. "Some lose their lives, some lose a limb…and your case, their vision". Ignis holds back the growl that tried to climb out from his throat, trying hard not to remember the agonizing pain that he endured for the sake of protecting his friends. Then comes the fear of living the rest of his life blind, never seeing the world again, not watching his king grow nor the others. And even then for all he knew, he would be rendered useless to his liege. It was only thanks to his other world friend could he have a second chance.

"And that would have been a gamble even *I* wouldn't take, but then you throw what remained of your luck into the darkness. And lo and behold, instead of losing it all you come out the winner in that game", Luxord praised with amusement.

As he takes another card, Ignis sighed. "In a sense, I did gamble my life for a chance to regain my strength", he confesses. "But tell me, Luxord, why are you fighting?". Looking at his hands, Ignis continues: "I believe Sora has defeated you before, and likely slain your heartless at some point, therefore you should have regained your humanity like Axel has, correct?".

"Indeed, I should have", Luxord affirms with a nod. "A chance to regain your humanity to start anew, and yet you threw it all the way to become an empty shell once more for a man using you as a means to an end", Ignis lectured. "What sort of man would take that chance?".

Luxord laughs, shaking his head. "Why indeed? You make good points and were we in any other circumstances, I'd wholeheartedly agree it sounds foolish and a waste of a one-time chance", Luxord says, amused. Then his smirks shift into something more daring, like what he is about to do next might throw Ignis off guard. "But that's what makes the game more intriguing, doesn't it?", he asked. "Not knowing how this will all play out, not knowing if we will win or lose, whether Sora defeats us, or we will bath the worlds in darkness and crush the light? Doesn't it all seem too exciting to play it safe?".

Ignis hated to admit it but there is an allure to what the man was saying, certainly, he makes it all sound so exciting. Even too good to pass up. "But tell me, do you truly believe you have a chance against us?", Luxord challenges, as he shows his hand, Three of a Kind.

Ignis sees the hand dealt before him, and smirked. "You said the cards have more weight to our climactic battle, correct?", he asked. "If that is so, then the hand you present to me is supposed to tell me three vital members of your organization will be the keys that could either lock down the victory or defeat on your side". A look of impressed appears on Luxord face, glad the man had deduced what he's trying to say and that smirk showing he was already enjoying his victory over the man.

With smugness, Ignis shows his hand to him. "But a wise man once says, never show your hand too early to your enemies. Lest you find yourself caught in their grand scheme", lectured the scarred man. The hand Ignis displayed was the Five of a Kind, winning the game. Luxord gives him a look of surprise, not expecting that hand to be the decider of their little game as Ignis lays them down before them. "The four of them are indeed unique, but I genuinely believe, there is a fifth amongst them that could turn the tide to our favor", Ignis says.

As their game concludes, Ignis faced him. "Whether we are strong enough to win or should we fall, no matter what happens I can guarantee you. Xehanort will not win", Ignis stated with complete confidence.

Luxord huffs good-naturedly, his cards disappearing except for one as he stands up. "If that is what you believe, then hold on to that confidence", he warned as he turns and leaves, "Anything can happen in a battle between light and darkness".

Ignis watches the man disappear among the people, looking down to the wild card left by the nobody. He picks it up and flips around to show nothing but a horned crown…

*Castle*

Prompto hated hospitals.

Whether he was the patient, though extremely rare, or when he was visiting someone, he hated the place. The room he was in was for him and he wasn't there for a normal medical check-up, not for anything "normal" like everyone else.

All he had to do to remember why he was currently sitting on the examination chair was look at the skeletal limb that was attached to his stump. Flexing the metal fingers with soft clicking noises and dull noises of the machine working at the commands his brain was transferred to the false limb, he tried his hardest not to see the arm in a familiar design.

Truth be told he doesn't remember much of the operation or how they managed to make this work so quickly after what he was told just a day later. Today he was here to finally get the upgrade that would finish off the transplant and at least make it look like a brace. Least he wouldn't look like…an MT. For the first few days with his new limb, it took every fiber of his will not to compare that design to the empire's soldiers, nearly having a heart attack from just seeing his limb.

Astrals forgive him but almost wished they just left him with a stump instead.

The room isn't the same as the rooms Noctis and Sora had when they were asleep, this felt more like, if he is being truthful, Cindy's garage of sorts with it being probably the cleanest part of it. There were some medical cabinets filled with the usual stuff, a desk, and a table with Cindy's tools and her yellow jacket that she doesn't wear much these days. He smells the room had been thoroughly clean with smells of sterilizing and some air fresheners to help soothe a patient.

Looking at his limb, despite how cool it was he still misses his old limb (who wouldn't?) and while he was grateful that stupid mark was forever gone, it was a small price to pay for his limb.

His thoughts were pushed away when the door opened to show Cindy entering the room and places a large case on the table. "Sorry about being late, ole Cid's getting crankier every day", she laughed when she opened the case. Prompto genuinely wondered if there is a day Cid wasn't cranky whenever he wasn't working on engines or ship stuff. Sora was very surprised to see how grumpy he was and how much he swore.

Though Prompto was equally more scared of Aqua when the man said a particular curse word around Ventus and judging by the look that screamed "I will hurt this man in ways no man can imagine", he had a good feeling visitations to the grump would be extremely restricted and/or limited.

The mechanic places down a few of her tools along with what he guessed was the brace for his arm, bland and untouched by an artist, likely he was the one who got to decide how it looked at least. Cindy turns on him with excitement in her eyes as she approached him. "How ya doing? Everything working fine?", she asks. "Aside from the clicking noises and occasional glitches? Peachy", he answers honestly when he lifted his arm to show her what he means.

Cindy takes hold of his hand and peers, frowning at the annoyances that his new limb brought him. Prompto lowered his eyes and looks away from the limb, realizing not only did he not blush with Cindy holding his hand but also, another dose of reality smacking him in his face. Not being able to feel anything with that limb again, taking more of humanity because of what he could have turned out to be.

Cindy pats his shoulder to get his attention. He sees her smiling playfully at him. "Well lookie here, somebody ain't a blushing schoolboy anymore", she teased. Prompto weakly chuckles at her jab, kinda surprised himself that she didn't hold that sort of power over him anymore. "Guess after all this time, I'm just used to it", he says lamely. This makes the woman raise a brow as she flexes one of his fingers with a hum and says: "Or is it because ya can't feel my hands fiddling with yours?".

"Right on munny there…", he sighed.

He looked at his hand when she releases it and flexes his joints again, trying extremely hard to keep the image of his arm turning into an MT's hand. Even after accepting it is who he is and not "what" he is that defined him, it was still difficult for him to push those negative thoughts on the fact he was a failed MT unit. Telling Noctis and the others was hard enough even after Kairi's confidence in them, and while it was a gigantic relief that they accepted the blond for the man he is he still hadn't told anyone else.

A sad side of him wondered if the reason the robotic limb worked so well for him was that his body could have been made to be compatible with robotic limbs. And he wondered if Cindy did pick that up during the operation. He clutches his wrist, trying to just look on the positives but the dark sides of this new arm kept overwriting them.

"…Prom…?", Cindy speaks, uncertain.

"…I'm an MT unit", he breathes.

Cindy gives him a look of surprise as he tells her what he means, going back to his adventure with Kairi during the separation. How he discovered he was Verstael's child or creation really, how there were dozens of his clones made to fill the ranks of the imperial army and how they would be modified to serve as the MT units.

He couldn't place why he suddenly decided to tell the woman, maybe a part of him believed after dragging her into all this, how she's managed to bring them help to save their world and now is an active member in the battle against Xehanort, and need he mention she was the reason he could still fight with his friends again?

She had more than earned the truth from him. And whether this will make her decide she wouldn't help repair an MT is up to her.

"…huh…so, you had a lot of brothers then?".

He blinks twice and then turned to her, now sporting curiosity in her eyes. "I…guess so?", he says, unable to think of any more appropriate answers. Cindy hummed in response before she picks up the brace and starts her work on his arm. "Any of them stand out, or were they all twins?", she asks. Prompto shrugged his left shoulder and answers her questions that were all mundane compared to the ones he kind of expected from her after dropping that info.

When she nearly finishes, she huffed. "Was that what's been bothering ya? Ever since we got this piece of marvel on ya?", she asks as she drilled in the brace outer shell. "Yeah…I mean, the limb didn't look a hundred percent like the MTs…but, you know, it was a damn close second!", he replied hastily for the last part. Cindy finishes her work with a sigh. She gives the man a friendly smile before she stands up from her seat.

"Well looks like it doesn't matter anymore, does it?", she asked, gesturing to his new wrist. Prompto lifts his new armored arm and twists and turns the hand, smooth and almost human-like. The limb was modeled after the keyblade amour Kairi showed off with Insomnia's fashion sense. Of course, it was black as the night with dark crystal blue lines for the fingers while having the skull of the Crownsguard uniform in dark luminescent blue light. It is the same size as his human arm and the flexing felt natural.

"This…feels awesome", Prompto says with a grin.

"Hold your chocobos there", Cindy says, gesturing her workbench. He looks and joins her side to see there were several blueprints with more mechanical arms. "Cid and I were thinking of your pocket dimension Aqua talked about, and likely knowing you, chances are that arm will get all busted up during your big fight", she says with both excitement and teasing in her voice. She shows him some blueprints on the limbs and each one had a special ability and function for him, along with some unique ideas for him.

"Say you lose that arm, well we've got something to fix that little blunder", she starts, showing him one of her idea on the blueprint. It looked like a plug of sorts in place of his limb with three optional limbs showing an adapter on the slots of the arms. "We've got three of them in the works, but with this, ya lose a limb? Just replace it with these bad boys and boom! You're back in action!", she sings with glee.

She looks at him with eyes begging for permission to experiment with his appendages, and one look at his limb, he makes his choice. If he was going to train with the others and battle people way above what he's capable of, then if Cindy can help give him an edge, then what kind of man would he be to say no?

"Alrighty then! Let's see what you got Cindy!", he says with a grin.

After cleaning up the room and gathering up her items for the work, Prompto was about to pick up a crate with her tools, before he kneels for them, Cindy places a hand on his shoulder. He turned around and feels her giving his cheek a quick peck. She moves away to his ear and whispers: "MT or not…you're still Prompto…and a cutie". She then winks at him, and his cheeks go red as his throat dries up. She kissed him…Prompto got a kiss from Cindy…Cindy Aurum…and she called him cute…

She grinned and points at his cheek. "Ah-ha! There's the blush I know and love!", she says. Then she gave him a flirty smile as she picks up her share of tools and winked at him. "Now I know how to make ya blush again~ Gonna have to keep it up before you get immune to it". She then saunters out of the room with a little sway in her hips, leaving a blushing and flabbergasted Prompto behind. Standing there with his cheeks still red as the silence loomed over him, his mushy brain tries to put together what just happened.

"C-C-C-C-C-C-Cindy kissed me…s-s-says she's gonna keep making me blush…her butt looked amazing…", he says to himself.

Did this mean…Did she like him?

With a yell of embarrassment, he picks up the crate and races after her, calling her out with questions burning in his mind.

And grinning all the way…

A/N:

…SO, remember how I was thinking it'd be a BIG one chapter? Then I decided to make it two parts? WELLLLLLL…Now we're making it a three-part arc…

F*** me…

In all seriousness I do confess I was more focused on Aqua and if I didn't decide to attempt to make her own origins then it wouldn't have been as long. But I love this character and wanted to give her more love, and with Gladiolus too :3.

Now we have three down, we've thirteen more to go! Look forward to the next chapters!

Responding to: Guest-Questioner: Sorry I can't reply to all your responses, it'd take up most of the ending here. If you wish to talk more or me to reply, please make an account where we can converse, thanks!

Questions!

1st: Thoughts on this chapter?

2nd: Aqua's origin? Like or hate it?

3rd: …I do not regret giving Aqua a Fenrir plushie.

4th: Ignis and Luxord? What did ya think?

5th: Cindy and Prompto getting together?

6th: Can you guess whose next?

7th: What was your favourite part?

Also, after reading a few reviews, I did change how the dialogue is depicted, does it make it better for you all?

Also ALSO! Ignis…should we pair him off with anyone else or is he forever Aranea's? Let me know!

Thanks for reading folks! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	59. Chapter 59

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 59

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

*Land of Departure*

Lying in bed while keeping his eyes fixed on the ceiling deep in thoughts, Gladiolus with his left hand behind his head stares into the darkness above him as the moonlight bathes the room in a gentle glow.

His other hand was around the sleeping and nude Aqua, sleeping peacefully with her head on the pillow as opposed to his chest. He chuckled, the woman was complaining laying on his chest after making love wasn't as comfortable as the stories say and immediately laid down on the pillow instead. The shield just chucked it up to her being too tired, coming down from the afterglow of sex and first-timers are usually more exhausted in his experience.

She was out like a light the moment she laid her head on the soft surface and dozed off quickly. One glance at her put him at peace every time, her hair all tousled and unruly with her cheeks still pink with her breathing slow and steady. He carefully sits up while freeing her from his arm to look down at her, gently brushing a stray of her blue hair aside to see her face obscured. She breathes a gentle sigh as a sub-conscious smile appears like she senses him applying warmth to her.

Sleep wasn't coming to him as it came for her, his mind was too active with thoughts running through his head. As much as he would've loved to join her in the sleeping world, lying in bed while being super awake wasn't going to make tomorrow any easier for him.

He stealthily and quietly exits the bed, making sure as to not to disturb her slumber and make sure the sheets covered her form. He grabbed his lower clothing and throws on his tank-top, deciding maybe taking a walk around the training grounds and getting some air would help clear his thoughts. With the stealthiest movement he never knew he could pull off; he exits her room and heads for the grounds.

The gentle winds breezing by him as he walks on the dew-covered grass, Gladiolus stares up at the endless sea of stars. Or were they worlds, he couldn't remember which. Still, those questions paled in comparison to the ones that carried the greatest weight on his mind as he strolls in peace. Soon enough he, his king and brothers would partake in the greatest battle the worlds or universe would ever bare witness to. A battle between the thirteen lights against the thirteen darkness.

He truly wished he could confidently say he was ready for whatever Xehanort throws at him, but his fight with Genesis had shaken him more than the others knew. That fight was one-sided, no ifs or buts in his mind, Genesis had completely dominated them, and the fact even Sora of all people had nearly died to that man only reminded Gladiolus just how large the gap of power there is between his group and the others.

As he stands near the ledge where Aqua once sat with her friends, staring into the endless horizon with the moon beaming down on the world. The training that would take place soon, he hoped for the sake of the others it'd be enough for him to close the gap even a smidgen. He heaves a deep sigh of irritation as he scratches his stubbled chin, wondering what sort of hell this training was going to be if Riku says they'd be as strong as them when it comes to taking a beating.

Gladiolus' body tenses then, suddenly feeling someone had arrived…and it wasn't Aqua.

Gritting his teeth and fearing it could be someone from the Organization, he turned around swiftly to see a large black swirling vortex behind him. Slowly emerging from the portal is an armored figure, and no sooner did it step out from the vortex did Gladiolus instantly feel the incredible power radiating from this being.

Donned in keyblade armor, its helmet is mostly gold, except for its black visor, and it sports two red prongs (one on either side of the helmet) that point upwards. The arms, legs, and ribs of the keyblade armor are black and have orange patterns decorating them. The knee guards, gauntlets, breastplate, and armored boots are gold, and there are other, smaller pieces of gold armor on its legs with black pauldrons with gold edges. The front of the armor on its torso is red, as are small pieces of armor on its lower legs and gauntlets. It also wears gold anklets with red spikes on the back that curve upward sharply.

The armor is nearly the same as Kairi's, except older and more warrior-like compared to her small knight like style. Even Genesis didn't produce an aura of power as this…thing did. Was it one of Xehanort's allies, or that MOM's? The warrior raised its keyblade towards the shield, a heavier and more akin to Gladiolus' type of swords. The man senses not just great power, but rage. Unbridled and complete burning hot rage, as if the armored figure was staring down his most hated enemy. He grunts and draws his blade.

"Who are you?", he questions.

The armor says nothing before turning its head towards the castle. Slowly it marched towards it. Gladiolus looked at him with anxious but restraint anger, before it uttered a metallic groan of Aqua's name within a dispassionate manner. Gladiolus instantly stood in front of it, hands gripping the blade tightly and teeth bared. "BACK OFF!", he shouts, "I dunno who you are or if you're with Xehanort, but you're not going to set foot in that castle!". The armor still refuses to speak to him, but it did, however, dash towards Gladiolus and swings the keyblade at him.

Quickly Gladiolus meets his opponent's blade with his own, but even with all his strength put into it he just barely managed to stop the blade from tearing himself apart. Their collision of blades shook the ground and created a shockwave that was so strong the large pillar of stone on their left cracks and shattered as the ground beneath their feet cracks open like dried-up earth. Gladiolus growled as the shockwave ran through his arms and nearly forced him to drop his blade.

He is being pushed back by the armor, taking long steps forward to overpower Gladiolus. The man from Eos growled and struggled to fight back as his boots dug into the ground behind him, breaking the earth as he was slowly but easily being pushed to the ledge. He successfully managed to stop himself from being pushed off, glancing back to see bits of stone tumble into the darkness below them as he feels himself being bent backward.

The armor grabbed the keyblade with both hands and begins to press down on Gladiolus, slowly making his knee buckle. Sweat ran down the warrior's forehead with exertion as he tried to push back the armored warrior, but it feels like he was trying to push a steamroller back with how much weight and power the armor had. The armored being presses more as Gladiolus could feel his feet being pushed into the earth, breaking more of his spot away.

He curses in his mind, curses the being before him and worst of all curses how weak he is. After everything he had fought and endured on his world, through all the fights and strongest enemies he and his friends had to fight, he was STILL too weak to stand on his own against other world beings. Genesis, Xigbar and now this thing, every one of them outclass him and with the looming threat of Xehanort's own forces, he truly began to feel he wasn't enough. Frustration boiled up in him as anger manifested, but then as his strength lessens he looks to the castle.

Suddenly he growled and stares back at the armor. "I dunno who you are or what you want with Aqua…but I don't give a damn…", he growled as his body glowed with the crystal light Noctis carried, "But you are NOT setting a foot in that castle!".

Gladiolus pushes back the armored warrior, taking several steps to push it back to the training ground. Each step the shield of the king took leaves a massive print in the ground as more of the mountain near them begins to crack and break apart, their auras battling each other for dominance. With each push, Gladiolus keeps on his struggle against this being, his mind going back to Aqua, Noctis and the others.

Strength wasn't all about power, but he remembered it was having that power to protect. He fought the Blademaster for that reason, he was willing to die for them back at the keep, and he was willing to die for Aqua back in Radiant Garden. The power he gained from his trial wasn't to just able to topple his own enemies with raw power, but to have that power to be the shield that would protect those dear to him and his king.

This world has so many memories of Aqua's that have been tainted by their enemies, and he will be damned if he helps create another dark memory of her home. Back in the center of the training grounds, the armored figure was persisting in putting Gladiolus down even as the earth around them begins to form a crater around them. But the man of the king hadn't even so much as taken a fraction of step back. It didn't matter if they created a hole that could take him to the other side of the world, Gladiolus would not take a step back.

As the blue light intensified around him, Gladiolus breaks the deadlock between them by pushing the warrior's keyblade aside and with both hands grabbing the long handle of the blade, Gladiolus swung it upwards with a roar. His blade struck the chest plate of the armored warrior, splitting the armor open and throwing the warrior back by five feet from the shield. The warrior lands on its metal feet, looking at the tear in its armor as Gladiolus pants.

"I don't give a damn if you're a keyblade master, Xehanort's apprentice or whatever the hell else these worlds throw, you're not going to set foot near Aqua!", Gladiolus swore, lifting his blade up to fight.

Then…the figure stands upright and walks to Gladiolus.

With a growl, Gladiolus readies for a swing, until he sensed something had changed in the warrior. That rage that was seeping through him, the fury that could melt even stone, had passed. The armored figure stands before Gladiolus as the shield, uncertainly, dismissed his sword. Slowly as he takes in the figure's form, something clicked within the shield that perhaps this thing…was connected to Aqua…

"…Terra?", he asked, slowly and concerned.

The figure didn't twitch or even respond to the name, yet somehow Gladiolus feels as if the name resonates within him. Slowly the figure raises its hand, open and bare, to create an illusion within its metal palm. In it, Gladiolus sees a golden orange and brown Wayfinder that was a near-identical replica of Aqua's and Kairi's good luck charm. His eyes softened with sympathy at the figure, he knew about the Wayfinder and its legend, Aqua telling him during their trial.

"So…is this you? Or just, a remnant of your will?", he asks, wondering if indeed this is Terra or something else entirely. The figure says nothing as the hand is dropped and the illusion fades away. It stares at Gladiolus before turning to the castle, its visor made impossible for the shield to gauge its emotion, but he feels the guilt resonating from it. "Look, if you're not gonna hurt her, then go see her", he offered, "I just…didn't know if you…".

The armor shakes its head, turning to the shield. It lifts the keyblade into its hands, slowly the weapon begins to glow in a brilliant reddish-orange light before finally turning into a sphere. The figure lifts his hand to Gladiolus, offering it. Gladiolus looks at it with surprise, wondering if this his way of making him a keyblade wielder, but one glance to the helmet-wearing warrior, shaking his head, told him something else.

"Protect…her…", it speaks, broken and strained like it was falling apart. Gladiolus raises his eyes to face the warrior before he nods and takes the sphere with his left hand. With the resolution on his face, Gladiolus states: "I'll guard her with my life…you've got my word". The armor nods as the sphere disappears into Gladiolus, its own will passed on to the shield of the chosen king. Slowly the armor begins to crack and as pieces fall from it, they disappear into the light.

The guardian's eyes open wide as for a moment, he sees a ghostly vision of Terra's face as the visor breaks apart. Strong but brave blue eyes with brown hair, a ghost of a smile of gratitude and guilt adorned his face. Gladiolus clenched his fist, his anger to Xehanort growing as he sees the youth that, like so many others, had suffered a fate worse than death by the hands of the old man. He reminded him of Noctis, they could be the same age for all he knows.

"I swear…we'll find a way to save you", he promises, offering him a warrior's arm bump, "Then, we'll have our rematch". Terra's smile changes as he meets Gladiolus' arm with his own armored limb before he disappears into the light. As the remnants of the will disappear to the skies, Gladiolus looks at his left hand and then calls for it.

A shine of light appeared and once it faded, Gladiolus looks to see his left arm is now covered in armor. Golden red with black that covered his forearm with a gauntlet having the Crownsguard skull symbol on the back of the hand, shoulder and looking like a shode with black and blue color while underneath the armor his arm is in black cloth. Now in his left hand is a massive wall of a shield almost as big as himself.

A pavise shield with the keyblade's ring covering the edges of the shield, dark brown and green while having the emblem Aqua and the other two carry carved on the face of the shield. It was heavy than any shield he's ever carried, but Gladiolus lifts it with ease as he turns it to see the face of the shield. Terra's will was carved into the shield, his will and strength to make up for his shortcomings. A shield to protect his friends…

"Don't worry…I'm gonna make sure by the end of all this, you'll be with them again…", swore the shield.

His mind made up and all his doubts cast aside, Gladiolus dismisses his shield and returns to the castle.

Inside Aqua's room, he removes the armor and his pants, keeping his tank-top on and then climbs back into bed. To his surprise the moment he lays down, Aqua turned on him and wrapped her arms around his body and pulled him closer. Resting her head against his chest, he hears her utter: "Don't leave me…".

Swiftly he wrapped her in his arms and held her closer to him. "Never", he promises, "I'm not going anywhere". As they both drifted off to sleep, holding each other close, Gladiolus affirms his promise to her and Terra…

*Radiant Garden*

Stirred from his sleep, Ventus moans tiredly and quietly yawned as his nose picks up a nice smell. Sea salt with coconut oil, something soft and warm against his face as he nuzzled into the warmth, tiredly getting comfortable. He feels something in his hair, warm and gentle like someone was running their hands through his hair, smoothly.

He didn't know exactly where he is nor what he was doing but he didn't care. He hadn't felt this kind of comfort in a bed before and this intoxicating smell lulled him into a slumber he didn't want to wake up from. However, as his mind becomes clearer with sleep leaving him, he mustered enough will power to open his eyes, blurry as they are. He groans tiredly as he blinks out the sleep in his eyes, hearing low music nearby, pop music.

The room wasn't his as far as he could recall, not even able to remember if he made it to his room last night. Ventus takes another whiff of that lovely scent as he tried to sit up before he finds himself restricted and his legs were tangled with something smooth and warm. "Wha…?", he croaked, shaking his head and clearing his throat. He lifted one hand to rub out the sleep persistently, slowly managing to free himself from whatever held him.

Then Ventus hears a small groan and soft breathing near him, made him blink with confusion before he glances down…

His eyes widened in complete utter shock when he sees that he wasn't alone in the bed. Near him with her arms out from holding him, Rikku was still sleeping blissfully with her hair wild and tussled without her band. The sheets were up to her chest, but he sees her blue bra was ruffled and sees one strap was around her bicep. With his heart hammering against his chest as he slowly begins to piece together what could have happened last night, and only when he looks down to his own form does that possibility feel like it's the most likely thing to have happened.

He is only wearing his black vest and boxers…

He lets out a yell of complete surprise and shock that could have woken the entire population of the world as he stumbled out of the bed. No sooner did he reach the ground, he scurried backward away from the bed until he slammed his back against the door. Sweating and cheeks as red as inhumanly possible with his heart thumping so loudly and hard he was scared someone could see it. Grabbing his head as endless possibilities began to overflow his mind, he begins to panic and fears he might have done something horrible.

"WHAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT!? WHY AM I IN RIKKU'S BED!? WHY DOES SHE SMELL SO NICE!?", he screamed mentally with questions booming in his young mind. He tries to remember what exactly happened the other night, but he couldn't concentrate on the matter because of Rikku. He has never been so close to a girl other than Aqua before, and hell the last time he shared a bed with someone was with her and Terra for a little slumber party they had.

Never had he ever shared a bed with anyone else, and his first was with a girl who is quite fond of him he noticed…and his butt…

"Venny?".

He looks up to a sleepy Rikku looking at him with tired eyes as she sits up. He turns redder and covered his eyes as he lets out a whine. "Rikku! I can see your bra!", he squeaks. "So? You saw my panties last night too", Rikku reminds.

Ventus wailed in embarrassment, shaking his head profusely as he feels his entire head go red. Then he freezes, slowly lowered his hands to stare at Rikku as if he was caught rifling through her drawers. Looking at her Ventus sees several marks on her neck and collarbone, faint memories of him tasting sea salt and even tangerines linger on his tongue. A horrible, HORRIBLE gut feeling settles in his stomach. If she and he were in their undergarments, he woke up in her bed, and he has little memory of what happened…

"R-R-R-Rikku…d-did we…d-d-did we…", he stammers, unable to ask the question. Tilting her head like a cat, Rikku watches the boy with her swirling green eyes glowing with genuine curiosity. He begins to shake as he keeps stammering and wheezing in a vain attempt to get the word out, but after so many years of being sheltered by his best friends, this was slowly starting to overwhelm the young man.

"DID WE PERFORM REPRODUCTION!?", he yelled.

"…huh?", Rikku asks with another tilt of her head, "OOOOH. Are you asking me if we had se-

"YES THAT!', Ventus shouts, his voice hi-pitched, and he slammed his hands to close his mouth before he talked more. At this the girl giggled as she laid back down on her bed, eyes still fixed on Ventus with glowing amusement and even a hint of mischief in her eyes. That does absolutely nothing to ease the poor young man's fears that he may have done something that was meant for another point in time of a potential relationship.

Rikku stares at him with a cheeky smile. "I like your boxers", she compliments. He blushes darkly as he starts to look around for his clothes, praying to whoever was listening he didn't leave them somewhere public. He stands up and started to look around frantically for his clothes while at the same time taking in the girl's room.

It was somewhat like Cindy, there was a lot of metal and machinery around the place, a desk with all sorts of papers for plans. Sketches of grenades, combination and even some weapons were all over a desk that had some tools and screws, her wardrobe was wooden and old likely from years of holding her clothes and even her dresser looked old as him. Her room had a lot of aquatic theming, walls painted like he was in an aquarium and it smelled like a beach.

With a loud groan, he turned on Rikku, smiling like a cat. "Where are my clothes?", he asks, nearly begging. Rikku shrugged. "I dunno…I wasn't paying attention to where the clothes went", she teases, "My mind was on…something else~". She says this while staring at him, making the boy squirm and blush before she pats his space on her bed with a smile. "Come back to bed and snuggle, it is too early to get up", she insists.

Realizing that he had no other options other than performing the "walk of shame" out her room or bare another few moments of embarrassment, Ventus sighs and wordlessly climbs back into the bed. Rikku throws the sheets over them, covering them to their shoulders and then pulls Ventus into her. He blushes darkly once more the moment his own skin touched her smooth silky flesh, the warmth from her body seeping into his own.

He gulps as Rikku giggled at his shyness. "Ya know, most guys would probably be grinning ear to ear in your position", she remarks while stroking his spiky hair. Ventus refuses to speak, he couldn't trust his voice to not make him sound like a tiny mouse in the paws of a cat. "But you're being a cutie, acting all shy and nervous around a girl~", cooed Rikku, "It's like you've never even hugged a girl before".

He lowered his eyes down, she wasn't wrong in her teases. It isn't a big secret that Ventus has little to no experience with girls around his age, Aqua being the only one. His time with Kairi was super brief and minimal, and Naminé had barely interacted with him given everything that's happening. His silence and shyness tipped the girl off as she pets him. "Wait…Venny? Have you done, anything with a girl?", she asked. Not teasingly but genuinely curious.

"…no", he squeaks.

"Really? No hugging? Not even kissing!?", she asks.

"…nope…", he confesses.

Next thing he knew, his cheeks were both cupped and he was facing Rikku. She then presses her lips against his. The boy stiffens in shock before slowly he relaxed into her kiss and before he knows it, he tangled his legs with her as she pulled him into an embrace. Once she breaks the kiss, she winks at his flustered face. "There ya go, your first kiss~", she cheekily sings. Not only did she smell nice, but she also, to the boy's dismay/delight, tastes wonderful.

She begins to stroke his back as she happily keeps their legs tangled, staring into his ocean blue eyes. As confused and surprised by this circumstance he was in, the boy couldn't exactly say he wasn't enjoying…this, with Rikku. But then came the big question that looms in his mind, words of his best friend echoing in his head. As innocent as he is and given how sheltered he was back home, Ventus wasn't entirely ignorant of the dangers of the opposite sex.

Terra once warned him that women are some of the trickiest kinds of people they will ever deal with, especially when it comes to charming and flirting. Granted Aqua explained a lot more cohesive and straight to the point about sometimes some women just want physical attention and romance or affection were just distractions. Despite those lessons of caution, he didn't feel as if Rikku was just interested in it…adult stuff…

Her playfulness and the way she acted around him, given how innocent and new he was in terms of dealing with girls, his gut told him that maybe these flirty gestures were a little more than just her liking him for physical reasons. At least, he hoped.

"Rikku…what exactly is this?", he asks. She blinks at him, prompting him to elaborate. "I mean…is this just us being… friends with some benefits…or…maybe, something else?", he asked. The blond hums and scratches her cheek, before she smiled at him with a rather enticing smile. "Well, I think you're cute, you OBVIOUSLY think I'm cute, and I think, this could work", she says, joining her fingers to emphasize her point.

"I mean, I know you've got that fight with Xeha-Dork coming soon, but I'm thinking maybe after you go be a big hero, you could come to visit me?". Ventus lowered his head, taking her words in. "D-Does that mean, y-you want me as your boyfriend?", he squeaks. "Well…yeah. I mean, I like you, you like me, and we're pretty compatible", Rikku says, "Sides, even when I was tipsy and very easily confuzzled, you still managed to take me home safe and sound without so much as grabbing my butt!".

She gives him a cat-like smirk as she moves her face closer to him. "Or…did you?", she teased. Ventus shakes his head profusely, certain even as confused as he is about what occurred the night before he knows in his heart he didn't so much as brush his fingers against her cute buttocks. Rikku giggles and pecks his cheeks. "A hero, a cutie, and a gentleman, your ticking all my boxes here Venny~", she praised.

"…you're not gonna stop calling me that, are you?", he sighed. "Nope!", affirmed the girl. She then draws circles on his chest, looking at him for an answer. As quickly as things have progressed with a new relationship, his first one too, Ventus is extremely apprehensive and anxious about it. With so little experience with girls, the fact he's half-naked with one right now is a gigantic leap from holding hands. He couldn't imagine how Aqua or Terra would react, both being his siblings who, as he says, are super protective of him.

If Aqua saw him in this situation she'd probably murder Rikku, "cleanse" him and then threaten any female bodily harm if they so much as ogle him.

Then again, maybe this could work…

Sure, Rikku was obviously comfortable with them being this close, but he knows she didn't do anything risqué with him, and who knows, maybe she would be slower with him. It also kinda helped him that she was not only very pretty, but she's fun, outgoing and kinda adventurous too.

"W-Well…I, I'm not against the idea…b-b-b-but, could we go a little…slower?", he asks, suddenly feeling extremely sheepish suddenly. Rikku raised a brow at his request before saying: "How come?". "I…I mean, I'm probably going to sound super lame saying this but…I, I wanna save myself for…maybe, marriage?".

At this Rikku's own cheeks turned rosy as she pulled the sheet over her mouth. Ventus swore that girl couldn't be any cuter, now she was just flat out adorable.

"M-M-M-M-M-M-Marriage…?", squeaks Rikku. Now his own cheeks were flat out glowing at this point as he stammers: "I-I-I-I-I didn't mean! I uh, I! …maybe?".

Rikku giggled, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him close. "Sheesh, somebody's gotten pretty cocky, thinking this girl is already thinking of wedding plans", she teases. Before he could rebuke a response, the girl rests his head against her chest. "…can't say I don't like the idea…".

"Hey Rikku, have you seen-

Neither heard the door open, (wonder why) and they jumped at the voice. When they turned their eyes on the door, there was Prompto who, like ALWAYS, had his eyes wide open and whatever he was gonna say stopped dead in its tracks. There is silence before Rikku points at Ventus. "If you're looking for Venny, he's right here!", she announces. Ventus turned on Prompto with a look, but it got worse when he saw Axel behind the blonde.

The red-haired assassin smirks and whistles. "Whoa Ven! Already doing the deed with Rikku?", he praises, "Never knew you had it in ya!". Ventus sits up and points at Axel. "S-S-SHUT UP!", he growled. Undaunted, Axel crosses his arms and says: "Wonder what Aqua is going to say about this?".

"AXEL IF YOU SO MUCH AS HINT THIS TO AQUA I SWEAR TO KINGDOM HEARTS I WILL MURDER YOU!", threatens the blushing young man who were it not for Rikku's legs tangled with his own and the fact he would be chasing him in his underwear, he'd be strangling the man before him. Prompto gulped with a blush coating his cheeks and awkwardly pushes Axel out of sight while apologizing profusely for once again, entering without knocking.

Ventus growled and starts to try and get out of bed, but then Rikku wrapped her arms around his waist and pulls him back in. "Nope, you aren't going anywhere!", she declares, "I'm gonna be enjoying snuggling with my boyfriend!".

Knowing the girl was not letting go of him, Ventus submits to his new situation as the girl starts to gently peck his neck. He shivers and blushes as Rikku begins teaching him how to kiss…

*Computer Room*

Leaning against the railing of the bridge leading to the chamber with the replica, Axel stares at the endless space of rows with the large containers ahead of him.

After he checked Ventus hadn't left the world per Aqua's request and had gotten a lot more than he had bargained for, he thought about strolling around the city for a while before meeting up with someone from the party for a chance to kill some boredom. Instead, he went to the replica again and just hung out around that part of the building, getting some "Axel time". The replica's white puppet form donned in the black cloak of the Organization really disturbed him, despite knowing soon that'll be Roxas' body.

With arms crossed as he stares into space, Axel frowns in thoughts he hadn't lingered on for a long while. As happy as he was that sooner then later he would get his best friend back, they could hang out again and have as much ice cream they could possibly before they got sick. A tug on his heart often pulled whenever he thought back to the clock tower with Roxas, almost a hundred percent sure that it wasn't just the two of them…

That girl…the one who resembled Kairi in so many ways still stalks him in his dreams. He frowns in silence as he tries digging through his memories, there had to be something there that connected her to him, right?

"Having trouble, Axel?".

He raised his head to see Even, Ienzo and Demyx walking out of the room together, the older man still carried that frown on his face at the sight of the redhead. Understandably so, considering the last time they had met as nobodies. Ienzo just smiled kindly to him regardless: "We were about to go for a coffee break care to join us?". As tempting as it is to take some time to catch up, Axel feels very apprehensive about hanging around the two people he killed (or at last had a hand in killing) and another one he's barely hung around with.

His choice, however, was made by Demyx, grabbing him by the shoulder and guiding him to the break room. "Come on dude, when was the last time we actually hanged out together?", the water user asks with a very cool smile.

"I seem to recall you saying you and me never "hung" out once", Even remarks with a raised brow. Axel could hear the disdain in his voice for using the slang, apparently, Demyx's vocabulary still irked the man to no end. "All the more for us to change that from zero to many", Ienzo says, "I feel like we should since we're all working together". It still amazed Axel how positive the man had become since he returned to his human form.

With reluctance and a smidgen of awkwardness, Axel joins them for their break in the break room. Unlike the one back in the castle they worked/lived in, it had a more homely setting with brighter color choices, probably Aerith's. The coffee was something else, and as tempting as it was to ask for that tea Cid is always gone on about, Even wisely says for the sake of living long enough to see Roxas again, he'd stick with the caffeine-based drink.

The talk was casual and if Axel is honest it is also forced, more so because Ienzo was the talker along with Demyx making jokes and a touch of sarcasm. Even had yet to say a word during the chat while Axel quietly sipped his drink, before Demyx, being Demyx, speaks up: "So…what's up with you two?". The two looks at him with raised brows before he leans in his chair and placed his hands behind his head.

"You guys look like a couple who broke up and are sitting together awkwardly, what's up?", he says with a grin. Ienzo snickers at the structure of his question, composing himself as he looks to his friends. Axel scratched his cheek and decides now was a good time to address the elephant in the room as Even sighed in annoyance. "Demyx, I dunno how to tell ya this but uh, do you even know why Even's a human again?", Axel asks, wondering if Isa did tell him back then.

"Nope", says the water user, "No one's told me".

This makes even Ienzo raise a brow before he and his fellow researcher look to Axel. "Did Xemnas ever say what happened to us?", Ienzo asks. "Well…I think he did?", Axel says with hesitance, remembering he technically was under orders from Isa. Even sighs: "Bottom line, both I and Ienzo, were slain by Axel".

Demyx looks at the redhead with a look of "whoa what?" on his face, and Axel's sheepishly guilty smile only answered the question he would have asked again. "DUDE…dick move!", he chastises, "I mean I know Vexen was a creepy dude and Zexion was a weirdo but killing them?".

Axel looks at Even and Ienzo, now glaring at the water user. "Excuse me?", Even questioned. Demyx, undaunted, looked at them both with a smile. "Yeah? You guys were! You over there with your experiment and freaky science stuff, Zexy always saying "I smell the darkness" and NOT being super emo like?", he lists. He points at Axel. "Next to Roxas, you were the only cool dude!".

'That was probably because we barely worked together, most days when we weren't I was napping!", Axel reminds with a laugh. "Oh yeah! That's what makes you a cool dude!", Demyx says as if it were obvious.

Ienzo laughs at his explanation while Even rolls his eyes and sips his coffee, not bothering to deal with Demyx's logic. The less strenuous activity his brain endured the better. "We have to admit", Ienzo says looking at Even, "We were less than ideal citizens when were nobodies". Whatever he felt about his demise, Even nodded in full agreement with Ienzo's words. Looking back on how anything was an experiment to Vexen and given his quick he was to discard any "failures" like they were toys, he shuddered to think on them.

"I hate to agree, but you are correct", he says, "In some twisted sense Axel had done me great service". "And now here you are paying him back for murdering you with bringing back his buddy!", Demyx oh so cheerfully reminded. Axel runs his hands through his hair with a groan as Even's glare grows more tensely at the water user. If he keeps this up then likely they'll need a third replica body for Demyx soon…

Saying that though, Axel places his hands around his mug and thinks. "Do you guys…ever wonder if you never died, would you have stuck around with Xemnas until the end?", he asked. This made the three former members look at one another before Ienzo broke the silence. "I'd like to say no…but given how I was as nobody, I fear I would have merely stayed for my own gain", he confesses with shame.

"As would I so long as I could perform my experiments", Even sighed. Axel looked at Demyx with a knowing smirk. "You'd probably be no different if you could skip work", he says. Demyx raises his hands, not denying at all that would have been likely. As the conversations change into more normal and friendly banters, all grievances forgiven and forgotten as they talked about what happened to them and what they plan on doing once this was over.

As they talk away, Axel wonders how Roxas would react to all this, considering he and his somebody could co-exist when the time comes with Naminé. As he thinks on the blonde girl, the one in his hazy memories begins to resurface again along with heartache. Again, her name is unknown to him, and slowly the pain starts to claw into him. His silence must have been enough for Ienzo to pat him on the back. "Axel?", he asked.

He looks up to them, seeing Demyx looking at him weirdly while Even raised a brow. That is when Axel remembered that among all of those who kept a close eye on the secrets of the organization, Even was probably the best if not second to Isa. And given the fact he was the creator of replicas, maybe that girl is connected to it. "Even…do you remember there was a girl among the organization?", he asked.

"Of course,…Larxene…how could I forget?", he says with obvious contempt for that woman. "As snarky, sadistic and bratty as always".

"Yeah, dude! She's so mean to everyone! She even called me a "wet blanket"!", Demyx says with a pout. "…I suppose even she speaks the truth every now and then", Even muses, much to Demyx's dismay and amusement of the other two. Axel shakes his head and says: "No…I mean, another one? She…looked like Kairi and Naminé".

"Oh, you meant the one you've been trying to remember?", Ienzo says, leaning on the table with his elbows. This makes Even look at Axel with a more curious and studious look as the man nodded. He folded one arm and rested his elbow on the palm, pondering and trying to recall another of their members who bore a resemblance to the princess and witch. But like Axel, and anyone for that matter, there is nothing there but shadows of the person.

"…I think, this person could have been a replica of sorts…", he muses, "I remember…the Superior once asking me to create one for…for…something". He furrowed his brows in thought as he tried hard to remember what exactly the order was for and why but came up fruitless as he sighed. Then Demyx hums and says: "There was a fourteenth? So why did we call ourselves Organization XIII if we had another member?".

"Or better, if we all seemingly know there was another one, why can we not remember her?", Ienzo questioned, "Even if she had perished like the rest of us before, surely she would have returned to becoming a human, yes?". "Not if she was a replica, remember?", Even reminded, "If she had perished then…there would be nothing left for her". This made Axel's heart stop while he pales, a sick feeling settles in his stomach. Did she die? Was the reason he couldn't remember was that she doesn't exist anymore?

And why did that hurt him so much more than when he couldn't remember?

"Maybe she's working with Xehanort?", Demyx suggests, "Remember that one with the hood down 24/7?", looking at Even. "Oh yes, that one…she was a strange phenomenon. Nary a word spoken nor did she do anything but stand all day", Even says with genuine fascination.

Axel looked at his mug, slowly but surely knowing that alongside facing his best friend again, perhaps this person may come back to him on the day the clash will take place…

He smirks to himself and says: "Well, guess we'll just have to wait and see".

He changes the subject quickly, deciding maybe it was time for him to extend his circle of friends, and maybe, perhaps, move forward with them to a new life together…

*Town Square*

Waiting patiently with his back against the wall, listening to the sounds of the water flowing from the fountain and the distant voices of the town's folk, Riku is on his phone looking at the messages Sora had left for him.

After getting through all the selfies he and Kairi had been taking, he blamed Prompto for influencing them, he sees they've finally reached their world Sora had planned on taking her safely. While he wasn't entirely happy Sora had split the group up again for the sake of showing Kairi a world, the master wouldn't deny that the boy had his heart in the right place. A simple date in another world without worry was something he saw they needed.

Plus, he trusted them to be able to handle anything that came their way.

As he finishes replying to them with a "stay safe" message, he looks up to see the small gummi ship slowly land before him. He pockets his phone as the loading bay doors opening and outcomes another visitor to Radiant Garden.

Walking down the loading bay door, Iris is immediately taken aback by this new world. Her brown eyes drink in the world around her, the complete foreign worldly design of this place throws her off guard, reminding her more of her old storybooks Gladiolus used to read her when she was small. The girl looks to Riku approaching the loading bay door, a casual wave to greet her with a small but equally friendly smile.

"Took your time getting here", he greets with a smirk.

She giggled and jogged down to meet him and leaped into him for a hug. He catches her easily and clings to her tightly, missing her embrace. He looks up to give Cindy and Prompto, the ones who picked Iris up, a nod of gratitude before they waved back and headed back into the smaller ship to take it back to the castle garage. Once it was gone and out of sight, Riku glanced at Iris, still smiling at him.

"I thought you guys were supposed to keep Order?", she teased.

"I think you knowing about the worlds is a bigger issue then you seeing them", Riku replied with a shrug, "Sides, pretty much everyone part of the Restoration Committee knows about other worlds anyways". With his quick assurance out of the way, he offered her a hand and says: "But you're not here for a lecture, you're here to spend time with your boyfriend, right?". With a bigger smile, she takes his hand and he began the tour of Radiant Garden.

After everyone recovered and most of them heading off to do their own thing while Aqua and Gladiolus are gathering the necessary books for the training, and after making sure Maleficent had truly left this world alone, Riku had called Iris the following morning to talk. However, before he did, he realized that he would be away from her for an entire year, and when he gets out he'd only have only a day at most to prepare.

With possibilities of death looming over him and with every other couple spending time with their respective partners, he figured it'd be a nice change for him to hang with Iris again before he'd go forth to his final battle. Sure, he is probably going to be in so much trouble after this, but he couldn't care less. Luckily for him, he had the perfect two friends to ask for a quick pick up and drop off. Plus, seeing Iris would probably do Gladiolus some good too.

They toured around the city's market places, Iris being introduced to all kinds of people, taking in the varying sights of the world while she and Riku held hands, she would cling to his arm and look up at him cute shining eyes that he can resist and maintain his "cool dude" attitude.

He failed miserably at it.

He told her everything that's happened so far since they left leave Eos, from getting their heads chewed out by their "leader" of sorts master, the fighting in Radiant Garden, and how Ardyn was brought back somewhat. Though it was briefer and kinda abridged as he just wanted to her to be up to date on what's happened. Even then it was short and glanced over afterward, he was more focused on just allowing himself and she enjoy the peace and safety of their time together.

Walking through the marketplaces, letting her fawn over an actual fluffy Moogle (and pleading her NOT to touch their Pom-Pom), introducing her to some of the RC members who were doing their things, and then came the treat Axel recommended them.

As the sun begins to set on the world, they sat upon a wall that overlooked the vast landscape of violet and blue land, ice creams in hand. "This place is so different to home…", Iris says as she looked at her Sea-Salt ice cream with a curious look, "You sure this is a delicacy and not a prank by Axel?". Even Riku was looking at the blue object in hand with hesitance, memories his childhood of tasting saltwater flooding his mind and a sick sensation coiled in his stomach.

"…I mean I wouldn't say a delicacy, but it's all he ever ate when he was with the old organization…", he explained. Iris glances at Riku with a worried and questioning look on her innocent face. "You sure? How is he so fit then?", she questions. "Maybe Kairi helped lose weight during their training? Have you seen her fight?", Riku asked as his ice cream starts to melt. They both looked at their treat before nodding together and counted down to three, they take a bite. Riku immediately recoils with a groan.

"GAH! That's as salty as Noct waking up!", he groans. Iris has a different reaction however, humming with approval. "But it's as sweet as Luna", she says with a smile. Riku was uncertain why they were comparing the ice cream to the royal couple but after another lick the saltiness shifts into a nice blend of sweetness. Maybe it was because his tongue is a tad more sensitive compared to Iris, who knows? Together they ate their treat as the sun begins to set, talking away.

Iris started talking about taking a few lessons from Aranea and what remained of the Crownsguards, saying while the daemons had been minimal lately and even the heartless were no more than just shadows and neo-shadows, they were still a threat. So, she took up some sessions with the dragoon after Lunafreya had to go. She even teased that she could take on Sora if she wanted to, and Riku kindly showed her a photo of Sora decimating one of the empires drop ships with just a spear.

She then restated that was still learning.

Looking at the setting sun as he twiddled with the stick, Riku smiles softly at the beautiful colors, remembering Destiny Islands' sunsets. He couldn't believe he was thinking it, but he felt a little homesick, remembering he and Sora hadn't been home for more than a month since they first defeated Xemnas before they were called once again to stop Xehanort. The sunset here paled in comparison to their home, the smells of the saltwater, the warm breeze and the sense of security his world provided.

He chuckles softly as he looked at his stick, making Iris look at him. "What's so funny?", she asked. "…the sunset…just, reminds me of home, you know?", he explained as he props his knee up and rests his arm on it. Finishing off her ice cream, she smiled and says: "What was your world like? You never talked about it". He nods and turns to the sunset. "Small would be the best way to describe it. But it was home, every day there with Sora and Kairi was an adventure", he says.

"Every day we'd go to the play islands, do all kinds of things there from contests, build castles, help Kairi look for shells and then, we'd just watch the sunset", he lists, thinking back to his youth. When all their biggest worries were just what were they going to do tomorrow, what kind of games could they come up with, would all three of them make it? And all the while instead of being grateful for having a world surrounded by peace, ignorant of other worlds and the dangers, he became impatient.

He frowned as he thinks to the days where he got tired of the peace he was blessed with, his yearning for other worlds became an obsession with desire for adventure. So much so, he was stupid enough to open the door to the dark and allow his world to be destroyed. "Looking back on how we found a way off the islands…I messed up". Iris places her stick down and shifts closer to him, taking his hand in hers.

He gives her a grateful look as she says: "You wanna talk about it?". Outside of Kairi and Sora, he never told anyone else about this, and staring into those brown orbs, he retells his tale.

From him waking up here for the first time, meeting Maleficent and her bringing out the dark power within him, clashing with Sora, becoming Ansem's vessel and then fighting to redeem himself in the eyes of the light. The last time he retold this story, he had Kairi in tears while Sora looked to be miserable when he told his side of their struggles. The guilt he carried from his deeds was like a feather in comparison to putting his two friends in such states of misery.

It felt good to talk to another about this, and someone outside their inner circle too. The girl had been patient with him as he told his story as the dusk settles, now they were leaning against each other watching the day shift into nightfall. She smiled up at him and placed a hand on his heart, saying: "Well, looks like you've made up for it". He looked at her hand places his on hers, feeling the light from her heart connecting to his.

"I'm not all too familiar with what happened or the circumstances, but from what I've seen, Gladdy told me and how those two-act around you? I think what you've done has long been forgiven".

He smiles back at her, his throat tightening with emotion and gratitude to that level of faith she has for him. She looks up at him and brushes one of his bangs aside as he hoists her up to his knees, staring into his eyes. Iris cups his cheeks and leaned in to capture his lips, Riku wrapping his arms around her to hold her closer to him. She sighs happily with the kiss, Riku tastes the ice cream on her lips along with a smell of a flower around her.

Not that he was complaining.

But Riku broke the kiss with a frown. Iris blushes with concern before he gets to his feet and with her in his arms like a bride. "RIKU!", squeaks the sister of Gladiolus, her face red as an apple (and trying her hardest not to squeal and grin like an idiot). "We're going to my room", announced Riku, jogging off with her in his arms as he leaped to the building until he reached the castle.

His words sent the girl's mind into overdrive with all sorts of possibilities that could occur. She was going to Riku's room…where he sleeps…in his bed…and they would be alone…

As they arrived at his door with her still in his arms, Iris squeaks and prompted Riku to put her back to her feet. Before they entered his room, Iris begins to wave her hands in front of her with her cheeks acting like glow in the dark lights. "R-Riku! I-I know we're dating and as extremely hot you are, I-I'm not ready for something like this!", she says.

Blinking with a touch of confusion in his eyes, Riku gestured the door with his thumb and says: "You mean you don't want to make out without worrying Prompto might interrupt us again?". Iris blinks and still with cheeks red, says: "O-Oh…you meant just…".

"What did you think I meant?", he asks.

Iris says nothing, opened the door and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, pulled him into their room and after Riku used the keyblade to lock their door, she resumed what they were doing undisturbed.

After they laid in bed together with the girl asleep in his arms as he caresses her cheek lovingly, Riku kisses her on her forehead and whispers: "I'll come back to you…I promise".

A/N: …I SPENT FOUR DAYS ON THIS ONE! AND I STILL HAVE ONE MORE!

We're nearly done with the mini character episodes, just got six more to go! Can you guess who they are? If so, you're a wizard/sorceress!

Questions:

Q1: Thoughts on this chapter?

Q2: Gladiolus' new shield?

Q3: Rikku and Ventus?

Q4: Should we have Ignis' scars be healed?

Q5: Iris and Riku? Too short or what?

Q6: Excited for the training?

If you have any questions, ask away!

As always, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	60. Chapter 60

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 60

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

*Twilight Town*

A world between light and darkness, possessing an endless sunset that looms over the world. At first glance, one would think this world would a danger to those who venture for it or even live within it.

For Noctis? It is possibly the most beautiful world he had ever laid eyes upon.

The moment he transported himself and Lunafreya to this world via the GS' autopilot, he finds them standing right before a huge clock tower looming over what he guessed was a train station. Once they got their bearings to this new world, neither royalties could hold back the awe in their eyes nor conceal the sounds of amazement. The world before them is a massive change compared to Radiant Garden.

The serenity of this world with everything being so peaceful, the gentle breeze of the summer air, the smells of exotic flowers and delicious foods wafting into the air near them, it felt so safe here. He could understand why among all the worlds Sora had been to, this world was the perfect place for some alone time with your significant other.

The Oracle approaches one of the small walls and peers over to see the beautiful town with the serene green landscape ahead of them as the sun remains in its sunset state. She sighs with peace as her eyes glazed over the new world ahead of them, taking in the beauty of this place. Noctis folds his arms with a relaxing smile appearing on his handsome face, happy his date was enjoying this new freedom they have and see all sorts of fantastic sights.

Neither in their usual attires for Noctis' own were still being repaired, and of course to just wear something more comfortable for a normal date between them. The king donned a red t-shirt with black stripes going around his chest while wearing a leather jacket Gladiolus loaned him with a pair of jeans with a single chain attached to his front to back pocket, a pair of combat shoes that ebony.

He promised his lover he would eventually wear something that wasn't black.

For Lunafreya's choice of wardrobe, she wears a light teal colored dress with it reaching her knees and the sleeves reaching her biceps, a sky-blue wrist band on her left wrist with two rings from her family line on her fingers. Her hair was done up by Aerith, now instead of all tied up neatly, it was loose with a small elegant braided tail below her shoulders. A very summer look he would happily admit, and somehow teal looked amazing on her.

Then again she always looked amazing in pretty much anything.

As everyone else was doing their activities and with the battle for light was getting closer and closer, the king wanted to have one day for himself and Lunafreya to just be an everyday couple. Not the king nor Oracle, not the guardians of light, nor heroes of worlds, just a young couple out and about together to indulge in normality and the pleasure of each other's company without the formalities that plagued them.

He joined her side to take in the world before him, mouthing "wow" as his sky blue eyes scan the world ahead of him. He couldn't think a place where a town felt so vibrant and pretty while maintaining an air of purity and peace, nowhere back home could even compare to this quiet homely town. Even Lestallum couldn't hold a candle to this other world, there is something here that felt closer to a community than a working environment.

"This world, it's so beautiful", Lunafreya comments as she drinks in the world, "How could a place that exists between the light and darkness be so peaceful?".

Noctis hummed, unable to answer that rhetorical question. He didn't care how and why this world was what it was, but the fact he didn't feel any danger here is enough for him. They turned down to the hill leading into the town, she clasps his arm as they walked into the town, both smiling and enjoying each other's company. They take in the sights of this new world, stopping at a few locales here and there to watch some performers, browse for souvenirs for their friends and even some treats for later.

The candy the Oracle purchased made her grin like a child, and only when she popped one of the rock candies in her mouth did she struggle to conceal a squeal of delight. Noctis had forgotten the woman what sort of sweet tooth his lover has.

In the tram common, they see more people walking around with a large group near the bistro (Sora recommended it), a tram passing by with kids running around chasing one another. Both royalties looked around to take in the sights, commenting here and there while browsing the shops they sold. When Lunafreya pointed out there were moogles as well with their store, curiosity got them, and they approached the shop.

A few trinkets here and there, mostly jewelry that the fluffy creature assured them would help protect them from danger along with a ribbon of sorts. When Lunafreya was looking over one collar for her pups, the Moogle insisted to the king that he'd give the woman the ribbon for safety and even dropped Sora's name to stress its point. Along with that, he purchased a few potions along with a map of the town, deciding to go for the hot spots.

Walking around the friendly place with ice cream in hands, greeting people and stopping now and then to see what this world had to offer, making idle conversations here and there. "This place is so different to Radiant Garden…", the king comments, finishing off his frozen treat, "It feels kinda safer, you know?".

"Yes, more so than Radiant Garden", agreed Lunafreya, "Perhaps it is because of Maleficent's grip on that world and the damages she had caused could have left a lasting stain on it".

Those words bring new concerns for his majesty as he pondered on how his home city fared. The people who were fortunate enough to survive the assault from the empire, would they even want to live in Insomnia anymore with all the horrible memories that could haunt them? His lover told him repairs were coming slowly but surely, with most of the groundwork being done thanks to those dedicated to rebuilding their home.

He shakes his head; he can worry about all that after they put Xehanort down. For now, it was just himself and his lovely lover exploring a new exotic world. As they strolled through the town, the gentle strums of guitars play over their heads, likely a band of sorts must be playing nearby. Many posters were plastered around the neighborhood, some showing a tournament of sorts taking place soon, posters concealing codes for a game that had characters who distinctly looked like a certain spiky-haired boy and mouse king.

There were also some weird emblems on certain walls shaped like Mickey's head…

The explored what this section of the world had to offer and after making a reservation to the bistro, they returned to the station and hopped aboard the train to Sunset Terrace. The train is smaller than any train they had ever seen and onboard they were the only souls using it. Not that they complained, more privacy for them.

Noctis and Lunafreya stared outside the window to see the world pass them by, taking in more of the town's houses and streets, the sunset bathing the town in harmony and peaceful light. The Oracle had been smiling during the whole train ride, making gasping sounds of awe and wonder with each passing moment. For his majesty, sitting down with his back against the train listening to the tracks of the train, he was in bliss.

Finally a world with just him and Lunafreya, no heartless, daemons, or anyone to come and bother them. The serenity of this fragile peace couldn't be taken for granted he knows, realizing that this might be their final moments of safety and tranquillity before the veil is lifted from their eyes and they will be thrust back into the battle once again. He hummed as he looks out the window to the skies, wishing Prompto were here to take this sight and capture the moment. Maybe when they win the battle, they could come here for a tour of sorts…

Arriving at the terrace, the royal couple walks through the small neighborhood. A couple of children rushed past them, giggling while waving their ice creams like swords. Noctis noticed a wondrous smile on his lover's flawless features, her eyes watching the children skitter around the place. He follows her gaze and sees that two of the kids were of opposite genders, but the girl had sadly dropped her ice cream it seemed.

The boy immediately offered his to her, he could hear the boy say something close to "let's share" and the girl's cheeks turned rosy with a shy smile. Noctis held back that playful immaturity to mock-gag at the sight of young life while Lunafreya giggles softly. She turns to Noctis with her hands clasped in front of her with a gentle and loving smile on her lips. She casually waltzes past him as she walks to their destination, a very popular part of the town for the locals.

Especially lovers.

Through the neighborhood, they talked about small things between them, and much to the delight of Noctis the woman had grown closer to his friends. It turned out she and Aqua both shared the same love for a book the Oracle had been reading one night during Noctis' three-day sleep. Turns out Aqua had been trying to find the fourth book in the series and after she quoted a character they both adored, the two bonded over it and spent an entire night talking about it.

Lunafreya even teased Gladiolus, according to Aqua, who is also a secret fan of it. The king burst into laughter at that nugget of information, thoughts of tormenting the man conjures in his mind.

With Kairi and Naminé, once more the woman couldn't have asked for better friends. He knew she missed having Naminé within her heart and they had grown as close friends during their time together in Eos. Although saddened, the woman states she is eager to finally embrace her friend once they find a replica for the girl. He was worried by the cat-like smile on her face when she was talking to Kairi about him and Sora, a strange look of competition was on her face. She jokingly says she was dating a king and pouted when she says Kairi, in turn, replied: "My boyfriend can summon a giant flaming lion".

When Noctis confirmed Sora could do that, Lunafreya rolled her eyes and as they walked on, he heard her muttering: "My boyfriend's cuter anyways".

The little boy in his heart was skipping with joy that she called him cute.

Reaching the top of the hill overlooking more of the landscape, they sat down near the ledge above the tunnel where the train entered the station. The blonde woman takes out some of their candies and with a plastic bowl she purchased, poured a mixture of the sugary treats into the bowl while her king places two cans of soda and one bottle of iced tea. They looked down at their picnic of sorts before the woman comments: "This is by far the most unhealthiest looking picnic, dare I say, the worlds have ever seen".

"So, does that mean you're not gonna touch any of it?", Noctis teases, poking at one of the small chocolate marble.

"I never said that", she clarifies with a pout, plucking one. "I am merely sharing because I'm obligated to be generous to my boyfriend".

A laugh was shared between the two as they settled down together and stared at the landscape, occasionally picking at the mixture bowl. Noctis breathes peacefully at this, amazed how relaxed he had become. He glances at Lunafreya who popped a chocolate marble into her mouth, sighing with content as her taste buds are satisfied with the sugary taste. How long had it been since she could be able to enjoy the simplest things life had to offer he wonders, or better yet, how many years was she deprived of freedom do be able to do this?

Among the reason to get some time for themselves before they would get to work on their powers, he wanted to give her taste of what's to come for her new freedom. He couldn't give it to her properly back at Eos with everything gone so wrong there, but here without worries of daemons popping up or any imperial scum showing up unwanted, she was allowed to hang up her Oracle duties and just enjoy the small pleasures of life.

To be able to sit down with her friends, laugh along with the stupidity that comes with them, to develop friendships with people who shared so much with her and to be able to just be Luna to them. Looking at how she was describing her times with the trio of girls during his sleep, how giddy she is when she got to a point in the story with Aqua and her fangirling over some character, to how she and Kairi shared so many details about their lovers.

"Are you sure you're gonna be ok coming with us to train?", he asked as he sipped his soda. With a nod and putting her tea down, Lunafreya says: "Certainly. Kairi's power has grown exceptionally, but without a proper mentor to watch over her, I fear she may place herself in great peril". The details were fuzzy to the king but Lunafreya was informed by Aqua about Kairi's light growing stronger and near a point to be feared by even Xehanort.

Among her reasons to remain with her friends and learned some lessons here and there, she was adamant she'd help Kairi master the light within her heart. "Is "Holy" really that strong?", asks the king. "It is a spell that has not been used for many centuries, Noctis, perhaps even back in the age of fairy tales", she explains, cupping her chin. "I'm truly curious of this mysterious keyblade master who may have granted her this power".

Noctis hums in agreement, looking his drink in thought. MOM hasn't shown his face (not that he ever did to be fair) for some time now, and a part of the king feared he might do so during the battle against Xehanort. Would he aid them or the Seeker of Darkness?

Lunafreya exhales a breath of ease before she smiles and looks to her lover. "Let us not worry ourselves for now. Instead", she says, leaning her shoulder against his and resting her head on it: "Let us enjoy this moment between us. Forget the upcoming events and relish this peace". Noctis wrapped an arm around her shoulder, bringing her closer to him as his raven hair mixed with her blonde locks.

"Maybe, we could ask Sora for more suggestions?", he offered, "Kinda wanna see what else is out there". Lunafreya hums in agreement. "I am curious about the islands he and the others grew up", she confesses. "Hmm…a nice little vacation spot…", Noctis says wistfully, "Clear skies, great weather, fishing, cozy island rooms…privacy?".

She giggles at the suggestive tone in the last listing, swatting his chest playfully. Not like he'd have the nerve to try anything risqué with her yet. That could wait for later. For now, he allowed himself to embrace this moment with her, their only time together in peace without their friends around, not compacted into a small space for traveling across a world, nor did he feel any darkness nearby to threaten them. No, here and right now, it was just himself with his wonderful lover enjoying the safety of the realm of light.

As the glowing sun blessed the two them with warmth and content, the king feels the small empty box within his pocket, a promise he made to himself. All he needed to do is complete his training, rope Sora into one his big plans, and then make a deal with the devil…

And bring Gladiolus for good measure…

"…I love you", whispered the woman, head down with obvious dusty red coating her cheeks, "I-I, don't believe I say it enough". Gently, the king cups her chin and lifts her face to look him in his blue eyes. With the smile he reserves only for her, Noctis presses his lips to hers.

He broke it slowly and leaned into her ear and whispers in the most loving tone he never knew he could muster: "I love you too…".

*Traverse Town* 

Sora has seen so many worlds by this point, but very few hold a special place within his heart like this one.

The very moment he and Kairi set foot in the old town square after passing through the giant wooden doors, greeted by the never-ending night with the millions of stars bathing down on them and the gentle friendly streetlights shining before them, he felt a wave of nostalgia hit him and fond memories of this world surfaced in his mind. Walking in between the two stationed lights in the round garden patches, Sora takes in the sights of this familiar world that would forever be engraved in his memories and heart.

Not a thing a changed since the last day he was here, even during his exams he felt in his heart this world would forever stay the same. Sure, there were probably places within this city he had yet to set foot in, monuments of the world's history he was curious about, and what other wonderful sights to behold. He looks to the "Accessory Shop", one of the largest and easily recognizable buildings the 1ST District had, a warm smile appeared on his face as she stared at it.

So many memories came flooding back to him, the place where he met Cid, discovered Moogles, crafted some of his most powerful gear and a wonderful place for himself and his two companions could just relax together.

Kairi joined him as he stared up at the building, tilting her head when she couldn't place the reason for his smile. When he turned to her, he gestures the building: "This is where I met Cid and the Moogles for the first time". On their left, he points to the shop where Donald's three nephews used to run during his time here, behind them, he points to the café that is now populated by dozens of people. Then he leads her up a flight of stairs on the right of the store, promising to visit it later and once he reaches the stairs, a voice calls his name.

The two of them blinked and looked around before Kairi spots something small hopping up and down at the top of the stairs, calling to them, no bigger than her hand. He has olive skin, thin black eyebrows, four-fingered hands, and wears the same white gloves so many of Mickey's friends seem to wear. He is dressed very formally, wearing a royal blue top hat with an orange band near the base, a red vest with a single, pink button on the front, a yellow ascot, a black blazer, and a high-collared white shirt, also sporting a pair of tan pants and yellow shoes with black tips. The little creature has a red umbrella in his hand.

Sora beams and jogs up to the bouncing being with a wave, Kairi walking closely behind him. "Jiminy, long time no see!", greets the boy with the biggest heart. "Jiminy" smiles warmly to the boy and impressively leaps up to the boy's shoulder. "Goodness, when did you get here?", asks the little cricket. "Just a few seconds ago, we were just here for a trip down memory lane", explained Sora, turning to Kairi who joins them on the top of the stairs.

Jiminy turned to Kairi before he takes off his top hat and bows curtly to the princess. "It's nice to finally meet you, Kairi", the little cricket greets warmly and kindly. The girl smiles back, remembering the little guy from Sora's tales. "It's a pleasure to see you Jiminy", she says with a friendly wave, "Thanks so much for documenting Sora's travels. They make great late-night stories".

She then frowns. "But, I thought you were with Sora the whole time?". At this Sora rubbed his neck. "He was…but after we were all gathered up, I asked Donald and Goofy to bring Jiminy back to their castle so he could be taken here for safety", Sora says. Jiminy nodded, confirming Sora's story before he waved his umbrella at him. "I still thought I should have stayed with you! I was there when you took on all the other bad guys!", argues the little guy.

Jiminy then folds his arm with a sigh. "I bet you had all sorts of adventures without me…". Kairi smiled at him and then reached into her pocket dimension and hands him her journal, to the surprise of Sora. "Well, it wasn't intentional, but we did have quite the adventure a few months ago", she explains. Sora looks at the pink and white journal with his girlfriend's name boldly written upon the face. He tried to remember when she bought it but came up with naught. Jiminy was shown a few pages before he beamed.

"Would you mind if I made a copy of this? Just so I can finish Sora's third journal?", pleads Jiminy. "Jiminy Cricket wants *my* journal to finish his?", Kairi says with glee, "How could I possibly say no?".

"Jiminy!".

A small young voice calls out, the three turned to see a little boy running to them. A boy who has thick, black hair and eyebrows, blue eyes, and four-fingered hands. He is wearing a yellow hat with a red feather in it, brown shoes, and white gloves (again very similar to Mickey and the others). He wears a tan, short-sleeved shirt under a black vest with gold lining. His shorts are red, and he wears a blue bow on the front of his shirt.

The cricket grinned excitedly as Sora beamed with pride. "Pinocchio?", he asked. The boy looks up at Sora and his face cracks into a giant smile full of childish wonder. "Sora!", he cried, hugging his leg. Kairi had a wonderous feeling those smiles were going to be a constant thing for the remainder of their trip here, watching Sora interact with some of his old friends. "When did you get here?", asks the boy.

Sora pats his head with a smile and says: "Just a few minutes ago". He allows Jiminy to hop back onto the boy's shoulder as Sora says: "Hey, you're not a puppet anymore!". That, Kairi had little knowledge on, having a bit of trouble remembering that part in the journal. The boy grinned happily as he nods and says: "Yup! The Blue Fairy came a few years ago and made me a real boy!". Sora pats his head, proud of the little boy. "What about your dad? How's Geppetto doing?", asks Sora.

"Father's great! Even without working on those gummi blocks, he still has time to make all sorts of clocks and other things!", Pinocchio says with glee, then his smile grows. "Are you gonna come visit him?". Sora looks at Kairi, who nods quickly, then turned back to Pinocchio: "Of course we will". Pinocchio looks at Kairi, shyly smiling at her before he introduces himself to her. "It's nice to meet you, Pinocchio. I'm Kairi, Sora's girlfriend", the princess introduces with a warm and friendly smile.

This makes Jiminy jump on the top of the former puppet's hat and smile at Sora knowingly as the hero blushed softly. Among all the people who knew about his affections towards the princess, none had taken greater notes of it than the cricket. He knowingly smirked at the boy, mouthing "about darn time" to him before Sora cleared his throat. "W-Well we gotta get a move on", he says, "We'll come by soon, ok?".

"Okay, see you later guys!", Pinocchio says before the boy scampers off into the town. The teens watch him as he disappears into the crowds, then Kairi looks at him. "A puppet?", she says, not entirely sure on the subject. "It's a long story, I'll tell you later", promised the boy: "But let's keep going, there's a few places I wanna look at before we go say hi".

Following the boy into the Second District, Kairi is adoring this peaceful and beautiful city with each shop they pass by. From a shop that sells the silliest of hats the two had ever seen, and after they purchased a few for the sake of their childish games.

The moment Sora put on that cartoonishly large green and black top hat with a comical bright red bow tie and presented himself to Kairi, she couldn't hold her laughter and practically rolled on the floor laughing. She purchased a larger than needed sun hat that could have acted as a protection from the rain for her and four others with it looking so ugly and an atrocious insult to fashion, she *had* to buy it.

Another wonderful spot was the water fountain with murals that rotated whenever the bell tolled, except unlike the last time Sora was here the fountains were active along with the beautiful dazzling lights that hypnotized them for a moment. Kairi even flicked one of the town coins into the fountain for fun, and even Sora joined in. When Sora asked her what she wished, Kairi playfully teases she could say otherwise it wouldn't come true.

When she asked his was, he shyly says it already came true. "That…you would be my girlfriend".

The worlds continued to surprise her because she didn't think she could find him any cuter than she already did. But again, surprises sprang upon her.

Walking through the districts and into the hotels Sora had met Leon in, they booked a room for themselves after they decided they return to Radiant Garden tomorrow. While Sora spoke with the front desk about the arrangements, she took a few brochures that piqued her interest in the town and puts them in their pocket dimension. If they were going on their world tours when the fighting was over, this world was a must.

Another interesting spot was the gizmo shop he explored once. The place was a factory of sorts, at least that was what Kairi could deduce based on there being not a single soul in the place nor could she even figure out just what the shop sold or even made. It did, however, provide her plenty of curiosities that peaked within her, seeing all the machines make noises akin to music, the designs looking like cartoony faces and even a clock that had a cuckoo when it reached mid-night/day.

Leaving the store to walk in the clearing of the district, Sora went on about his explorations of this district when suddenly as they make a turn for the third district, they could hear a small bark. Both turned around to see a puppy running up to Sora, yipping him happily. Kairi squealed in delight at the small baby dog as the pup pants in front of Sora.

A dalmatian breed with a large patch over his right eye, which Sora recognized almost immediately as he crouched and rubbed the pup's head. "Hey Patch, how you been buddy?", he asks as the puppy prances around the hand while Sora plays with him. The pup attacks his hand with his paws as Sora and Kairi laugh at the little fella. When the pup looked at Kairi, he immediately bolts to her and rests his front legs on her knees.

Kairi giggled as she cooed the puppy, petting him. "Aww, who's a cutie? This puppy", Kairi cooed as Patch rolled onto his back and she, in turn, granted him belly rubs. Kairi looks to Sora for an explanation as to why he knows a puppy and why he never told her he met such a cutie, prompting him to say: "He's one of the dalmatians I found during my first journey". "One of?", Kairi asks, smiling on the inside at the idea of there being more cuties.

Sora grinned back as Patch rolled back to his feet and pranced off, looking back to bark at them. Likely telling them to follow him. Knowing where the pup was taking them, Sora jogged after the small bugger with Kairi and in tow.

They arrived at a rather large white mansion of sorts that is connected to the gizmo shop with large white doors with blue stained glass. Patches was prancing in circles, barking at Sora to open the door for them, making the princess wonder how the crafty pup managed to get out in the first place. Sora opens the door, letting Patches run in first then he and Kairi followed shortly after.

Inside the house, Kairi was welcomed by the warmth of a fireplace bathing the room, spacious to hold a large amount of guests for parties with a handful of furniture around the place. The carpet was cream-colored with ticking clocks in the room. She follows Patches scratching the door while barking, looking at the humans for assistance. Sora smiled patiently and opens the door for his buddy…only to be tackled by a wave of white and black.

Sora yelled out in surprise as he was tackled to the ground, practically drowning in a sea of puppies barking happily at him while some licked his cheeks and rest on his stomach. The boy was laughing, ticklish to a fault as his friends rejoiced over him, all the while Kairi watched with glee as she started taking as many pictures of her boyfriend's predicament.

"So lucky", she thinks to herself.

Several pups look to the other human before they started to prowl around her, yipping at her and some whimpering for her to come down to play. Pocketing her device and carefully knelt to play with them, however the moment she was on her knees, the pups leaped onto her and much like her boyfriend she was on her back being smothered with puppy affection. The girl giggles as she and Sora rolled with the pups on the floor, the pups practically climbing them.

They were coming back, there was no doubt in her mind they'd come back here.

*Later*

After a hard goodbye to the army of puppies, the two had to move on to the last place Sora wanted to visit before they would go see Pinocchio and his family. The Third District.

A wave of her memories came crashing when she stared up at the old vacant house that she recalled Yuffie saying it was the "Super Secret Base" of the team. As super-secret as a vacant house was in a district only inhabited by heartless could be anyways. Kairi wouldn't say it to Sora but the house didn't have the pleasant memories one would think she'd have, rather it was a place she was forced to stay for her safety.

A forever reminder of a time where she was more of a liability to Sora than a needed ally. With only Cid as her "guardian", calling him that was exaggerated since she mostly confided in that place. Gratefully Sora didn't enter it and just walked down the slope and around the large wall before they stood in the middle of the clearing. A space with nothing to see bar the fountain in the corner, a few flags hanging on the walls and she saw one wire exposed with electricity sparking. Finally, a large door behind them that leads back to the 1st District.

Kairi watches Sora standing in the middle of the clearing, looking around and then turned slightly upwards to a balcony watching over them. A smile appeared on his face and for a moment Kairi swore he looked older for a moment. When he turned onto her, his smile was warmer as he addressed this place.

"You know, this is the world I found myself in when the islands were destroyed, right?", he asks in case he forgot to tell her. She nodded in confirmation, encouraging him to continue. "Well, this here? Is where my journey to other worlds started…and where I met Donald and Goofy for the first time".

Kairi smiles warmly at his own, understanding why this place held a significance in his heart. How could it not? He continued: "The first time we met, I didn't see them as friends, just people who need my help as much as I needed theirs. And here, is where my search for you and Riku took off". Sora looks around, taking in the sights that hadn't changed at all since the last time he walked through this city.

A world that held so many memories of the people he's met, his fights here helping him grow, seeing how different a world could be compared to his home. A place that exists between light and darkness, that forever shifts and changes to accommodate any traveler should they be lost, a place that would forever stay. Even with the pain that he was alone in a new world without his friends, it still carried a place within him.

Looking at all the sights again, seeing memories of him trying to jump from rooftop to rooftop, trying to find other means of reaching the top and how tricky it was to use magic to access another place. Now today? All a breeze for him. Scaling the buildings, using magic to get things going and not needing to worry about traversing the world. It felt like another lifetime for him, when he was no more than a fledgling keyblade wielder and still ignorant of other worlds, now he felt like he's grown into a better person.

Here where he met two of his closest friends, journeying with them to see so much to offer, fighting together and all leading up to the great battle of light and darkness.

He looks at Kairi as she and he stood in the center of the clearing, taking her hand. His smile dimmed at the memory of leaving her behind, down there in that little place where her old belief of light at the end of the tunnel shined through. The day he was given her lucky charm, the moment he made a promise to come back to her, and the very first time she spoke that sentence that always helped him triumph his greatest obstacles.

"Don't ever forget, wherever you go, I'm always with you".

She gently places a hand on his cheek as he replicated her action, brushing some of her red locks aside. "When this is over when we beat Xehanort…let's go for it", she says, "Our world tour". The promise he made to her in Eos, their adventures. "I want to see what else is out there, and I want to make my own story, but more importantly", she lists, cupping both his cheeks, "I want to make memories with you, experience all the things you did".

With the smile only she will ever see, Sora nods before they close the gap between their lips. No matter where they will go, he knows in his heart he'll always be with her.

*Later at night*

Shifting and stirring in her bed, Kairi blinked a few times before her vision was cleared of sleep. A strange sensation occurred in her body, waking her up much earlier than normal, and one glance at her phone resting on the lamp table near her bed proved her concerns.

Far too early in the morning, not even close to dawn.

She sighs quietly when she rolled onto her back, noticing Sora was still snoozing away with his back turned to her. Her ears picked up his gentle breathing with the occasional movement of his arm scratching his nose, something she noticed he does a lot in his sleep. Smiling tiredly and a little envious he was still off in the dream world, Kairi placed a hand on her heart and felt something is amiss. A strange emptiness inside it, like something had left it.

Or in this case, someone.

"Naminé?", she whispers, not to disturb Sora.

"Outside on the balcony", the girl responds mentally.

Quietly and with one more peck to his cheek, Kairi climbs out of the bed and throws on a nightgown Aqua had bought for her in Radiant Garden. Slippers on she walks out to the balcony, feeling the cold air of the night (at least the cold night normally brings) and sees Naminé staring at the skies in silence, her ethereal form glowing from the lights above. Kairi took comfort when she believes soon enough she will see her friend in a physical form sooner than later.

Joining her by the balcony, Kairi smiled at her as the girl's features softened. "Can't sleep?", the redhead twin asks, before cringing at the question. Naminé smiles and shook her head. "No, nothing like that…at least, not in the way you think?", she tries to explain. "But my mind is just too active for me tonight".

Kairi leaned on the railing with her elbows, still looking at her twin. "Do you want to talk about it?", she offered. This makes the blond frown while she was wringing her hands together, a look of guilt was slowly forming within her eyes. She stares up at the sky before she exhales air from her ghostly lungs. "…there are some things…I would like to talk to you about", she confesses. Naminé turns to the keyblade wielder and says: "There are two members of Xehanort's vessels that I'm afraid may use certain memories against you".

Kairi narrowed her eyes, already thinking of Ansem and Xigbar but Naminé shakes her head. "They are ones you haven't met yet, but Sora has", she clarifies. "Marluxia and Larxene, they were ones Sora had defeated back in Castle Oblivion, two years ago".

The name of the castle struck up fragments of memories for the redhead, the year Sora had lost because of the events that occurred there. Riku had given her the short and lack of clarity version of his recounting, but she never pressed for answers. All she knew about it was that was the reason she and so many others had forgotten Sora and why he was gone for a whole year. It made sense that the Organization had something to do with it.

"Why? What did they do?", she asks. Naminé looks away before taking a silent breath and faced her again. "Marluxia was planning to overthrow Xemnas alongside her", she says. "How? I mean I don't know how strong those two were but if it took both Sora and Riku to beat Xemnas then they couldn't have stood a chance, right?", Kairi asked. Even back when she was no more than a child with keyblade, Kairi knew just by looking at Xemnas he was one of the strongest beings of the darkness.

Sora and Riku back then were impressive but the fact it took both to strike down the leader of the Organization showed how crazy Marluxia's coup was.

"Me", Naminé says, "By using my powers". Kairi looks at her with a bizarre and confused look on her face, not recalling her possessing powers that could tip the scales to that great level. Naminé plants her hand on her heart and explains her "powers", the ability to manipulate Sora's memories because he was formed from his body and soul. The power to shift and warp his memories, changing the chains of memories within him that affects others as well.

"By using that, Marluxia planned to lure him deeper into the castle and Larxene beguiled him into believing the memories he was recalling were real. Ones including myself that never happened", she says. Kairi didn't speak during her story, how she tricked Sora into believing in his memories were real, how she changed Kairi's charm to a fake one of her own, and slowly but certainly became an obsession to the boy.

It shocked Kairi just how manipulative Naminé could be, the girl as fragile and gentle possessing such a darkness within her. But she refused to believe she did this out of her own volition, if that Marluxia and Larxene nobodies were anything like Xigbar then they must have forced the poor girl. After everything the girl had done for Lunafreya and them, there is no way she would do such a thing to Sora willingly.

"But you were forced to do it, weren't you?", Kairi says, almost pleadingly.

Naminé shook her head, shame appeared on her face as she turned to look down at the empty streets below them. Her eyes darkened with memories of that castle, her time where she used her powers to bring nothing but misery to someone so pure and dear to many. "I'd give anything to say yes, that Marluxia threatened me, Larxene tortured me to do whatever they wanted…but it wasn't them", she said. "As a nobody without memories or will of my own, I was docile. Anyone could tell me to do this or that and I'd do it…people like Ardyn could have told me to warp Noctis' memories to a point where he'd be a husk and I'd do it".

Kairi looks away as more of the explanation begins to harm her heart, unable to believe this. She knows nobodies were strange beings and Naminé, even by Ansem the Wise's studies, was a person of unusual nature. How could someone take somebody like her, a poor and innocent creature without a memory or will of her own and twist her into doing such monstrous acts that only those with the bleakest hearts could even think of doing?

"…I agreed to use my powers to manipulate his memories…all because I was so alone in that place…because my emotions developed and manifested with pain…", she says, her voice low and sullen as if she is ashamed that she performed such a cruel action over something so petty. She looked at the stars with a fragile smile: "But…even after everything I did…twisting his memories, luring him deeper into the castle, and even lying to him about who's the most important person to him was…he still saved me".

Kairi looks at her as the ghostly girl lightly giggled. "The moment I told him everything, even the promise he had is a lie, he still believed those memories of me were real to him…and rescued me from them all…", she lists. She shook her head, trying to keep her tears away from shedding. "How could someone like him exist, forgiving me for such a thing?". Kairi placed a hand on her sister's ghostly hand on the railing, phasing through it but the gesture was still appreciated by the girl.

"Because that's Sora, in a nutshell, he's a good person", Kairi says, smiling. "And any friend of his who needs help, he'll be there".

Then with a large smile, Kairi gestured the girl. "And hey, you helped him too! Fixing his memories, waiting for a whole year to do so too! You even helped us in Eos. So as far as I'm concerned, you've more than made up for what happened in that castle!", Kairi lists. She expected Naminé to giggle at her, be modest and say some non-sense like "I didn't do that much" or bashfully smile at her. Instead?

Naminé looked even more guilt-ridden.

Her eyes lost the light within them as she looks away from Kairi, making her redhead sister drop her smile and face her with worry. "…Do you know what other emotion I developed during the year of Sora's slumber?", she asks, low and in a voice that nearly sounded like Kairi was speaking to a completely different person. Naminé speaks: "Love…and jealously".

"What?", Kairi asks but Naminé shook her head.

"During that time with DIZ and Riku…those days, I spent putting Sora's memories together…I was constantly reminded by him I was never meant to exist", she starts, retelling her time there. Those days were some of the hardest trials she had ever had to face head-on, days where she was doing everything in her power to help putting Sora's memories back in place while keeping the chain of memories she created severed and stored in his heart.

Her teeth clenched in anger at the days that old man, that bitter spiteful and vengeful old man would constantly make snide remarks about nobodies not meant to exist. How every time she would discover a new emotion, the days where her guilt pushed her to tears, and every time she whimpered he'd cast it aside with a scoff. Cruelly reminding her "emotions" (he LOVED saying that word in such a condescending way) were nothing more than false imitations of her somebody.

Every day he would constantly put her down, feed her anger toward him and many times he would make heartless comments on Roxas and his false memories of Twilight Town. The day he was ejected from the realm of light, for the first time Naminé took immense joy of someone suffering a horrible fate.

"My only comfort as more of my heart grew, was funnily enough just talking to Sora in his sleep", she said, "Like yourself, writing letters to him to simulate talking to him". Kairi nodded in understanding, still wondering if she should let him see the letter she had wrote for him on the train before she was separated from the others. But she kept her mouth closed as Naminé resumes her confession, a part of her heart tugged when she starts to fear where this road will take them.

"Day after day I'd talk to him…how I was starting to feel more emotions growing within me, eventually talking nonsense with him", she says, "Stupid things like how I discovered what it's like to taste, how I explained why I like drawing and then eventually making horrible puns…". Her mirth died as the ends of her confession is reached, eyes shimmering. "But, as I started getting closer, and closer to finishing his memories, I felt it. I felt something entirely alien to me as a nobody is to Ansem".

Kairi clenched her hands, holding her breath knowingly. "All that time talking to him, the time we shared though brief were the happiest memories I had…", she wistfully sings…

"I feel in love with him…".

The silence between them was unknown to either of the twins, the wind breezing by them as the cold chill race down their spines. Kairi tried her hardest to keep her mind straight and heart, hurt by the confession, tugged roughly at the confession. Naminé rests on the railing again and casts her head down. "But with love, comes jealously", she goes on. "Every memory involving you was so pure, so wonderful and beautiful, at first I loved seeing both of you so happy…but little by little, that turned into resentment and jealously".

If manipulating Sora's memories was her greatest guilt, then feeling envious of Kairi's relationship with Sora is her greatest shame. Neither one of them deserved her contempt, neither of them deserved to be apart for so long yet every time she saw Kairi with Sora, she began to loath her somebody. The memories untainted by the dangers of other worlds, memories of Sora being so caring and friendly to her while she was playful and cheeky with him, moments she wanted for herself. Moments she wanted to be in.

A dark chuckle escaped her as she shook her head. "Do you know how tempting it was? I had gotten so used to his memories I could have replaced you with myself, wiped you clean from his, heck everyone's, memories and none would be the wiser", she says. Kairi says nothing as she looks at Naminé, her eyes saddened. "All it would take was just one little tweak…one alteration, and then the most important person to Sora, would be me".

Her dark look changed into one wracked with guilt as her shoulders shook as her eyes went watery. "But I couldn't…the moment I even thought I'd be able to do it…I felt sick, disgusted and ashamed of myself", she says, "After everything I had done to him, how could I be so selfish and just keep him for my own when I didn't even have the right to exist".

"So, you finished restoring his memories, and then you found your way to me", Kairi says, her tone deep and quiet. Naminé nodded, adding in the final pieces of her story. "…I could have returned to you after my first contact with Noctis…but I didn't want to".

She rubbed her eyes with her wrist, shakily breathing as Kairi stared ahead of them. "Every time I saw you and Sora together, your feelings laid bare, it hurt to see him, knowing I'll never be that person to him…that's why I stayed with Luna, just to escape that constant reminder". She tried to control her tears, knowing she had no right to feel this awful after nearly taking Sora from Kairi, the very person who owned his heart. Even for a while with Lunafreya, she didn't have to feel those ghostly imitations of having Sora's eyes on her, the warmth of love being directed at her.

Now that she was back in Kairi's heart, their bond so much stronger than ever it was like a constant slap to her heart, forever reminding her of what will never be hers. To be trapped in Kairi's shadow for the rest of her life.

"I'm sorry…I'm so sorry…", she whimpers.

Then, Kairi wrapped her arms around her. Because of their connection, Kairi could "physically" hold her, making the blond gasp in confusion. "W-Why?", she whispered. Kairi held her tighter and says: "I'm sorry, Naminé. I, I didn't know how much this hurts you".

She was sorry? Her? After everything the blond had done, what she could have done, she was the one apologizing for something out of her control? She couldn't accept it, she was just trying to make her feel less like a mistake but her warmth from the hug felt so genuine it had to be real. "You have been through so much, and having Sora being that person to help you, I'm sorry you fell for him", Kairi whispers, "But if you hadn't helped him, none of us would be here now".

"You helped bring Sora home to us, you helped protect Luna log enough to reunite her with Noct", she listed, "And you deserve that love, deserve to have someone who sees you in that light but most importantly". Kairi faces her with the most strong-willed look the blond had ever seen directed at her. "You deserve to exist".

Naminé couldn't hold the river of tears running down her cheeks, unable to speak. Even after all she had done to the person Kairi loved more than anything, she still believed Naminé deserved the same right as her, Sora and everyone. Kairi placed a hand on her sister's cheek, brushing away her tears and said: "I promise you, you're going to find that person who will make you as happy as Sora made you, if not happier. And we're going to be with every step of the way".

The blond lets a watery laugh escape her before the laughs changed into sobs, burying herself in Kairi's shoulder as the keyblade wielder held her close. As Naminé poured her heart out, Kairi only affirmed a new promise.

"I promise, you'll get the freedom you deserved", she mentally promises.

A/N: DONE!

So this is a bit of a whiplash of a chapter at the third part huh? We've some romance~ And a character going through the KH sadness almost EVERYONE goes through.

Confession time about Naminé's story…originally the ending was Kairi offering her to be with her and Sora in a three-way relationship. Now I WAS considering it, but after some talks with a friend, we kinda thought it wouldn't work with Sora's heart belonging to Kairi. But what about you people? Do you think it could have worked or would that be WAY too out there for the story?

QUESTIONS!

Q1: Thoughts?

Q2: Noctis and Lunafreya exploring Twilight Town?

Q3: Disney Cameos?

Q4: Kairi and Sora's date?

Q5: Naminé?

Q6: Excited for training!?

Q7: What are you looking forward to in future chapters?

Q8: Whose gonna win in a fight, Axel or Lunafreya?

Thanks for reading everyone, stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	61. Chapter 61

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 61

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

*Hovering over Radiant Garden*

"Yes, we've just arrived at Radiant Garden. We'll meet you by Merlin's house", confirmed Aqua, speaking to Sora on her GP. She makes several "uh huh's", confirmations and then bid the apprentice a "see you later" and hangs up before she turned back to Gladiolus, steering the ship.

To the surprise of the master, Gladiolus managed to get the basics of how to use a Gummi Ship quicker than she expected, although he wasn't driving it per se more like making sure they returned to Radiant Garden. The ship is currently on autopilot with him manually inputting commands and monitoring the systems. She slumps in her seat while looking at her notes and schedule she had written up this morning, already steeling herself for the trials ahead of her.

"So, remind me again, how does that forest place work?", he asked, making basic conversations while inputting the commands for landing. She traces a line with her finger before saying: "As basic as I can make it, we'll be spending an entire year within the forest but the moment we come out it'll be a day since we've ventured".

"But we'll age, right? I mean if we get stronger there we'll get older too?", he says. "That's right, but if you're worried about say we exit and suddenly we all turn sixty, then now. Once we come out it'll be as if we never aged but we did in the forest, therefore we return to the realm of light older", Aqua further elaborated. "And you're gonna be ok? I mean, didn't you spend twelve years in the dark realm? You sure this won't make turn a decade older?".

"Time in the realm of darkness is very inconsistent. For people outside it's been a decade but for me, it just felt like I was stuck in a point in time for my stay", Aqua says, "I was tested by Yen Sid after we woke Ven up, and he assured me the time I spent in that place will not affect my age outside of it".

Gladiolus grunts in response, understanding. He leaned back in his seat as the ship started the landing process. "An entire year of training with you guys…still can't wrap my head around that", he confesses, "And I'm guessing those Gummi Phones won't work the same there either?". Aqua nodded at him. "I'm not sure, Kairi didn't have her phone during her training. Though Axel did have Merlin bring a few things from the outside world", she explains.

This made Gladiolus cross his arms in thought, as satisfied as the answers were, it was still difficult to get his mind around it. Aqua herself was trying to adjust to it, wondering how they're going to survive a whole year of being together with twelve people and not lose their minds. For most of her life she had only lived with her master and brothers, but now her apprentices, fellow masters, friends, and boyfriend, it'll certainly be a new experience.

"…so…does that mean you and I can't…ya know?", he asked cheekily.

Aqua blushes and looks away, knowing his request. It still felt like just a minute ago she woke up by his side, nude and still sore from their activities from the night. The wondrous feeling of waking up in his embrace, skin on skin and feeling something changed in a good way for their relationship. Biting her cheek inside she muttered: "N-No, we can't".

Mustering her self-control and hoping her cheeks went back to their normal colors, she turned to him and said: "As much as we enjoyed it, we can't do that while we're staying with the others". Gladiolus gives her raised brow but before he could counter-argue Aqua said: "Do you want us to be caught by our younger friends or god forbid by Prompto or Axel in the act?".

Gladiolus opened his mouth but then pauses, frowned and the gives a defeated nod. "Yeah, gotta hand you that one…", he sighed.

As the ship begins its descent to the world, both adults slumped in their seats and thought the same thing:

"This is gonna be a long year…".

*Merlin's House*

Once they arrived at the bay and gathered the required items for the lessons, the couple arrived at Merlin's house as most of their party had gathered up in the small house. The master greets everyone with a smile and takes note of the team looking rejuvenated and eager to get started while Ignis had a look of concern on his face as he sits by the table with tea.

"Gladdy!". Aqua jumped and turned to see Iris hugging her equally surprised brother before he sweeps her up into a tight hug. The blue head looked at the sister of her boyfriend before she glances at a smirking Riku which confirmed the questions bubbling in her mind. At least Gladiolus would get to see his sister before he'd be gone for an entire year. While her boyfriend was busying with his sister, she approached Merlin who was speaking to his former apprentices.

Merlin is an elderly man with pale skin and thin arms and legs. His nose is a bit large and his black eyes are rather small and close-set. Wearing spectacles with circular lenses, he looks to be balding and has short, white hair on the sides and back of his head. He also has bushy eyebrows, a "walrus" mustache, and a long, floor-length beard, all of which are white.

Merlin is dressed in a sky-blue cloak that stops just above his ankles and has large, hanging sleeves. The strangest part of his attire is his pointed slippers and a tall, floppy, conical hat, both of which are the same sky blue color as his cloak. Merlin's wand is a very long, featureless, brown rod with a small bump on one end.

The old man looks to Aqua a friendly smile and bowed. "Right on time, master Aqua", he greeted kindly as Kairi smiles at her master and Axel just salutes. "I trust you left Koko in somebody's care, yes?", asked the master. Kairi nodded with a pout. "I am willing to leave my feather baby behind for the sake of training", she laments, "Though with the year thing she'd grow into my mighty stead against our enemies".

Aqua ruffled Kairi's hair warmly, before noticing that they were ahead short. And it was ahead she was very familiar and protective of. "Where's Ven?", she asked. Kairi shrugged in response while Axel casually says: "I dunno, probably slept in". She did not like that mischievous smile on the man's face…it looked very slap worthy.

The door to Merlin's house burst open, making everyone turn around and greet a very sweaty and heavily breathing Ventus. The master was surprised to see just how the boy look, his clothes were incredibly messy and wrinkly while his armor was barely strapped to his body, and strangest of all he was wearing a blue colored scarf around his neck that looked like the only thing neatly worn. "S-S-Sorry I'm late!", panted the boy.

"Gwarsh Ven, ya look like you just ran halfway through the city", comments Goofy, pointing at the youngest keyblade wielder. "What's with the scarf?", Sora asks. Ventus turned red for a moment before he clears his throat and looks anywhere but at Aqua and Sora. "I…uh…w-wanted to try something new?".

"Your fashion sense leaves a LOT to be desired", Kairi teases.

Aqua giggled in agreement and after everyone was here and accounted for with Iris bidding her boys good luck, Merlin opened the corridor that would lead them to the Secret Forest. "Now remember everyone, you will have to open the portal on your end to leave the forest, but do not leave it until the year is up", he explained, "You never know what could happen".

"Don't worry Merlin, we won't be setting a foot out into the realm of light until we've completed our training", Mickey assured. With a nod, the wizard bids them good luck before he disappears as the corridor closes behind the guardians.

*Secret Forest*

*Month One, Day One*

When the fourteen guardians gathered up into this strange place, all bar Kairi and Axel were taken aback by the beauty of the forest. In a bizarre way like Twilight Town, the forest seemed to be in the middle of a beautiful sunset that bathed the trees in a gentle glow along with the gentle breeze gliding through the branches.

Immediately entering the forest, they felt something had changed around them like they were moving far slower than usual and the air of magic was stronger here than it was even in Merlin's home. Kairi looked over the edge of the cliff that gave her and the party a wonderous view of the sunset and forest where their training would commence. Even with the incredibly difficult and strenuous training ahead of her, Kairi was extremely excited about it.

She held it back during their resting days, but it was close to exploding with girlish excitement. A whole year with her friends, best friends and of course Sora. A whole year of having her boyfriend with her in a place without the dangers from the darkness. Plus, the training to get strong enough to be able to stand by her friends on equal levels and make she'd show Xehanort what happens when he puts her friends through hell.

Once everyone had a chance to take in their surroundings, the party followed Aqua to their new accommodations for the next year, using a map Merlin gave her. The group ventures through the serene and quiet forest, making casual conversations here and there while Prompto was taking a few photos of the forest.

Kairi was trailing behind with Sora and Riku talking about what sort of training they were in for while informing Kairi what they performed back at the tower for their exams. All the while Kairi was looking at Ventus chatting to Gladiolus and Goofy, staring at his scarf. She folded her arms in thought, the scarf was completely clashing with the colors of his gear and just looked unsuitable for him.

"Don't like Ven's fashion sense?", Riku teases, patting her shoulder as he and Sora joins her side. She giggled with a shrug and says: "Kinda, it just seems weird he chooses a scarf of all things". This said, Sora then rubbed his chin and says: "Wait a second…isn't that Rikku's bandanna?". Riku looked at his best friend before Kairi reminds him of the blond girl they met back in the city. Now that Sora mentioned it, the two looked at the "scarf", it certainly did look like the blond girl's band.

"Hey yeah, it is…", Riku confirms, "What's he doing with it?". They heard Axel snicker behind them, likely he must have heard their conversation. Kairi turned to him sporting a smug look on his face. "What's so funny?", she asked her old training buddy. The red-haired man folds his arms and says: "Well a few things happened back home while you guys were busy". The four stopped walking to listen to Axel, unaware Ventus was suddenly acutely aware of the party members trailing behind.

"See, after the party, me and Prompto spotted Ven in a pretty interesting predicament. He was snuggling up with that Rikku girl and based on those marks on his neck~", he teases. Riku blinks in surprise while Kairi gasps, clasping her mouth shut. Sora just looks at the man confused. "What do you mean?", he asked. "Ya know, sharing a bed? Starting something new?", Axel tried, then smirked. "Took a page or two out of your book with Kairi?".

Now Sora blushed.

"Wait…does Aqua know about him and Rikku?", the silver master asked. Axel opened his mouth, but then a keyblade soared right past him and straight into a tree, just narrowly missing his cheek. Mid-sentence he was silenced by surprise as the other three teens turned behind them. A very angry but hotly blushing Ventus was glaring at Axel, keyblade materializing back in his hand. By the look he had and the reaction, Riku safely assumed his sister was NOT aware of his girlfriend.

Kairi quickly jogged up to him and gave him a friendly hug, congratulating him on his first girlfriend. Ventus quickly shushed her before Aqua could overhear their conversation, quickly scampering ahead of them with Kairi pestering him for more questions while Riku whistled at the speed and strength a flustered Ventus possessed, and Axel cheeking his cheek for anything. "I think that answers that", Riku muses, re-joining the others. Sora chased after them leaving Axel behind.

"…kids got a good throwing arm…", he muses, following them.

After an hour's trek through the forest, the party comes to a relatively homey cottage that reminded most of the party of Merlin's house. Just not run down or oddly put together. Though it was worryingly small…it was TOO small for fourteen people.

"Hope everyone's ok with sharing beds and sleeping on the floors", Axel comments with a groan.

"Dibs on the bed!", Kairi declared with a finger in the air.

Aqua approached the cottage round wooden door and opens it, entering the cottage. She calls for the party to come in and once everybody entered the learned the cottage was the true definition of "appearances can be deceiving".

Inside the cottage is a foyer of a mansion, reminding Sora and his two oldest companions of a certain gloomy castle they visited a year ago. A marble stone stairway that splits into two other small flights of stairs leading to the east and west wings of the place, a violet royal carpet strewn on the stone floor that reached from the door to the first step. There are statues of gargoyles atop of pillars that looked on to the party, one looking very familiar to Kairi.

There is a warmth from the foyer, embracing the group in warmth with utter silence accompanying it. It was bright like the castle in Land of Departure with one round stained glass adorned above a large narrow doorway leading to another room they guessed. The fourteen guardians stood in the foyer, taking in the sights, amazed by the display of magic Merlin could perform. "Well…least we can safely say we won't have to worry about sharing a bed…", Riku remarks as he takes in the castle.

"Right. Everybody find yourselves a room for yourselves, then meet me outside and we'll get started", Aqua says walking ahead to her room. "Huh? Already?", Noctis asked. "Yes, the sooner we gauge everyone's abilities, we can then construct a schedule on what we need to work on", explained Aqua.

"Keep in mind, Noctis, we've gotta make sure Ven and Axel are up to speed with their keyblades as well", Mickey reminds as Donald and Goofy walked to their room. Axel grumbled something while Ventus frowns in tow, earning a light giggle from the Oracle. Everyone splits off to find their respective rooms and get their gear settled in, seeing as this will be their living spaces for the next year. Funny enough as Kairi and Sora waltzed through the corridors, they spot a door with his crown and her Oathkeeper charm proudly engraved on the door in the west wing.

"…I think this is our room", Kairi says with a giggle.

They entered together and came to see a rather pleasant five-star hotel suite. A large king-sized bed taking up most of the room with two wardrobes in front of it by a few feet, a door leading to the bathroom likely with a large window giving them a beautiful view of the forest and sunset. The carpet was soft jade-colored with two small lamp tables on each side of the bed with space-themed lamps adorned the mahogany wood.

Kairi and Sora grinned together, a perfect place to rest up after a day's training session. They got their suitcases from the pocket dimension and put their gear into the wardrobes. Once sorted and after making sure they were ready for the training, the two leave their room and meet with the others.

*The "Arena" *

Once everyone was settled in, Axel led the party to where he and Kairi used to spar every few days. A simple clearing with trees surrounding them all with obvious marks of magic marked the field, even the air was tingling with magic. Aqua gathered everyone up with Mickey by her side, both masters addressing the team of guardians. "Okay, so we have one year to prepare for the keyblade war, and as we are now we're not ready", she starts, her voice strong and strict like a master.

"Now we have grown much stronger since we left Eos, and while a lot of us have grown exceptionally, we're still outmatched by Xehanort and his vessels".

"Not to mention he has the heartless, nobodies, and the unversed at his command too", Mickey reminds, "Which means we'll be outnumbered". Prompto raises his hand, halting whatever else Mickey was going to say. "Uhh, do you guys think Ardyn could summon daemons too?", he asked, genuinely curious. The two masters glanced at each other with a frown before Lunafreya speaks up. "We cannot rule out he has lost that ability since the blight was extracted, but he might have learned how to summon heartless".

"Either way, between the thirteen darkness and their onslaught of minions, we're sorely outnumbered", parrots Ignis. The masters nodded, which Aqua speaks up once more. "All the more reason we need to make everyone can handle the numbers and the vessels", she explained. "So first before we get into the real training, we'll need to gauge some of your strengths".

With this, she asked for Axel and Lunafreya to step into the ring. Much to the shock of Noctis and surprise of Axel, the Oracle gets off her stump and entered the ring. Before the king could argue this, Ignis holds him back and shakes his head. One glance at his advisor told the king to be silent and watch, forcing him back to sitting down on his stump and watch Axel and Lunafreya stare down each other.

"Hey, I know I'm not on par with half the gang here, but…this feels kinda unfair", argued the pyro, looking at the masters. "I'll try and be gentle, Axel", assured the Oracle as she calls for her trident. This made Axel raise a brow at the jab before he smirked and called his keyblade and readied himself.

"The first to fall out of the win is the loser. This is merely to see how you both fare in a fight with the vessels", Mickey instructs. "Begin!".

Axel makes the first move as he dashed towards the Oracle, swinging his keyblade overhead in a sweeping arc. Lunafreya jumps back to evade the keyblade, and when her feet touched the ground she thrusts her trident at Axel. The man parried her strikes with ease and jumps back from her as Lunafreya's trident glowed in the light. She fires several rays of divine light at him, Axel nimbly side steps and dashes around her attack, grunting and impressively evading them.

He shifts his keyblade into his chakrams mid-step. With a smirk he spreads his him like a T-pose, flames surged around his arms until they covered his wheel-shaped weapons into a blazing heat. He throws them at the lights chasing him, splitting them and reducing them to nothing as his weapons spun in the air.

Next, the pyro calls them back, respawning in his hands and then looks to Lunafreya. His shoulders burn with a flaming aura, he combines both chakrams into one, turning it the size of a round dining table, engulfed in flames. He throws the large disc at the woman with a cry, but Lunafreya raises her hand and surrounds herself with a golden barrier. The attack certainly did enough to make the barrier quiver and nearly broke through, but the Oracle's magic held the advantage.

When the disc evaporated and Axel's weapons returned to him, he grunts before he races towards her as the barrier goes down. He strikes at her with his chakrams, combing up-close attacks with ranged based attacks, covering a lot of the field and forced Lunafreya to stand her ground at these attacks, parrying his attacks or blocking them.

Lunafreya uses the bottom of her trident to knock aside one chakram and with a twirl, she slammed the fork of the trident down on a flying chakram. The woman of Eos raised it again and fires off several beams of divine light into the air before they plummeted down to Axel. The fire-wielding warrior carried his chakrams and covered one entirely in flames until it looked as if Axel was carrying a literal disc of flames. He throws his weapon to the beams, but when it was in close range he detonates it. A large sphere of flames consumed the beams, halting the Oracle's attack.

With his left hand carrying his other chakram, he charged it up with flames again, only for Lunafreya to utter: "Waterga!".

A large torrent of water appeared behind her while unharming her, rushing towards Axel. The pyro could only turn his weapons back into his keyblade and try to hold his ground against the waters as it covered too much space for him to dodge it. It mattered not in the end, as Axel was quickly swept off his feet and thrown out of the ring, bathed in magical waters.

Once he was on his back out of the ring the waters slowly turn into trickles before ultimately disappearing. His weapons disappeared as he spits out a fountain of water, drenched. He sits up to see Lunafreya offering him a hand, to begrudgingly, he takes. He tried very hard not to look at that smirk on her face, it reminded him too much of Kairi whenever she won their bouts. His track record was looking quite poor lately…

Aqua nods to both guardians while seizing up Axel. "Looks like you've gotten better from what Ven told me…but you've still a lot to work on", she says, "You have a lot of power, but your defense is atrocious". Axel rubbed his neck; the woman had a good point. Truth be told most of the time he doesn't fight a lot of the things Sora's put up with, and even then his last rough fight was fighting with Sora.

And that ended with him dying.

"Plus, your element is easy to defuse", she sighed, "Which none of Xehanort's vessels can deal with, seeing as they lost Demyx and Even, so at the very least you still have it. You need to work on your defense and diverse your attacks". He nodded as Lunafreya pats him on the back and Mickey speaks his mind about the Oracle. "Your magic is really strong your grace, but against someone with brute strength and durability, you wouldn't hold out long", he says.

The Oracle nods in agreement, hoping with Gladiolus she'll have a better instructor on working on her physical prowess. And the idea of not being squished by a boorish behemoth would be a nice bonus too.

"Right, Ven, Kairi? You're up next. Riku? Get ready", Mickey says.

The younger keyblade wielders of the party hops into the ring while Lunafreya and Axel leave it, Riku stepping in as their opponent. With a cocky smirk, Riku draws his keyblade as the apprentices draw theirs.

"Begin!", Aqua declared.

The first to contact the keys is Ventus, dashing towards Riku with a downward strike. The master deflects his quicker opponent's attacks with one hand, both clashing and dancing around the ring with Riku's quick footwork vs Ventus' airborne striking prowess.

Riku throws Ventus upwards with a quick upward swing of his keyblade, throwing the boy into the air. He quickly spins around to deal with Kairi, rushing in with a flurry of strikes that forces him to take several steps back from her whirlwind of attacks. By the end of her flurries, they were locked into a short deadlock before Kairi leaps backward from him and rushes at him again. This time to his amusement Kairi skids around him, like how Sora used to fight the dusk nobodies.

She rounds behind him and takes a swing at his sides. Riku turned around and erects a barrier to deflect the princess' attack, her keyblade bouncing off his shield like a rubber ball bouncing off a wall. The recoil throws Kairi's keyblade out of her hands, giving Riku the chance to strike at her. Quickly Kairi dodge rolled away from his thrust, narrowly evading his blade as she creates some distance between them.

Ventus dives to Riku as Kairi re-calls her keyblade to her hand. With Ventus taking on Riku from the skies, Kairi struck at him from the ground. The defend himself Riku turns to Ventus with his free hand and fired a barrage of dark fire at him. Ventus quickly flips and dodges the attacks and even used one as a stepping-stone and leaped into the air from it. Kairi's attack was blocked by Riku's keyblade with a quick parry, but she twirled her keyblade and spun around herself, using both momentum gained to swing at Riku while creating a trail of light from the tip of her keyblade.

Riku jumps over her and flies to Ventus, meeting him in the air. Together they clashed in the air with keyblades clanging against each loudly to be heard across the forest. Ventus creates a little bit of distance from Riku and activates one of his Command Style, Fever Pitch.

Meeting with Riku again with twice the speed and covering more space, Ventus seemingly to control over the battle between them. However, Riku is keeping up with the younger keyblade wielder and every attack seemed to be easily deflected by the master. The master knocks aside Ventus' keyblade and out of the ring, then grabbed his collar with his free hand. With a yell Riku throws Ventus over himself and to add further momentum, he backflips and kicks the boy at the same time.

Ventus crashed outside the ring with a heavy thud, grunting with pain as his body stops glowing with his keyblade disappearing. He punched the ground in frustration but reluctantly accepts his losses.

Riku turned to see Kairi suddenly charging towards him with her body glowing in the light. He guards against her attacks, but she managed to brush past his guard and get behind him in the air. She turns around and soars towards him again with the same attack, but every time he parried or defends against it, Kairi kept repeating this tactic as each strike sent Riku higher and higher into the air. They were above the trees by this point with Kairi finishing her rapid attacking.

Both in the air yet neither falling, Kairi dashes towards Riku, casting a third-tier aero spell among them. A powerful gale of wind engulfs them both and sends them even higher while damaging Riku. The master grunts as he felt that one, flipping in the air as Kairi soared towards him. This time Riku raised his free hand and cried out: "Thundaga!".

A burst of lightning struck down on his hand, covering both keyblade wielders in lightning. Kairi yelps in pain as she took a direct hit from the powerful spell, her aero spell obliterated, and her momentum cut off. As she begins to fall, Kairi aims her keyblade at Riku and fires six balls of fire at him. Riku cuts down three while doing so Kairi grabbed the keyblade with both hands and fired a ray of ice at him while he dealt with the flames.

After he cuts down the final three, he gasps and just managed to shift his body to avoid the ray piercing his shoulder. As he spun around he fired a blast of dark fire at the descending princess, forcing Kairi to recklessly fire back a third-tier fire spell at his own. The collision sent a powerful blast that forced Kairi back down to earth while it throws Riku even higher into the sky. Kairi tried to regain control over her fall but she ended up slamming on her shoulders with a loud thud and even left a large dent in the earth beneath her.

She slumps on her back after the crash landing and groaned in pain, getting to her side and using her elbow to support herself. Kairi looked up to see Riku falling back to the earth and landing on his feet, panting slightly and she proudly sees his clothes had taken a few hits. Least she did more harm to him then Ventus had before she been pushed to the edge. But she wasn't done yet.

Kairi slowly pushes herself back to her feet and, almost collapsing on herself before she cast cure on herself and rejuvenated herself. In doing that she depleted her mana sure, but if Sora and Gladiolus had taught her anything sometimes you don't need magic when you've got something to cut down your enemies. Riku gives her a look of approval and even pride like he is proud of her. She nods in gratitude before she runs at him and resumes their match.

The two islanders clashed and danced across the ring, Riku's superior speed and strength against Kairi's versatile and practiced movement is at best an even bout. She ducked underneath a sweeping from his keyblade, stabs at him. He sides steps it and spins around her, bonking on the back of her head with the end of his keyblade guard. Kairi yelps out in pain as she staggers forward, but she spins around to slash at him. Riku jumps back from it.

He spun his keyblade in hand before he charged and thrust his keyblade at Kairi. Kairi raised her keyblade to guard but the impact of his attack throws her off her feet and out of the ring. Desperation kicking in, Kairi turned to the ground and uses the small amount of mana within her to blast the ground just inches below her and propel herself into the air. She backflips in the air and focuses on Riku, almost like she was locking onto him via a scope.

Next thing they all knew she soared towards him, bathed in a pink aura and seconds, she was back in the ring, keyblade gripped in both hands. With a yell, Kairi swings her weapon with all her strength, certain with her combined momentum, strength, and adrenaline, even Riku couldn't block this without being thrown off his feet.

Except she didn't see if that would have been the end of this attack, because Riku front flipped over her attack at the very last minute, completely avoiding her attack as her arms were up with her feet tipped up.

During his flip, Riku's boots land on Kairi's back, and then next thing she knew Kairi was kicked out of the ring. She skids in the dirt with a grunt defeated like Ventus before her. Dismissing her keyblade, Kairi rolls on her back, panting. She looks up to see Riku offering her a hand, his face sweaty with exertion and she could see the glowing pride in his eyes again, this time more intense and she sees joy in them.

With a smile, she takes his hand and gets to her feet. Kairi looks to Ventus who rubbed his shoulders but held a humble smile on his cute features, at least he took this loss as gracefully as her. The three teens stood in the ring with Mickey and Aqua assess the two younger warriors.

"You've both show a lot of improvement since you started, and both of you should be proud of your pace", Mickey speaks, smiling at both. Aqua nods in agreement, Kairi had certainly come a long way compared to how she was when she started on Eos and even Ventus while not as much as her he come a long way. "Ven, your speed is your best asset and likely you'll outpace all of us…but your strikes are too weak and worse, predictable", lectured Aqua, "Also, your magic?".

Ventus sheepishly rubbed his neck, realizing the reason he didn't display it is because he had grown lax with it despite being second to her during their training. Aqua frowns with disapproval and said: "I'm expecting you to get back into it with Donald soon, and hopefully you'll practice it more".

Next, she turns to Kairi, who kept a neutral and respectful face to her master yet Aqua sees apprehension in them. She figured the girl feared she may be farther behind the others, but Aqua shook her head. "While I wasn't expecting you to win against Riku, I was not expecting you to be this far into your power", she praises, "Your magic has greatly improved, along with some quick thinking and your swordplay shows you've grown".

Kairi beamed at the praise while ducking her head, feeling suddenly sheepish at the praise. "That said, your penchant for recklessness is still an issue. Plus, you need to learn about conserving mana…and perhaps more work on your swordplay, just for stronger and more…aggressive enemies", the master says. Kairi nods and together the two keyblade wielders bow and returned to their spots.

"Noct?", Aqua calls.

The king entered the ring as Mickey and Riku leave it, Aqua facing the king. The king gives the woman a surprised look as she unfolds her arms and smiles. "I've seen you fight, but I'm curious to see how I'll fare against you", she explains, "I have to train as well, you know". Noctis chuckled in response, she had a point. "Okay then, I'll try and go easy on you", he teases cockily. This makes Aqua smirk as she calls her keyblade.

"I have a better suggestion", she says, "At least make me put some effort into this".

Noctis grunts at that taunt, calling his keyblade and he warp strikes at Aqua. The master retorts to his strike with a barrier surrounding her. The king's attack was deflected by her and causes him to recoil from the force. Aqua dispelled the barrier and jumped at him with a twirl and kicked him into the air. Aqua jumps into the air after Noctis, dashing toward him by creating a gust of wind beneath her feet which immediately closes the distance.

Refusing to be outdone by this, Noctis calls changes his keyblade and pulls out his crossbow and begins to fire at Aqua like he was using a machine gun. The arrows of royal light charged to Aqua, but she spins her keyblade in front of her with her hand opened, rotating it like a propeller. Slowly she created a ring of fire as her body is engulfed in a red glow that gave her a fiery aura. The propeller destroys the arrows and once she was close to Noctis, the woman curled up to a ball before opening herself up and emitting a blast.

Two rings of fire circled her, blasting Noctis and would have burned him had he not warped away from her. Aqua turns to see the king with the Blade of the Mystic in his hands, firing three ghostly blades at her. Aqua flips over one and swings her keyblade to create an arc of fire to consume the attacks. She aimed her keyblade at Noctis and fires a giant ball of roaring flames at him, making Noctis warp strike back to the ground to evade the attack.

Once he was back to the earth, he looks up to see Aqua suddenly vanish in the air and then re-appear behind him. Noctis called for the Shield of the Just and blocked whatever attack she had in store for him. Her keyblade attack vibrated the shield and even nudged Noctis back a bit, however, the king quickly dismisses his shield and summoned his Axe of the Conqueror. Swing it over his shoulder he brought down the weapon to Aqua, the master quickly cartwheeling away from the attack.

With Aqua no longer burning with power, Noctis brings out his full power by going Armiger, all his crystal formed weapons appearing around him. With a cry, Noctis aims his weapons to command them all to strike at the master. All those weapons at his disposal and even if she destroyed them they would reappear by the king's side, Aqua was striking all around her to defend herself. When she was parrying two of the royal weapons, Noctis appeared right above her, Sword of the Father in both hands overhead.

He brings down the blade on Aqua as a trail of blue Lucis light follows the blade. Aqua to the surprise of the king, bathes her keyblade in an aura that extends the weapon into a blade as large and long as one of those buster swords Zack uses. She clashes with Noctis' weapons, hitting the king and throwing him across the arena as the master spun the weapon over her head, deflecting or destroying the crystalized weapons surrounding her.

Noctis flips to land on his feet, skidding back until he reached the edge of the ring, nearly falling out. He faces Aqua as her weapon glowed with magic and power, the master before him not even sweating from these attacks. She returns her weapon to a regular keyblade as his body is surging the power of kings as he summons his keyblade, and the next thing the spectators knew, both sped towards each other.

As Noctis strikes at the master with his keyblade grunting and yelling, her dodging, parrying and gracefully evading his attacks while attacking him at the same time create a den blades striking each other. He felt her nick his cheek along with several quick cuts on his body while he proudly manages to hit her a few times. The two warriors break out of their den of attacks, but Noctis throws at her a flask of all three elements.

But Aqua sees this faster than he predicted and uses a magnet spell, aiming her keyblade to the left to cast it. The moment the spell appears, the flask is immediately sucked into it before it evaporates into nothing and the flask flies out of the ring and harmlessly rolled onto the dirt. Noctis curses at her quick thinking, landing back on his feet in time to see Aqua gliding on the ground, firing off pearls of light at him.

Noctis calls for the Katana of the Warrior, quickly cutting the pearls in perfect halves before warp-striking at Aqua with a quick draw. The master clashed with him as she glided across the field, dancing in the air like an ice skater while continuously fighting against the constantly warping Noctis. The king is relentless in his attacks as he keeps on the offensive against Aqua, but the master was doing everything to ensure his hits were superficial and the only things he'd hit were the air and her keyblade.

But unlike the king, Aqua's mobility required no magic, merely stamina and quick thinking.

The final warp had Noctis stumble dizzily and he staggered to keep himself on his feet. He felt drained, exhausted and weary from the hits he did take from her. Aqua merely appeared by his side and using only a little bit of magic, pushes him outside the ring.

The blue-haired master smiles confidently at Noctis as he rests on his back, panting and looking close to passing out. She approached him and crouches down to his level as he stares up at the skies. He heaves a heavy groan before Aqua spoke. "Would you like me to tell you why I was the victor?", she teases as she pats his stomach. "…sure…", grunts his majesty.

She helps him to his feet and speaks. "Noct, your abilities are far greater then I have ever seen, and your strength with the keyblade only bolsters you", she praises, "Once you begin your training with magic and with myself and Riku you could be one of the strongest. However, you need to control your warping habits, stop these wild and desperate attacks and most importantly, you need to take your enemy seriously".

He hated to admit it, but the woman was right. Every foe bar Ardyn and Genesis he's fought there is always that knowing confidence within him he was going to win it, be it alone or with the others. After all the strength he's accumulated from Eos to here, maybe it was arrogance, but he feels like he stands as an equal to the others by now. But this fight with Aqua, her detailing where he was going wrong and if she could take him down, then he dreads fighting the organization.

She pats his back kindly with a proud look on her face, assuring him he was far from hopeless. He nods back in gratitude as he returned to the group. Aqua takes a breath and says: "Sora".

The boy strolls into the ring, keyblade in hand as she returned to her original spot. Staring at the boy, the one not chosen by the keyblade off hand, the one person she wouldn't pass the keyblade onto for fear of history repeating, yet here before her stood one of the greatest heroes of their age. Someone she is mentoring now, someone who triumphed over so many obstacles and saved so many. Someone she sincerely believes is ready for what he was denied. She just needed to make sure.

Sora and Aqua raised their keyblades, and then rushed at each other. No magic, no special power, not even a form change, the moment they were a foot apart, they swung their keyblades at each other. The very moment they collided and entered a deadlock, an incredible burst of power shook the world around them. The force blew the trees so much their leaves and branches bent back from the force; the ground cracked in a star pattern beneath their deadlock.

The force even made some of their party struggle to hold up against their collision, some like Prompto and Goofy were thrown off their feet because of it. Aqua and Sora stared at each other as they tried to overpower the other, but while Sora was pushing to fight on, Aqua was studying him, looking deep into his heart. She could see the potential within him, but the darkness that lingered within, it reminded her too much of Terra's on their exam.

She believes it…she knows he's capable…and she believes when the time comes, they will be ready.

Their deadlock breaks as they break through, bypassing each other with the sound of steel singing in the air. The ground breaks apart like an earthquake occurred, but neither moved since their swing. Sora turns to Aqua as she dismisses her keyblade. "That's enough, I have an idea on you", she says, turning to him. He tilts his head, surprised he wasn't going to fight her like the others. Even Mickey gave her a "What are you doing?" look.

She just replies with a smile to the mouse king and gestures everyone to listen.

"The keyblade wielders show a lot of potential, and with a year, I'm sure by then they'll be more than an equal match to Xehanort and his vessels", she declared, "But with the others, they'll surmount the trials".

There was an air among the team, the doubts they felt coming here evaporate and their faith in themselves reinvigorate. Even the ones who lost their match against the masters and Oracle could feel themselves grow with confidence, after everything they had fought and endured, this was a prelude to what they can do. "I know we are up against an adversary who could be called the strongest keyblade master, and even then with his allies, they could be more powerful than we know…but that won't hold us down, will it?", she asks rhetorically.

"Nope, nothing's gonna stop us!", Sora declared, pumping his fist in the air, "If someone like me can do all this despite not being picked off the bat, then anything's possible!".

There is a collection of chuckles from his jab while some closest to him frowned mentally at it, more so Aqua, making her only affirm her promise. "If we can save a world from becoming another realm of darkness despite the state we found ourselves in, then defeating the XIII shan't be any more of an issue", Ignis states confidently.

"All of us together? I think Xeha-Jerk better recruit more vessels!", Prompto boasted in a bragging way. "Please don't jinx us!", Axel chastised, "He's still got his heartless and nobody!".

"Pfft? Me and Sora beat Xemnas, and he kicked Ansem's butt back when he just started!", Riku reminds with confidence. "Besides, this time it won't be just a few of us, we're all crashing against them, and this time we're not alone".

There were agreements and nods of confidence, agreeing with the master. "So, what are we waiting for? May as well get started on training", Gladiolus says, feeling pumped and eager to get his feet wet. Sora nods but then Aqua steps up. "Certainly, we should, but I'm taking Sora for a month", she announces. Some of the party looked shocked at this and some even gave her a confused look, while Kairi pouts. Only Gladiolus looked at her eyes and sees the reason behind it, nodding.

"You mean you're gonna train him yourself?", Goofy asks. "Yes, and away from the group", Aqua clarifies. Kairi folds her arms but before she could speak against it, Lunafreya steps up. "As will myself and Kairi", she declares, "I'm afraid our training requires solitude for a while". Kairi again opens her mouth to argue this arrangement, but ultimately she went silent in defeat. Being separated from the group again for training sake, as much as she hated it, it made sense if Lunafreya was mentoring her.

"Then we'll be around here to teach Noct's group, while Mickey can mentor Axel and Ventus for a while", Riku declared, "Once the month passes, we'll regroup and start training together".

Once the arrangements were made, supplies were given to the respective members, the party of fourteen split off once more to begin their training.

A/N: …hey guess what there's gonna be a part two to this…

Anyone sick of that? Maybe but hey more story for the gang! Now we're in the training, we've an idea on how strong the gang is and where they need to improve on, kinda made Aqua the leader (because Sora's too young to lead a group), and a hint of what's to come.

First I wanna give a big thank you to KakeruPB for Kairi's abilities in Remind, they literally made a list of EVERYTHING Kairi does in the DLC and it's really gonna help with the future chapters.

QUESTIONS!

Q1: Thoughts on chapter?

Q2: The fights? Enjoyable?

Q3: What do you wanna see from this little arc?

Q4: Excited for the Keyblade War (Though VashTheStampede0409's comment on it being a skirmish feels more appropriate)

Q5: What did you think of Aqua in this? Her being more of a leader and even more confident?

Q6: Who wants to see Sora show off Attraction rides and summons?

Q7: Thinking of giving Aqua a summon of her own, suggestions?

Q8: Kairi vs Riku? Think it was balanced or too one sided?

As always, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	62. Chapter 62

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 62

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

A/N: So remember how I said this was gonna be a two part arc…? WELLL…given the ideas I have with this arc, two isn't gonna be enough…so flip it, we're gonna keep going till I'm out! ON WITH THE SHOW!

*The Secret Forest*

*Month One, Day Four*

With a front flip, Sora gracefully flips over the buzz saw spinning chunks of ice and upon landing on his feet, he runs forward. With his keyblade, he hacks and slashes several spheres of light that flew towards him while running down the course.

One more swing to destroy the sphere, he steps more to the left to avoid a stone pillar erecting in front of him. He performs a clumsy dance of sorts to avoid being smacked in the jaw from many other rising pillars, getting thinner and thinner as more began to surround him.

Sora felt the earth slowly rise beneath his right foot, prompting him to jump over the pillars just another followed him to the air. He escapes the canyon of pillars and lands back on the raised course for him, running on the stone ground. The obstacle course was very similar to the ones he endured back at the coliseum years ago, except where he used to test how quick he could destroy barrels, here he was trying to get to the end without being crushed, burnt, frozen, impaled and other methods that would end with him being dead.

He rolled to evade a swarm of blade-shaped aero magic that probably would give him more than just a haircut, he feels the force of the winds smashing into his back from it. Sora raised his head to see a wave of water rushing towards him, making the boy yelp in surprise and quickly scamper to his feet. Luckily the boy had the smart idea and fires a large chunk of ice at the wave. The moment it struck the wave was frozen solid in cold crystal-clear ice.

He thrusts his keyblade and shattered it to pieces with a loud "bang" like noise and ran onwards to the end.

Sora finally slides to the finishing line and throws both arms up with a loud "YES" announced by his vocal cords. He bends down and rests his hands on his knees, panting heavily and groaning with the aches growing in his body. Maybe Phil took it easy on them during his training, if he had something like this when Sora first started then he had a good feeling he wouldn't be here right now.

"Six minutes and thirty-three seconds", commented his master, sitting down on a pillar overlooking the course. In her hands was her phone using the timer on it, along with several other records of Sora's times. Aqua is proud to say his progress of improving himself is at a very steady pace, granted they had only started in their year-long training, but the master knows based on his achievements this will be a consistent thing with the boy.

Sora lifts a hand to give her a thumbs-up, still panting. After several attempts to beat his record with Aqua constantly changing up the traps every re-attempt to keep him on his toes, this being his fourth attempt. He was just glad it was finally over for now and maybe the next thing she could mentor him on wasn't something that would push his poor body to its physical limitations. He hears the master push herself off the pillar and join his side, handing him a potion to rejuvenate him.

"At least your mobility has improved", she praised, "Next course we'll see how well you handle with just using the flow motion".

"Another obstacle course? You sure you're not trying to tell me something about my weight?", groaned Sora. Aqua giggled and playfully pats his stomach. "If that were the case I'm sure Kairi would've been the first to fix that", she playfully remarks. Sora rolled his eyes at the jab, not entirely wrong on that. The master ruffles his hair and dispels her magic around the area to return it to normal and together they went back to their make-shift camp to resume his magical training.

Since they separated from the main group Aqua had been adamant in helping Sora become a more fledged wielder of the keyblade. Though he was already one of their most if not THE most skilled member of their party, she still sees there is a lot of refining to be done with him since like Donald and Goofy mentioned to her he was is mostly self-taught. Only having a smidge of training from Yen Sid before their attempt at Mark of Mastery exam.

After seeing his magic a day before, when she discovered he couldn't use the fourth and fifth tiers without gathering up a lot of magical energies compared to herself, Mickey, Donald, and even Kairi, she believed with the right training and refinement he could cast them easier. Maybe not as easy as herself and the king but still on par with Kairi.

His fighting style does show his self-taught training doesn't need refinement thankfully, the boy has his style of fighting, and given the victorious, under his belt, she was safely assuming he'd be ready for whatever comes their way. Truly Sora didn't need any more education on the basics or even the advance lessons unlike the others, and Aqua would even go so far as to say he might be the only one who wouldn't need any additional training.

But she knows the boy still has so much more untapped potential within him, and with faith in him, she knows when this year ends the boy would be a true adversary to the seeker of darkness.

Their makeshift camp was located just a few minutes away from the clearing where they trained, set up by a river near a waterfall. Two small tents for sleeping and nothing else with a campfire with newly added wood, a makeshift cooking station Merlin left for them. Their supplies regarding food were in a separate pocket dimension to preserve them.

The master already had a small lunch prepped for them before the course, a simple bowl of rice with some herbs and a bit of meat. Small and simple but very filling. She handed a bowl to him as she takes her place on a chair near him. "After this, we'll be having a sparring match", she says after swallowing her meal. "Already?", Sora asked with a smile. She nods kindly and replicates his smile. "I've got make sure I don't fall behind, what sort of master would I be if my apprentice surpasses me?", she says.

"The kind who could still kick my butt?", Sora replied. Aqua gave him an approving nod, glad the boy knows who he's dealing with. As they ate, Sora leaned in his seat with a thoughtful look on his face, looking up. Noticing the boy's look, Aqua says: "Munny for your thoughts?". Sora smiles back to her as he leaned forward.

"This is the first time since we reunited before Eos, it's been just us", he explained. He raises his spoon and says: "We've never really hung out before, there was always somebody else with us". "Or you were too busy ogling Kairi and being adorable with her", remarks his master with a knowing smirk. A blush darkened the boy's cheeks as he sheepishly rubbed his neck, awkwardly chuckling at the very accurate assessment. When did Aqua get so cheeky?

The master giggles at him as her smirk shifts into a gentle smile and stirs her food. "I don't mean it in a bad way, I'm happy for you two", she says honestly, "The way she always finds a way to be by your side, how she smiles at you when she thinks no one is looking, and you've helped her grow".

Maybe it was the little romantic within her, but it warms the woman's heart whenever she saw those two together, the innocence they have, the love they displayed to each other, it was too cute for her sometimes. Sora gives her a gentle smile as he looks up at the skies, likely thinking about her Aqua presumed as she finishes her meal. As important as it is for Sora to be trained alone without distractions, she feels partially guilty for separating the two once again but the master side of her reminded the blue head why this was needed.

Pushing Kairi aside, Aqua leaned back into her seat after putting her bowl down, but then she sees Sora was sporting his smirk. "What about you? I'm kinda surprised you managed to pry yourself away from Gladio", remarks the chosen one.

The smugness and cheekiness within the master kindly ran out the door and leaves sheepishness and shyness in their places as the master's cheeks go rosy and memories of that night conjured in her mind. Aqua cleared her throat and replied: "I…can put aside my desires for him for the sake of training". Sora gives her a raised brow of disbelief, his smirk never leaving. "Uh-huh, and you're not dreaming of his muscles when we sleep, right?", he teases.

That boy is too perceptive for his own good.

Truth be told she doesn't miss Gladiolus as much as the boy claimed she does, too be fair they've only been apart for three days so far. However, that might change in the coming weeks she was sure, but like she says for the sake of their training she'll manage.

By god, she hopes so anyway…

"I'm just really surprised you and he got together…I mean, to be fair I don't know your type…", he says, but then fumbled and looked down. Somehow that last sentence struck something in Aqua, a slow realization. Looking at the boy, it saddened her just now realizing, for all the times they had spent together adventuring. When she thinks about it, she doesn't know anything about Sora. And vice versa, for all they knew of each other, they only know their keyblade achievements and not the person as much as they liked.

"To be fair, I didn't think he was my type either…then again I have so little experience in that field for all I know, I could have fallen for Prompto", she says with a small giggle. She folds her hands on her laps and sighed. Looking back at the boy who places his bowl down, she smiled to herself and decides its time to fix that plague of ignorance between them and get to know each other not just as comrades, but real friends.

"But before we get started, maybe we could talk more?", she offers. Sora looks at her, confused as she settled into her chair. "I think since we have more time and since its just us, maybe we could get to know each other? I mean, I know so little about you bar your achievements and you admitted you don't even know my type". At this, Sora beamed and nodded with enthusiasm.

As the boy begins to tell what life was like on the islands at her request the master listened intently, deciding training could wait for a little longer…

*Month One, Day twelve*

Ignis parries the flying chakram by knocking it aside as he races towards Axel, both daggers imbued in black ice. He slides underneath a torrent of fire from the pyro, managing to close the distance between the two as he rose to deliver the final bow.

Axel leaps backward and vanishes into a pillar of flames just before Ignis could put an end to their bout, and then reappearing behind him from a few feet. The redhead crosses his arms as his body bathed in flames, before outstretching them in a t-pose stance and slowly formed two massive spheres of fire. Ignis spun around in time to throw his daggers at him in time for Axel to throw one sphere at him.

The sphere consumes the frozen daggers and even evaporates the ice turned water in a matter of seconds while soaring towards Ignis. The dark wielder grunts before he pushes up his glasses and places a hand down on the ground. He pressed the earth and sends a wave of dark spikes towards the sphere, extending the blade until it was as tall as a small building. Splitting Axel's attack in half, the sphere vanishes into tiny embers.

Ignis looks towards Axel, now carrying only one sphere in his hand before he aimed his right hand at the man of Eos and fires a torrent of burning rocks at him like a machine gun. The dark advisor of the king raised his left hand and forms a black barrier to protect himself. The barrier isn't like Riku's, rather it had crystal akin to Noctis' Armiger except instead of crystal blue-white it was violet. The torrent of flames bounces off his barrier.

With a yell he pushes forth with the barrier still erect in his hand, protecting himself while closing the gap between himself and Axel.

The former nobody grunted in equal measures of annoyance and desperation before he decides to go for it and throws the last sphere at Ignis. The moment Ignis saw this, he stops running and crouches down and just as the sphere closes in on him, he leaps into the air. Jumping over the sphere as it blazes past him, Ignis crosses his arms, calling his icy daggers and then spreads them open while throwing both at Axel.

They landed six steps away from Axel, bursting with black ice and completely covering the ground in a thick sheen of ice. Trapping Axel by his feet, the pyro couldn't pry his legs out thanks to Ignis. Above him, Ignis calls for his spear and dives down to the pyro. Axel calls for his keyblade and as Ignis reached him, he brought the burning weapon to the dark lance. Their combined might was so strong the shockwaves sent from their clash cracked the ice below them.

Feeling some wiggle room in his feet, Axel dismisses his weapon and grabbed the polearm of the spear and flung both it and Ignis over his shoulder to give himself space. Once Ignis tumbled onto the ground with a grunt but quickly gets to his feet, Axel heats his hand his gloves. Now sporting a golden reddish glow, he slams the palm of his hands onto the ice and melts his trap enough to free his feet.

Axel calls his keyblade once more as Ignis zips towards him, daggers sparking with violet lightning along with his movements leaving trails of lightning to follow him. Not backing down from this other elemental user, Axel clashes with Ignis' quick attacks and even against the flurry of his speedy daggers, Axel held his ground against him and even landed a hit or two. Ignis slashes his shoulder and during a spin, he elbowed him in the chest, knocking Axel backward.

He attempts to plunge both daggers into him from above, but Axle raised his left arm to catch both arms of the advisor, stopping their descent. Being physically stronger than the man, Axel used his right elbow to strike Ignis and cause him to stagger back, dismissing her weapons. Axel swung his keyblade, missing when Ignis back-flipped away from the burning weapon. He draws his weapons again as Axel readied himself for the next bout.

"That's enough".

Both students turned to see Riku entering the clearing, tossing them both potions. He gave them both nods of approval, pleased by their progress. So far since he started helping Ignis master more of his dark powers, the man has more than mastered using the three elements he's known for, both normal and dark. When it came to who was catching on the training fastest, Ignis easily managed to get the basics of magic down almost a day into their training.

Sure, he hadn't practiced the same magic the others have but Riku mostly trained him using the darkness within him. He only asked him to spar with Axel just to see how far they both came, and sure enough, it is a pretty close match of strength between them. He just wished Axel would start learning other methods of fighting since as Ignis and Lunafreya had proven earlier this week his natural element had a great weakness.

"So, how'd we do teach?", Axel asked after downing the bitter drink.

"Much better than your fight with Luna, that's for sure", Riku says with a smirk, "But all jokes aside, you held your own against your element's opposite, and a with your manipulation of fire and being able to teleport with it, I think you've a better chance against the organization".

Axel smirked cockily at the praise while Ignis rolled his eyes at the ego. The master turns to Ignis next. "Looks like you've gotten the hang of the elemental stuff, think you're ready for Donald's lessons?", asks Riku. With a light push of his glasses, the scarred man nods. "I feel more than ready for it. But tell me, do our lessons stop here?", asked the man. "Nope, but it'd be a weight off the shoulders once we have you practicing other spells", Riku explained, "Keep in mind I've gotta learn a few myself".

He waves off the rest of the questions and tells the two to take it easy for a while before Axel joins him for another round, heading off to check on the others. With him gone, Ignis and Axel take the few moments given to them to rest up by sitting down by a few stumps and relaxing their bodies.

Ignis plucks his glasses off to clean to them, all the while thinking about his progress since they had started the training. As Riku had explained to him before he began, the darkness within him had to be treated delicately, for any temptations it provides him could be the one thing that turned him into a heartless. Last thing they needed for their training, certainly. But so far as he could see there is a steady sense of progress being made.

He felt much stronger than he did back home, his senses sharpened, and magic talents are only beginning to grow. Ignis could barely wait to fight with Ardyn again, and maybe teach that man the definition of fear.

"Still can't believe Luxord paid you a visit", Axel comments, likely tired of the silence. Ignis turned to him as the man laid on the stump with eyes gazing into the skies and hands behind his head. "Guy never leaves the base unless it was to screw with someone or go for a mission", he remarked.

"Did you know him well before you became a human again?", Ignis asks, putting his glasses back on. Axel shrugged. "Bout as well as anyone else in the old days…save for Roxas and even Demyx…", he huffs. "Back when you were a nobody, bonds didn't mean much to ya…not to mention Roxas was the only one I liked". Ignis hummed in thought, crossing his arms and looking at the ground. "Mind telling me more about our enemies? Provided you knew them of course", he inquired.

"Why? Curious if I know any dark secrets about them? Cause I got a few~", Axel teased with a wicked smirk. "If those secrets help me understand what to expect, then certainly", Ignis says, not missing a beat, "Though keep the risqué subjects to a minimum unless they can undo our foes completely". Axel rolled his eyes, a tad disappointed but regardless he answers the question. "Well from what Sora told me, we've got Marluxia, Larxene, Luxord, and Xemnas back, ya know Xigbar", he says.

Axel goes off explaining the four to the man, even bringing up his mission back in Castle Oblivion. At this, he detailed what their elements were along with their personalities, at least from what his memory served considering they could have changed. Then he frowns as he sat back up and rests his arms on his knees. "Then…there's Isa…or Saix", he laments. Ignis looks at him, seeing the usual cocky attitude of his shift into one of loss and regret.

Strange as it was to see this man from the day he first met him look sad, Ignis could not help but feel a pang of sympathy to him. "Is he someone important to you?", he says slowly, wondering if these were shallow waters he was treading on. The redhead nodded with a huff. "Yup…best friend before we went all nobody…but things changed when me, Roxas and…someone else, got closer", he grunted out the final part.

"Sora beat him back at our old home years ago…but like half our organization he went crawling back to his boss and turned into the old man's vessel…", explains Axel. He looked up to the face the world. "And knowing my luck? I'll end up fighting him…". Ignis shows the poor redhead a look of sympathy, realizing the man was going into this great battle fighting a friend on the opposite side. Looking down at the ground, Ignis would not dare to imagine what that could be like.

A semblance of respect for him grew within Ignis' heart, knowing himself, he couldn't even think of raising his arms against his brothers. Much less Noctis. Axel sighs and folds his arms before Ignis asks: "Then why are you fighting then?". He looks at the older man as Ignis gives him a wondering look. "You don't want to do battle with him, but you'll go anyways?". Axel smirks and laughed at the question before he says: "Simple, Isa was always a stubborn pain in the ass, but give him a good wallop or two then bam! I'll get my old buddy back, then the three…four, of us can hang out together!".

Axel looked his hand before summoning his keyblade and looked deep into it. "…I promised Roxas, that I would always be there to bring them back…and if beating that old Xehanort is the way, then that just makes my job easier".

"Bring Roxas and Isa back?", Ignis says, noticing the man's struggle with his explanations. This makes Axel frown as his smile leaves him. "There, was someone else with me and Roxas, somebody who looked a lot like Kairi and Naminé. But, nobody can remember her", he lamented, "It's like she never existed but I know in my heart she did".

The pain laced within this man's voice, the haunting of this person who means so much to him and the trials he must have faced to get here, Ignis' small respect grew. The most common thing he's seen with these people is loss of those they held dear, and that bond that even apart their hearts are still linked. The fact even a person who may not exist any longer and despite apparently none of his old co-workers having any memory of her, Axel still genuinely believes she was real.

Ignis touched his old scars, remembering that same level of dedication to his king and friends he was willing to go for them. Surprisingly, he and Axel are going the same lengths for those closest to their hearts. It is here he realized that ever since he had been reborn as a human, did Ignis put together that Axel had been alone. Nary a friend to re-join him since Roxas returned to Sora's heart and with this mystery girl lingering in shadows, the man may have been on his own for some time.

Ignis pats his shoulder kindly. "If your heart says you remember her, then clearly she must have existed at some point in your life within the organization", he says wisely. Axel looks at him as he gets off his stump. "Perhaps when the time comes, when we face them, your answers might be waiting for you there", he says, "But until then, keep hope that we will see them again".

He gives the young man a smile before walking off to continue his training, now more motivated than ever. Axel smirks and chuckles to himself…silently thanking the man for his faith…

*Month One, Day Twenty*

Mentally counting Gladiolus grunts with exertion as he swung the giant weight within his hands like a sword, striking the air slowly like he was practicing kendo. In his hands was a long rod as tall as himself with at least heavyweights around it, altogether weighing a hundred tons. To excel and break the human limitations as Riku explained, he needed to push himself over that wall of limits. And outside of fighting, the best way was to train his body.

These weights would have broken him years ago, now he could lift all six without much worry and even manages to follow up his routine easily by the second week of doing this. He was just glad potions existed.

Reaching the three-hundredth stroke, he finally lies the tool down and exhales a breath. His body coated with sweat, shirt left aside as the sun began to dimmer to show "night" had finally taken over. It is still bright but from what Aqua had said before her and Sora leaving, the sun doesn't exactly go down since its truly a creation of magic. A forever going light bulb as it were, only dimming to allow the night to come and grant sleep.

He grunts while rolling his shoulders, cracking a few joints and popping some muscles, feeling satisfied by the workout. It got easier to keep it up, and soon enough he'll be able to do this with just one hand he thought. Tomorrow he'd be sparring with Noctis, and as much as the gap in power had greatly extended since the last time they had sparred, he is excited to see how far he came. Better than fighting Riku again.

Gladiolus cleaned himself via using one of the buckets of river water and some soap he borrowed from the cottage. No point in going back to shower since he would still be doing a few push-ups and some other exercise but smelling of sweat did nobody any favors.

Once he was as clean as he could be, he throws back on his shirt and even equips the gauntlet Terra had left for him. Straps locked, he turns to the pathway back to the cottage and makes his way down. Halfway through it, he heard grunts and movements, prompting him to face another pathway to a clearing. There he sees Ventus training himself, flipping around some spells he's likely conjured to dodge and strike.

Curious to see more of the boy's skill, Gladiolus walked over and leaned against a tree to study him.

The boy flipped over a sphere of light and backflipped away from another charging him, striking behind him in time to split a spell in half. The shield spots the boy was sweating and panting, making him wonder how long he's been at this. Without his armor and even his jacket removed, only his black tank-top covering his torso. A smart idea to test how light he is without his armor sure, but Gladiolus frowns when he spotted several bruises and marks on him.

The boy gets caught off guard and is hit on the back by a speeding sphere, throwing him off his feet and on to the ground. He grunted and pushes himself up by the elbows as the spells around him began to quicken and blitz all over the place.

They soared above to the air and all came down onto Ventus like rainfall. Gladiolus quickly intervenes and with Raging Earth called, he struck the spheres into oblivion. They barely made him move an inch, either he was that strong or the shield was just that powerful. He dismissed his shield when there was no further danger and turned to the boy.

"You doing alright, kid?", he asked, grimacing at the bruises and other marks. Ventus slumped into the ground with a groan, barely getting out a "no". The shield heaves him back onto his feet and hands him one of his spare potions. Ventus downed it quickly, his body glowing green for a moment before he heaves a breath. Once healed, the boy rubbed his neck with a frown, likely frustrated by his defeat of the training regime.

"The hell were you doing? Playing ball just a bit too roughly?", asked Gladiolus, crossing his arms. Ventus rolled his eyes as he replied: "Trying to see if I can dodge a few attacks from all directions, that's it".

"Didn't Blue say your speed isn't the issue?", reminded the shield, "The fact you can't handle those things is a sign that you'd be a one-hit kill if we pit you against Xehanort's group". Ventus glares at the man like he was insulted but years of putting up with Noctis being a brat had given the shield near limitless patience. He got the idea Aqua and likely Terra were gentle on the kid during their years of training, and certainly, he understood they were, are, protective of the kid.

Sadly, for Gladiolus, coddling him isn't a helpful method of training. Ventus had skill but he didn't seem to have much of a structure or even a way to shape himself. Gladiolus knows he's more closer to Noctis with him being a speedy kiddo and sure from what the king had told him back in Eos he could handle himself against normal foes, but he dreads pitting him against somebody from Xehanort's group.

"Well everyone else was busy, so I had to…find something to train with…", argues the boy, once again sounding like Noctis. However, instead of wanting to stop, Gladiolus could hear that want of being strong. Did they coddle him that badly that he wasn't giving the same training? He had to remember Aqua and Terra were training as well during their time, so maybe Eraqus was more focused on them then the boy. It doesn't take a veteran to see Ventus' loss against Riku was bothering him greatly, and no doubt seeing how strong everybody had got was doing something to his confidence.

Maybe the boy could do with a mentor…

"Well you got someone to spar with now", Gladiolus says, walking away and stopping at a decent distance. He calls for his sword and prompts the boy. "Come at me with all you got". Ventus blinks before he steeled himself and calls for his keyblade.

He rushes into Gladiolus, striking at his sword. The older man barely felt any force behind his strike, it was nothing more lethal than just the wind, and that alone makes Gladiolus grunt. He gives him the benefit of the doubt, maybe he was just warming up. He throws the boy off him and retaliates by swinging his sword at him, making Ventus flip over it and behind the warrior. He tries to strike at him again, only for the more skilled Gladiolus to sidestep him.

Ventus swung his keyblade upwards at the moving warrior, just missing his torso with Gladiolus stepping backward. He jumps at him and brought his keyblade down. Gladiolus raises his armored arm to block the attack, sparks exploding from their contact but again like the first time the attack had nearly no weight behind him. For Ventus' sake, the shield truly hoped it was because he had gotten so strong he could weather out such attacks.

He knocks the boy's weapon aside and grabbed him by the collar of his tank top. He spun around and slammed Ventus into the ground with a heavy thud, making the boy grunt out in pain. With superior strength Gladiolus keeps the boy pinned, trapping him.

"Are you holding back, kid?", he asked, "Because I've shaken off worse hits from my sister!". Ventus grunts back, insulted by the taunt as he struggled to get up. Gladiolus growled and lifted the boy and throws him a few feet from him. Ventus landed on his back, quickly rolling onto his feet as Gladiolus stands there, waiting for him. His eyes glowed with irritation and patience was wearing thin. "Try again, actually make me try to protect myself!".

Ventus yells and rushes in again, wildly attacking him at every angle and spot. Gladiolus kept up with the boy's angry and wild attacks, each one being no more a danger to him than Noctis when he was just a twerp. Plus, with his temper running wild, he could see many more mistakes with Ventus' attacks, his anger getting the better of him along with his frustrations. If it took this little to cause Ventus to become careless with his anger then Gladiolus had a worrying good guess on how long the boy will last.

Gladiolus finally retaliates against the onslaught of weak strikes by parrying one attack to create a small gap between himself and Ventus. Next, he grabbed his sword with both hands and with one upward swing, he creates a gale of wind that sent Ventus flying into the air. With Ventus already airborne, this attack sends him up into the air at least ten feet off the ground. He performs an aerial recovery and maintains himself in the air.

He performs his Shotlock ability, the Pulse Bomb. With the tip of his keyblade glowing with a small bomb sphere of light, he flings several bombs at Gladiolus. The mighty warrior calls for his shield and lowers himself with the shield raised. The bombardment blasted the ground around him but with his shield repelling them all, it was like weathering through a heavy hailstorm.

When the final bomb hits and Ventus returns to the ground, the boy dashes around Gladiolus and tries once more to finally land a hit. Alas, Gladiolus turned far too quickly for Ventus to counter and the next thing the boy knew, Gladiolus smacked him aside with his wall of a shield and throws him back to the ground.

Ventus rolled again to his feet, however only by one leg while the other was resting. His body shakes with both weariness and frustration slowly shifting into anger. He didn't even face Gladiolus, eyes glued to the ground as a wave of uselessness and defeat washes over the youngest warrior. He grunts and punched the ground, frustrated.

Watching him, Gladiolus held back that groan, remembering this familiar scenario. Yet unlike with the prince who was just being a little sore loser, he sees the clear frustration in the boy's body. Looking at his armored limb, remembering the oath he made to his rival, he turned to Ventus and approaches him. He knelt before him and sighed.

"Hey, you're not giving up now, are ya?", he asked with light tease and light seriousness in his voice. Ventus hisses, breath hitching as it sounded like he was trying to not cry. The shield started to believe it wasn't the loss that truly bothered him, maybe something else was weighing down on his heart. "…Kid, you know this loss isn't the end right?", he asked, "I mean, I can't even start to count how many times I've had my ass handed to me back home".

Ventus still wouldn't look up at him, making Gladiolus resist the urge to groan impatiently. He feels like the kid needed a royal kick to the backside and was close to lecturing him on being this wimpy brat instead of being a keyblade wielder. He reeled back, however, remembering Aqua telling him about the kid's background and how much he endured thanks to Xehanort. As if he needed any more of a reason to kick that old man's backside.

Looking at the arm again, he then turned to Ventus. "Do you think you're not gonna stack up with Aqua and the others?", he asks. Ventus uttered a weak "yeah" and faced him, tears of frustration ran down his cheek. "Ever since Aqua came back, she's so strong now it…it feels like I'll never catch up to her…or the others…", he confesses, "And Terra…I can't…I won't be able to keep my promise…".

Doubting himself, fearing he wasn't ready. Truthfully he wasn't wrong, Gladiolus knows that. "Not like this you won't", the shield reprehends, "Not if you're gonna let every roadblock in your way turn you into this". Ventus looked away, shamed but Gladiolus ruffled his hair with his armored hand, this makes Ventus look at him. A smirk donned on the shield's face as he says: "You wanna keep that promise to Terra, then you're gonna have to pick yourself up and get stronger, kid".

He stands up and folded his arms. "Back at Eos, Blue was in the same place you were in. Worried she wasn't good enough to be a master, doubting herself…and terrified she wouldn't be able to keep you safe and bring Terra home", he revealed. The boy gives him a look of surprise as if he couldn't even imagine Aqua being in such a state of mind. "I know, it took my off guard too", he laments, before he continuing: "But then she dug deep into herself, asked what was it that keeps her going even with all things went against her".

Ventus reached into his pocket and plucks his Wayfinder out, looking at it while remembering the day he got this. A bond, a promise that no matter what happens, the three of them will find their way back to each other. Brushing his thumb against the crystal surface, he thinks to Terra and Aqua, both so close yet so far from him at the same time. Gladiolus knelt to him and showed him his armor. "Your buddy's will had come to us on the night we stayed in her world, and he gave this to me so that I can be strong enough to protect what's important to me", he explained.

Ventus placed a hand on the arm, remembering the day Terra was given it. His proudest moment, a step closer to realizing his dream of becoming the keyblade master Ventus and Aqua knew he'd become. A dream that lived on through Ventus and Aqua, a dream that can be fulfilled when they bring him home. A dream that he shared with his brother…

"So, take this loss as a reminder, you've still a lot to learn, but every loss is a step closer to getting better", the shield remarks. Strangely close to what Terra said to him all those years ago. Every loss, every time he had failed, his brother would do nothing but assure him he was learning, he was growing stronger. And this was just another step towards that goal…

A hand was offered to the boy, a smirking Gladiolus that for a moment made him think of Terra. "So? You gonna sit there and mope all year? Or you going to get strong enough to rescue him?", he asked. Ventus grinned and took his hand, "Will you…give me a few pointers?", he asks while being pulled up. With a nod, Gladiolus draws his sword once more and turned to the boy after making some space between them.

"No more of those pansy attacks, come at me like I'm your worst enemy!", ordered Gladiolus.

"Yes sir!", shouts Ventus.

He may never reach Aqua's power, nor Sora's, but as the boy challenges his newly appointed mentor, his heart glowed with confidence and determination. A promise will be fulfilled, and with friends like Gladiolus, he had a wonderful feeling his rival was in for a surprise…

*Month One, Day Twenty-Three*

Rubbing her throat with a grimace, Kairi tried to recall the spell her master had taught her for the past twenty minutes. Each passing minute the silence was beginning to annoy her, the fact Lunafreya had mostly been sitting there waiting for her student to recall what she was taught with all the patience in the worlds irked the girl.

For as kind and gentle as the woman might be, she certainly had no qualms with torturing her student.

She crosses her arms in silent growls from her voiceless throat, pondering the spell needed to resolve this predicament she finds herself in. Even her former nobody was merely standing beside the former Oracle, though her face showed boredom and drowsy eyes, occasionally dosing off. She could at least have given Kairi a hint.

As she burrowed through her brain, Kairi suddenly remembered the spell. With Dearly Beloved in hand, she raised the blade and mouthed a word. A wobbly white and purple ring appeared around her neck before like a soapy bubble popped and thus her voice returns. Rubbing her neck while making some throat-clearing noises, Kairi coughs. Lunafreya nodded and gets up from her log. "You finally remembered the spell", she praised, although her voice is laced with obvious exasperation.

"Sorry, but when you lose your ability to speak, most people tend to freak out", Kairi retorts, still rubbing her neck, "It was so weird…".

"Now you can silence anyone who bothers you along with knowing the cure to it", Naminé remarks with a slight teasing tone. "I'd say Sora best behave himself, but knowing you? You'd never do it to him".

Kairi stuck her tongue out at the ghost girl, to which Naminé retorts by sticking her tongue out and pulled an eyelid down at her. Lunafreya clears her throat with a restraint smile, trying not to giggle at their childish activities. "Girls play nice", she lectured. They both cease the "argument" as Lunafreya gestured Kairi to the cliffside.

A spot Kairi had found one time during her walks in the forest for her time alone, the location oversees most of the forest along with the campsite Riku had the others stationed at. No sign of Aqua or Sora, however, to her dismay.

She hoped he'd be training without a shirt and she'd have the best viewing spot for it.

Their campsite was small with a single tent, one fire pit and a small makeshift stove and cooker for themselves. Kairi is mostly the chef along with Naminé since Lunafreya, for all her holiness is tragically a horrible cook. In her defense, she did warn Kairi this, but the redhead had faith she was just being harsh on herself and encouraged her to try it again.

Never again did she do something so foolish. Those cramps would forever haunt them.

With her training, the first part anyway, nearing its end Kairi is eager to get everyone back together to see how far they had come along in their first month of training. The Oracle had mostly been teaching another school of magic that even Donald and possibly Aqua didn't know about. These were mostly catered to healing and removing certain aliments that she remembered Sora had endured before in his adventures.

Spells for curing poison, removing barriers or buffs/debuffs from herself and enemies, and even cast spells that could free a person from being petrified. How nobody ever learned these spells was at first beyond her, but the Oracle revealed to her that these spells are exclusive to the purest maidens of hearts. She did explain that from the very first purest seven, these spells are passed down from the previous generations whenever the light is passed on to another.

Only when Aqua began teaching Lunafreya some of the magic she and Donald used did her divine light implant the spells within her heart. As she expects, Kairi's slow but sure education on these spells would be worth it, seeing as she has a deep and vast pool of mana within her. Sure, there were days where she spent hours trying to get the spells down to pat, many a times the Oracle had to use the spell herself on the girl.

Lunafreya feared little, but the idea of explaining to Sora why Kairi was petrified and could stay like that scared her to no end. Not even Noctis would stay the boy's rage.

Outside of the mishaps with spells, she taught the girl other spells outside of healing, ones that could paralyze her foes for a while for examples, spells that would empower those with superior strength and magical potency, and even ones that could slow her enemies to a crawl while make her friends run as fast as the wind. Kairi had a better grasp on them as the month went on, to the point where she nearly memorized them all save for one or two.

The only spell Lunafreya had been adamant in her not teaching her yet was the spell she used during the assault on Radiant Garden.

"Today, we will be focusing on nulling magical harm", Lunafreya explains as she had Kairi stand a few feet from her. Kairi tilts her head at this as the Oracle calls for her trident. "I want you to cast a fire spell and throw it at me", instructed the older woman. Kairi gave her a frown but reluctantly calls for a small low tier spell of fire.

Once the Oracle gave her a nod, Kairi hurls the sphere at her. Lunafreya chanted quickly and then a see-through orangey-red orb floats around her, just in time for the fire to strike her. The flaming sphere disappeared after contacting Lunafreya's body along with the orb that circled the woman. Kairi mouthed "whoa", amazed by this new spell. "This will serve you and the others well, but it is only a one-hit use, do not forget it", lectures the woman.

Much to Kairi's disappointment the spell that makes herself and the others immune for one hit only has the four elements. Wind, earth and other natural elements were not included and Lunafreya had no means of teaching the spell unless she and Kairi could come up with the spells themselves. At the very least she had methods to keep the others safe from those spells.

She wasn't taught much combat training by the woman; which she didn't think it'd be part of her regime giving the woman has even less combat experience than Kairi. The spells were helpful enough and even with the fourth-tier healing magic that Aqua doesn't possess made the girl feel more empowered than ever. They spend a few more hours with the Oracle teaching her water magic and combing that with ice magic, how to imbue their weapons with elemental properties and more of the purest heart's light.

As the comes to an end, the three sit near the ledge of the cliff on a log, sweaty and tired but feeling satisfied by their progression of strength. One month soon to be completed, another eleven to go. Kairi watches the sun begin to darken as Lunafreya quietly muses to herself. "I wonder how the others are faring", she says to herself, making Kairi hum in thought. "I'm just wondering why Aqua wanted to take Sora for, I mean, he's kinda on a different level than all of us", she says.

Naminé had a secret smile on her face at that.

"Perhaps the master believes there are still a few things for him to learn? After all, he is still an apprentice when all is said and done", Lunafreya offers. "Maybe…", Kairi says.

She clasped her hands in thought. It is bizarre to think that the moment they exit this place, they will have one more day of normality and peace before going to a climactic battle that will decide the fate of all worlds, the fate of the light even. Her greatest fight yet, the first time she'd stand by Sora and Riku in the final battle between light and darkness. Together with her friends, family even, they will be the final safeguard for those who reside in the realm of light.

"Are you afraid of the war?", Lunafreya asked, gently.

"Would you be disappointed if I said "maybe"?", the princess asks.

"I'd be concerned if you were not".

Kairi looked up to the landscape and says: "I know it's still a way from now since we have got a whole year to train…but the last time I was here, it was just for the basics. Then coming out of here, just before we were supposed to go fight". Kairi calls her keyblade and lays on her hands, looking at the more powerful and far less flowery thing in hand, she sees herself in the shine of the steel. "Now looking back, I realized just how unprepared I was for it".

Lunafreya gently rubbed her back comfortingly and says: "Rather foolish and careless of Merlin to merely leave you and Axel to your own devices". Kairi giggled in agreement. "Part of me always wondered, if I had stayed at the tower until Sora came back, would it have been better if I had just gone with him on his journey to find the others", she says. Then with a sigh and defeated giggle, she looked at Lunafreya. "Or maybe, I'd just get in the way".

Naminé peered into her face with a cheeky smile. "I believe your time in Eos strongly suggests otherwise, you probably would have saved him a lot of trouble!", the ghost girl remarks playfully. "Indeed, maybe you could have gotten even stronger with him", concurs the mentor. Kairi smiles at them both for their faith in her, before dismissing her keyblade. "Then again, we may never have met if things had played out differently, would we?", she asks.

Lunafreya hums in thought as the three turned to the darkening sun. "For what it is worth, I'm happy things turned out the way the did", she says wholeheartedly. Naminé hummed in agreement as Kairi smiles. "Yeah, a whole new bunch of friends, family even, I've gotten so much stronger than ever, and now", she says, placing a hand on her heart with Sora's necklace still around her neck, "Our hearts are forever connected".

These next few months will be difficult, and some may even push her to the very limit but come what may the princess was ready. No matter what happens, for the boy who owned her heart, she could fulfill the promise they had made together.

"This time, we all go home together".

A/N: You read the first Author's Note, you know what we're doing next. For the next few (two or three maybe) we will be having a mix of training, bonding, humorous and fluff, along with some other bits and pieces.

The reason? Once we hit the keyblade war, it will be fighting…fighting…fighting and…oh yeah, more fighting! So, I'm gonna try and give as much chill time as I can before we get there!

QUESTIONS!

Q1: Thoughts on this chapter?

Q2: How do you like whose bonding with who?

Q3: Who do you wanna see more off?

Q4: Hot Spring down time with hilarity insured?

Q5: Anyone wanna see more of Roxas? How about Regis?

Q6: What do you want to see next?

This is a question and something I've been pondering on, should I make the party age? I mean we all know bar the Island Trio, NOBODY seems to age in this series, but in this canon by the time Sora and co were supposed to reach the Keyblade Graveyard, almost an year had passed and with Eos, they have gone up a year. So, it's just something I'm thinking on, let me know what you all think on it.


	63. Chapter 63

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 63

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

*Month One, Day Thirty-One*

"Just saying, you sure we don't need a leash for her?", Noctis says drily, using his thumb to gesture the red-haired princess.

The girl in question was excitedly waiting for Sora to come back, according to Lunafreya she was up first thing, managed to pack up their campsite and even brewed both a coffee to get a quick start on returning to the group. Happily pacing around while making small talk with Prompto and Ventus, Kairi is not only excited to have Sora's company again (she missed snuggle time with him) but was gleefully pumping excitement through her to show how strong she had gotten.

It may not have been the most strenuous or taxing training she's had yet but with her metaphorical book of spells filling up with all sorts of spells only herself and Lunafreya could command. Plus, with her mind stronger, she could finally have a spar with him and maybe even Riku.

As their first month is coming to an end, Aqua, before she left, had instructed everyone that with every end of the months to come they would reunite to review their progress. As far as Kairi is aware outside of her improvements, they weren't exactly ten times stronger than when they started per se but happily way better than day one. Even just one glance at Ventus she knew something had changed with him and she felt his power had grown.

She had been told by Prompto that Gladiolus had been spending more time with the youngest member and mentored him. It surprised the girl at first since Gladiolus couldn't do half of what Ventus could, but then when she did some comparisons about better strengths and even training, she deduced that Gladiolus fitted the role of a mentor better than she thought. The boy himself was a lot more cheery and more confident, even excited to show Aqua.

"Still can't believe we've still got another eleven months to train", Prompto says, looking at his robotic limb, "Feels like we're just waiting a day before we go off and fight the big baddies". Kairi almost agreed with him if she hadn't endured the alteration to the flow of time already. Despite the days feeling like normal days, she still had that awareness that time was flowing slower than outside.

"There they are!", Goofy called out, pointing to a pathway.

All eyes turned to the two keyblade wielders, looking like they had just come out of a sparring match. Sora more so looked like he had just endured a battle against a thousand heartless, his clothes were ruined with tears and a lot of scuffs on them, his t-shirt looked ready to come off in pieces and his jacket wrapped around his waist. There are also a few scratches and light scars on his face that would fade away in time.

Aqua looked far better in comparison to the young apprentice, her metal armor had several nicks, dents, and soot on them, her left arm's armor shows a lot of dents and some were bent deep into the steel. Even her hair showed some soot and her cheek sported a faded mark.

Kairi beams at the return of her master and lover while Sora returned her beam with a giant grin. As the gang gathered up to greet them, Kairi using her will to hold back her need to crash into Sora for a tight hug. She's merely building it all up and the very moment she has him all to herself she's going to enjoy every second she has with him.

"Welcome back", Mickey greets with a wave, "How did things go?".

Sora throws both hands behind his head and says: "Rough…for as sweet as Aqua looks, she's kinda the taskmaster!". Aqua gave the boy a mock glare before gently flicking his forehead. "Mind your tongue young man", she lectured, "I wasn't *that* harsh!".

"You threw every spell at me during the obstacle course!", argued Sora, "And you not only beat it but improved your speed, reflexes, and senses", counters the master. "Besides, I think I was generous on you when we rested". "But you kicked my butt every time we sparred! I think I've gotten my butt handed to me more than when I fought Riku as a kid!", Sora reminds. Unbeknown to the others Kairi is proud to say there is truth in his words.

Contrary to popular belief her boy's scores against each other were rather even…with one point to her boyfriend because Riku cheated.

"Explains why you look like crap", Noctis remarked gesturing the kid, "Haven't seen you look this bad since our first bout with Ardyn". Sora chuckles before grinning, not disagreeing with the statement. True he rarely ends up in a state like this, nearly exhausted beyond the norm and even his greatest foes never wore him out this badly. With Aqua, however, not only did he fight someone on equal footing to himself but also somebody WAY more experienced and better educated with training.

"But what about you guys? How did yours go?", Sora asked, beaming at Kairi and Ventus, "You two look a lot stronger than last time!".

"You know it!", Kairi affirmed, "Luna's been teaching me all kinds of new spells, and some even Donald can't do!". The duck lets out a "wak" in response before Kairi resumed, explaining some spells here and there while Sora gives her his attention. Like her, the boy missed waking up with her at his side, and desperately needed their snuggle time before he explodes with loneliness.

As Kairi captured Sora's attention, Aqua turned to Ventus as his face sports a confident grin. Immediately she sensed something had changed within him the moment she laid her eyes on the younger boy, his light was stronger and she spots some more muscle on his forearms. A frown almost appeared on her flawless face when she spotted a mark on his left eyebrow, barely worth calling it a scar. Still, there is a noticeable shift in his smile, like he was making progress in his training.

"Based on your smile, I'm assuming you got better?", she asks, folding her arms. "Yeah! Gladio's been training me!", revealed the keyblade wielder. Aqua glances at her boyfriend, seeing him smirk at her. She'd talk to him later about it, for now, Aqua is just happy her best friend was catching up with the others. Mickey stepped up and explained how far the training had been going for everyone else.

While it is a slow starter with it being just the first month, the king had assured both her and Sora they had grown significantly since they started. With Riku and Mickey mainly mentoring Noctis, Axel and Ignis with Gladiolus taking over physical training for Ventus, to Prompto mostly mentored by Donald and Goofy of all people. When Aqua quietly asked what the two loyal followers of the king were teaching Prompto, the king teased how to dodge and take on magic users.

Prompto sadly lacked the magical aptitude most of the party possessed, he is unable to cast any form of magic despite Mickey and Donald teaching him the basics. In the end, the gunner gave up learning magic and mostly worked on using the new arms Cindy had given him to work out with. That said Mickey was happy to say Prompto's talents had gotten more impressive, lasting a long enough in a fight with somebody like Noctis.

As the month was coming to the end, everyone had returned to the cottage to take the last day of the month to relax and rest. While Mickey and his companions had decided to go for a nap while he does his meditations (something that helped him with magic), so it left the other eleven to their own devices. Before everyone would go their separate ways, Naminé pipped up during the group meeting and leads them down into the lower level of the cottage.

She leads them through one of the large doors, getting someone to open it due to her not being able to touch, and they all stepped through it to find themselves in another world. The skies were dark with dozens of stars glinting in the endless sea of night, there is a comfortable heat embracing them all along with smells of incense. Ahead of them was a large building that reminded Sora of the land of dragons, the same structure and coloring with two red pillars holding up the structure.

There is a golden dragon medallion on the main ornate round door, behind the building they see several plumes of steam rising and the faint sounds of running waters. Naminé presented the building to the party, having discovering it while she was exploring. "It's a hot spring", she revealed with a smile.

*Later…*

With a deep exhale, Aqua slumps into the waters while resting her arms and back against the rocks, letting the hot water seep into her body and soothe all the sore muscles she had. A water-resistant towel by her head whenever she wanted to leave with her three friends joining her, both Kairi and Lunafreya moaning with ease as they slipped into the waters with Naminé joining even if she couldn't feel it, just to be involved.

Once Naminé revealed her surprise, everybody eagerly headed in for a bath and to rest. The building was empty, however, much to the group's confusion and after some searching for any other occupants or staff member coming up fruitless, they had deduced it may be Merlin's magic keeping this place going. There were two separate baths, some rooms for sleeping in case the party wished and even a kitchen for them to use.

After getting their things ready for it, everyone headed off for their bath time. For the women's three large pools of water were set to the perfect temperature, walls of bamboo surrounding them with the smells of jasmine-scented incense and with clear skies it gave the whole experience a new layer of content. The master of the keyblade closes her eyes, letting herself to enjoy the water while Kairi makes small talk with Lunafreya and Naminé.

"MMM, this feels great", Kairi sighed, rubbing her arm. "I forgot how lovely a hot spring was", the Oracle said, letting her hair down, "It's been so long since I visited one".

The conversations were light and laid back without anybody bringing up training or the upcoming battles, much to the relief of the party. In time Aqua offered to help wash Kairi's now longer hair while Lunafreya makes small talk with the two. "This is nice", Kairi says as Aqua washes her hair. "Having somebody do your hair?", teases the master. "Well that's a nice bonus yeah, but I mean just this, you know?", clarifies the girl.

"I have to agree with Kairi", Lunafreya concurs, "It is just a day to relax and spoil ourselves". Aqua hums in agreement with Naminé nodding as she brushes her ethereal hand through the waters. The girl held back a frown on her face when she once again feels nothing, constantly reminding herself she is still nothing more than a ghost of sorts. Kairi glances to the girl with a smile and turned to Lunafreya. "Maybe when this is over, we could do this again with everyone else?", Kairi suggests.

Naminé looked at the girl as Lunafreya smiles in agreement, but then Kairi's smile turned into a smirk. "Like say…we girls can go out for a spa day before our Oracle ties the "Knot-tis"? she teases. This made the Oracle blush profusely as Aqua and Naminé both beamed at the woman, remembering she had a fiancé on the other side of the hot springs. Naminé wiggled her eyebrows at the older woman and said: "Yes, that's a good point. Maybe doll her up for her king?". Aqua nodded as she finishes rinsing the soap out of Kairi's hair.

"How does it feel to be engaged to your childhood sweetheart?", asked the master as she and Kairi settle back into the waters. Both getting closer with Naminé and Kairi on her left while Aqua on her right. The woman of light could feel her cheeks darken with embarrassment and flushed with the question. Truth be told the wedding had been forgotten since their world faced the darkness and even with all the downtime she had with Noctis, the proposal that was once supposed to be a sign of peace between nations.

Now that they were free of the empire's grip and with her freedom to be with Noctis, was the wedding still on his mind?

"Well? How does it feel?", Kairi asked excitedly, poking her shoulder. "I-Its…I-I mean…well…", squeaks the Oracle, sinking into the waters like she prayed it'd swallow her up. When she feels their eyes gaze into her, she pouted and looked at all of them indigently. "W-What about you two? Do you see yourselves married down the lines?", she asked.

Aqua turned bright red while Kairi, much to her awe, was beaming. The master cleared her throat and started to back off from her teasing, that is something she didn't want to dive into. But she would not escape the embarrassment yet because now she was the target, three pairs of blue eyes fixed on her. "Well?", Lunafreya asked, her tone smug and victorious. "Yeah Aqua, do you think you could see yourself be referred as "Misses Amicitia" down the line?", Kairi prods with a cheeky smirk.

Her cheeks glow more at the mention and she stammered a response, making her friends giggle at her. "I-I-I-I mean! I uh…I…I-I-I'm not saying I'm o-opposed to the idea b-b-b-b-but Gladio and I just, we're only…I…", stammers the flustered master. "You've been together for six months now!", Kairi argued, "Plus you shared a bed and had drinks too!". Lunafreya giggles while Naminé smirks at the master. Aqua then turned to Kairi with her scarlet cheeks. "And you? Do you see yourself as Sora's wife?".

Kairi scoffs and bravely declared: "I've been ready the moment I knew I loved him!". Naminé rolled her eyes, muttering a "shocker" from her pink lips. "Besides, who WOULDN'T want to be married to that boy?", she argued confidently. There were several sounds of agreements and giggles as they talked more about the relationships they were in. For Kairi, it was the first time she had a chance to hang out with her friends and just act like normal friends discussing their significant others, make jokes here and there while gushing about them.

The way Lunafreya described the date Noctis had taken her on in Twilight Town, how she acted like a shy schoolgirl talking about her first date with her crush, the way she talked about how sweet and gentlemanly Noctis acted while still being her scruffy prince that made her swoon. Then she told them how he kissed her when the sun had finally set, he cupped her cheek and in her words, gave the Oracle the most beautiful and loving look she had ever seen and kissed her.

Both teens squealed at her as she turns bright pink while Aqua watches on amused, happy her friends could put aside their worries for the battles to come and enjoy the peace. When asked about her thoughts with Gladiolus though, she shyly admitted that she couldn't be happier with anyone else. Since she started dating him, there has been a brighter change within her, and when she was brave to discuss what it was like to be enveloped in his embraces, she bashfully admitted: "she never felt safer".

"Just a moment, I've some special herbal supplements", Aqua says, getting out of the water. She wrapped her towel around herself while Kairi asks about the supplements. The master explained they were made to help with muscle aches and soothe any pain the waters couldn't, plus it helped keep their skin healthy and soft. With a friendly nod, she leaves the waters for a moment to retrieve her creams.

Leaving the three, Kairi settled into the waters with a smile as Lunafreya runs her fingers through her hair and allows it to be spread out, leaving her hair down like everyone else. A gentle silence loomed over the three as Naminé was sitting on the edge, kicking her ethereal feet in the waters. Kairi looked up at the night sky in thought, letting the incense put her at ease. Tomorrow training would resume, and she'd be back with Sora helping her again.

Then Naminé had a big grin on her face. "Sooo…remember Ven's scarf?", she blurts out. This gains the attention of Kairi who's been eager to discover the mystery person that captured the boy's attention while Lunafreya looked at her friend with curiosity. "What about it?", Lunafreya asked, "I must confess he looked very ridiculous with it". Naminé leans in as both party members leaned in to hear her. "Well, it turns out, dear Luna, Ven's used that scarf to cover up…hickies~", she whispers.

The Oracle silently gasps as Kairi grinned madly, eager to hear more info on this subject. "So Ven's got a girlfriend, I knew it!", Kairi giggled, "But is it who we think it is?". Naminé nodded excitedly, missing the now very worried and scared look Lunafreya had on her face. "Yes, after some "investigation", I saw that "scarf" was indeed a bandanna", explained Naminé as Lunafreya slowly swam away from the blonde. Kairi gasped and opened her mouth to speak more, but then froze as Naminé, blissfully unaware, continued.

"The amount of hickeys on his neck, wow!", rambled on Naminé as she had a cat-like grin on her face while Kairi slowly backed away with her flawless face showing fear. "I mean, I never knew Ven had such tastes in girls!", she says. Then she pauses her rambles when she finally took notice both Lunafreya and Kairi were at the other side of the pool, both ready to dive into the waters and never resurface again.

"Girls? What's wrong?", Naminé asked.

"Naminé".

The girl stiffens as her face goes white as sheets, eyes open as wide as they can be. The voice may belong to Aqua, but not even Marluxia could say her name with such malice and barely restraint fury, the cold tone that promised she would never be seen again. Slowly while feeling her heart quicken its beats to the point of going a thousand miles per hour, she faces the master.

Even in a simple white towel with two bottles of cream, her face was stoned faced and unmoving with the darkness in her eyes. The cold steely look showing only despair and doom within them, dare she say even Xehanort would be terrified of that look. Even if she had an ethereal form, Naminé feared horrible harm was coming her way if she so much as a breathed. That would explain why the other two moved as FAR as they could from her.

"Care to explain what you were talking about? Something about Ven with a certain "type" of girl? And what was that about "hickies"?", the master interrogated.

"…Ven I'm so sorry…", was all the girl could think about before she screamed internally in fear, knowing she had just condemned her friend…

*Men's Side*

"Three…two…one and…", counted down Prompto as he and Noctis released their hands from Sora's hair.

*Boing*

"AND it still defies gravity…", groaned Noctis as Sora's hair returned to being spiky and bouncy once again. "What do you wash your hair with to make it that spiky?", asks his majesty as Sora approaches one of the waterfalls to rinse out the pink foamy suds. "Just normal stuff Kairi uses", argued the boy as the waters cleanse his hair.

"Give it up you two, that boy's hair isn't going down any time soon", Gladiolus says as he lounges in the waters. The two sighed and resumed their laziness in the waters as Sora finishes off his wash before stretching and wrapped his towel around his waist, catching Ignis' attention. "Finished already?", he asked as the boy walks back to lockers. "Yeah, I'm falling asleep here", he revealed with a small yawn, "May as well nap before dinner".

"Can I count on your assistance tonight?", asked the chef.

"You know it", affirmed Sora as he wandered off.

Riku snickered at this, already seeing the look of horror that would soon adorn Ignis' face when he sees how useless Sora is at cooking. He leaned against the smooth soaked stone wall with his arms over them as he lets the water melt away the sores and aches his body took on during the month's training. On his left he sees Ignis resting on top of the edge of the waters, feet soaking in while he reads his notebook of recipes.

Noctis and Prompto were making small talk about their training while Axel was lazing in the waters, Gladiolus reading his book he'd been meaning to catch up on. As for Ventus, the boy is near Riku, but he was keeping himself busy by cleaning himself and rolling his shoulders. The older boy occasionally peeked at Ventus' shoulders and neck, noticing some faded and some noticeable bruises of sorts adorned his young body.

Strange he thought since he was healed every day after his training and those marks should have been removed from his neck. Then as he subtly peered at them, he blinks in surprise to see they were very familiar to him as sudden irritation makes itself known to him by his neck. An all too familiar kind. "So Ven, you uh, wanna share something with the class?", he asked, gesturing his neck. The boy's cheeks gore red as he suddenly sinks up to his neck into the water.

"NO!", he squeaks, "No I do not!".

Axel, however, gives the group a wide grin while Prompto goes red himself. "Oh, that? Well, boys, little Ven became a man a few days ago!", Axel bragged. This gains the attention of the four before Noctis' phone goes off silently nearby. As the king made his way to the phone with Ventus glaring heatedly at Axel, the red-haired pyro smirks evilly at the kid. "What do you mean by that?", Riku asked. "Well, while everyone was doing their thing, guess what yours truly and Prompto caught the kiddo in a pretty saucy situation!", he explained.

"Axel!", seethed the boy.

"Oh? Like what, making out with someone?", jokes the shield. "Oh ho! That's a little too tame for the boy!", Axel laughs, "In fact, it was kinda more "M" if ya know what I mean!".

"May we please change the subject?", Ignis groaned, "Whatever shenanigans Ven was up to is his own business". "YES PLEASE!", Ventus begged. "Aww what Iggy? Don't you wanna know who rocked the kid's socks?", Axel hints with a wiggle of his crimson brows. Ignis lets out a disgusted sigh as he turns a page, finished with this conversation as Gladiolus and Riku were more raptured by this little development. Prompto kept giving Ventus a look that screamed "I am so sorry I'm about to ruin your life" every few minutes.

"Axel shut up!", Ventus growled, standing up and now clenching fists and teeth at the man. Noctis reached his phone and swipes it open to see several messages from the Oracle. He blinks at the texts, many of them are walls of apologizes, warnings and even a pre-made funeral arrangements for someone. Then when he looks up from his phone to Ventus, he gulps in true fear. Axel opened his mouth to continue but then froze right on the spot as Gladiolus just gave the boy an "Oh crap" look and Prompto was ready to be swallowed by the waters right now.

Riku and Ignis shared a look before the latter put his book away and readied himself for the oncoming storm. "Now keep your mouth shut and don't tell Aqua about ANYTHING about me and-

"Who?".

The boy freezes on the spot, still as a statue like he was suddenly struck by lightning. His face an impossible mix of scarlet red embarrassment and ashen white of fear as a certain master loomed over him. "Ven…what are those marks on your neck?", the voice of doom questioned low and darkly. Ventus shakily turns around to see a very, VERY, unamused Aqua behind him, garbed in her white towel as she stands on the edge of the pool and over him.

"A-A-Aqua…t-t-this is the men…s…pool", he whimpered, completely afraid and using a last-ditch effort to distract. This only furthered the frown on her face as she stared into the boy's soul while counting the marks on his neck. Behind her was a rushing Oracle and Kairi, both looking like they had just condemned the entire party to an eternity of agony and hell. "Ven…explain yourself", demanded the master.

"A-AQUA I SWEAR THIS ISN'T WHAT YOU THINK!", Ventus cried, waving his hands. "So those aren't hickies then?", she challenges, pointing at them. "WELL…Y-Yeah they are, but I swear to you-

"Who touched you Ven?", Aqua interrogates, her voice leaving not even an inch of an argument. Realizing in this current predicament, the best thing that could lead the group to live longer lifespans is to be upfront with his sister, Ventus sighed. "R-R-Rikku…", confesses the boy. Aqua blinks, and then…glanced towards Riku with a rather questioning look on her face. After it took a few seconds for it to dawn on him, Riku gives her an irritated look on his face.

"NOT ME! The other Rikku!", he growled.

"You know? The one with blond hair? Blue bandana?", Axel lists, "The girl in the bikini?".

Aqua turned red and turns back to Ventus, now pink in the face. "You're dating that woman?", she asks, surprised and hurtfully shocked. "So what if I am!? What's wrong with her?", Ventus argued back, feeling this strange urge to defend his…girlfriend. "Ven, have you seen how she dresses!?", she argued. "Haven't we all?", Axel joked.

"YOU STAY OUT OF THIS!", both students of Eraqus shouted. Ventus turned back to Aqua and said: "So she dresses for the summer! What's wrong with that!?". "IN THE MIDDLE OF FIGHTING TOO!?", questioned the master exasperatedly. Ventus couldn't deny that part, that was true. However he refuses to bend to Aqua, he wasn't a kid anymore. "W-Well so what? She can handle herself! Besides, she likes me!".

"Who doesn't like you? That's not the point!", argued Aqua, "You're too young for a woman like her!". "YOUNG!? Aqua, I'm twenty-six!", argues the boy. "You're still only sixteen due to the fact your body hasn't aged since you lost your heart", Lunafreya adds quietly, "It is the same with Aqua's age while she remained in the dark realm". "Precisely! Thank you, Luna", Aqua says with a quick nod to her.

"Oh sure, don't tell the Oracle to butt out…", Axel muttered.

"SHUT YOUR FACE AXEL!", both students yelled.

"A-Anyways! What I do with Rikku is none of your business!", the boy stubbornly says. "As your sister slash parental figure, it IS my business!", argued the master. Then she narrowed her eyes as a horrible idea formed in her mind, and why Ventus was being stubborn. "Ven…what exactly happened while you were being marked by her?", she interrogates. Now his bravado goes out the window and pure embarrassment mixed with fear takes over, making him go quiet.

When he goes into silent mode, Aqua then goes for the trump card. "Prompto, what did they do?", she asked. The silent blond squeaks and jumps in his spot before looking around as all eyes fell to him. "W-What!? Why are you asking me!?", he questioned. "Because of your natural uncanny ability to show up and ruin moments like these by rudely waltzing into a room without knocking!", Aqua explained.

"She does have a good point, Prompto", Ignis says, recalling many a times the blond DID ruin romantical moments in the party's journey. Gulping, the gunner rubbed his neck. "W-W-Well, I mean…I don't THINK they did anything…", he muses. "Y-Yeah, see!?", Ventus says. "Like, they still had their underwear on in bed…".

There were only three sounds in that moment, the sounds of trickling waters, Prompto slamming his mouth shut with both hands, and finally the raising embarrassment that was Ventus.

Aqua stood there, eyes opened wide with her mouth nearly hitting the ground, cheeks red. Slowly she turned to Ventus, completely mortified and looking ready for someone to end his suffering. Her Ventus…her sweet innocent Ventus, defiled by a succubus in a bikini…taking away his purity. And he was still a young boy. "Ven had sex…Ven had sex…", was all that the poor master could think off, horrified by this development.

"Of ALL the things you could have said…you choose, THAT!?", Noctis growled, looking at Prompto. Gladiolus rubbed his head, both in disappointment for trusting Prompto to be smart, and pity for the boy that was on the receiving end of this embarrassment that NO one should be on the stage for. Even Ignis looked significantly uncomfortable with this subject matter while Axel struggled to keep his snickers to himself.

Aqua herself looked close to fainting, before she mustered control and thinks darkly: "Rikku, you are a dead woman when we get out". Then the Oracle joins her friend's side, looking at Ventus with a scowl. "Ventus, I am quite disappointed in you", she chastises. The boy opened his mouth to try and defuse the situation while clearing things up, but the woman of the dead gods continued. "If you truly intended on spending your first with this Rikku, you should have waited until marriage".

"I mean, Aqua certainly is waiting for herself and Gladio to bed wed before she gives herself to him".

Both the master and shield looked alarmed, then Aqua goes scarlet and looked away sheepishly while Gladiolus just throws his head back with a look that screamed: "kill me". A silence takes over the room when no one dared to speak, none had the strength to even utter a sigh as Lunafreya looked at the master of the keyblade. "Aqua?", she asked, wondering why she hadn't affirmed her statement. Noctis looked at his shield with an equally confused look on his face, and then slowly but surely Axel grinned.

"Uh, think you're a bit late on that Luna…", he says with a knowing smirk.

"…wait…", Ventus says as he turned back to Aqua, then Gladio and then back to his blushing sister before it hits him. "A-A-Aqua…d-did you and Gladio…h-h-h-h-have intercourse?". Aqua's cheeks darkened as Gladiolus groaned lowly, affirming the boy's question. Ventus grabbed both sides of his head and yelled: "YOU HAD SEX WITH GLADIO!?".

"VENTUS!", screams back Aqua, flustered and beyond embarrassed by this. "OH MY GOODNESS! AQUA!?", cried the Oracle, scarlet and covering her mouth with both hands, shocked. "CALLED IT!", Axel cried.

"AXEL SHUT UP!", everyone cried as the entire spa dissolved into chaos. All unaware of Kairi sneaking away…

*Elsewhere*

With her friends yelling at each other, revelations being discovered and some of her friends having difficulties accepting changes, Kairi took note that among the men, Sora was nowhere to be seen. And seeing as she didn't want to disturb everyone, she kindly decided she'd go find her Sora.

Only in her towel after haphazardly drying herself off to chase Aqua before she causes some chaos in her hunt for the identity of the person who quote/unquote "defiled" Ventus' innocence, their developments amongst her team had caught her off guard. Granted she somewhat knew Aqua and Gladiolus had gone the next step in their relationship if anything she wondered if they did when they were in Eos.

It was kinda hilarious to see Lunafreya be so shocked by that information, surprised that neither would wait till marriage. Though Kairi was sure the woman has naughty thoughts of herself and Noctis doing the deed, hell she argued all women would. She never expected Rikku of all people would be interested in somebody like Ventus, considering they were both very different from each other, truthfully she thought someone like Axel would have been her preferred choice.

Entering the men's locker room, she looked around for the boy. There were wooden lockers with magical crests that represented the members, the shield for Gladiolus for example. She looked at Sora's locker and upon touching the handle, she opens it. Guess it wasn't for security and more to tell who owned which locker. Not exactly helpful for the owners she believed. Ignoring the flawed security system, Kairi leaves the locker to find Sora.

"Where could he be?", she quietly thinks to herself. Her ears started to pick up dripping water as she finally took notice of the steam nearby along with the rather humid heat. The keyblade princess snapped her fingers, deducing he must be having a shower, and judging from the wet footsteps, he was just finishing off. She hears him whistling as his footsteps got closer, coming from ahead of her. When he was close and just about to turn the corner, readied herself and said: "Hey Sor-

Then she froze entirely…because Sora came around the corner of the lockers, stepped right before Kairi giving her a view of his entire body…and he didn't have a towel.

The boy stopped whistling and walking, frozen mid-step with his eyes wide open at the girl. Kairi's eyes were as wide as dinner plates, jaw hitting the ground as she took note that the boy of her heart was as nude as the day he was born. Her heart hammered in her chest as she took in the fact he looked extremely hotter than usual when he was still drying off, he got a lot more muscle than the last time she saw him bare-chested and maybe it was her, but his new silvery scars made him look even hotter.

This is also the first time she realized she had ever seen him nude before, not even as kids. "DO NOT LOOK DOWN! DO NOT LOOK DOWN! DO! NOT! LOOK! DOOOOOWWWN!", she screamed in her mind.

…she looked down.

Her eyes widened to the size of wheels of a car, her face practically glowed brighter then the sun and her mouth was permanently opened in shock. Sora himself could only stand there, scarlet red with his mouth opening and closing like his brain had shut off entirely.

Kairi's nose suddenly gushed out blood as she fell backward, fainting.

"KAIRI!", shrieks the boy as he runs and grabbed a towel while checking her.

As she lied there with Sora hovering over her, fussing and panicking, all the girl could think was: "I have sinned…I can die happy now…".

*Much later…*

So much for a relaxing time in the spas…

Aqua runs a hand through her dried hair, laying on her bed. It took all her mental fortitude to just push those concerns aside for a while, too tired and frustrated. Partially feeling bad she kinda barged in the men's quarters to question Ventus, she felt more hurt that the boy hadn't told her of this development. Granted in his defense her actions today had given him a fair judgment call on why he wouldn't say he was in a relationship, but that didn't mean she didn't feel hurt.

"Feel like an ass, huh?", Gladiolus remarked, laying down beside her. She groaned and slammed both hands to her face, answering his question. "Yeah, I thought so". Aqua slumps both arms at her sides, looking up at the ceiling before turning on her side with her back facing the shield. Her blue brows furrowed in frustration, a true sense of shame resonating within her heart. The man sits up and pats her shoulder, gently. "Blue, come on, don't put on the silent act", he says.

She only heaved a deep sigh in reply, making her boyfriend huff. "Come on, you heard Ven. Nothing happened, he just shared a bed with Rikku because they only buzzed", Gladiolus stresses. Axel and Prompto's choices of words did absolutely nothing to help sure, but after they finally gave Ventus a chance to speak to clear things up, they were relieved to hear nothing explicit had happened between him and Rikku.

Then came the awkwardness that was them explaining to Lunafreya why Aqua shared herself with Gladiolus before marriage, the shield wishing for Ravus, Terra-Nort or hell anyone would come and just put them out of their misery. The poor Oracle couldn't seem to wrap it around her mind that people could have intercourse without their gods striking them down, and it also somewhat helped that Axel, for the first time saying something helpful, called her out that she had impure thoughts about Noctis.

The poor woman nearly fainted with those accusations.

And to add the final layer of miserable embarrassment that was their day, Kairi and Sora's misadventures. Never had the shield seen the poor in such as horrible combination of embarrassment, shock, mortification, and concern. The girl had this dopey smile on her the whole time Aqua and Lunafreya healed her up, muttering something on the lines of "sin" and other nonsense. All in all, what was supposed to be relaxing turned into a chaotic day of random shenanigans and misinterpretations.

"I know…but that doesn't change the fact he not only kept this from me but Rikku's…well…", she listed but faltered and slumped on the pillow. "She's what? Come on, Blue, don't pull that junk out of the trash can", Gladiolus lectured, "You don't know her that well". Aqua puffs stubbornly as she mulls over his words, hating that he was right and this headfirst judging was beneath her. She had barely interacted with this woman, and for all, she knew Rikku was perfect for Ventus.

"Look, I get that her wardrobes could do with more layers, yeah, and maybe she could be more careful with the booze, but come on", Gladiolus says, smirking and prodding her shoulder, "You're dating me. I fit the entire list!". Aqua giggled at this jab, in a way he was right. "Difference being you don't have breasts and it takes more than one bottle to knock you flat on your butt", she argued playfully. "And drink you under the table", bragged Gladiolus.

"Sod off…", she says.

The master rolled on her other side to face him, frowning as she mulled over her actions and his words. "Gladio, I know I have overreacted…and maybe I am just being too protective of him, but Ven's still innocent and so…well…", she tried but her shield just replies with: "Inexperienced". "Yeah…", confessed Aqua, "I mean, didn't you feel that way with Iris and Riku?". "Oh hell yeah, I was almost ready to throttle the boy…but Blue, Riku's a good kid", Gladiolus explained.

He pulls her closer to him and wrapped his arms around her, letting the worried master rest her head on his chest as he continues. "It takes time, but when I see how happy Iris is with him, I just have trust she knows what she's doing", he says, "And from what Ven told us, he knows enough to not just jump into bed with her and do the deed, he even confessed he's saving himself for marriage". He then strokes her back soothingly before chuckling. "More than we can say, right?".

"…fair point", Aqua admits, taking in the warmth of the embrace she had missed. "I know you're not sold on her but maybe you give her a chance? For Ven's sake?", suggested the shield. Aqua hums in debate, wondering if she should at least give Rikku the benefit of the doubt. Just then, their door knocks, making the shield grunt in annoyance before he reluctantly broke their embrace and heads for the door.

Opening it, Aqua doesn't see who he is talking to due to his size blocking most of the door. He nodded his head and walked past Ventus, carrying two bowls of ice cream. When the shield leaves the room, the boy turned to Aqua with a sheepish smile.

"Peace offering?", he offered, holding up the two bowls. Aqua raised a brow and smirks at him, an old habit of theirs with Terra as children. Whenever they were annoyed with each other, ice cream was usually their gifts to create a bridge between them and resolve things quicker while indulging their frozen treats. The ice creams in question were Double Crunch for Ventus and Fabracadabra for Aqua.

She nods as she shifts to the edge of the bed as Ventus joins her after he closes the door and handed her frozen treat. Halfway through their treats, the silence was broken by the master. "I'm sorry, with how I reacted", she sighed, lowering her spoon into the glass bowl. Ventus looks at his feet, sheepishly rubbing his neck, which made her continue. "I know I shouldn't be like this, and especially when I have little idea on what she's like, but I was just…worried she might be…well, a bad influence on you", she explained.

"…I mean, I can see where you're coming from", Ventus admits with a sigh, "Not like she was giving off a responsible adult vibe, huh?". Aqua looked at him with a look that was half apologetic and a little ashamed. Again, she had no right to judge him or her for how Rikku appeared, especially when Ventus was happier according to Axel. After everything she and he had endured in the past twelve years, finding their respective significant others had helped heal their hearts.

Maybe people look at her and Gladiolus and probably think they weren't a suitable match for all she knew, but she couldn't be happier with someone else. "Does she make you happy?", she asks, low and soft. "Yeah…I mean…maybe it's more than just her being my first girlfriend, maybe I like…like, her, you know?", he says, clumsy and uncertain but she feels in his heart what he was trying to get across. "I wanna try it, and who knows? Maybe we're more compatible then we think".

He then turned to Aqua and says: "But what about you? What do you think?". Aqua looked at her treat, really considering her words here. Closing her eyes and then opening them with an exhale, she smiled at the boy. "I think if she truly makes you this happy, then I'm happy", she says, purely honest. This gains her a wonderful smile on Ventus' face, joy glowing in his eyes. She'll reserve her judgment on Rikku later, for now, her brother's happiness came first.

Just as they finished their treats, Ventus' phone goes off and he immediately grinned widely. He scampers to his feet, places both his and her empty bowls on the bed and grabbed her hand. "Come on, I've got a surprise for you!", he says, dragging her out of the room. Aqua nearly stumbled and tripped with her brother pulling her so quickly and strongly. She laughs along the ride, trying to convince the boy she'd follow her to no avail.

Down into what she guessed was an armory, she spotted Gladiolus standing by a large door wiping his hands with a cloth. He gave them both a smirk as Ventus stands near him with Aqua, the latter giving both her closest companions suspicious looks like they were about to prank her. It was too much of a reminder of how Ventus would be roped into one of Terra's pranks, crafty jerk. Ventus was still grinning ear to ear.

"Okay, close your eyes!", he says. Again the woman feels like she should be on guard, but with one roll of her eyes, she closes them and just to appease the excited boy, places her hands on them. She allows Gladiolus to guide her via grabbing her shoulders and leading her inside the room. Inside the room, she picks up a scent, something close to an oil of sorts along with tasting something in the air. She heard something being rolled before her based on the wheel noise and something planted before her.

"Okay…open!".

Aqua unveils her gaze, and her throat tightened at the sight.

Before her were two objects, a pedestal and a mannequin that adorned her armor. Aqua's armor is mostly colored in shades of silver, black, grey and blue, just like she remembered it. A silver breastplate resembling an upside-down crescent moon and a dark-visored helmet like Ventus and Kairi's. Her helmet, like Ventus and Terra's, bears two prongs on either side, with her silver ones wrapping around the sides and angling diagonally downwards. Her cape is that of a dusty-rose color. There is more armor on her legs and thighs than she remembered but she couldn't care about that part.

On the pedestal was her old companion she had lost so many years ago. Her original keyblade, the Stormfall.

The guard is circular and somewhat jagged around its edges. The upper half of the guard is black, the center is grey, and the bottom of it is white. The handle is a featureless, grey rod. The shaft of the Keyblade is thin and navy blue in coloration, except for the tip, which is silver. The base of the shaft also sports two diamond-shaped bumps. The keyblade's teeth are comprised by a rectangular frame lined with four short, blunt spikes. This frame and the spikes are all navy blue. The teeth also have three silver pieces bent at right angles: two on the inside corners of the frame and one on the inside center of one side. The keychain links and token resemble water drops.

Words failed her as she claps her mouth, her voice gone as Ventus stands by her old gear with joy in his eyes as Gladiolus had his arms folded. "Ven had someone from the RC look around Ansem's old study for this and spent pretty much whatever free time he had polishing her back up to standard", Gladiolus explained, "I only added the finishing oils".

Aqua turned to her brother who was shyly and humbling smiling at his sister. "V-Ven…", she gasped, nearly losing control over her eyes. He just smiled widely and gestured her old equipment, saying: "A master should have her armor, right?". Aqua looked at the items before her and just as she was ready to reclaim them, she hesitates. Looking at her hand, a wave of doubt begins to rise within her heart, the day she lost it all.

With all she had done to making it back here, did she have the right to don her armor once more? The answer came from the looks her boyfriend and brother gave her, Ventus' encouraging smile and Gladiolus knowing smirk. "You heard the brat, you gonna keep us in suspense much longer?", he teased. He raised his armored limb, reminding her of Terra as Ventus gestured his armor part. With a smile as her tears dried up, Aqua turned to the items before her and with her summoning her keyblade, Brightcrest, she raised her free hand to call them.

Slowly a blue light shined around the two keys and her armor, her keyblade in her hand levitates into the air as Stormfall floats into the air with it. The armor turns into several spheres of light as her keyblades spun in the air together. Magic and light dancing together as the light-blessed armor flies to Aqua. The flash of light blinds both her companions as a gush of wind sweeps through the small room, blowing dust aside.

Once the light faded, the two stared in awe at the sight. The Master of the keyblade had just become a true Master…

A/N: Well…this got quite the whiplash didn't it?

I'm sorry this wasn't a good one, I have no where to work at home with few spaces been taking over by stuff. Ugh! Spring cleaning is a b****!

Next time it'll be more action oriented with three sparring sessions; it'll be good I promise! Two where meant to be in this chapter but…well you can see why not. But hey, we got some fun moments, the party is back (some are scarred but ya know) and there'll be more to come. Speaking of which, I'm wondering how much of these chapters are you guys enjoying and the length of them?

I don't plan on going through each month at this pace unless you're all ok with them or unless I run out of idea.

QUESTIONS!

Q1: Thoughts on this chapter?

Q2: Humour in this one?

Q3: Aqua's reactions?

Q4: Kairi seeing Sora's key? Too much?

Q5: What would you like to see next time?

Q6: Curious to see what happened to Aqua?

Q7: One of my reviewers by the name of Jikker Jack had a interesting suggestion, Ravus as a nobody, should we go for it?

Anyways, thanks for reading this! Stay awesome but most importantly stay safe!


	64. Chapter 64

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 64

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

A/N: Very fighty chapter today! Have fun!

*Month Two, Day Thirty-Two*

*Arena* 

Gathering up the entire party to the arena after a good and filling breakfast by Sora and Ignis, the fourteen guardians readied themselves for their next month of rigorous training. Before that, however, the master was already writing up the next sparring sessions to see how much progress was made with the less experienced keyblade wielders.

"Okay then, everyone ready?", she asks, finishing up her notes and addressing the party. There is a collection of confirmations and affirmatives. She smiled gratefully and turns to the two royalties. "Right then, Kairi, Noct? Step into the ring", she says.

With a smile, Kairi skips to the ring while her opponent casually walks to it. The king of light rolled his shoulders as he calls for Night's Sky, facing down Kairi while she called for Destiny's Embrace and immediately shifted into her stance. Truthfully Noctis was rather eager to finally spar with Kairi, not that he sees this as an easy win of sorts (he kinda does) but after seeing all she could do back home and from what the others had told him, there was a sense of excitement within him.

Like himself she was still getting her feet wet with the keyblade and a good part of him was very curious to see exactly what Lunafreya had been teaching her. It will be fun to fight someone who he considered a decent fellow student. He just…hoped Sora won't tear him a new one by the end of this.

"This time it'll be who submits or who's unable to continue, first to fall loses", Aqua instructed, stepping out of the ring, "Begin!".

Both apprentices dashed toward the other, keyblades meeting instantly with sparks popping from the contact of two holy weapons. Like dancers, the two royal bloodlines clashed, Kairi using two-handed gripped attacks while Noctis with just a single arm. The king phases from her attacks and kept trying to strike her at her sides, Kairi would catch him immediately with a parry or deflect his attack back at him, disrupting his footing while using his momentum against him.

Noctis steps back from a swipe of Kairi's key dismissed his divine weapon and calls for his daggers. Kairi braced herself for a swarm of quick flurried attacks by his majesty, striking at every spot and direction while nimbly spinning his daggers in hands to throw her off. The princess rolls away from him on his right and then dashed away to create space between him and her. Noctis warps into the air just above her, calling for Sword of the Tall.

With a loud "eep" from the girl, Kairi jumps to the left to avoid being crushed by the giant weapon. When Noctis struck the ground, he instantly phased warped to Kairi just as her feet touched the ground and called for his spear. With a swing, he smacks Kairi in the stomach with the pole and throws her across the field. Her boots digging into the ground to halt her momentum, Kairi grunts out and rubbed her bruised stomach.

The king calls for the Sword of the Father and rushed into Kairi. When in range Noctis begins to unleash a slow but devastatingly strong slew of attacks Kairi forced Kairi onto the defense. Every precise attack felt like she was trying to fend off Gladiolus, and with each of Noctis' attacks, a hologram is left after every swing that not only harmed Kairi if she so much as brushed her shoulder against them but they lingered on the battlefield a tad bit too long for her liking.

When he brings down the sword onto her, Kairi holds her keyblade up to defend herself and halt the onslaught of strikes. Still, with only using just right hand as Kairi pressed against his forceful press down, Noctis gives her a cocky smirk. "Come on, you can do better than this right?", he taunts/encourages. At that Kairi gave the king a rigid smirk of her own and retorts: "I'm just warming up!". Kairi pushes him off her and flips over the king while her left hand glowed in a reddish/orange light.

When she landed back on her feet she lifted her left hand, a sphere with several small glyphs of sundials and clocks were dancing in her palm. Kairi then cried out: "Haste!". For a moment her body was encased by the glyph, now a small dome for less than five seconds before it disappeared. Then Kairi suddenly vanished before Noctis' eyes. The king looked around for her but was then given a kick to his back.

He staggered forward before he spins around and swipes at nothing but air. He feels something rough bypassing his shoulder, followed by something moving too quick for his eyes to track but even creates a wind strong enough to blow his clothes. Absolute confusion and bafflement was adorned on his handsome features as he tried to follow whatever this was, only for Kairi to appear right before him.

Kairi's stance was moving quicker as her breathing seemingly increased in speed as if she were moving so fast the world was too slow for her. She again vanishes before the king's eyes, only by him raising his ancestor's shield did he prevent her from dealing what could have been the coup de grace. Kairi struck at his wall of a shield with so many invisible strikes it was like she was a whirlwind of destruction, moving so fast the king couldn't combat.

Noctis dismissed his sword and calls for his magic flask, chilling with frosty air. He shield tackled Kairi during her barrage and lucky for him the combination of the weight of his shield and his superior physical strength countered Kairi's speedy light form. Kairi is staggering backward as Noctis dismisses his shield, backflipping while throwing the magic flask at Kairi. The flask hits Kairi and explodes, creating a small blizzard for both royalties.

Noctis lands on his feet, keyblade called as he readied for any more surprises from his opponent. He didn't wait too long for Kairi's voice, though harder to hear thanks to the bellowing icy winds, called out and suddenly a green gale of wind sends the blizzard aside. When the air was cleared, he sees the girl had several bits of frost on her clothes and even some on her cheeks and hair. She shivered from the cold but luckily for Noctis he could see the spell had finally worn off.

Kairi shakes her body to throw off the cold and spins Destiny's Embrace before crying: "Here goes!". The weapon shifted into the Dual-Blade sword as her clothes took on her Strike Form colors, Kairi spun the weapon over her head and around herself before it catches fire from tips to hilts. Then to show off how far she had progressed, Kairi managed to unlock the blades and wield both at once.

Noctis grunts both in exasperation and admiration of the girl's ingenuity, he had to give her credit her versatility was not to be underestimated. He called for Katana of the Warrior instantly as Kairi ran at him with blazing swords, meeting her dual-wielding tenacity with quickdraws and wide covering strikes. Sparks of light brighten up their battle as from the spectators' perspective it was as though Kairi was wielding flames while their king combated her with crystals.

Kairi stuck at the king with an upward cut from her left-handed sword and swings at him with her right, Noctis, in turn, parried the right and sidestepped the other. He sheathed the blade entirely and quickly drew it, the power behind this attack not only made Kairi lose her footing and be temporarily thrown off the ground but the gale from the attack blew out the flames.

That wouldn't stop her though because she reattached the weapon into its original form jus as Noctis calls for his Bow of the Clever. He unleashes a barrage of bolts at her but much like when she first sparred with Sora, Kairi spins her weapon and performs a leaping dance of sorts to cover the distance between the two, slicing and cutting the bolts of crystal into nothing. Kairi easily closes the gaps between them and performed a thrust that Noctis narrowly evades but feels the tip of the blade cutting his cheek and some of his hair.

He phases away from her and stares down at her, feeling a trickle of blood leak down. The first blood had been drawn by her, and with that confident, borderline cocky, smirk on her face, he knew she was taking a lot of pride from that achievement. Kairi spun her weapon with both hands, firing off arcs of wind blades at him, cutting the ground like swords cutting the earth. Noctis calls his shield to block the attacks, the blade attacks breaking apart upon contact.

Noctis runs at the girl while the gale blades still struck at him, merely thumping against his wall shield. He blocks one more blade and after that, he spun while running and throws the shield at Kairi despite its inhuman weight and size. It flies towards the girl as the king warped into the air and just as Kairi swung her bladed weapon at the shield to knock it aside it disappears back into his majesty's pocket dimension. Her guard exposed, Noctis called for his Mace of the Fierce. Kairi raised her hand to create a crystal barrier above her just before the king brings down the mace.

He shattered the barrier after one strike, but the magical defense of the princess repelled the attack. This gave Kairi time to change her weapon back into its original form and with a quick chant from her left hand just as Noctis landed on his feet, she cast another spell for herself. A see-through blue wall taking on the appearance of shells formed in front of her temporarily and disappeared.

Noctis re-calls for crossbow and fires a barrage of them at Kairi. Kairi smacks a few of them while some managed to strike her shoulder and stomach but to the surprise of the group, it looked as if she didn't even register the attacks. Even with one brushing past her cheek and drawing blood she didn't even bat an eye at this. Noctis grunted out a curse, worried this spell she used may have made her impervious to pain for all he knows.

He calls for Blade of the Mystic, performed the three-warp strike attack before he warped to Kairi. The princess managed to parry the ghostly apparitions and clashed with Noctis once more. His longer and larger blade weighed down on the girl, along with reach and strength difference between the two. Kairi's heels dig into the ground as she holds her ground against the king of light, their weapons clashing wildly as Noctis powered through her.

Kairi managed to parry the king and while twisting their weapons together and with a step forward she shouldered the king, causing him to drop his weapon and stagger backward. She thrusts her keyblade at him, only hitting a crystal blue afterimage of her opponent. The princess spins around to see Noctis grabbing her forearms and then he throws her over his shoulder. During her flight while upside down in the air, she sees him throw two flasks at her.

Kairi quickly flips in the air and then air dashed into the air just to avoid the flasks. When she was relatively high enough in the air, Kairi crosses her arms for a moment and then outstretched arms and legs with a cry. Her body glowed in the divine light that was the purest heart's light, behind here is a bunch of balls of light. She flies down to Noctis while her balls descend to the king like a meteor shower.

Kairi flies across the battlefield and passes Noctis as her attack hits the ground and creates several pillars of light. Noctis tries to evade as many as he could but even with his warping powers and phases, he is struck by several pillars or from the explosions that hit him like runaway trucks. When the final pillar of light disappeared, the field was decorated with small holes as if mines had gone off, the king pants from the pain and his frantic dodging.

Kairi rushes him during his break, swinging her keyblade and using the back blunt side of the keyblade she knocks Noctis across the field. He rolled onto his side but scrambled back to his feet as Kairi returns to her stance. He weakly chuckled at the turn of events, being pushed to his limits and Kairi was keeping surprises in store for them. But thankfully for his majesty, he still had his backup plan.

"Had enough, Noct?", Kairi taunts panting, "I'll accept your surrender!".

"Keep dreaming, I'm not out yet!", retorts the king.

As much as he hated to get serious right now, his pride was on the line and after having his backside handed to him by Aqua, he'll be damned if he goes down without a fight. He clenches his fist and unleashes a cry, going full Armiger. All his royal arms circle around the king as his wounds patched up, standing tall before Kairi. The girl's eyes narrowed in concern and apprehension, realizing the king was starting to get serious.

Noctis instantly warped in front of Kairi, two of his weapons immediately striking her keyblade and knocking her into the air. Noctis flies and fires his weapons at her, Kairi clashes with the ghostly weapons while simultaneously being thrown further into the air. The princess's wild frenzied attacks against Noctis' ghostly weaponry did not go without a mark on herself, several nicks and cuts on her body as well as her clothes.

She desperately tried to cast a spell to escape this onslaught of attacks but with so many spaces covered by Noctis' weapons, she had no time to conjure a spell nor have any room to move. It seemed the king believed she was out of options because as he throws four weapons at her, he grabbed onto the Sword of the Wise and warped above Kairi. His blade struck the princess and sends her careening down back to the ground.

Kairi looks up at the flying king with gritted teeth and with one eye closed from the pain. Wrecked with pain and weariness, she used a small portion of magic to heal herself enough to at least fight without feeling like she was gonna break apart. She backflips and spreads her arms and legs out like a star, slowing her fall and feeling the wind rush through her. Noctis aimed his keyblade at Kairi and fires all his royal arms toward her.

The princess could only gawk at this attack as she fell, but with determination, she grabs her keyblade with both hands and reels it back. "Please work…", she mentally begged. Kairi throws her keyblade at the weapons, bypassing them thanks to its thin frame. Kairi's body turns into a shimmer of light and then she vanishes through the weapons. Her body takes form outside of the barrage of weapons, grabbing her keyblade and within proximity of Noctis, she brings her keyblade down onto him.

Caught off guard by the warp-like ability of Kairi's, Noctis had enough brainpower to clumsily raise Night's Sky to defend himself against her keyblade. They kept clashing in the skies before Noctis' ghostly shield appeared above Kairi and slammed onto her head and slammed her back to the ground. Kairi tries to round herself upright but slammed onto the ground in the end, bouncing off it. But this wouldn't stop her from getting back onto her feet as Noctis himself collapsed onto the ground with a heavy thud.

Two keyblade wielders got back on their feet, weary and aching as Noctis glared at her. "W-When did you, learn to warp!?", questioned the king. Kairi giggled tiredly as she stabbed the keyblade into the ground and rested on it, looking at the king. "W-Watching you…", she admitted, "It, it wasn't that hard to mimic when you get it down".

Noctis grunted out a groan as he shagged in his stance. "Copycat…", he insults. Kairi stuck her tongue at him while lifting her hand. "Alrighty then, how bout I-

Noctis' mouth moved but nothing came out. He blinks in confusion, then opened his mouth to speak again but nothing comes out. He rubbed his throat, completely baffled by the silence that was his lack of sound. "What the hell!?", he thinks to himself. He keeps trying to speak but no matter how hard he tries nothing was coming out but silent breaths.

Many of the spectators were watching with complete confusion…all but Lunafreya, who was beside herself with laughter, clutching her stomach and giggling profusely at the sight of her boyfriend trying to figure out why suddenly his vocal cords had decided to take a nap. Never had the party seen the Oracle laugh so hard before, she was crying with laughter and nearly fell out of her stump-seat with giggles.

Aqua looks at the woman with her lips cracking a barely restraint smile. "W-What did she do?", she giggled, the woman's laughter was very infectious. Lunafreya giggly replied: " *Snicker* K-Kairi, silenced Noctis… *giggle* literally!". Noctis keeps waving his arms while looking like he was yelling silently at the Oracle for answers, knowing Kairi couldn't do this before her training. This only made the woman burst into more laughter.

"N-N-Noctis! HAHAHA! S-Stop it! It's too funny!", she pleads.

Even some of the others were starting to laugh along with her, further embarrassing the king as Kairi held onto her keyblade, no more for the sake of keeping her to fight but to prevent her from falling with laughter. "N-Noct, I'm so sorry but…pfft HAHAHAHA! You look so funny!", Kairi laughs. She wiped her tear from her eye and faced him, only to cease her laughter and yelp in fear when he came at her with the Sword of the Tall, face bright red with anger and embarrassment. The blade easily weighed Kairi down enough for her legs to buckle and fall on her back, holding back the blade with her own.

"I take it you don't find it as funny as me?", Kairi gritted out with a terrified smile. The rage in his eyes answered her question as he pressed down harder on Kairi. The princess tried to push him off but with all her magic spent and body ached with all the hits the king landed on her and falling onto the ground like a sack of potatoes did nothing for her either. Noctis was silently (literally) swearing at her as he pressed down on the poor girl, the keyblade pressed against Kairi's chest and her nose inches away from the sharp-edged blade.

With all her mana, Kairi yells: "Aeroga!".

Beneath the princess a powerful gale of wind formed, blasting both her and Noctis upward into the air, dislodging their deadlock and throwing the girl higher than Noctis because of his sword's weight. However, that didn't stop him from using his keyblade to warp strike the girl and close the gap once again. Kairi evades his attacks while striking at him too, keyblades clashing in the skies. Noctis managed to knock her keyblade out her hands, forcing Kairi to air dash away from him.

She recalls her keyblade and warp struck back to the ground as the king joined her, glaring at her as she shakily stands up. "If I give your voice back will you agree to call this is a draw?", she pleaded. Noctis frowned, rubbed his throat before with a silent sigh, nods to her. Exhaling a breath of relief, Kairi snapped her fingers and dispelled the silence spell plaguing the king. He croaks out some groans and tests his voice, before turning to Lunafreya.

The woman was still suffering from aftermath giggling, finally calming down but still snickering slightly. He opened his mouth to give her a stern lecture but what came out instead?

"Nya!".

Noctis instantly slammed his hand to his mouth, completely mortified by that sound. It wasn't even the word but a "meow" of sorts. Nobody dared to speak, most of them were caught completely off guard by this. Lunafreya on the other hand…

She burst into a roaring fit of laughter, falling back from her stump and rolled on the ground laughing. Kairi snickering profusely at this before she had broken down into a fit of laughter, clutching her stomach, completely beside herself. The spell wasn't taught to her by Lunafreya, but during her training one of the spellbooks Merlin left for her had shown her the power of changing certain voices to communicate with animals.

And there is no better-suited animal for Noctis then a kitten.

"PFFT! HAHAHA! Noct, I'm so sorry but at the same time I'm not!", she laughs. She takes a deep breath to control herself to face him, only to bear witness to the king's murderous gaze. She snaps her fingers again to give him back his voice again, for real this time. "…you know the only reason I'm not going to murder you is because Luna's having fun with all this…and because I like Sora", he reminds. Kairi giggled and nodded, at least he was being honest.

Before she could reply with more giggles, but then as quick as the wind, she was hit in the stomach by a flask. It lands before her feet and she saw it was cracked. "Oh dear…", she gulps. One blustery explosion completely trapping her a fog of cold, when it disappeared, she had large lumps of snow on her shoulders and hair and looked close to becoming a frozen statue. Teeth chattering and her shaking madly, she glared at the king, smugly looking back at her.

"We're even", he states.

"F-F-Fair enough..", Kairi speaks, with chattering teeth.

Their fight concluded with three masters happy with their progress, more stating Kairi's versatility growing more and with Noctis' endurance and how long he could warp while swapping weapons out quicker than before. Both new keyblade wielders were slowly catching up with the others, and as Aqua watches Kairi join Sora, more and more does her faith in her grows.

Still shivering, the princess was about to take her spot before she turned to Sora, opening his arms for her. She was cold, and her boyfriend was warm, so Kairi jumped into his arms, sitting on his lap and he wrapped his strong limbs around her, not even bothered by the cold hugging her body and clothes. Then he leans into her ear. "Need me to warm you up?", he asks. Kairi nods, but then giggles when he starts to pepper her neck with light butterfly kisses. He was doing his job wonderfully.

"Alright, Axel, Ven? You're next", Aqua announces.

The two warriors entered ring just as Mickey himself stepped in, facing them. Both looked at each other, realizing they were about to take on one of the strongest masters amongst them, probably even tougher than Riku. Mickey smiled as he calls his keyblade, the Star Cluster. The Star Cluster is modeled after the Kingdom Key D (His original) and, by extension, Sora's Kingdom Key. It features a gold handguard, and a blue blade patterned with stars in the manner of the Star Seeker (Another keyblade both he and Sora used)

The concave rain guard has now been replaced by a diamond-patterned bell shape. At the top, two corners of the handguard are five-pointed star designs, while the bottom two appear to have massive golden screws. Between the handle and the rain guard is a glass-like dome, deep blue and speckled white like a starry sky, and on the guard below the handle is a gold crescent moon. The teeth of the blade are now silver, and the crown shape is lined. The Keychain is unchanged from that of the Kingdom Key D.

The two called for theirs as Mickey's smile turned into determined just before Aqua declared the match to begin.

Ventus makes the first move by immediately using his Fever Pitch and nearly disappears as he dashes towards Mickey. The boy makes several concentrated swings at the mouse king, except with Mickey's size being only a few feet tall and his amazing acrobatic skills, Ventus mostly struck at naught but the air. Mickey easily evaded half his attacks just by small leaps and flips over the keyblade, and when he clashes with the boy he easily brushed aside the keyblade.

Ventus and Mickey fought with the king, any seasoned warrior could tell, was putting in little effort to match the boy's strikes. He rolled away from Axel's sweep, dodging the flamed shaped teeth of his keyblade and jumping over them both. Ventus dashed into the air to chase the king, increasing his speed as his body glowed in the green light. Mickey turns to Ventus and parried all his attacks before he flipped over him and aimed his keyblade at the boy.

He fires a pure pearl of light that struck Ventus in the back, blasting him back to the ground. He tumbled and rolled onto his side as Mickey lands a few steps from him. Mickey spins around to face Axel, who brushed his nose and smirked at the mouse king. Next, then they see is Axel switching his keyblade back into his chakrams, and then dashed towards the king, leaving a trail of flames in his wake.

However, instead of attacking him head-on, Axel skirts around the mouse and combined his weapons into one giant chakram of fire and lifts it behind Mickey. The mouse spins around and raises a stone pillar to protect himself, blocking the burning wheel of fire. Axel's attack broke through the stone but not enough to touch the king, allowing Mickey to leap away from him just as the stone broke apart.

Axel dashes around where he lands and begins to strike at him with a flurry of burning wheels. Mickey, undeterred, parried and dodges his attacks like a nimble dancer. Mickey flips over Axel after the latter sweeps his chakram at his legs, leaping several feet away from the former nobody. Axel turned on his heels in time to raise his chakrams to block a pearl of light, holding his ground and refusing to budge.

Mickey readies himself for the next bout as Ventus re-joins Axel's side, staring down the king as Axel spins his chakrams with his fingers. He nudges the boy and with a smirk, lifts his weapons. Nodding at the silent plan, Ventus spins his keyblade and dashes at Mickey once more as Axel performs his usual t-pose like stance.

On guard for their silent plot, Mickey meets Ventus immediately. Their keyblades clash as Ventus goes for more a "hit and dash" tactic, only striking Mickey and air while keeping a balance between distance and close range. Mickey's mobility and agility made it difficult for Ventus to maintain any form of distance for a period but because he was striking at him with key and light magic he at least prevents Mickey from attack him with anything too much for him.

Mickey's attack was parried by the young boy's own and when he flips away from him, Ventus is suddenly surrounded in a cyclone of roaring flames. Glowing in a golden-red light as his keyblade is bathed in flame, Ventus activates a new command, the Fire Raid. Levitating in the air as a small patch of fire is beneath him, he flies towards Mickey, leaving trails of fire beneath him. Ventus' swung his keyblade, each leaving trails of fire with each swing and even if they didn't contact Mickey's key the roaring flames caused the mouse to dodge either way.

Ventus flies high into the air and aimed his free hand at Mickey, firing a torrent of fireballs at him. Large ones that were as bright as day with intense heat that could be felt to the others, Mickey is now put on the defense as he evades the balls of fire, leaping and jumping all over the field like a grasshopper while using his magic to defend himself from them. Ventus then swings his keyblade and fires off burning arcs of fire that were powerful enough to split the ground and burn them in tow. This and his balls of fire were more than enough to keep even as agile as Mickey on the defenses.

Mickey grabs his keyblade with both hands, realizing Ventus is giving it his all to prove his strength. A surge of pride rushes through his majesty before his keyblade glows, it was time for the king to get serious. His keyblade shines bright and extends, taller than the mouse man as it takes the shape of a great sword, the light bright as the sun and the magical power is so great even masters of magic like Aqua stared in awe of its power.

The king rushes to Ventus, cutting down his arcs and balls of fire easily while using some as steppingstones. One last jump off the final ball and closes the gap between him and Ventus. His blade struck the boy even as he lifted his keyblade to defend himself, fire and light clashing hotly in the air. In the end, the fires died out and Mickey's swing throws Ventus back to the ground as his fiery powers are extinguished.

Ventus grunts and dashes to the ground instead of falling onto his back in defeat, he wasn't out of this fight yet. Mickey lands in front of him, and before he tried to end the boy's determination to fight, his eyes fall to the forgotten opponent. Axel was surrounded by fire, even hotter and far more intense than even Ventus' command as he spins his weapons quicker. With a crazy smile, he flattened them together and cried out: "Lets heat things up!".

The flames licking his shoulders ran down his arms and covered his chakrams before the golden flames turned into raw red wildfire taking the shape of a blade. Axel performs one swing of his weapon, dousing only enough fire to show off his keyblade's second form change, the Ring Blade. A single-edged curved broad sword that shared the usual length of an average broad sword, except it had nine rings on the blunt side of the curved weapon that had his chakram design, the hilt was shaped like his chakram with Flame liberator's color scheme.

Spinning the weapon with one hand, Axel runs at the mouse king to give his ally a break. Axel's attacks were quicker and much more focused than when he wielded the chakrams, plus with the weight of the sword is much heavier than Ventus' keyblade. Meaning for the master blocking and parrying the sword would be more difficult and stamina consuming for him, making Mickey go back and lean on his agility to evade parrying.

Axel's ring blade kept making noises that strangely off-sets Mickey's coordination and the noises got to his ears, causing him to make mistakes. It would seem Axel must have figured with great hearing from those round ears of Mickey's, they also came with sensitivity that could truly distract him. The rings served their purpose and with the weapon giving him familiarity like it does for all keyblade wielders, it seemed Axel had finally gained control over the fight.

His upward swing collides with Mickey's keyblade, throwing it over the mouse's head and out of his hands. Mickey is completely unarmed and ripe for a defeat, Axel brings his sword up and then quickly brings it down. Mickey, undaunted, aimed his gloved hand and fires spell the acted like a small barrier for him that repelled Axel's attack. Axel staggered back as the shock of the recoil runs down his limb and nearly caused him to drop the blade, but that wasn't the end.

Mickey wipes out a crystal-clear card-shaped glass from his pocket and held it up high. A flash of light shines and blasts Axel as away as the light covered the ground, creating a wide ring that surrounds Mickey and not only did it repel Axel, but it healed Mickey too.

The pyro loses his footing while he tried to regain his focus from that surprise attack, rubbing his head while shaking it to shake off the temporary blindness. He grunts out with one last shake of his head as his vision returns to show him, Mickey, recalling his keyblade. "So much for getting the upper hand", he mentally groaned, running at him with the tip dragging in the ground. Grabbing the sword with both hands, Axel yells as he swings the mystical weapon upwards just a few steps from Mickey. Following the blade was a large eruption of fire that rained down on the mouse king.

Mickey merely aims his keyblade at the eruption and cried out: "Blizzaga!". A stream of crystal blue ice soars from the tip and collides with the eruption, near-instantly freezing it entirely. Ice cloaks over the flames and slowly turned it into an ice sculpture, halting the attack. Mickey leaps around it and jumps toward Axel, his speed catching the man off guard and with one stroke of his magical weapon, Mickey struck Axel at his stomach and throws him across the field and into a tree.

Back slammed against the wood, he slumps to the ground in defeat.

He groans out in pain before his Ring Blade turns back into its keyblade form, slumping when his body couldn't get up and resume the fight. Utterly beaten with just one hit from the master, and judging Ventus struggling to stand up, Axel regretfully could say this fight was a loss.

That was until Ventus grabbed his left armored shoulder and slammed his palm on it. When a flash of light appears and disappears, the youngest wielder of the key dons his armor at long last. Ventus' suit of armor shares the coloration of the pieces he normally wears, predominantly sporting shades of green and gold. With his armor he dons a yellow cape to his outfit that is discolored, almost appearing rusted. With the armor on his knee is gold and bears a sharp, upward-pointing hook on the outer side of each one. His helmet has a notably different design from Aqua and Terra's, appearing more squashed and flat at the top. His helmet also has two prongs on either side of his head which point backward and angle diagonally upward.

His body glowed in the intense green light of his Fever Pitch again, but it was more luminous and more jade-colored. He got low with a hand placed on the ground and keyblade raised behind him before he suddenly vanishes in a blur. Mickey looks around for the boy, but his ears picked up his faint steps just barely and he spins around in time to see Ventus in the air.

Mickey quickly swipes at him, hitting him from shoulder to shoulder. Suddenly his body vanishes into nothing but air. Mickey was struck on the left shoulder but when he spins around he saw nobody before him. He tries to pick up on the boy's movements, yet it was as though Ventus had turned into a phantom, an ethereal being that could make no sound yet harm someone. The king had a completely new foe to contend with, someone who could move so fast that they were leaving after-images.

Mickey's eyes spots Ventus moving and running in several places, more and more images of him were scattered around the battlefield as if they were a legion of soldiers. Worse yet Mickey couldn't pick out which of them were the real one, none stuck out and for all the king knows Ventus could have cloned himself to do battle. To his surprise, Ventus dashed towards him like a bullet, and worst of all when Mickey struck at him, he was suddenly attacked from his left and felt Ventus' keyblade hit him.

It is baffling to the king, the attacks came out of nowhere, they were extremely unpredictable and even though Ventus wasn't do half the damage someone like Sora could do, Mickey feared he was employing the wearing down tactic. With this kind of speed and without any methods to strike him in time or even have enough breathing space for him to cast any spell that could cover the field, Mickey was in a bind.

The only thing he could do was merely wait for Ventus to make one bad move, one single mistake is all he'll need to turn the tide. And if he was anything like Sora when it comes to his confidence, it will come sooner than he thinks.

And he was right.

Ventus must have believed he had Mickey on edge, paranoid for the next attack to come or maybe frustrated him to the point where he was going to make a mistake, because the boy was right behind the king just a few steps away from him, knees bent to project himself like a bullet. In his helmet, he grunts and rockets himself towards the king, breaking the earth beneath his feet and a loud burst of a sonic boom echoed in his speed.

Mickey turned right on time to clash keyblades with the boy for the final time. Surprised the king had such a quick reaction time, Ventus couldn't react in time himself to strike him. Mickey struck him right on his right shoulder, stopping his momentum and slammed him back into the ground with a loud tremor shaking the arena. On his back with his armor cracking and some even breaking apart from the attack, Ventus cursed in pain as he slumped in defeat like Axel.

Mickey pants himself, haven't been pushed this far in some time as he dismisses his keyblade after he heals the boy. Ventus weakly deactivates his armor and once he was in sight for everyone else, they all looked in horror at the state of the chosen wielder. They see his bare arms had more bruises and cuts along with his face contorting in absolute agony with one eye closed.

Mickey looked ready to panic; positive he didn't hit the boy that many times to put him in such a state. Instantly Aqua was by his side and assessed his state, her panic looks quickly shifting to concern and annoyance. "Ven, you went overboard", she lectured while calling Master's Defender. Mickey's looks of worry turns to confusion as Aqua starts to heal the boy. Noticing her fellow master's confusion, she clears her throat and explains: "Our armor does more than protect us from the darkness. If tempered and trained, we can use them to enhance our power".

Axel was lifted to his feet by Riku, the master deciding the man had enough today as he helps him join the others. "That explains how Kairi could do all the crazy stuff with it", comments Riku, helping Axel sit down on the stump. Axel grunts out in pain as Donald tended to him, looking at Aqua. "So, when do we get our fancy armor?", Axel asked, "Just saying…could do with some protection". When Aqua finishes healing her brother, she helps him to his feet and then turned to Axel.

"Well traditionally, you should have been given it by your master when you're nearing your Mark of Mastery Exam", she explains, "Sadly I was never taught the process, nor Mickey and certainly not Riku".

"Mark of Mastery"?", Noctis pipes up, "What's that?".

"The final part of our training to become keyblade masters", Riku says, "When we reach that level, we usually pass an exam to test the strengths of our hearts. We pass, we're masters".

This made the human king fold his arms in thought before Aqua smirks. "Don't get ahead of yourself, Noct, you are FAR from ready to take that exam", lectured the master herself. Noctis gives her a frown in response saying: "What? How do you know?".

"Considering you failed your history, geography and math exams? I dare say becoming a keyblade master is a bit out of your reach", Ignis reminds with a subtle smirk of his own. Noctis turns on his advisor with a growl. "Oh come on, like math is important for mastering the keyblade?", he challenges. "It'd help to have the ability to count on your shortcomings for one thing", Ignis retorts without missing a beat.

There are snickers made as Noctis huffs in response. "Well what exactly do you have to do?", he asks, diverting their attention away from him. Not his fault he fell asleep through most of his math classes. "Well for me and Riku we had to go to sleeping worlds for our exam", Sora said crossing arms in recollection. This gets Aqua's attention as Riku hums along in agreement. "Resolve some personal issues, awaken worlds that hadn't been properly restored and fight off new breeds of monsters", Riku lists with a sigh, "While constantly being taunted by Xehanort when he was a punk".

"Whoa, dude…sleeping worlds?", Prompto says with awe. "You have no clue what that means do you?", Gladiolus says with a deadpanned tone. "Not a clue!", confirms Prompto. "Shocker…", says Gladiolus.

"Worlds that were never properly restored after we beat Ansem", Sora explains, though he frowned when he thought back on Traverse Town. "Me and Riku had help wake them up by entering them through sleep".

"Sounds like you two had it pretty rough", Gladiolus says, "And because of Xehanort you couldn't pass?".

"Pretty much…", sighed Sora, scratching the back of his head, embarrassed and sheepish. At that discovery, Kairi frowns. Among all the team she could think of who deserved to be a keyblade master, none deserved it more than Sora. She wasn't thinking like that because she was his girlfriend, her feelings had nothing to do with it. For everything, he had done, and not being chosen from the start, he should have been made one. Sure from what Riku said he was a bit overconfident when they announced he'd be taking the exam but who wouldn't be after all the things Sora managed to do?

She couldn't wait to face Xehanort, another reason to kick his butt had just been added to her list.

"But that was probably nothing compared to Aqua's!", Sora says with a grin. Aqua turns pink as Ventus snickered behind her, remember her exam. "Yeah, how'd yours and Terra's go?", Riku asked, curious. "Yeah Blue, yours anymore exciting?", Gladiolus joins in. Aqua rubbed her neck with an awkward laugh, suddenly feeling unworthy and very self-conscious. "W-Well…no…in comparison, ours were more tamed".

"Our first part was showing how much we had learned from our master, and then… a dual between me and Terra", she explained.

"Seriously? You and Terra had to fight each other while Sora and Riku had to reawaken worlds?", Noctis asked incredulously. Aqua nods shyly, sheepishly. "I-In our defense, the worlds were still awake and going. We lived in a time of peace", she argued. "Not to mention we needed to learn the power of waking to help Ventus and at the time Terra", Riku says defending Aqua. "I'm sure if she took the exam during our time she'd probably pass it with flying colors".

Sora nodded eagerly. "Yeah! I mean have you guys seen what she could do?", he asked. Much of the party affirmed in the boy's rhetorical question, some even mentioning some of her greatest feats in Eos while the woman, flustered, tries to talk down her feats. All the while Ventus was watching her with a bright smile on his face, knowing Eraqus would be infinitely proud of her if he could see what she had done.

Looking at his shoulder where he can activate his armor, he gently lays his hand on it. "We're getting there Terra,", he quietly says, "We'll be strong enough to bring you home…I promise". As the boy thinks fondly on his brother, he watches on as Sora and Riku go on about Aqua's feats while the woman was weakly trying to make them cease, even saying they're exaggerating, the boy listens in happily…

*Night*

Another day down and many more to come, Lunafreya finishes drying her hair and exits the bathroom and re-enters her bedroom. Where she was once more under the "harsh" gaze that was Noctis' glare. Though calling it a glare was a bit of an exaggeration considering she neither felt intimidated nor uncomfortable, rather the best way to describe what the king was doing is simply pouting at her.

"Noctis, your attempts to scare me require more than the pouty puppy look", she teases softly with a gentle giggle. The king huffs with his pout deepening and were she not the cause of his pout she'd coo him and cuddle with him. Likely he was still a tad bit, as Prompto says, "salty" from Kairi's harmless jesters. She knows the king knew those spells were taught by the Oracle bar the kitten spell, that delightful spell was a clever construct of Kairi's imagination.

"You could have told me there's a way to fix that…", he growled.

"If I provide you all the answers, how would you learn to adapt and grow?", teases the future wife of the king.

He grunts and crosses his arms, still "glaring" at the woman. Lunafreya had to resist the urge to roll her eyes, her future king was acting like a child who was the unfortunate victim of a harmless prank. "I'm sure Kairi felt very bad for teasing your vocal cords", she assured with a half-assed tone. "Oh I'm not angry at Kairi, I got her back", remarks Noctis with a smirk, "And by the grace of the light you were not maimed by Sora", Lunafreya added. "…ok yeah, good point but it's you I'm mostly annoyed at!".

Lunafreya gives him a fake pout as he stands up. "If I apologize, will his majesty be so kind as to forgive me for such treason?", she says, tad bit sarcastically. This time Noctis' pout turned into a wicked grin, and that was a grin that Lunafreya dreaded. She already missed pouty Noctis. "Nah, an apology isn't enough", he says as he approached her. Suddenly backing up slightly from him and wondering if her running away was the best course of action, Lunafreya gulped.

Before her mind could make up what to do, Noctis lurches forward and grabbed her waist and throws her onto the bed. Quick as lightning Noctis grabbed her wrists and with the nimbleness of a thief picking a lock, he manages to tie them both up against one of the metal poles of the headboard. Bound with her arms, Lunafreya was blushing profusely at this sudden action as Noctis settled on her stomach, a leg on each side of her hips.

"N-N-Noctis!", she squeaks, "S-S-Such a thing should be saved for m-m-m-marriage!". The king still had the wicked grin on his face, slowly brushing his hand down her cheeks like he was soothing her worries. "Gladio and Aqua did it, why shouldn't we follow their example?", he inquires cockily and Lunafreya hated to say it, sexily. Perhaps it was the extended absence between them but was her king always this…desirable? And why did she suddenly wish for him to convince her to take a page out his shield and master's book?

Noctis leaned into her ear and whispered: "Before this night ends…I'm going to make you scream my name".

By the divine light, the Oracle almost tried to rip the bondage that binds her hands and make the man fulfill his promise despite her firm belief.

Slowly the king rubbed her shoulders, massaging them before he lowered his hands down lower to what she feared (and excitedly) thought were her hips, maybe to remove her shorts. No, instead she settled at her sides.

Her eyes widened, she knew what he was about to do.

"Noctis…don't you da-d-d-pfft HAAHAHHAHAHAHA!", shrieks the Oracle as the king started to tickle her sides. The woman's laughter rings out in the room as she struggled to escape her king's evil torture, thrashing wildly as Noctis tickled her. "HAHAHHA N-N-NOCTIS! AAHAHAH! S-STOP! PLEA-HAHAHAH!", laughs the woman.

The king ignored her pleas and kept up his torture, he was a man of his word after all. That…and he missed her laughter.

With luck, that wonderful sound will be made more often by the end of this training…

A/N:

*Bangs head against the wall*

I…had…tried…to…get…this done…for the ENTIRE WEEK! GAHHHHH!

Massive thanks to KakeruPB and VashTheStampede0409 for their help! KakeruPB for Kairi's abilities along with the Mark of Mastery part and Vash for Ventus and Noctis' little incident! You two made this chapter a lot easier to do!

Next time we'll be seeing Ardyn take on certain members of Xehanort's group, how will the man of no consequences fare? (Don't worry we'll have fluff in it too with the heroes)

QUESTIONS!

Q1: Thoughts on this chapter?

Q2: How did you like Noctis and Kairi in this one?

Q3: Who do you wanna see fighting next?

Q4: Anything you want the team to do next?

Q5: Should the Organization be as strong as their Data counterparts (Suggested by KakeruPB).

Q6: Should Axel wear his robes or his new outfit? Just wondering!

Q7: Axel's new weapon?

Q8: How many of you saw what Noctis was gonna do?

Q9: How was Mickey?

As always, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but most importantly (especially with what's going on) stay safe!


	65. Chapter 65

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 65

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

*Keyblade Graveyard*

He didn't think Niflhiem could lose its crown of most dull location in all worlds, but as Ardyn had discovered merely awaiting on a pillar of stone in a graveyard filled with rusted or broken keyblades was twice as dull.

The wind whistling by was like a song of the departed, the history of this world laid bare before him by Xehanort. How once upon a time, those who wield the keyblade were meant to safeguard the light and usher an age of peace, but oh how easy it is for all dreams of an eternity of safety and peace to be crushed into the dirt when a little bit of paranoia and distrust begins to tug at the hearts. Here lie the unmarked graves of countless warriors of the key, all battling for reasons he couldn't fathom.

Truly a fitting place for the great war to take place once again, and for the Usurper, the perfect place to put an end to the line of Lucis once and for all.

Standing near a cliff in thought that overlooked the labyrinth, he waits patiently for the day to finally come where he would finally put the sword to that false king's neck and strike down the interlopers who dared to stay off his vengeance. Oh how he looked forward to seeing the look of anguish on that princess' face, to watching Noctis' followers wallow in agony when they see their king fall to him, so many of them had ruined his grand scheme.

He had a special plan for Sora, that is certain. Had the brat not regained his heart then that false king would never have stood a chance against him. Thankfully for Ardyn, when it comes to hurting Sora he had plenty of options to choose from.

"Oi, creepy".

With a sardonic sigh and theatrics turned to see exiting a dark corridor was none other than his second favorite "teammate", the twelfth member of the organization, Larxene, the Savage Nymph. She wears the normal Organization black coat and gloves, along with knee-high boots (though with more narrow toes and higher heels). Her blonde hair is slicked back and about jaw-length, with two long strands styled into a distinctive antennae-like appearance.

Like everyone the old man had recruited, she had golden eyes same as Ardyn. That wonderful sneer on her face that seemed to be present whenever she was addressing him only pleased Ardyn, he felt special that she had a dislike toward him.

"Oh my dear Larxene", he greets with playful empty eagerness, "To what do I owe the pleasure of being blessed by your company?". The look of disgust on her face only furthered his desires to keep up this charade, judging by the cackling of lighting dancing along her knuckles he believed were it not for Xehanort they would partake in a wonderful dance of blades and knives. She must have learned some restraint though because she scoffed.

"Get your ass over to the labyrinth, old scarface wants to see what you're made of", the blonde head said before a wicked gleam appeared in her eyes. "And guess whose gonna kick your ass?".

Ardyn chuckled lightly as his corridor of darkness opened behind him. "Oh I'm sure Saix will leave me black and blue by the end…I'm more concerned about you my dear", he says with empty concern. "From what I heard, your last battle with a much weaker and less experienced Sora ended quite…poorly".

With a dramatic turn, he entered his dark corridor, almost missing that snarl from the livid woman. Far too easy to rill up he lamented, missing the blonde MT unit. At least with him, there was effort required to enrage him.

Within the labyrinth, the man of Eos almost gave all visitors a look of bemusement seeing nearly everyone had arrived to take part.

First of them was the nobody and former leader of the "false organization XIII", Xemnas. Although his organization uniform was as standard as they came, the black coat, gloves and boots, Ardyn knew he was far from standard. He has amber-orange eyes, and dark skin like his complete being, Xehanort. Xemnas's hair is long, reaching to about mid-back, silver in color, and some of it falls over his shoulders.

His sparring buddy, one of them anyway, is Saix. Like Young Xehanort, he wears a basic organization black coat, along with the usual black gloves and boots. He has long blue hair vaguely reminiscent of that turncoat scientist in style and length, though Saix's is a bit wilder at the top. Most of his hair is tucked into his cloak, though a portion is not and falls over the back. Apparently, after becoming a vessel for Xehanort's heart, Saix shares his pointed ears and amber eyes. Saix also wears stud earrings like another former member that returned to being human.

The X-shaped scar on Saix's face is his most distinctive trait, with the vertex of this "X" lying between his eyes and extending from halfway up his forehead to just under his eyes. He was curious as to how he came to obtaining such a scar, but the man refused to dispense the answer.

The other sparring buddy is someone Ardyn had never expected to see but took great joy in after learning his history. A younger Riku who, from what Xigbar had told him, gave in to the darkness at the younger age of fifteen. Instead of the dark coat, his outfit consists of a form-fitting suit that appears to be made of black muscle tissue.

The suit has a purple-blue color on the chest and part of the torso with the heartless emblem on the chest, but without the spiked bars crossing it. It has purple feet and shins that fade into black legs. It has a dark purple belt and a cloth around his waist, opening in the front. The cloth is an off-white color that fades into dark purple and is ripped all-around at the bottom. Unlike the real one, he wields the saber version of the weapon Ravus once carried.

Though it'd be far more amusing to say aloud, Ardyn kept his thoughts on the boy's power silent. In comparison, Riku from the king's party was far more powerful just with the darkness within him. For the fake's sake, he best have something up that ridiculously tight sleeve of his.

Ah, but he wasn't the only one with peculiar fashion sense. He had a rival in the contest of ridiculous uniforms, and that was Vanitas. That boy wears a black and red organic-looking bodysuit, which is quite like Riku's. He wears a silver helmet covered with dark glass, hiding his face from view. Ever since Ardyn had arrived here he has never seen the boy without his helmet off, not that he cared to commit his face to memory of anything.

Lastly, and perhaps the strangest one amongst them all was that one. Standing beside Saix as quiet as a statue, was the supposed final member of the organization, dressed in the same coat with slightly pointed shoulders and closer-fitting sleeves. She also wears the more feminine, heeled boots that Larxene wears and the basic black gloves. Like Vanitas, she always has her hood down, and no matter when or where he sees her, the hood conceals her twenty-four/seven.

What was it with the youth and concealing their faces he wondered?

He saunters to the center of the field with a dry smile as Larxene appears from her corridor with her usual snarl. Once everyone was here, the Superior speaks up: "Now that everyone is here, it is time to see if our newest member is strong enough to stand with us".

"My dear Xemnas, a tad bit harsh, wouldn't you say?", argued the former chancellor, "Haven't I proven myself during my bout with the boy?".

"Getting your ass kicked by him and a newbie keyblade wannabe isn't a badge you'd wanna wear around", Larxene remarks catty, smirking. "I mean, I heard you got destroyed!".

"And you did *so* much better when you fought him?", Vanitas says with a cruel tone. The woman glares at the helmet head, but anyone amongst them could tell he was smirking at that question. Larxene opens her mouth to rip into him before Saix stepped up. "Irrelevant", he huffs, "You've lost your immortality among your powers of the blight. This is to make sure you'll live long enough to claim the light from one of the guardians".

Ardyn resists the urge to roll his eyes, deciding he'd play along with their commands for now. While taking out one or two of Sora's friends would be a nice bonus, Ardyn's true target was the false king. But while the vixen's loudmouth was nothing more than her trying to get under his skin, hers and Saïx's words did bring a cold reminder that he indeed lost the power of the blight, and certainly, he isn't as powerful as he was back home.

"Just don't break a bone or two during our sparring, old man", Dark Riku says with mocking concern. "Oh your concern is so touching, Riku", Ardyn replied, "Just a shame that is the closest thing to harming me you shall ever accomplish". The silver-haired boy growled while Vanitas laughed, agreeing with the "old man".

Unamused, Xemnas turns to Saix. "I assume you have no qualms in joining the sparring?", he says rhetorically. With one curt bow to his former superior, Saix gestures the hooded girl and Larxene to stand by his side while Vanitas and Dark Riku joins Ardyn. Xemnas steps back before floating in the air to oversee the battle.

The very moment he declares the fight to commence, everyone draws their weapons and rushes in. Dark Riku with Soul Eater instantly took on the girl while Vanitas takes his fight with Saix, calling for his keyblade, the Void Gear. Its teeth and head are black with a red outline and possesses a round, cog-like shape. The handle is red, and the guard has the same coloration and cog-like shape as the teeth. The shaft is predominantly colored in shades of grey and sports a copper-colored gear in the center, with two intersecting, black chains wrapped around it.

Two more chains are wrapped around the base of the shaft in a similar fashion. It also has two Gazing Eyes: one located in the head of the blade and one embedded in the hilt. Its Keychain is comprised of three small, copper gears and ends in a charm resembling two halves of a gear arranged in an S-shape.

Which left Ardyn to dance with the vixen, who immediately rushed to him with the speed of lightning. She instantly appeared before him with a flurry of knives punching at him, but the man was easily evading them. Using his form of the Armiger, leaving traces of red hologram versions of himself with each sidestep and evasion, tricking the woman into attacking them.

Ardyn calls for his arm, the Raksha blade, and swings at her. Larxene leaps over his attack and backflips a few feet from him. He turns around to her, seeing clones of herself appear from each side, now smirking evilly. The clones rush in, unleashing a storm of knives and lightning. Ardyn managed to quicken his movements by infusing the darkness within his heart into his Armiger, his body coated in a miasma of violet tinted crimson.

He grabbed one Larxene clone by her neck mid-punch and engulfed her in darkness before reducing her to nothing. Ardyn turned around to the other clone with his Raksha cleaving her in half, making her body evaporate into nothingness. Once her "sisters" perished, Ardyn turned to the real one with his left hand and unleashes a barrage of dark fire at her. The woman bolts around the attacks, chaining lightning behind her as she "teleported" in several points on the ground and air.

When she reached him in the air, she flipped forward and brought her heel onto him. Ardyn defended himself using the flat surface of the sword, but this makes Larxene's smirk turn more malicious and cruel because she turns into lightning and zips over him. When five feet from him she snaps his fingers and suddenly the chain of lightning grows larger and wider like a true bolt of lightning. The chained lightning zips across the field, tracing her movements and striking Ardyn in the chest.

His body encased in golden lightning with pain running through his nerves, paralyzing him in tow. He lets out a growl of pain, long accustomed to it now thanks to Noctis and Sora, unable to move. This gives the wicked lightning user a chance to strike at him, increasing her speed and zipping around him while striking at him. Combing knives and lightning with each strike, Ardyn was forced to bear this torturous ordeal as the woman laughs and taunts him.

With a scoff, his dark crystalized weapons appear around him and began to rotate around his body with the same speed as Larxene. This makes the woman zip back from him when one of those swords tried to lop her head off. As the lightning encasing him eased off, Ardyn aimed his free unarmed hand at her and fires a barrage of crystal sword-shaped beams at her. Larxene dodged and dances around the attacks, her speed outclassing his attacks.

When she narrowly dodged one more, she was struck in the back of her head by a sweeping kick from Ardyn. She stumbled forward and turned back on him, playfully smirking. "Tag…you're it", he says as he warped across the field, tauntingly and smirking at her. "Oooh…I'm going to tear you apart ya slimy creep!", she snarled.

A chase between the Lucis magic vs the speed of lightning across the field of battle, for every chance Larxene had to strike she'd miss or hit a hologram of him, his voice continuously taunting her and furthering her rage against him.

She kicked another hologram and was struck herself at the side, hit by a blast of darkness. She bounced off the ground before zipping across the field and managed to get behind the real one. Shooting up she struck at him, her sharp fists blocked by a scepter as Ardyn deflects her attacks. The lightning user unleashed a furry of strikes onto Ardyn, striking at every space between them like a hurricane of knives.

Though she combined lightning strikes along with her blinding speed and even managed to strike his arms, shoulders and even his hip the woman couldn't land a devastating hit on the man. For all the hits she does land Ardyn seemed to be completely unfazed by the hits as he kept evading the more serious blows. He managed to phase around her mid-strike and got right behind her once more, aiming his hand at her back.

This time however the woman was prepared for that cheap shot because another clone rushed into strike at Ardyn. The clone leaps and slammed her clawed fists into the ground, erecting five pillars of lightning with one right beneath Ardyn. Shocking him and throwing him into the air as the pillar rose, Larxene and three more clones jumped up at him like bolts of lightning. Ardyn erects his barrier of weapons once again, but this time they were violet and dark like a heartless.

He looks down at Larxene with a dark grin as violet flames surround him. The flames instantly consumed the clones with the real one zipping back down to the ground the moment she felt the intense heat brush across her cheeks, almost lighting her hair on fire. Back on the ground as Ardyn levitates back to his feet, she grits her teeth in frustration as her shoulders are covered with sparks of lightning.

She flings her knives at him with speed so quick they appeared invisible. The man smirks evilly as his left-hand rises and bathed in violet flames, he aimed it at her daggers and unleashes a stream of flames. The knives were consumed and melted by the flames, yet it didn't stop Larxene from zipping above him and calling down a tower of thunder upon him. Even with her within it not only was she unharmed but rejuvenated.

She is happy to say the same wasn't said for Ardyn.

Larxene throws her knives at him from above and zips out of the tower, watching her knives plant themselves around him in a star pattern. Lightning races from them and trapped Ardyn in a den of lightning, shocking him with even more bolts of lightning and shock. The sick side of her hoped she "accidentally" caused him to perish.

Instead, Ardyn snarls and fires off a wave of darkness that covered him and obliterated the lightning around him. The shockwave was so strong it made even Larxene raise an arm to block it, but in doing so she allowed herself to be wide open.

Ardyn warped in front of way with the red Mace of the Fierce and with one blow into the stomach, struck home and throw her across the field. She skidded on the dirt and was only able to stop herself from flying into a wall by plunging her knives into the ground. They cut into the earth like a rake on a farmer's field and even with how short they were she managed to dig them deep enough to feel the struggle of being thrown.

Finally, able to stop, she grunted out in pain before coughing, near-vomiting from the attack. Spitting out a drop of blood, she glared at Ardyn with seething rage as he brushes off dust from his shoulder. Getting to her feet fast, she readied herself to rip him apart, but before she could put that smug bastard in his place, she turned to just narrowly avoid being hit by Dark Riku. The false Riku smashed into a wall by the back and fell to a knee.

Ardyn raised a brow at this turn, looked to see the girl in the hood was now "facing" him, aiming her keyblade at the man, the Two Become One. One of the more sword-like keyblades, possessing a curved, notched blade with a noticeably sharp edge. Its color scheme is derived from a fusion of the two keys Oathkeeper and Oblivion and the handle is composed of a checkerboard pattern. The keyblade's design is also covered with references to a certain nobody; the usual nobody thorns make up the teeth and rain guard, which is black and rounded. The chain links are heavily stylized versions of the nobody Emblem, and the full nobody emblem adorns the hilt.

Thinking this girl wanted to take a swing at him, Ardyn smirks and opens his arms. "Well, grown bored with Riku already?", he questions, "I suppose I can entertain you if that is what you want".

"…Ardyn…", she says, slowly and almost like she was saying his name for the first time. Which she was. This is the first time the girl had so much as sighed near him. He raises a brow as she looked at her keyblade, repeating his name.

"Ardyn…Ardyn…ARDYN!".

The more she spoke his name, the more angry she started to sound. She grabbed her head and started to growl and grunt in pain, causing the man she called out to frown with curiosity. Was it something he said?

With a yell of rage, she dashes across the field and struck at him. Ardyn managed to block her attack with his Raksha blade but the blow forced him to step back from it. The girl unleashes a flurry of attack with her keyblade striking him with incredible strength, clashing with her as he steps back and gives up ground to her. Sparks of light flashes from their colliding steel as the hooded girl wildly struck at him, roaring his name with untold hatred within her.

The man warps and phases around her, his movement more calculated and concentrated than his fight with Larxene, now sparring with Riku. Unlike the woman who he managed to take control over the battlefield thanks to her temper, this one's rage wasn't stopping her from keeping up with the man. If nothing else her rage is improving her chances of winning the bout, her strength was enough to put him on the defense.

The girl's body glows with a faint red light cloaking her form, and then when she dashes to him, she unleashed a flurry of red-coated strikes onto him. By the fourth strike, she managed to dislodge his sword aside and even landed six more hits onto his body. The seventh was a thrust that stabbed into his stomach and throw Ardyn forward. He bounced onto his back before rolling to his feet and shaking his head.

When he looked up to her, she held her keyblade with both hands and over her head, creating a large ball of flames and light. With a cry she swung the keyblade and aimed it at him, the ball condensing into a large ray of fire and light like a cannon toward him. Ardyn called for the Sword of the Tall and with an-over the shoulder swing and yell, splits the cannon sized ray in half, splitting it from the blade and destroying two parts of the wall behind him. Ardyn warps into the air after the beam dissipated and fires a hailstorm of his ghostly weapons down to her.

Fearless, the girl leaps and beings to strike at the air while creating a glyph before her and aimed the keyblade at the golden red and orange glyph. With a yell she fired off the exact number of curling beams of burning light at the weapons, exploding upon impact with each weapon. She soars through the smoke and clashes with Ardyn in the skies once again with a cry. In the air with his Armiger keeping him afloat and the girl seemingly unaffected by gravity, their weapons clashed and danced.

She kept crying out his name in hate, fury filled strikes with each swing of her keyblade that even Ardyn had trouble combating. His mind was wracking for answers as to why this girl knew him and despised him to the point where just saying his name filled her with hate only he could rival. One swing of her keyblade sent him down to the ground and she chases him onward, crying out in fury.

He managed to block her again, both had their feet firmly planted into the ground to try and overpower the other. Ardyn was about to comment on her being significantly more of a challenge than her colleague, perhaps dare he say he could almost compare her to Noctis with that temper.

That was until he saw her face.

Those eyes…bright blue eyes, the same eyes a certain princess had yet her face was more innocent. The eyes of the girl who had made him feel pain, the one who crushed his plans of vengeance to the king, and the one who had a strong hand in taking away his power.

With hate renewed, Ardyn growls and brings forth his dark power. The girl was caught off guard by the display of power as Ardyn's body is now cloaked by violet flames, eyes turning purple and finally, with a single swing of his family sword, the girl is thrown forward. When she landed on her feet, Ardyn fired a horde of his Armiger at her in the form of spikes. The girl raises her keyblade to protect herself as it was too late to move from the barrage nor were there any time to raise a barrier.

The guard does little for her as the weapons strike her, tearing flesh and cloth as her cries went mute with the whistling wind of weapons striking and passing her. Yet she didn't submit and kept standing tall, staring defiantly at the man. Ardyn sees those eyes burning with determination, the eyes that refused to give in to him. Those eyes that Kairi had when she rejected his offer.

He wanted them gone, he wanted HER gone.

Ardyn calls for his Raksha sword again, grabbing it with both hands and bathing it with violet flames and red Armiger. The dark weapon bathed in violet and red flames, Ardyn raced towards the girl after the swarm of weapons ceased. He gave her no time to evade him as he brings down the weapon on her even as she raised her keyblade to protect herself. The attack slammed her onto her back, but it didn't end there. He struck the keyblade out of her hands and grabbed her neck, making her grab his arm as the darkness covered his limb.

He may have lost the power of the blight but the darkness replaced a great deal of his original powers, including one turning someone into a heartless. The girl struggled against him, eyes burning with defiance as if goading him. Ardyn tightened his grip on her…

Then his shoulder was grabbed and yanked away from her. He looked to see a barely restrained Saix glaring at her. "Enough", he lectured. He yanks Ardyn back and away from the coughing girl, then grabbed her as she lunged toward the man of no consequences. Saix grunts before he gives her a punch to the stomach and knocked the air out of her. The girl staggers and weakly wheezes before she slumps into Saix.

Ardyn glared at both before the blue-haired berserker throws the girl over his shoulder. "This session is over…", he announces.

Ardyn gave him a look as the others cease their fighting, even the superior watched him. The man grunts and turned to Ardyn with a scowl. "She is a vessel and vital to our plans. Think on that before you pull a stunt like that again", he warned, a snarl nearly creeping out, "I'd sincerely hate to inform your king you had an accident before the battle".

With that, Saix opened the dark corridor and exited with the sleeping girl. Once gone, Ardyn rubbed his neck from the stiffness as Dark Riku marches off, angry while Vanitas and Larxene just disappear through their portals. Leaving Ardyn behind with Xemnas, the former looked at his hand with his receding anger. With a scoff, he turned to leave.

"It seems Noctis wasn't the only one to leave an impact on you", Xemnas remarked coldly. Ardyn chuckled darkly as he turns to his so-called "superior", giving him a sarcastic smirk. "Oh? I was merely taking my temper out on the wrong person", he deflects, "That vixen's ability to get underneath the skin is to be admired".

"Is that a fact?", challenges Xemnas, "Yet your anger comes out when you fought that puppet?". Ardyn's smirk slips slightly, not liking how he was becoming easy to read to these people. While he liked being the company of like-minded people as he and sure it was a nice change compared to his associates back at the empire, the fact keeping secrets in shadows from the was becoming more difficult with the passing months is beginning to irritate him.

Xemnas gives an empty chuckle. "I hadn't seen such anger from her in quite some time, I wonder what it is about you that brought out such an outburst of hatred", Xemnas says. Ardyn shrugged, feigning disinterest. "How would I know? Her first words to me were my name", he says, "And if I am right, she has barely said a word to anyone here, has she not?".

Xemnas hums in thought before he waves off the question. "For your sake, perhaps you would do well to avoid her", he instructs, "We wouldn't want anything to happen to you before the clash".

"Your concern for my well-being is touching, oh dear superior", Ardyn replied, "But worry not, I shall be the better man and play nice". Xemnas scoffs as he entered his dark corridor, saying: "Report to the young master, it is time for you to finally stand amongst us", and leaves him.

Alone in the empty labyrinth, Ardyn looked at his hand and clenches it.

"Soon, dear Noct…this world shall become the final resting spot for Lucis bloodline", he swears.

*Secret Forest*

*Month Three: Day Seventy*

"Easy…easy", Donald stressed while the gentle candlelight size flame flickers and grows within the palm of Ignis.

The former blind man kept his breathing steady and eyes fixed on the flames slowly growing. His stance was still as Donald watches him master the fourth element, controlling the heat and size of the spell in hand. The candle size turns torch worthy as the fire dances within the palm, going from golden red to violet. "That's it…now, throw it", Donald commands.

With a flick of his wrist, Ignis throws the violet ball of fire at the dummy target across from him and Donald. The ball strikes the humanoid-shaped dummy and engulfs the torso in violet flames, exploding in a contained size compared to Aqua's spells.

Ignis looks to Donald for answers, the duck crossing his arms and nodded approvingly. "Nice work!", he praised, clapping Ignis on his leg, "Another spell down!". Ignis hums happily at this, pleased. He always had an affinity for fire magic and granted he may have used it along with the other two elemental magics but learning it without the aid of the Lucis magic made the fruits of the labor all the sweeter.

He flexes his fingers as he felt the magic coursing through him, a power deep within him he never knew could be felt. Ever since his lessons with Donald in the magical arts, he felt his power steadily grow even without the dark power Riku helped bring out. Call him bizarre or overly cautious but he is eternally grateful to Donald for helping him learn the other methods of combat. The duck, though his patience was short, had been nothing but encouraging and determined for him to get the grasp on magic as quickly as possible.

Though a part of Ignis is certain it was a matter of pride for the duck to be able to teach someone magic, he is none the less grateful for the duck's determination to teach him. They hit some roadblocks certainly with the amount of trial and effort they had, along with the miscalculation and overfilling the mana required for the spells. Plus for as great of a mage he is, Ignis noticed Donald was quite accidental-prone to all sorts of misfortune.

From him displaying the power of ice and turning himself into an ice block or once he accidentally shocked himself. Humorous as they were and of course Ignis chuckled profusely at the events, he started to wonder if perhaps Aqua would be a better mentor for him. Regardless of his concerns, Donald proved, when his minuscule of patience hadn't evaporated within five minutes, to be a vital teacher.

"Okay! Next, let's work on your aero magic!", he declared, ready to get started on the next session. Nodding wholeheartedly, Ignis listened to the lectures of the spell while keeping a track record of his progress.

Within the second month already he felt a large change within him, slowly ascending the human limits. Not only were his senses at a whole new level to the point where even without his eyes he could keep track of even the swiftest foes. The example was during his sparring session with Ventus, who was moving so fast it seemed he had become invisible. Yet when he closed his eyes and listened intently, using his newly enhanced radar-like senses to track him, he not only caught him but outwitted him too.

Strength had never been his forte certainly, he usually leaves the brawn to Gladiolus and Noctis, but like Riku, he felt his strength surmounting the usual trials he used to deal with. With himself at a new level of physical heights, he was able to lift a dumbbell he never dreamed of attempting with ease. A feat he never would have accomplished back home, and even his sparring sessions with Noctis had given him an edge against his king.

The darkness he uses was still in development though, he knew he was merely scratching the surface of what it could grant him but there is always that chill of concern that tugged at his common sense. Mastering the dark fire move along with enhancing his daggers was all he managed to accomplish thus far, with Riku doing his training with Aqua and the others. They had decided he best master the normal magical training before developing more of his dark power.

Ignis starts to call upon the wind to blow to his will while listening to Donald giving him the instructions. Slowly green swirls of air began to form within his palm as the gust of air rushes around his hand. Concentrating on the spell, Ignis exhales softly as the small swirl turns into a tiny tornado within his hand, making Donald quack in approval. He throws it into the open field and when the tornado hit the ground, it turns into a bed of wind that was only a tiny bit lesser than Sora's usual ones.

Ignis smirked with confidence as Donald applaud him. Once Ignis made another one at a quicker pace, Donald was satisfied with him for now and both decided to take a few minutes to themselves. Both sat down on logs with Ignis taking a sip of water while Donald lazed about on his stump.

"It seems our progress has greatly improved compared to the first month", Ignis says lowering his bottle. "Yup, way better!", Donald states confidently. He looked at Ignis. "You got on magic a lot faster than Sora did!", he praised. Ignis looked at the duck with a surprised look, after seeing Sora's magic he assumed the boy had a latent gift for the magical arts. "Truly?", he asked.

Donald nodded, "Yup! It took him forever to learn ice, thunder and other magic!", he chastised playfully, "Just as well he was better at smacking bad guys with the keyblade". Ignis had to agree with that, the boy had quite the skill when it came to beating his enemies. The former blind man looked to the cliff that overlooked the forest and sunset. He rotates the bottle in his hands, thinking about the battle that is to come.

Their progress has come a long way, yes, but he wasn't able to shed that doubt within his heart about what comes next. He wondered if Ardyn had gotten more powerful with Xehanort or if any of them had grown more powerful since Sora and company had been trapped in Eos. Ignis would say it'd be best to bank on Xehanort's arrogance, but after Aqua's explanation on him and how he worked, the advisor doubted he'd take any chances.

"Donald, do you think we have a chance against Xehanort and his vessels?", he asks, looking at the duck. The mage gave him a "are you kidding" look and replied: "Of course we can! We've fought most of them before!".

"A good argument, but keep in mind Xehanort was never part of those fights, and he is the strongest keyblade master out there", Ignis reminds before he sighed, "Not to mention he managed to turn the tide against you all more than once". Donald sighed impatiently at that, begrudgingly agreeing he had a valid argument. Then he huffs. "Aww phooey! That guy is just a sneaky jerk! If he didn't muck up Sora's exam he'd be a master!", Donald huffed, "Probably too scared of him to face him as a master!.

Ignis sighed in agreement, he didn't want to imagine how disappointed he must have been. But then Donald continued: "But we'll be fine. Sora's pulled our butts out of the fire before; he'll get us through this". Ignis turns to him, saying: "You seem rather confident in him". Donald gave him a stubborn look. "Of course I am! Sora's saved the worlds twice now! Just because Xehanort's here, doesn't mean we're not gonna win!".

The level of faith and confidence in the boy he had for him, it surprised Ignis. Then again, among all the companions Donald and Goofy had been with Sora and had seen what he's accomplished. From the day he started to here, for all Ignis knew Sora was more than ready to take on Xehanort, gods above he was sure he could take on the entire organization on his own. "Its no different than your faith in Noct, right?", Donald said, pointing at the man.

Ignis hummed in thought, rotating the bottle in his hands while he thought on the question. Though there were days Noctis had shown some concerns, yet the right hand of the king had never doubted his capabilities as the future king. The day when he would sit on his throne and be crowned the king, he thought that would be his proudest moment. He may not have officially been declared king, yet from the day he met Sora and from his journey to this point, he never had been so proud of him.

He has accomplished so much in the near year of their journey, and from becoming a keyblade wielder to reclaiming his homeland, restoring hope and light to the world, his doubts about him if he had any all disappeared.

He chuckled lightly before he got off his seat. "True enough, both of them have quite the feats to back up our confidence within them", he concurred. "However, they're rather hopeless without our help". Ignis turns back to Donald and says: "Best we resume our training, no doubt they'll need us to pick them up should things go awry".

With a nod, Donald hops off his stump and resumes his lectures.

*Cottage*

Groaning with aches in her body as she dragged her feet through the empty halls of the cottage, Kairi makes an occasional hiss, groan and whimper of pain as she uses the small fragments of her will power to at least get to her room and bed then collapse in pain.

Today had been one of those days for her, training with Aqua in combat had proven to be more painful than she would have liked. Between her master wiping the floor with her with superior magic, to constantly getting her butt kicked in physical combat, it was a nightmare of a day. Least it was not an entirely one-sided fight, she managed to get a few hits in, slow her down and even got her to take her seriously.

And she almost felt bad for Xehanort when she bore the brunt of Aqua going all out, she can't imagine how ruthless she'll be with the man who took everything from her.

"Almost there…just get into bed, then die peacefully…", she says encouragingly to herself.

She grasped the door handle and opened it up, resisting the urge to just fall to the floor and sleep there. The floor looked cozy enough to her. Her tired eyes lit up with confusion when she sees there was a significant change to the shared room.

Firstly the room was only brightened by the amount of candles scattered on the shelves, desk and table nearby, the wonderous smell of vanilla tickled her nose and helped her be at ease, making her temporarily forget the pain in her body. There was music being played low not to disturb the others but at a volume for her ears to enjoy, a simple piano music played with soft words. What caught her eyes is Sora standing by the bed in simple PJS, pants and a vest.

"Welcome back", he greets warmly and softly. She gave the boy a tired smile, grateful for the romantic atmosphere of the room along with her favorite candles decorating it. But before she could say anything to express her gratitude, he handed her a pair of PJS and asked her to change into them with a smile. As tired as she was, she trusted him and went along with her simple task, besides the PJS looked SUPER comfy.

Once she got changed and folded her adventure clothes onto the sink for tomorrow, she leaves the bathroom. Now dressed in a pair of night shorts and a simple soft t-shirt, she stands before Sora before he guides her to the bed. Eager to snuggle up with Sora and get a good sleep she climbed on the bed, but before she could tuck her feet beneath the sheets, Sora stops her. Resisting her urge to groan tiredly at the boy denying her snuggle sleepy times, she turns to him.

"Do you trust me?", he asks, low and caringly. Kairi would have given him a sassy response were it any other time, but she nuzzles into his chest. "Are you seriously asking me that? Of course, I trust you", she says kindly. "Then…would you mind if I…", he says, tugging at the hem of her shirt. Blushing softly but still trusting him, she wordlessly nods and allows him to remove her shirt. He doesn't look at her for the sake of decency and asks her to lie on her stomach.

Again, following his instructions, she lays down and rests her chin on her folded hands. Then a feeling of bliss washes over her whilst a gentle moan escaped her mouth. Behind her Sora was rubbing her tired and aching toes with his thumbs and fingers, popping a few joints of her toes. She moans softly as she allows the scent of the candles to lull her into a sense of serenity, her lover's skillful massages helping lessen the aches in her body.

Slowly Sora moves up to her thighs, massaging them carefully to not hurt her. Kairi blushes when she felt his fingers brush her rear, a shiver racing down her spine at the intimate touch before he starts to settle himself on her lower back. He massaged her sides before doing her shoulders, making the girl smothered face in the pillow to hold back the moan. Where did he learn such wonderful techniques? She knows he has the gentle hands but never magic hands like she heard from the adults back at home, he could make a career out of this.

He leans into her ear and whispers nothing but sweet nothings, encouraging her to relax and let all the day's aches and stress fade away while he helps speed the process. Kairi shivered again, when did he get that tone of a voice and why the heck did he keep it from her for so long? She managed to roll her face to see his and smiled gratefully at him before she reached for the back of his head and capture his lips.

Slowly they shifted and settled into a nice position, with her resting on his laps with her legs wrapping around him, kissing him as they held each other. Sora waved his hand around and blew out the candles with magic, only through the thin veil of the curtains could the moon provide light in their room. Unable to break apart, finally having this long-overdue moment together. Kairi looks at the boy from her slightly higher viewpoint, seeing the love within his eyes for her.

She giggles before she launches herself forward, making Sora fall on his back and resume their little session.

Sleep can come later…

A/N:

So originally I did plan on Young Xehanort interacting with Ardyn, but I was sick of all the fighting so decided sod it, one fight! I'll add that next time!

Next chapter is gonna be showing off Noctis and company's abilities, along with cameo from XV character, Axel getting a visit, and one fight I think a lot of you are gonna enjoy.

Also! In regards to Naminé…I kinda thing of doing that three way relationship, but with her, Roxas…and Xion. What do you people think? Let me know what your thoughts are.

QUESTIONS!:

Q1: Thoughts on this chapter?

Q2: How were the organization members?

Q3: Can you figure out why you know who went berserk on Ardyn?

Q4: Donald and Ignis bonding? Odd or good?

Q5: Sora and Kairi's moment?

Q6: What would you like to see next time?

Q7: Are you tired of these fighting chapters yet?

Also to the guest who is wondering about the dark souls story, I will finish it after this story is done!

As always everyone, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	66. Chapter 66

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 66

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

*Month Four: Day One hundred and one*

*?*

Descending slowly as though his body was being gently lowered, Noctis blinks his eyes open when he feels his back touching something smooth and cool. Above him he sees a circle of light within the dark grey clouds, the light beaming down on him as if it were a spotlight.

He slowly gets to his feet, taking in the emptiness of this strange yet familiar place he is in. All around him were naught but darkness and the breeze of the wind. Confused he looks down beneath his feet to see a large mural of himself. "Wha?", he asks as he turned around to take in the mural in full.

It showed him sitting on a throne with one leg over the other with his old sword resting beside him with the crystal above him, an elbow resting on the armrest with himself asleep. Around him were circles showing the people closest to him, Gladiolus, Ignis, Prompto, his father, Iris, and Cid, with a seventh above his throne, is a heart shape showing Lunafreya. The colors of his mural were crystal blue with royal black, numbers in the old language around him with each royal arm.

"Where…am I?", he asked himself, looking at the mural in confusion but also impressed by how it looked. His blue eyes fall onto the man who sat on the throne before him, his father. Noctis walks toward it and kneels, placing a hand on his father's portrait with a sullen look, but as he did, a light shines behind him. Turning his head slightly before standing up tall, a door resembling the very same that leads to the throne room appeared before him.

The king stands before it, looking at it as his hand reached for the handles. Hesitance clutched his heart, was this another one of that Master's games, or did this have something to do with the keyblade?

He swallowed his apprehension and opens the door with effort. Through the cracks he sees the blue light nearly blinding him yet still he pulled on the handles to open the door. The beautiful blue light bathes the king and engulfs him as he steps forward into it.

When his vision was free of the bright light, Noctis lowered his hand to find himself in an all too familiar place. A place he had not set foot in since his departure from his home, a place where one day he will rule his kingdom. The Insomnia Throne room.

Unlike what he feared the place was untouched by the carnage of war, all in pristine condition along with the beautiful yet cursed crystal hanging above the throne. He hears the bell within the citadel ringing softly, the sun beaming through the stained glasses that surround the throne. The throne, however, was empty. The future king stared at it, trying to see himself resting on it and hoping within his heart he would have the strength and courage to rule his home as a wise and good king.

Much like his father had before he did.

He hears the soft tap mimicking a footstep along the soft clacking of shoes approaching him, yet Noctis would not turn to face this visitor. His heart twitched and its strings tugged along with his throat tightening up, his breath held within when the steps grow closer and slower as they reached his side. The king couldn't look away from the throne, keeping his eyes fixed on it to avert his eyes away from the potential false hope.

When the steps ceased he felt their presence right by his side, not saying a word nor facing him. He heard a small sigh leave the lips of his company, a relieved one as if something horrible had not come to pass. "A king must face his hardships head on with head held high, never averting his gaze and never stepping back", his companion speaks with an old tired voice yet there is strength within it that could never be weakened.

"A king pushes onward always, accepting the consequences and never looking back", Noctis added, parroting the wise words that were passed down to him. A light chuckled is made from his companion, amused. "And yet here you are, looking back to the past", he says, not chastising but more closer to comforting. Noctis wills his strength to face the man who he greatly respected, a man he strives to match in quality of a king, and it takes all his accumulated strength to not cry.

King Regis stands before his son with a gentle smile, looking the same as the day he left the city for the first time. What changed though was the hidden look of remorse and pain within his old eyes, the guise of optimism and hope were nowhere to be seen. Noctis stands before his father, his eyes watery with pain and unspoken words that he wanted to say before he lost his home, his father.

For all the trials he faced, every foe he slew and every challenge from this journey with so much more to come, facing him again was something he never knew could be so painful.

"Dad…", he says with a hitch, hating it. He is no child anymore yet here he is about to cry before his father like a child who hadn't seen his father for a while. There is a chuckle from Regis, his smile warmer and soft as he raised a hand to lay it on his son's shoulder. When Noctis faced him, the former king says: "You've grown so much, my son". The pride in his voice, the one he desperately wanted to hear when he would ascend to the throne.

Noctis had so much he wanted to say, so many questions to ask yet all those burning questions turned to flickering embers as he took in his father once again. Regis turned to the throne with lament and says: "Once upon a time I was looking forward to the day where I would look to you as our king, to see my son had grown into a majestic king". His gaze lowered to the ground. "But when I learned of the price for such privilege, knowing what will come when you take your place…I cursed the blasted thing".

Noctis placed a hand on the resting one, looking at his father. "But it never happened, thanks to Eraqus", reminds the former prince. Regis raised his head with a small laugh. "Yes, that sly man had averted your fate by putting you on another road", Regis says, remembering the day. He sighed as he faced his son. "I never told you why he came, did I?", he asks rhetorically. For all his vague memories of the man who taught his mentor, Noctis couldn't recall why he came to his world, to begin with. Not even Ventus or Aqua had an answer to it.

Regis gestured his son to join him on a walk through their home, in part granting his son's wish. Through the halls of their home were the light beams through the windows, comforting the soon to be king as his father walks tall with him. Even with his cane he never hobbled nor staggered, if nothing else the cane was more of an accessory to the king.

"Eraqus had come to our world, years ago when the Niflheim empire's grip expanded", he regales his son, "During our war, I met him when he was merely exploring our world. He had recently become a master after all and sought out more knowledge of the worlds beyond his own".

"So, this was before he adopted Terra and Aqua then?", Noctis asks. "I believe so…He had spoken about seeking apprentices when we talked", Regis affirms, "But by the time you were eight years old, he had found them".

He spoke more about how Eraqus revealed to him about other worlds, the light and darkness and even some information of Xehanort when they were apprentices. He says Eraqus was a vital ally in helping defend their regions as the empire grew closer and closer to their capital, to the very point he would remain in Eos for months before the day came he would return to his world to prepare Aqua and Terra for their trials. Here Noctis regaled what he was told by Ventus and Aqua about their time there, surprising his father.

Then their journey comes to an end when they reached the door leading out of the building. Regis gently grasped the door handle with a small frown. "There was more to that moment", he says. Noctis crossed his arms, remembering the day he had to say farewell to Eraqus, though his memory was still foggy. Regis faced his son. "When he learned of the fate that the crystal had ordained for you, he offered me a solution to avoid it", he states.

"To take me as his apprentice?", Noctis says uncertain. "Yes. When the day would come where you will return as a master of the keyblade, he believed your destiny could be forfeit…", Regis says. Shame crossed his face as he opens the door. "But I couldn't bear the thought of losing my son…knowing I may never see you grow". Looking at his hand where once the ring of the Lucii once was, draining him of his life for the sake of his people. He heaves a dark chuckle as if he were told a cruel joke.

"Lose my son to the destiny the crystal had set before him…or lose him to become a wielder of the key…no matter what choice I was forced to make I'd lose you", he says with bitterness in his tone. "Where you would have had a happier life if I had granted Eraqus his wish, I chose to keep you out of selfishness of my heart".

Noctis looked away at the confession, partly out of pain for the truth that in a twisted way his fate was laced with tragedy. If he remained here, had things played out the way they were meant to, had Xigbar never come to this world, he wouldn't be here having this talk with his father. Yet even if he were to have gone with Eraqus, who knows what tragedy could have befallen him. He could have had his heart shattered, become a vessel for Xehanort, be lost in the darkness for years or something much worse could have happened.

Either way, his fate was doomed…or so did his father believe.

"…yet keeping me here, was the best decision you could have done for me", Noctis chuckled. He turned to his father when his gaze fixed on his son. The prince smiled in his usual way, the one his father knew was his smug cocky one, yet he sees the genuine growth and maturity within his eyes. "It wasn't an easy road to walk, Iggy can tell you we've hit some major roadblocks to get this far…but", he says, placing a hand on his heart.

Memories of his journey from the day he set out to meet Sora and his friends, seeing the world before him, surmounting the challenges they were facing and to the day he fulfilled his duty to bring back the light. They paled in comparison to the people who made their way into his heart, his brothers becoming so vital to him they were a part of his heart, to the woman who opened his heart and finally find a way to express his happiness with another.

The other world heroes who were like an extended family to him in many ways, remaining at his side as he did for them. They who had helped him save his world, help him reclaim his throne and bring back the light. Now he would stand amongst them as a king and keyblade wielder, protecting not just his world but many more.

And all because his father kept him on the path but let him walk it in his way.

"You wouldn't believe the amount of things we have seen, or what we did", he chuckled, "But me staying here, meeting not just Sora but having people like Gladio, Ignis, and Prompto by my side, I'd be nothing without them". He looked up to his dad with a new smile his father had never seen, a rare and genuine happy smile that showed his father he is no longer the wild and reckless prince that went to marry his future wife.

Before king Regis, was the future king of his city. And he couldn't be happier.

As the door opened and bathed their empty room in light, knowing this would be the final time he would speak to his father, Noctis faced him. "Sorry I have to go…there's just something I need to settle", apologizes to the crown prince. Regis gives his son one final smile, the smile only a father could give their sons when they are infinitely proud of them. Noctis gives his father the proper bow he should have given him a long time ago, bowing his head with a hand placed on his chest.

"Take care of yourself, your majesty", says the son of the king.

Regis chuckled softly and placed a hand on his son's shoulder for the final time while Noctis raises his head to face him. There again is that wonderful smile his father bore for his son and gives him a nod.

"Walk tall, my son", his father says, "And may your heart be your guiding key".

Noctis nods wisely as he turns to the entrance and walks through it, feeling his father's smile on his back as he is enveloped in the light.

*Room*

Stirred awake with a small grunt, Noctis rubbed his eyes with his arm and slowly sits up in his bed. No longer feeling the lull of sleep that often tugged on his body, he blinks when he felt something within his clenched fist.

Noctis opened his hand to see what looked to be the main key to the Regalia, small traces of Lucis magic swirl around it. With a smile, he grips the key within his hand. Nevermore feeling confident in himself.

*Training Grounds*

With ten of the guardians assembled at the ground save for the islanders, the group had already decided it was time to see what the royal retinue could do after nearly four months of training. Many concurred with the master's choices, mostly for some like Axel who just wanted to be lazy and take it easy for the next training.

He was completely unaware that Aqua secretly schedule with Ventus to make sure he and Axel would be sparring with her later. And she may or may not have decided to get a little serious with him.

"Right, time to see how far you guys have come in your training", Aqua announced, addressing the four members. "While we're not expecting you guys to be at the peak of your true potential, we need to make sure you guys are improving with us".

"Just a heads up, still can't do magic!", Prompto chirped with a sheepish smile. Aqua gave him a gentle smile and replied: "Neither can Goofy Prompto, I'm certain today you'll show what you did learn".

"Which is why we're pitting you against Noct", she says. The blonde gave her a look of horror, doing a double-take on Noctis then back to her. "Me against Noct!? Are you crazy?", he squeaks as Noctis gave him an evil smile. Aqua giggled playfully before she pulls her notebook out and says: "Noct is the closest thing to someone from the organization, plus we discussed you need to be able to fight people who can move fast and warp".

Prompto opened his mouth to argue before he ultimately slumped, submitting to his fate. "But first, Ignis, Gladio? You two are going first", she instructs as she gestured the king and gunner to join the others.

The two of the oldest members of the party stepped into the ring, weapons drawn as they do a few stretches and ready themselves. "Heh, last time we sparred was before we left for Altissia", Gladiolus says cracking joints in his neck.

"Our strengths were a far cry from what they are today", Ignis says, "Perhaps this time we'll decide which of us is the best".

Gladiolus smirks at the man's confidence, laying the masamune sword on his shoulder while Ignis occasionally flips his daggers. With Aqua announcing the fight to commence, Ignis makes the first move by dashing towards Gladiolus, leaving a trail of lighting his wake.

Within range, Ignis begins to strike at the shield with his right dagger with multiple jabs and stabbing motions. The shield uses his armored arm to block or parry the attacks before he backhanded the attack and swung his sword down onto him, forcing the advisor to roll away from him. He backflips and other forms of acrobatics to increase distance, while during his third flip he throws a large chunk of ice at Gladiolus.

Raising his shield to guard it, the ice struck the shield and explodes upon impact. The warrior immediately feels the harsh cold breeze by the shield and a huge increase of weight nearly causes the warrior to drop his defensive arm. Ignis calls for three dark javelins once he stood up properly, encasing them in violet lightning and then throws them at Gladiolus.

In response, Gladiolus dismissed his shield and grabbed his sword with both hands and swipes at the javelins. The legendary sword slices through them as if they were weeds in a garden, the force of the attack even sent a large hurricane of dust flying into the air and the force nearly knocked some of the spectators off their respective seats. The warrior stares down Ignis with a smirk as if he were challenging him to do better.

Ignis pushes his glasses up, accepting the silent challenge.

They both rushed in to meet steel with steel, the speedy Ignis striking at two places at once while Gladiolus can match him with his armored limb along with his sword taking more ground from the man. Gladiolus calls his shield to service and during a spin, he smacks Ignis with the full body of the weapon and throws him forward. Onto his back for no less than two seconds before rolling onto his feet, Ignis leaps into the air.

Crossing his daggers over his chest, he runs the two daggers along each other, eliciting a spark that creates a roaring violet fire. His weapons now burning, he aimed them both at Gladiolus and rains down a hailstorm of fire onto his comrade. Gladiolus kneels and raised his shield high, covering him as he soldiered through the shower of flames. The intense heat washed on him, nearly convincing him he was back in the desert again.

He grunted when he felt a more powerful strike on his shield, realizing Ignis wasn't stopping at any time soon. "Okay Ig…you asked for it", he thinks to himself.

The mighty shield of the king stands up and takes a deep breath, steeling himself before he lets out a roar while the shield glows in a golden-brown light, he slammed the shield into the ground. The ground shakes as a stone dome appeared around Gladiolus, shielding him from the raining fire. Within his dome, Gladiolus channels power from the shield into the earth and then once he was dead sure on where Ignis was levitating above, he punched the earth his with arm.

Ignis looks below him to see a large pillar of stone rise beneath his feet like a rocket taking off. He uses his dark power to turn his body in time to dodge the pillar and kicks off it. He lands behind Gladiolus' stone fortress as it breaks apart and reveals the warrior, rushing at him with his sword. Dismissing his daggers, Ignis called his spear and clashes with his comrade. Even with Gladiolus stronger form, the spear gave the advisor both range and kept him at a safe distance, plus his more agile feet versus Gladiolus' stubborn refusal to move gave him the advantage to dance around him.

Ignis managed to use the bottom of the spear to smack aside Gladiolus' weapon and allowed him to place his free hand on his chest and fire a force-based attack to throw him back. Even with such a powerful spell, Gladiolus was only pushed back two feet from the man as he dug his heels into the ground, which Ignis calculated and already had a backup plan. He immediately plunged his spell into the ground, infusing darkness within it.

He releases his spear and calls up for his daggers, bathing on in black ice and then tossing it to his left a few feet away from himself and he kept his last dagger, emblazing it. Flipping it in a reverse grip, he lets his left hand be cloaked in darkness. Gladiolus sweeps his sword at the man, aiming low and splitting the earth just as Ignis leaps backward from the attack, the man missing his spear. Ignis ducks and weaves around the man's wide swings, trying to get closer to him.

With his shield always close to him and being wielded in his armored hand, debilitating that would be a pipe dream considering how powerful that armor is. However, for Ignis, he already deduced what the best course of action would be to take down Gladiolus. His left hand was placed on the ground the very moment he got behind Gladiolus after he swung too roughly, exposing himself. He pressed his hand into the earth and fired a single wave of darkness from the ground at Gladiolus.

As predicted, Gladiolus turned around right on time to slam the shield onto the ground in front of him to block it. This was exactly what the dark user was waiting for, the moment his attack contacted Gladiolus, he uses the dark warp to vanish and re-appear behind Gladiolus. Swiftly he places his dagger right at his neck, pressing the edge against his neck. The shield lowered his eyes to the sudden appearance of the blade before Ignis pats his shoulder.

"It seems our match is over", he said confidently.

Then, Gladiolus smirked. "You sure about that?", he asks.

To the utter shock of Ignis, even with his dagger touching Gladiolus' neck, the man still rose and elbowed him in the gut. He felt his dagger cut into something but before he could fear the worst his world was nothing but pain as Gladiolus punched him in his stomach, grabbed his shoulders and flung him across the field. He falls on his side with a light thud and rolls onto his feet, looking at Gladiolus and sees nothing on his neck.

The man rubbed his neck with a chuckle, smirking at his friend. "Not gonna cut it, Ig", he remarks. To show his point, Gladiolus runs his sword over his right forearm and the advisor sees nothing happen to him, not even drawing blood. Gladiolus gestured his shield and says: "Pretty handy thing, a little trick that makes the skin hard as steel", he explains. Ignis frowns, concluding that the shield has more uses than its usual purpose.

The spectators, enraptured by the bought, all had the same question until Aqua speaks up. "Gladio' shield is more than just a weapon, it has inherited abilities that Terra used to be use before he gave up on them", she explains with her arms crossed. "Steel skin is an old ability that hardens the skin of the user, allowing them to take way more punishment". Axel whistled and rubbed his chin. "So basically…the guy is a living breathing mobile set of armor?", he asked.

"One that is gonna cut you in half, yeah", Noctis added in.

Ignis scoffs before he gets to his feet. No more playing around he sees, if steel cannot cut it, then magic will. The dagger in his hand burns brighter as his free hand was cloaked in frost, resonating with his planted dagger. "Steel on steel is a time-consuming battle, Gladio, but can your skin resist the cold?", questioned Ignis. He clenches his fist and then the dagger turns into a weapon of pure ice, shattering and spreading the cold all over the field.

The arena was covered in a wild storm of icy winds as the ground was covered in a layer of black ice. Gladiolus immediately loses his footing and slips onto his back, the cold freezing him to the point where it as if his joints had been frozen for decades. His body felt heavier and even gritting his teeth felt like an old crane trying to work through rocks constricting it. The steel skin ability may have protected him from weapons of the physical sense but magic, not so much.

Ignis uses the dark powers to call for his weapons back and vanishes before the man, spear in hand as he aimed it at the shield. This time Gladiolus stared up at him with chattering teeth before he growled, submitting.

Once Ignis gave the clear to Aqua, she dispelled his attack and the advisor used some of his heat to warm up his sparring partner. The intense cold leaves his body, Gladiolus breathes easier and slowly got to his feet, grumbling something on the lines of magic. Regardless he gave his friend a nod and patted his shoulder. Aqua stood before them with approval.

"Looks like you two are coming along nicely, more lessons and soon enough you two will be more than match for Xehanort's vessels", she praised. Then her smile turns playful and she smacks Gladiolus' shoulder. " *You* need to work on fighting magic mister!", she chastises. "Next time you'll spar with me!". Gladiolus gave her a raised brow and an exaggerated groan. "So your idea of helping me get used to fighting magic users is to go up against you?", he asked incredulously.

"I'll be gentle Gladio…I'll only use tier five spells!", assured the woman. She pats his gloom cheek and gestured them to exit the arena and allow Noctis and Prompto to take over.

The two younger men stepped in, the king flexing his hands while Prompto did a few stretches and squats, then dancing on the spot to quote: "Get pumped". Though a lot of the group knew it was him trying to burn off nervousness energy and give himself some hope he'd have a chance against the king.

Noctis calls for his keyblade while the gunner summoned his usual weapon, though this time it was loaded with rubber bullets. The master of the key declared the fight to start, and the first one to strike was Prompto. He fires three shots at the king, forcing Noctis to use his magic to phase and dance around the weapon's ammunition, then rushes to Prompto swinging.

The blonde dismissed his gun and calls for the switchblade of his and clashes with his best friend's weapon. Their steel clashing with Noctis having the superior training and footwork but unbeknown to the others Prompto is not only able to match his speed but his right robotic limb allowed him to match, no, surpass his strength. Every attack Noctis tried to land on the gunner he would easily retaliate with the king's strikes and protect himself.

Noctis warps into the air, calling for his crossbow and aimed it at Prompto, firing off a rain of arrows. Prompto in response runs and dances around his attacks, rolling jumping and leaping around the onslaught. Quickly Prompto sheathes his blade and aimed his robotic limb at the ground beneath Noctis, and to everyone's surprise, fires a single cable wire with a spike.

Loud whirring noises resonate from his arm and then he is yanked across the field after his spike buries itself in the ground. He skids as he is pulled below Noctis and once he is close he recalls his wire back. Underneath his king and his barrage of arrows, Prompto calls for his gun and fires off six shots at him by "fanning the hammer".

Noctis narrowly evades four of them, only having his leg and left shoulder grazed by the bullets before he warp struck back to the ground. He faces down Prompto who then grins at his best friend and stretches out his robotic limb. "Got a surprise for ya, Noct!", he bragged as his arm evaporates into the blue light. The limb disappears and in its place is a brand new weapon in the form of a gatling gun. Though smaller compared to the ones the empire uses, it was decent sized and had six slots around one extended point.

Prompto aimed and unleashed a storm of bullets at his majesty like a wild many, the gun bellowing loudly as it fires bursts of bullets. Noctis cursed loudly before he is forced to warp for his life, missing the chance of being having his body eradicated by bullets. Behind them, Aqua and Lunafreya already erected barriers to protect them from stray bullets, rubber or not. She hears a small laugh behind her and turned to see Gladiolus smirking knowingly.

"Imagine if he had that gun on his first day of training", he says. Aqua snickered and covered her mouth, remembering the story.

Back with the sparring boys, Noctis is still in the air while maintaining his warping as he avoids the unending torrent of bullets. Prompto had easily forced him to drain what mana he had left and after his last warp back to the ground, he was drained. He used small portions of it to phase through the bullets while using his agile movement to dodge the torrent before he relents in moving and calls for the Shield of the Tall and hunker down.

The rubber bullets bounce off the wall of a shield, but it was too heavy for Noctis to try and rush Prompto, thus he would have to wait it out until his mana replenished then go for the kill. That was the plan until the bullets stopped. "Hunkering down isn't gonna cut it, buddy!", Prompto yelled. Noctis peers from the side of his shield but quickly hides behind when Prompto throws his robotic arm at the wall.

The attack pushes the king back even with both feet and shield dug into the ground. He gasped in surprise as the feels his shield shake and vibrate with tremor, surprised by that display of power from Prompto of all people. Then the attack came again, pushing Noctis back further back and then he hears a drill of sorts, loud and whirring with full power. He peered to see Prompto now carrying a large drill for an arm.

Silvery design with the casing closer to Hammerhead's design and decals, Prompto jumps and plunges the spinning weapon into the shield. Noctis grunts in determination to fend off his friend's amazing display of strength, pushing against his drill. Then as the king looked up he sees to his utter disbelief the tiniest hole slowly grows with the silver bead of a drill tip pierce through the giant wall. He growled in aggravation, dismissing his weapon to preserve.

Noctis managed to side-step his friend's piercing weapon and uses his keyblade to strike at the weapon to throw him off. He uses the last portion of his mana to warp away from Prompto, once more giving his friend the advantage of having the distance between he and Noctis. He pants from his depletion of mana as Prompto changes his drill arm to the gatling gun once again and aimed it at his king, smirking.

Noctis feels a great deal of pride for his best friend despite the change in advantage between them. He had come a long way, just a shame it was against his king. And right now, with his mana gone and his friend seeming to have every counter for his arms, Noctis hated to say this fight may be in Prompto's favor.

That was until he felt a weight in his pocket, remembering his father's key. He slips his hand into his pocket and plucks it out while summoning his keyblade just as Prompto's barrel rotated and prepared to end the fight. Seeing the key in hand, Noctis glanced at his keyblade and smirks to himself. He clenched the key in his hand while his legendary weapon glowed in a bright light. Noctis throws his father's key up into the air, spins the keyblade and raises it high.

The key is enveloped in a beautiful light, turning into the light and pours into his majesty's keyblade. A gust of wind blows, creating clouds of dust just as Prompto unleashed a torrent of bullets at his majesty. When the dust settled thanks to one powerful burst of force, Noctis stood with his keyblade, except now there were thin walls of crystals surrounding him, the bullets were bouncing off them harmlessly.

Prompto lets out a "what the?" while unloading his bullets while everyone bore witness to Noctis' new ability, only with Ignis looking at him with shock. The future king wears a ghostly crystal hornlike crown on the right side of his head, held behind his ear, a gold knee-high guard on his right leg and a ghostly crystal ring on his left-hand middle finger, even his eyes showed a sharpness and wisdom within them none had ever seen from him.

For a moment, Ignis swore he saw his majesty king Regis standing before them.

Noctis held his keyblade in the same stance he usually would when wielding Sword of the Father, and aimed his ringed hand at Prompto, firing lightning at the gunner's gun arm. The lightning encased the weapon and completely fried it's functions, startling Prompto and in panic, he dislodged the weapon and let it fall to the ground as it sputtered and twitched from the jolt. Prompto quickly replaced his stump with his drill hand, turning to his best friend who was flying toward him like a charging angel.

"If I can pierce through your family shield, then I'll pierce through your crystals buddy!", promised Prompto as he reels his drill arm back. With a yell, he punched the king's wall of crystal. The drill, however, was immediately crushed and rendered dull from the attack, shocking all who witnessed the attack. Prompto didn't even have a chance to react because Noctis vanished before his eyes and reappeared behind him.

Prompto turned to face him and leaped back from him, his majesty didn't even try to stop nor harm him. Instead, he watches Prompto, giving him a chance to turn the tide against him once again. His mercy is rewarded with another cocky smirk from Prompto. "Okay buddy, I've got one more weapon left", he warned, switching out his arm for the next attachment. His new arm was truthfully less intimidating than the previous, almost comical with it being a large blue blaster like arm and there was something written on the body of it.

Prompto aims it at his best friend and says: "Eat this!". The blaster fired something at the barrier and broke apart upon impact. Noctis looks down at the remnant of the ammunition and sees it was…a biscuit.

At least the crumbs looked like they were biscuits, they could be cookies for all he knew. He just blinks, then turned to a mortified Prompto looking at his best friend. He then turned to his gun arm before he reached into his pocket and amusingly yanks out what looked like an instruction journal (the Hammerhead logo gave it away) and reads aloud: "Prompto, PS, the third gun is cosmetic, please don't think of using it in an actual fight, lots of love, Cindy".

"COSMETIC!? Cindy made me a biscuit gun instead of another badass arm!?", Prompto groaned in utter dismay. He slumps in defeat, submitting to his best friend. "My girlfriend trolled me…", he weeps.

Noctis sighs good-naturedly as his crystals disappeared, chuckling lightly at his friend. "H-Hey, all things said and done, you held your own against me", he offered with a shrug, "I mean…pretty sure those two arms will get the job done…". Prompto lets out a groan as he looked back at his joke weapon and then back to his best friend with a sheepish grin. "Guess so…but hey, least I can have a snack during the big fight", he says with optimism.

As most of the party went to cheer up the gunner while some got ready to start their training, Gladiolus pats Aqua on the shoulder and asked: "So where's our favorite trio?". Aqua smiled knowingly.

"Settling a score".

*Elsewhere*

Kairi just manages to evade the large explosion that consumed several trees behind her as she uses Flowmotion to dash through the forest. During her jumps, flips, and leaps she would occasionally spin and fire off spells of light to attack her chaser while keeping her eyes out for the other pursuer.

Finally, she dashed out of the dense trees and into a clearing where she swings her keyblade to strike at her prey. Riku only turned in time to not just block her attack but throw her over himself, making her roll on the ground and back onto her feet with a hand grabbing the earth and heels dug into the ground to stop.

Behind him Sora bursts through the trees in his Element Form, firing arrows at his two friends. Kairi meets his with her traditional Rays of Lights while Riku swipes his hand in front of him to create a dark slash that sailed towards the boy's arrows. Kairi's attack exploded upon impacting his while Riku's consumed then and sliced through several branches of the trees he came from. Sora soars over their attacks and lands in the clearing with them, reverting to his normal form, Oblivion called back.

He then rushes into the fray, going for Riku instantly and meeting his keyblade with his own. Rivals to the very end, the two veterans of the keyblade fought with vigor and raw determination, loud clashing steel and speed that could only rival the speed of light. Their impressive powers didn't stop Kairi from throwing herself into the clash, adding her keyblade into the dense dome of slashing blades. Together all three of them swiped, swung and struck at each other, no holds barred and going all out.

All three keyblades collided with one powerful stroke, the clang of their weapons echoed across the forest, shaking the earth beneath their feet and sent a gale so great they nearly bent the trees. They stared down each other, eyes burning with competition and determination to come out on top as their weapons groaned with strain with three different directions trying to overpower the other. Riku, however, creates a dark pool beneath his feet and sinks quickly into it, disappearing and causing the two to stagger as their weapons slip.

Kairi regains her footing quicker than Sora and starts to strike at him, clashing her divine keyblade against her dark blade. The two clashed and danced with Kairi striking with amazing speed while her boyfriend refuses to relent and give her an edge. Behind them Riku reappears by jumping out of his pool of darkness and swings his keyblade at them multiple times, throwing dark arcs at them. Kairi sees this with a glance over her shoulder and leaps aside, allowing Sora to take the brunt of the attack.

Sora, however, retaliates with a form change and changes into his Dark Form. Easily swiping his black keyblade, he cleaves through Riku's attacks as they soared past him, cutting down trees in their wake. He dashed towards his best friend, only to have a wall of earth erecting before him. He scoffs confidently and slashes through it, landing behind it seemingly without touching it as if he phased through it.

Then when he stands up, several slashes of light painted the stone wall and then it comes crashing down behind him. He turned to Kairi, hands glowing with magic with a frustrated look on her face. He winked at her before he places the tip of his keyblade down and swings upwards at her, firing off a wave of dark light at her in response to her attack before he rushes at Riku again. Kairi raised her keyblade to guard it, immediate contact caused her to be pushed through the forest as she dug the heels of her boots into the ground.

With the boys, Riku wasted no time in dueling Sora once more at the two exchanged blows with their mystical weapons of light with touches of the darkness. Riku matches Sora's two-handed attacks with just one-handed counters and even with his enhanced strength, Sora has no more of an advantage than Riku does. The two struck at each other until Sora managed to disarm Riku's keyblade from his hand by stabbing in between the handle and ring of the key and yanked it out.

Smirking at his friend's lack of a weapon, Sora swings at him. However, the master raised his right hand, shrouded in darkness and grabbed the body of the blade, halting the momentum of Sora's attack and aims his left hand at Sora's face. He fired a force-based spell that throws Sora across the field, his hands unintentionally relinquishing the keyblade to Riku. His back dragged into the earth before his form reverts and he rolls onto his feet.

Riku spins Oblivion in his hand with a confident smirk as he takes up his stance once more. Undeterred, Sora runs at Riku as the master charged towards him. Before either could commence an attack, Kairi suddenly appears between them, both hers and Riku's keyblade in her hands and spins on the spot until she moved so fast it was a blur. She cries out "Tornado" and then a green tornado appears where she spun, sucking both her boys up into it.

Not as gigantic as natures for the sake of keeping the collateral damage small, it is no less powerful as both keyblade wielders were sucked up and left being spun in the air without any means of escaping it. At the center of the tornado, Kairi leaps up and toward Riku, crossing both keyblades across her chest as she meets him with a stretch of both blades. Riku counters this by slamming Sora's keyblade right in the middle of her attack, blocking and stopping the momentum she needed to commence the attack.

Kairi glared at him as they spin in the tornado with Sora flailing around in it uselessly. Kairi managed to throw him off her and begins to hack and slash at him with both keys. Unlike Sora and his nobody, however, Kairi's use of two keys leaves much to be desired, carrying to weapons without proper training and lack of strength and coordination did little to worry Riku as he parried and struck at her. While they dueled in the middle, Sora is thrown up into the skies by the tornado, but this was exactly what he needed.

Sora flips himself upright in the air and looks down to his two friends, raising his hands and forming a large ball of roaring fire and like a basketball he dunked the ball right into the tornado. Both fighters looked to see a ball of fire diving toward them and in response, Riku kicked Kairi in the stomach and into the tornado, then tossed Sora's keyblade at the ball. His black steeled key struck home and detonated the ball, creating an explosion that obliterated the tornado and throws all three of them in different directions.

Kairi and Riku opposite directions while Sora is thrown higher into the air. Kairi bounced several times on the ground, losing Riku's keyblade and coming to a halt when she managed to get to her feet and stab her keyblade into the ground.

The master amongst them calls for his back and wastes no time in trying to take Kairi out of the match, slamming his hand onto the earth. The princess of light's senses kicked into overdrive and she rolled to avoid a spike of dark violet. It kept sprouting from where she laid so she kept rolling and rolling to avoid being skewered as Riku tried to land a hit. She flips during a roll, getting to her feet and performing several cartwheels, at one point nearly getting a spike through her face.

During one of her cartwheeling, she performed a single handstand and fired a pearl of light at Riku. Riku was struck and thrown onto his back, not concentrating on preserving himself and dead set on removing Kairi.

Kairi pants but keeps a confident smile on her face as her friend got to his feet, although she sees he was finding that simple task more challenging as the match goes on. Not she could say she'd be any better if she were knocked flat on her butt again.

They both looked up to see Sora diving back down to the ground, Oblivion in hand and standing in the middle of the two. None of his friends took a chance and aimed their keyblades at him, firing rays of light and darkness respectively at the boy. The beams closed in on Sora a bit too late though, because, with a cry, he entered his Double Form, calling Oathkeeper to his hand once again. With opposites meeting, Oblivion meeting Kairi's beam and Oathkeeper meeting Riku's, Sora manages to stay off the attacks.

He spins around and destroys their beams, then air-dashes towards Kairi. The princess doesn't back down however and meets her dual-wielding adversary with courage and vigor. Kairi dodges and attacks at the same time against the two keys, getting nicked and scratched here and there but in the grand scheme of things she was faring greater than either boy had hoped she would. Kairi knocks Oathkeeper out of Sora's hand and deadlocks with Oblivion, staring at him.

Their fight had been cut short thanks to Riku's interruption, making them leap back from him. Now in his hand instead of Brave Heart, it was his old keyblade, Way to the Dawn. The Way to the Dawn greatly resembles the Soul Eater sword he once wielded, though the once curved wing is now straight, and the keyblade's guard is composed of one angelic wing and one demonic wing, similar to the guards of Sora and Kairi's Oathkeeper and Oblivion keychains, respectively. Also, a dark angelic wing has been added to the top of the original blade of the Soul Eater to act as the teeth of the key. Its token is the heartless emblem, but without the spiked bars crossing it.

The two guessed that was thanks to Ravus' chain he managed to recall his first keyblade.

Then he spun the weapon in hand and yelled: "Let's get serious!". A flash of dark blue burst from his keyblade as it shifts and changed into its second form. The blade extends and creates a double-edged sword with Soul Eater's design with the angel and devil wings scheme as the edge of the blade, it was two inches taller than Riku with the pommels curved demon wings and the handle long wrapped in dark leather.

Kairi looks at her boys as Sora readied his keyblades and Riku grabbed the handle his new blade with both hands, sensing the battle has escalated. Well, she can and will match their prowess. Placing a hand on her pearl necklace, she is covered in the silvery pink Wayfinder charm as her body is covered in light, and then she is donning her armor once again. Dearly Beloved glowed in a shining pinkish-white light, power coursing through her.

All three blasted towards the other, leaving broken earth where they once stood as they all collided in the middle with all their powers poured into their weapons. The very moment the four blades collides, the very ground beneath their feet shattered and created a small crater beneath them as the gale of their attacks broke trees in half this time unlike their last one, some were even thrown into the skies and leaves and branches from others were stripped off the trees.

The three islanders fought for dominance as Kairi's armored glowed with light, Riku's body cloaked by darkness while Sora's own body is cloaked in a mix of both. Sparks flew like crazy between the four joint weapons, magic crackled around them as their feet dug into the earth, breaking dirt and stone alike. Their powers so great they broke their deadlock and like wild hurricanes, all of them struck the other with movements that appeared as blurs to the normal human eyes.

It didn't stop there, they kept striking at each other while protecting themselves and some of their attacks were including magic into the mix. Flames licked and scorched the earth, winds cutting down the trees and slicing the leaves to nothing, lightning striking all around them, ice freezing the water in the air and the earth breaking apart. Riku's dark might versus Kairi magical light while simultaneously dueling Sora's combination of endless surprises.

This battle kept up for so long none could keep track of time, none could tell how long they pushed themselves to the very limits of their bodies, discovering how deep their strengths could go. It is only when the moon beamed down upon them did the three allow their bodies to finally submit to the exhaustion and aches their bodies had adopted.

All three laid on the ground on their backs, arms and legs outstretched as they laid there panting and groaning in pain. Clothes ripped and torn in several places with the boys' shirts barely holding together as the princess' own clothes had seen and survived better in the past. Adorning the bodies were bruises, scratches and cut marks, Kairi had a few on her cheeks and forehead while her boys likely had worse.

By the time the moon had taken over duty in the skies, they all had nary enough strength between them to move from their spots.

"Ok…for the sake, reframing from killing ourselves from training…what do you guys…say to…a draw?", Riku pants with a groan.

"I…I'm cool with that…", Sora moaned weakly.

"I am…w-willing to accept a tie between us…only…because it was my first time sparring with two of you…", Kairi giggled weakly, slightly smug.

The two boys chuckled weakly in response as they all groaned in pain, surprised by how much of the day was spent training like this. Never in their lives had they felt so tired to the point they were all ok sleeping on the ground like this. Kairi cracks her eyes opened to see the sea of stars, smiling tiredly. "Hey, guys?", she croaks, "When this is all over…do you think we could, camp under the stars like this again?".

The two glanced over to her, only moving their eyes and heads ever so slightly as she stares up at the sky. "Just the three of us, stargazing…no training, no fights…just, like the old days?", she whispered. "Hmm…that, actually sounds pretty nice…", Riku confesses, staring at skies. "Maybe make some s'mores, campfire…".

"Catch some fish, few fruits…blankets for comfort", lists Sora as he joined his friends in stargazing. "Just the three of us…".

Kairi smiles softly as Riku hummed in agreement. Just the three of them, lord above when was the last time it was just the three of them she wondered. "Well, she thinks to herself, "we'll just have to make up for all of the lost time". Slowly all three drift off to sleep, found a small while later by the others and brought to the cottage.

*Later*

Sitting on the bed of his room with the moon shining, resting on the small pouf was the suitcase given to him by the three fairies. Axel stares at it in contemplation, trying to decide would it be for the best to finally don his new attire?

He was tapping his feet, trying to decide if he should. Sure, he would be happy to finally break off from his past life as a nobody. Yet whenever he thinks of Roxas and whoever that person who still lingers on his memory and heart, he feels as if a part of him is still in need of a rescue. Maybe as much as he wanted to distance himself from the past life, these robes still had a significance to him. Axel makes a loud groan and slumps on his back on the bed. Here he was worried about clothes like high school girl about to go on a date…

"Looks like someone's having a rough time".

Axel shoots up and turned behind him to see Roxas standing in front of the door to the balcony in a ghostly form, much like Naminé. The nobody of Sora gave his best friend a warm smile as he walks around the bed and sits on the suitcase. Face to face with his old friend, Axel just stared at him, wondering if he was dreaming. But from the way Roxas smiled at him and the fact he isn't seeing those weird sheep that often plague his dreams (he didn't nor want to know why).

He lets out a shaky laugh while shaking his head. "Man…you barely aged at all…", he jokes. Roxas chuckled in response, smiling at him. "Has anyone aged these past few years?", Roxas asked with a friendly smile, "I mean Aqua and Ventus have been out for nearly twelve years and look at them now".

Strange aging aside, Axel runs his hand through his wild hair, looking at his old friend. "…its, great to see you again", he sighed. Roxas' smiles dimmed as he looked at his ethereal form, stretching his arms to emphasize his point. "Just wish it wasn't like this…", Roxas laments, frowning, "Being a ghost isn't as fun as Naminé says". Axel had a good feeling not being able to physically touch someone along with eating and doing practically anything was probably worse than being a nobody.

Roxas then points at Axel's lack of emerald teardrops. "Hey, you got rid of those tattoos!", he says. Axel scoffs with a wave of his hand, and says: "I don't cry anymore, remember". Then Roxas smirked and reminds him when he and Kairi started training, he did indeed cry. This made the man huff stubbornly before he frowned in sadness. Slowly the two friends' smiles died and in their place were looks of loss and mourn.

"Roxas…I'm not crazy right? There was somebody else with us, right?", Axel asked, "I mean, I know everyone doesn't remember but…".

"She was real…she was our friend…", Roxas affirms, his voice was low and ridden with pain. He placed a hand on his heart and says: "When Sora's heart was shattered back in Eos, there was someone else with us helping him…". He shakes his head as Axel sees the poor kid's eyes were watering with pain. "But I can't remember her, and when I try to…all I see is Kairi or Naminé but the pain…".

Same with Axel, unable to remember the girl and worse whenever those two come to mind, a girl with dark hair takes their form and the pain comes back in full. Roxas sniffles and hiccups, tugging his older friend's heartstrings. Even if he is an ethereal form, Axel gently places a hand on his friend's lap, making him look at him. Without tears in his eyes, refusing to break down in front of someone who needed him.

He gave his best friend one of his rarest smiles, gentle and friendly. "Ya never know what's gonna happen in that fight, for all we know she could be waiting for us to pull her out of the fire", he says. "We'll get her back, and then once we get your body going, we'll have all the sea-salt ice cream we can eat!", he promises. Roxas chuckled, rubbing his eyes to stop any tears flow out of his eyes and gave his best friend a grin.

Axel takes the suitcase after Roxas gets off and puts it back into the pocket dimension. Until he finds this girl and brings his best friend back home, these robes will be a part of him. And instead of going to sleep, Axel spent the whole night talking to his old friend.

A/N: 

…I had to be dragged away from Final Fantasy VII remake for this chapter…wanna know how bad? I spent yesterday and Friday playing that game…and had only three pages done for this chapter…SOOOOOOO I spent all day getting this done…

…I'mma go play it now…

Two more chapters on the training arc, next chapter is NOT gonna be training but chill time. Trust me I need a break from fighting considering what's coming next!

Big thanks to VashTheStampede0409 for helping with Prompto's new arm weapons!

QUESTIONS!:

Q1: Thoughts on this chapter?

Q2: Happy to see Way to the Dawn back, I'm sure someone suggested it come back, can't remember who. Please say!

Q3: Chocobros abilities, like or hate?

Q4: The Islander clash? How was it?

Q5: The two conversations between Axel and Noctis?

Q6: Riku's new weapon?

Q7: What do you wanna see the next chapter?

Q8: Prompto's new weapons?

As always everyone, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	67. Chapter 67

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 67

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

*Month Five: Day One hundred eleven*

*Aqua's Room*

"Okay so with Kairi's magic coming along steadily…we can start practicing Flowmotion for Noct…", Aqua lists as she scribbled down her notes and wrote her schedules.

In her room with the desk littered with several other notebooks and notes made strewn on the desk, her lamp the only light on excluding the moonlight piercing the thin curtains. The master crossed out one line of a plan for tomorrow and made notes to add it in another time and date before she lets out another yawn and rubbed her weary eyes. "Just a few more to make…", was what she had been telling herself for nearly two hours now.

With only seven months remaining before their time was up, she needed to make sure every piece of the training was covered before the time came. While the others had all made wonderous progress with the training and slowly their friends from Eos would soon be able to stand against even one of Xehanort's strongest allies, she feared there were still somethings that needed more work to be a hundred percent sure they'd be fine.

A shame she didn't ask Mickey to lend a hand nor did she ask Lunafreya, but as a master and appointed mentor/leader, she believed this wouldn't be too strenuous and if her master could do it she could equally.

She rubbed her eyes to keep them open with her arm as she made notes to ask Donald how Ignis' magic came along, and when she flipped the next page, her door was opened. She didn't need to look who her visitor was, the heavy footsteps were dead giveaways. That and no one would wrap their arms around her and nuzzle into her neck playfully. Exhaling a content but very tired sigh, Aqua relaxes into Gladiolus' embrace.

"Up late again", he says, rubbing his stubbled chin in between her neck and shoulders. She giggles while jerking forward in a vain attempt to get away from it, her worst ticklish spot he simply loved to exploit to no end. "S-Someone, *giggle* has to write up", she lectured with giggles escaping her lips. Then he relents his tickling torture to look at the amount of work she had been doing despite her and he being the only ones up at this unreasonable hour.

"Blue", started the shield before Aqua tiredly sighed. "I know, I know…just let me write this…and I'll, *yawn*, go to bed", she promises. Gladiolus rolled his eyes at that false vow, many times he would hit the hay early and still find her at the desk. He was sad to say he could not count on his fingers how many times he finds her asleep at her desk, and that was just the start of the month. Admirable as it was she had taken the role of the leader and take the extra amount of responsibilities and workload for the team; she was still training along with them.

"Nah, you can do it tomorrow", he decides and easily lifts her out of her chair. Aqua weakly protested as she was thrown over his shoulder and tried to argue with him the importance of these notes. Yet even as her mind was set on the task, her body wasn't complying with her mind as she barely attempted to struggle against Gladiolus, further showing how weary she is and how sleep-deprived she was starting to get.

She must have dozed off, or at least nearly, often when she was trying to work and many times when she was resting her chin on her hand she nearly fell and slammed her face onto the desk. The suddenly slip often saving her a face full of wood and paper. Aqua hadn't even noticed Gladiolus had practically stripped her armor, boots and helped her rest comfortably in the bed and only when she heard the beat of his heart did she notice.

His arm wrapped around her smaller body and her head resting on his chest, she finally caved in and just accepted her notes could be done in the morning…or maybe the afternoon...evening maybe?

"Are all those notes needed?", he asks, genuinely curious. Aqua would have adamantly stated they were vital to their plan, but when she thought onto it she lamented that they weren't essential as she would have them think. "No…its just little reminders to what we need to work on, along with some points made by the instructors…", she explained as she closed her eyes to allow her mind to settle and body be at ease. "Things like…Prompto's new arms…hmm…Axel's…his…", she tried as her words slurred and grow incoherent.

Gladiolus chuckled and rubs her back, pulling her into a peaceful slumber. "You know, all things considered, we're getting stronger with the way we're doing it…and pretty sure Iggy and Mickey have already compiled everything", he assured. "I wouldn't put it past them…", concurred the master, shifting to get cozier. "I just…want to make sure everyone's ready, you know?", she asked low and soft.

He lets a hum rumble within his chest and throat, holding her close. His hum spurred her to open her eyes, showing the worry and doubt clouding her confidence in her friends…family. Herself, Terra and Ventus had trained for years yet were completely blindsided by Xehanort and that freak in the mask, and their tragedies got worse. Here and now, she was given a chance to prevent those horrible fates that her friends had endured in the past from befallen on the others.

Aqua would never forgive herself if Riku became another vessel to Xehanort, Sora falling into an eternal slumber and gods forbid if Kairi were to fall into the dark realm. She would give her own heart to prevent that fate from even considering to be Kairi's.

"We will be ready for them", Gladiolus says confidently as he laid down on the pillow and lets Aqua sit up to face him. He brushes his hand down her cheeks, comfortingly. "That old bastard may have vessels, but the only reason he had the edge on you three was because he's a crafty old man, and none of you were ready for him", he explained, then smirked: "This time, you've a team, someone whose stopped his heartless and nobody, along with everyone else".

Aqua's worries melt away at those words, confidence returning. He is right she believed, this time there would be no lies or doubt that would shake the bonds of trust with the group, there would be none who could stir fear within their hearts. One flicker of a memory of her daemonized persona proved she was stronger than ever, and within her heart, she knew the same could be applied to the others. And even if she had fears about confronting Terra again, those feelings were put to rest whenever she looked at her students and herself in the mirror.

"Yeah…maybe you're right", she sighed, smiling.

"Course I am, whenever have I not?", challenged the shield with a cocky smirk.

"When you suggested adding basil and paprika to cup-a-noodles would make it tasty?", she reminds.

"…hey nobody's perfect…".

She giggled, but then her smile turned softer and more…alluring as she shifts and straddled his waist, placing her hands on his chest. He raises a brow, knowing what this woman was planning and being completely ok with it. "I thought we couldn't?", he asks with a smirk, resting his hands on her hips as she leaned down to his level. She pecks his cheeks before resting her forehead against his, and says: "I make the rules, and I can break them too".

He sighed exaggeratedly before she captured his lips…

*Month Four: Day One hundred and sixteen*

Practicing a few swings with his keyblade, Ventus tested out his newly developed strength on a dummy while his fellow gym buddy Kairi was running on a treadmill nearby. They were the only ones occupying the underground gym that Naminé had found during her late-night explorations and discovered Merlin had created a gym akin to the one back in the Citadel back in Eos.

Apparently, during one of his wanderings, he stumbled upon Noctis' world and found their old training rooms and had installed it into the cottage's unlimited spaces via magic. The room was wider than the average gyms, almost big enough to fit a small village into with hundreds of equipment perfectly spaced out for the party to use to their heart's desires. Though only Ventus and Kairi occupied it for the moment, people like Gladiolus and Riku have been coming here more regularly when not mentoring or being mentored.

Ventus swung the keyblade upon the test dummy, satisfied to hear his attacks had way more "oomph" and power compared to his usual swift but very weightless attacks. He steps back, bouncing on his feet to keep himself hyped up and pumped for the rest of the regime, something he notes Prompto does during his sparring sessions. He inhales and exhales quickly, dismissing his keyblade and flexed his fingers, feeling the tension in his joints loosen up when they no longer held the mystical weapon.

He picks up his bottle of water and towel to clean himself up, satisfied with the first part of his routine done. Ventus could feel a great change in his strength from these sessions, looking at his arms that have become more toned and defined with muscle along with power coursing through his veins. Ever since Gladiolus had taken up the role of his coach, the man had been ruthless with him in surmounting his limitations and getting tougher.

There were days where Ventus regretted asking him since he was quite the taskmaster when it came to training, and of course, he'd be more bruised than he ever was when he was training with Aqua and Terra. Even still he wouldn't back down, no matter how rough it was and even though he couldn't sleep with the aches, he wouldn't ask him to change a thing.

He hates to say this but he was always been treated like a novice by his brother and sister, where Gladiolus couldn't care if you were his brother or old man, if you wanted him to train you then he'll make sure you toughen up. Within the second month of his training and starting properly with him, Ventus had gone from a leaf in the wind to a bird that defied the worst of storms, able to take a hit from even Gladiolus and keep up.

Though he is still a lower tier compared to the others, he was happy to see he could take on Gladiolus on equal footing.

He throws off his black t-shirt and starts to clean the sweat off his body, then he glanced to the mirror to see indeed his body was more toned than it had been before he started this new work out. Sure he wasn't scrawny like Terra used to tease him about, but his muscles were pretty much like Noctis and Prompto's, very thin and near-invisible compared to Sora and Riku's. Gladiolus probably won the buff man contest amongst all of them, and that man did nothing to hide his ego.

Ventus though could say he had way more confidence in his muscles than Axel, least he shows his arms while that man just hides them. And the pyro even bragged girls like muscles. Then his mind clicked with something that he hadn't considered before when he looked at himself.

Did Rikku like muscular guys?

He frowned and a sudden sense of self-consciousness washes over him when millions of questions began to swamp his mind. Did she even like him lanky? What did she like about a guy like him? Or worse, how would she react if he was super buff? Come to think of it, he wasn't even sure WHAT her preferences were, or types!

She liked cute guys, he fits that category sure, but what else?

"I don't think I've seen any guy look so scared of himself". His worries broke for a moment when Kairi joins him, cleaning her neck with her towel with a tired smile. She gave him a gesture to his t-shirt, hinting for him to at least cover-up. Blushing softly Ventus does so and throws it back on, uttering a low "sorry". The princess giggled and offered they start doing a few pull-ups, walking off to the equipment.

The boy follows as his mind goes back to Rikku and that worrying doubt within him, along with other revelations about his predicament. What do girls like their boyfriends to do? Were there some hidden rules about dating he was never told (very likely thanks to his siblings), does Rikku expect certain things from him?

He lets out a silent groan as Kairi does a few stretches before putting herself through the strenuous training. Ventus looked at the girl, just rubbing her hands together to get ready to grab the bar above her, and then decided maybe the best way to get advice for dating is from a girl currently dating.

"Hey Kairi?", he says, joining her just as she grabbed the bar.

"Yeah, Ven?", responds the girl.

"You're a girl, right?".

Kairi stops herself from grabbing the metal bar and turned to face the boy with the most confused look on her face. He gulps when the words he choose registered in his mind as Kairi's confused look changed into annoyance and deadpanned. With crossing her arms, Kairi replied: "I am? Well, that explains why I have breasts, love cute things and have a penchant for the color pink".

Ventus groaned in reply, running a hand through his hair. "That's not what I meant…", he sighed, "I mean, how do you…you know when you think she's special and want to-

"Make a good impression?", Kairi finishes with a smirk. She makes a very catty smile and raises a finger. "First piece of wisdom? Don't ask a girl if she's a girl".

"Okay, okay! Bad way to start this conversation, I get it!", he groaned in response. All his regret was coming at full force, and he could see this stupidity getting him into potential trouble with Rikku. Maybe he should've asked Naminé…or Lunafreya, least the latter would be more forgiving with her quick wit. At least he hoped she wouldn't smite him for such insolence, he's seen her magic during training sessions…

Kairi's smirk softens to one of genuine curiosity and warmth as she clasps her hands behind her back and asks: "What's up with the question anyway? Thinking about Rikku?". Ventus nods as he rubbed his neck. "Yeah. I mean…well, how do I…woo her?", he asked, cringing at that last part. Kairi snickered and clasps her mouth shut to stop the flow of laughter, shaking her head. Bless this boy's heart she knows he was trying but…

"Woo," her?", she giggled, "Oh my goodness Ven!".

So many mistakes were being made here.

"UGH! I don't know, how do I make her happy!?", he asked, going for the straight forward approach. Kairi calms her giggles and leaned against the machine. "Well first off, have you and her been together long?", she asked. "…no?", he says, scratching his head, "I mean, we…we got together just a few days before we came here".

"So, you're just starting? Well, then there's no need to worry!", Kairi assured with a wave of her hand, "Especially with the keyblade war going on and with how little time you guys had together, her wanting to date you should say a lot about you". Ventus looks at her, surprised. Kairi shrugged and continued: "Maybe she sees something in you that makes her want to start something like this despite how little time you spent together?".

He crosses his arms and looks down pensively while pondering on her words. True he doesn't know her as well as he wanted to, and with everything happening around he is scared he may not get the chance. Yet at Kairi's words, Rikku was the one who was more affectionate and playful with him, confidence radiates off her like light from a keyblade. The way she would always be by him when they were in the same place when they cuddled all morning the night after the party.

She was willing to wait for him to get into their relationship's more serious stage, even hinting she wasn't against marriage. Could she truly be that willing to stick with him? Maybe he was expecting way more than he should have any right to, but then again when he sees Aqua and Gladiolus, they make it work. Even if their time isn't if Kairi and Sora's maybe he was just in the same situation as them?

He looked at his hand, suddenly realizing the folly of those thoughts. Whatever could come from this new bond with her, be it short or long he knows none of it will matter if he doesn't come back from the battle, or worse, not be strong enough to protect her. He smiles at Kairi and nods at her, gratefully before he joins her and begins their sessions of pull-ups.

His thoughts going back to that cheerful spunky girl and somehow thinking of her only pushed him on to grow stronger.

*Month Five: Day one hundred and thirty-six*

As dawn slowly rises over the forest, the serenity of this strange world filled Naminé with peace and calmed her mind. Sitting on the log while slowly watching the sunrise, she kicked her ethereal limbs through the cliff's ledge, humming quietly.

With Kairi sleeping in due to her training going a bit awry with her getting a bit overconfident in her magic wards. The girl should have known better to challenge Aqua to try and break her defenses. Hopefully, that'll teach her not to get too cocky in the battle with Xehanort, or at least not when Sora's not around anywhere, least she'll be safe if someone does break her defenses. Then again she wouldn't put it past them to stick close during the clash, there would be no chance in the dark realm they'd leave each other out their sights.

Anything can happen after all.

She clasped her hands as the sun slowly rises above the horizon, coating the forest in a beautiful sunny glow.

"Guess you're an early riser too".

Naminé gasped and turns in time to see Roxas taking a spot next to her, planting himself down while having one knee propped up to rest his arm upon it. The blonde gave him a happy look while at the same time surprised to see he was walking around like herself. Her eyes must have asked because he gave her a warm smile and says: "Ever since Sora's heart broke, I've been awake. Nowadays I can walk around like you".

"Oh, right…", she says with a sad sigh, remembering those days without the boy. Roxas' smile dims, looking down. "Yeah…guess the only benefit from that was being reawakened, at the cost of Sora nearly perishing". They both stared at the sunrise, trying to block those memories. A dark few days for not just Naminé's friends, but for Roxas too. Trapped in the darkness of his friend's heart, using his light to keep him together.

What felt like days passing of him using fragments of his own constructed heart to keep Sora in check, the strange girl whose name and face he couldn't place yet knew she meant to much to him, trying to keep Sora's memories together to avoid him becoming a husk. The ordeal was a nightmare, and only thanks to Noctis and the others bringing him back in one piece freed him of that duty.

Naminé looked at the boy leaning backward, resting on his hands and sighing. "Why is it every time I met Sora, its always when he's in trouble?", he asks rhetorically. Naminé lets a small giggle out at the jab, somehow that was the only way those two seem to met up. "Well, once we get our bodies you can met up with him without either of you needing to be saved", she teases. Roxas chuckled in response, flashing her a grin.

Their eyes turned to the sunrise again, enjoying the silence before the day began. Even there were words spoken between them, Naminé couldn't help but occasionally glance at the boy and feel warmth race through her heart. She shook them aside, having made peace with her feelings toward Sora be put to rest and accepting the sad fact she wouldn't be that most important person to him. Maybe these feelings to Roxas are ghostly replications of her feelings to Sora, and if they were she felt worse.

Roxas doesn't deserve to be the second option.

"…sorry", he speaks.

Naminé looked at him, confused. "For what?", she questioned.

His face shows he is uncomfortable with this subject, yet he refuses to let it hang in the air. "I'm sorry about it…you know, how you feel about Sora", he says, before he groaned, "Oh crap that sounded awful…". Naminé's smile returns, smaller and fragile yet kind. "How did you know?", she asked. "Well…when you and Kairi talked about it back in the town, I kinda overheard you two…", he confesses, sheepish and she sees a bit of shame in his eyes.

Her mouths a silent "oh", somewhat peeved yet not surprised by that unintentional eavesdrop, her cheeks turning pink. "Then…I guess you heard everything else then? How things were?", she asks, looking down at her feet. Roxas hums in conformation, clasping his own hands and facing the sunrise. "Yeah…and I'm sorry about that too…", he says, "Guess after how that old jerk treated me during that false life I lived, I never considered how he must have treated you".

"He...strongly hated nobodies…", Naminé sighs, still carrying the resentment to the old man regardless of his supposed redemption. Ruefully she laments likely he would be one of the people to help bring her heart back to her body, and the idea of being in debt to him filled her with disdain. "But at least you did what you needed to door to help Sora", Roxas says comfortingly. "But if it would have benefited DIZ more were he to remain asleep, I doubt I'd be able to stop him", Naminé says.

"I doubt it, after all, you defied the organization and escaped to help Sora, so I bet that old wrap-faced jerk wouldn't have stopped you", Roxas says confidently. Her lips form a smile as her cheeks turned rosy, surprised Roxas had this much faith in her. Naminé looks away but feels his ethereal hand clasping around her own, prompting to face him again. The smile adorning his face looked familiar, almost like whenever Sora looked at Kairi.

She gasped however when she felt contact, the smooth leather of his gloves along with the touch of his fingers. After so long of being an ethereal being she had forgotten what it feels to touch something with her hands again, and she feels the warmth from the hand. As the rosy cheeks grow too dark red, she dared to glance at Roxas' eyes and sees the glow of warmth and affection shining brilliantly within them. She could feel and hear the beating her growing heart within her ears, never experiencing such feelings.

"I don't know if I can stack up to Sora…but, maybe, you could give his shadow a chance?", he offered. "Roxas…", she says, moving closer to him. She bravely cupped his cheek and held back the gasp of feeling the softness and warmth of his skin against her palm. This could be her final chance to experience that love Kairi has, to be able to create a bond that would fix the pain within her heart. And here is Roxas offering her a chance.

Yet something within her heart told her this was unfair.

"W-What about her? The girl you have in your heart?", she asks, not suspiciously or cruelly, genuine concern. Roxas' smile dimmed as he rests his hand on hers, and then he says: "I…I know she's important to me, but how I feel about her is like my memories of her, unknown". Closing her eyes and mulling the decisions given to her, she takes a deep breath and decided this will be her final selfless act.

"Can we wait…until we find her?", she asked. Roxas frowns at her but she elaborates: "I won't take you away from someone who has your heart already, and for all, we know she may be the one you belong with".

"And if she isn't? Does that mean, you'd give me a chance?", he asked hopefully. Gathering up her courage and willingness to face the consequences of what the future brings, she kisses him on the lips. The boy wrapped his arms around her and holds her close to him, tasting her lips.

A promise made between the two shadows…

*Month Five: Day one hundred and fifty-six*

"I sincerely hope you're doing this for the right reasons, young man", warned Ignis. Sora responded with a big grin with hands behind his head. "Sure!".

"And that little comment Kairi and Riku made about your previous adventures in the kitchen has nothing to do with your choice?", teases Aqua while tying the apron around her waist. Sora gives his master a pout while the master chef Ignis chuckles lightly. After a day's training and with himself having nothing strenuous, Ignis had offered to make everyone a proper dinner for tonight. With everyone using the bare minimum for dinners and lunches, namely, instant cook meals, the man of the king decided a proper meal is in order.

Granted he would be cooking for a greater number than ever before and there were some specific meals ordered, but he was more than up for the challenge. That was until Aqua offered her help, saying she had a desert in mind she had hoped to try and make again, and then Sora offered to help with the main dinner. This, in turn, made Riku and Kairi give Ignis apologetic looks that did not go unnoticed by the hero.

Ignis was apprehensive to allow Sora into the kitchen after Riku jokingly teased him they'd better get used to camping if he sets the stove on fire and even Kairi couldn't defend his lack of culinary talents. However, the man did recall the times he did ask, or rather have Sora offered, help from the boy that the worst thing he had to deal with was the him not understanding the difference in knives for the kitchen.

Sora, in response to them, bet he could help make a five-star dinner with Ignis and even made a wager with them that if he does, they would have to do the dishes. Riku boldly accepted his challenge with Kairi going along with it for the fun. As disinterested as he was to take part in petty bet like this, Ignis couldn't help himself but to get things ready and prepare a dinner worthy of five stars and more, his pride as a cook is on the line after all.

"Righto", Sora says, picking up the list of dinners and said: "One Dry-Aged Tender Roast Stew for Luna, Grilled Wild Trevally for Axel, Seafood Tartare for Riku and Cold Tomato Soup for Mickey, just to start".

"We'll have quite the work out for our culinary prowess", Ignis says as he starts to cut up the ingredients for some of the dinners. Aqua makes a comment on their more picky eaters, namely Noctis and Ventus for their disdain for veggies while she starts heating the stove and ovens. A subtle smirk appeared on the advisor's face as Aqua slips him a list of ideas on to smuggle vegetables unnoticed.

As the three cooked away whilst making small chat, the aroma of foods wafting into the air with steam and heat mixing perfectly, Ignis would occasionally peek at Sora out of habit to make sure the boy wasn't as horrendous at this task as his long time friends teased him for. Instead, the boy was extremely focused on the recipes, carefully adding the amount of ingredients and other bits of cooking skills he was certain he'd flop at.

With Aqua, having done her meals, doing the deserts. The way she moved and handled the tools in the kitchen, unlike Sora who was being careful with delivering what the man would often strive for, perfection, Aqua moved with confidence and grace as if she was using magic. The cream for the portion of deserts weaved and flowed perfectly while she would add the icing to them with the precision of a surgeon and each of those deserts were identical.

It is an experience for the man to dive into the world of culinary arts with actual talented cooks like himself, and sure he wouldn't mind the workload were it only him doing it. It was refreshing especially when Sora would ask for advice and even added his bits of ingredients while Aqua would give them samples of her deserts. Watching his friends doing something so normal and everyday tasks brings a sense of normality to him, no need to worry about anything outside of it.

"I'm surprised everything is going smoothly", Aqua confesses as she decorates one cake, "I haven't touched anything like this in so long".

"To be fair we've never given you a chance to show your cooking skills", Sora reminds as he adds the final piece of seasoning, "I mean we always leave it to Ignis to cook". Ignis makes a soft hum of agreement as he puts the dish into the oven. "Not that I minded, you six were quite easy to please", he says kindly, "Plus you eat your vegetables unlike Noct". He turns to Sora as he adds salt and pepper to Axel's dish and says: "I will be honest I'd thought you would have some disdain for veg".

Sora grinned as he flips the shaker and places it gently on the counter, turning to Ignis. "Me? Hey, I happen to like my veggies! Growing on an island all we ever eat are veg, fruits, and fish!", he argued. Then he gives him a cheeky grin. "Kairi's the worst for her vegetables!".

This gets both adults to look at him, Aqua mid squeezing the icing out. "What? Kairi? You're kidding!", she accused, "The girl eats her vegetables without a hassle". Sora laughs and shakes his head, leaning against the counter. "Yeah nowadays, but when she was a kid? She hated them! Carrots, broccoli, lettuce, if its anything green and grows on a farm, she hates it", he explained. Ignis chuckled as Aqua shakes her head, a knowing smirk appearing.

"And let me guess, whenever you two ate together, she would put her veg on your plate and like a good boy, you ate them without saying a word?", she asked. Sora raised his hand, guilty as charged. "Well…yeah", he sighed. "It was only when she got older and saw the benefits of eating them she started to have more…".

"Suppose fighting and wanting to get stronger to be at your side may have had a hand in that", Ignis remarked as he starts on his king's dish. Sora rolled his eyes as he worked on another dish for their friends, already imagining the reactions of their party when they see these dishes. Aqua finishes her deserts and stands back to marvel at her handy work, smiling proudly at the colorful pastries before she puts them in the fridge.

Despite knowing the wager, the three islanders made though, she still started to process of cleaning up her station and put the items away. A habit of hers when back at the castle she would clean as she went, figuring the less mess there is the less to tidy up later. When she grabbed the icing dispenser, Sora whistles at the dishes she made for everyone and says: "Whoa, they look amazing!". She smiled back gratefully and holding back the smug feeling.

"Gladio's gonna one lucky husband", he says softly.

"HUSBAND!?", squeaks the master, accidentally crushing the squeezer and firing a rope of it. Her blush turned to ashen white when the sugary pink substance splats on Ignis' face, the man's glasses shielding his eyes from the sugar. Even Sora gave the "oh crap" look and was ready to bolt from the kitchen as Aqua stood as still as a statue. Ignis slowly removed his glasses and looks at them before using a napkin and clean them.

His cheek has a sizable stain along his apron now looking close to a pink one. He looked to the woman, before saying: "If this is your way to sweeten the deal, my dear, I dare say you've taken it a bit too far".

Aqua sheepishly giggled before putting down the dispenser and turned to apologize but then received a face full of flour. She coughs lightly as her face is now powdered white along with her bangs, gone the sheepish look and now irritation in her eyes as the man smirked. "I thought women liked flour. Or was I mistaken?", he asks with smug. Aqua pouts and instead of being a responsible adult like she should have been, she instead sees the silver bowl of icing that was conveniently placed near her, and within range.

She glances at it, then to Ignis, then back it again with a malicious smirk. Catching her, Ignis gives her a look that screamed: "Do it at your own risk". She scoops a handful of it and then chucks the blue icing at the man, only for Ignis to duck and instead smack Sora right in the face with sugary goodness. A small explosion of blue icing on his face as Sora falls on his back from the attack, caught off guard. Aqua clasps her mouth with both hands, shocked and mortified she attacked the poor boy who had nothing to do with her and Ignis. Even the chef looked embarrassed for allowing him to be struck.

Sora sits up, not covered in much icing as Aqua and Ignis' faces were, but some of it stuck to his spiky hair and cheeks before he licks some off. He pouts at his master for that unneeded abuse and gets to his feet.

War had begun…

*Later*

Once the war was put to rest via peaceful negotiations, the three served up the food to their party in the dining room. Some had questions why they looked messier than they would have expected, much more so from Ignis and Aqua but their questions were put to the side when the entourage of food was placed before them.

The dining room was larger than needed but for the party of their size it was perfect, a large chandelier hung above them with busts of some people proudly stood around the entrances, low music played for them while five chairs were empty. Sora proudly placed Riku and Kairi's dinner before them, Stuffed Quail for Riku and Garden Curry for Kairi, both steaming hot and the aroma promising them both a delicacy.

"Cooked from scratch by Sora", informs Ignis as he placed Noctis' food before him.

They both gave the boy smirks as he huffs playfully, muttering them not trusting him as he sets everyone else's dinner before them. At the empty chairs, he hesitates for a moment, wondering if it would be insensitive to place food before their ethereal guests. "What? Nothing for the nobodies?", teases the nobody within his heart.

"You sure?", he whispered gently.

"Gives me an idea on what I can order in future".

With a smile, Sora places down a Croaker in Brown Sauce on the first empty chair and then a Crab Bisque before the other.

Once the food was delivered and everyone sat down to eat, with Naminé and Roxas appearing before everyone (startling Prompto when the ghost boy appeared next to him), everyone said "thank you" and dug in. The moment Kairi and Riku took a bite of their meals, their taste buds danced happily on their tongues way more than the Galdin Quay's food could ever dream to match. Kairi's eyes sparkled with delight as she started to eat more of her meal while Riku mentally groaned but eats his meal.

Conversations were made among the team, banters and jokes about their training while getting to know more about their newest addition to the party. There praises made for the three chefs here, the oldest humble while his two friends were more bashful about their feats. Ventus then asked if Aqua tried using magic again to cook everything, to which she quickly denounced and said: "Not after the last time! Remember that?".

Both her and Ventus shuddered at the memory, gaining everyone's attention and prompting questions. Ventus explains years ago Aqua, being super confident, tried to make a full course meal from scratch using magic to manipulate the food and things needed. The woman ducks her head away with embarrassment as he states at first it went well enough but then the utensils started to go crazy and attacked them.

The table laughed when he retold the battle between Terra and the whisk, the horrible dual between Aqua and the army of forks and spoons while Ventus was being maimed by a swarm of herbs.

It took Master Eraqus to quell the battle and the three of them spent all day cleaning the kitchen and Aqua got grounded for nearly a month for her arrogance. Both Ignis and Sora gave each other a grateful look that the woman didn't attempt to replicate her misadventures in the kitchen.

Along with that, Roxas added that among them all Axel was the absolute worst when it came to cooking. The pyro unashamedly admits he was the last person anyone should trust when it comes to cooking, revealing he once "accidentally" set the kitchen on fire during their times with the organization. Kairi playfully teases the two she doesn't believe that story because Axel is not only lazy when it comes to things like that but also all he ever eats is ice cream.

That was when Roxas reveals he was trying to make the ice cream. A silence befalls them before Noctis spoke up: "Axel, as king of Insomnia you are forbidden to enter the kitchen without supervision and a fire extinguisher".

As dinners were consumed and collected by Prompto and Ventus, deserts were brought out and shared amongst the party. The party praised the chefs again only for Sora and Ignis to clarify Aqua was the one who did the deserts. Ventus easily backed her up, stating the added a touch of icing within his desert. Goofy even asked why she had so much sugar in these deserts, saying it was a large contrast compared to her healthy habits.

She kindly replied: "Deserts are the only pleasurable food we're all entitled to have, and as such deserve to be extra sugary!".

Lunafreya giggled and agreed with her wholeheartedly, and it had nothing to do with her monstrous sweet tooth that Noctis teases her about. Gladiolus simply questioned how none of the three of them had gotten diabetes with the amount of sugar. Not that it stopped him from eating his own.

Finally, when all meals were consumed and dishes collected, Kairi and Riku begrudgingly got up and headed for the kitchen as the dining room emptied. Their food was too amazing for words, and a million times better than his first time, meaning they their end of the wager to uphold. Before they got to the door, however, Sora immediately jumped in the way, blocking them.

"Hey, where you going?", he asked.

"To the kitchen? To clean?", Riku asks, confused as Kairi. "Because we lost the wager?". Sora shakes his hands with a shaky smile. "O-Oh, pfft! Nah! We'll call it quits!", he says with a laugh. Kairi folds her arms with a questioning look. "Why? You were pretty gun-ho for the idea", she reminds with a narrowing gaze. Sora's smile was strained before Aqua steps in. "W-We'll take care of the kitchen", she announces.

"What? Aqua-

"We insist", the master states with more force, trying to usher them away. However, they remained strong in their stance and Riku pushes Sora aside and Kairi gently moves Aqua away and together they head into the kitchen.

And regretted it.

A warzone was the best way to describe the state of the kitchen, opposite to what they expected from Ignis. Forgotten utensils unwashed and stacked up high in the sink and counter, splotches of food everywhere, flour decorating the counter with plops of food and ingredients with eggshells and the yolk leaking from it.

Both keyblade wielders turned to Sora and Aqua, both sheepishly looking away. "The hell happened in there?", Riku asked, smirking. "…Aqua started it!", Sora says, pointing at her. She reels on him with embarrassed fury. "Excuse me!? YOU'RE the one who instigated it!", she argued glaring at him. Sora, in turn, pouts at her before Kairi stepped in with a clap of her hands, looking at her master. "So, if I'm understanding right…you guys, YOU, Aqua, my master and the definition of grace and order…started a food fight?", interrogated Kairi.

"…Ignis started it".

This made all eyes fall onto the man, overhearing the conversation. Ignis raised a brow at this attention, his cheeks turning dusty red as he clears his throat. "In my defense, I was merely retaliating when she sprayed me with icing…", he clarifies, "…but she was the one who escalated the fight". Kairi gave her master a cat-like grin, wiggling her eyebrows and making a permanent memory of this, leverage~

"Well since you guys made things a lot more messier than needs be", Riku says, grabbing master and friend's shoulders, "Guess whose gonna help me and Kairi tidy up?". Both Sora and Aqua groaned as they were dragged into the kitchen, laughed and teased by the others.

While Ignis walks away with a smug look.

*Month Seven: Day One two hundred and fifty-six*

After making some snacks, gathering up several couches, armchairs, blankets, and seats, everyone settled into the large living room as the large television played the first chosen movie. Lights dimmed as the only light was from the screen, couples paired off on the couches while others shared a seat and made themselves comfortable, the firs movie played is nothing but a romantic comedy. To say many found it incredibly cheesy was an understatement.

The lines were grossly cheesy, the characters were as stale and bland as plywood and the "romantic" scenes were so sickly cliché it made some rub their jaws. Not many trashed the movie as the person who chose it was Lunafreya, who was swayed by the cutesy box cover that beguiled her into thinking the movie was going to be good.

Not that it stopped the others for making fun of it, certainly.

The boys groaned at the guy while the girls would cringe at the pickup lines, the lame ways the girl tried to seduce the main lead and then when the steamy parts rolled in Donald just skipped the scene without resistance. When the film was finally, mercifully, over, everyone gave their thoughts and ridiculed how cliché the old flick was.

"Talk about desperate…that scene was something else…", Riku groaned as he sits back into his seat. Axel let out a scoff: "What? You say if that Iris girl did that you'd walk away without batting an eye?", he asked. One glare from Gladiolus made Riku use the wisdom and experience his adventures had taught him to not answer that question and just keep his mouth shut. Axel muttered "wuss" under his breath while Kairi snuggled into Sora's chest comfortably.

"What about you, Prom? Think Cindy would be into that?", the pyro asks. The gunner blushes and muttered something, twiddling his fingers. Noctis playfully punches his shoulder and teases him while Lunafreya giggles at their playful nature, before asking: "And you, Noct?". Noctis, more confident and casual than his buddy, replies: "Aren't we already together? Why would you need to try and seduce me?".

"She could probably bat her eyelids at you and BAM, Insomnia has a queen instead of a king", Ventus says with a giant smirk. Noctis glowered at him while his lover giggles profusely, somehow believing she had that power over the chosen king. "And *you* be able to tell that Rikku lass no if she asked you to do something for her?", Gladiolus challenged with a grin. Ventus blushed and looked down, quietly saying: "…no".

Aqua held back her sigh, again deciding to meet her properly before she judged her. In secret, she hoped Ventus would keep his promise and wait for marriage first before they would…

She shakes her head, that was a road she didn't need to go down. Then she was pulled into Gladiolus and rests her head on his shoulders, forgetting the dark path and enjoying the embrace. "And Blue doesn't need to anything to convince me, after all-

"GLADIO!", shrieked Ventus, scarlet.

"What? I was gonna say I'm already her boyfriend", he asked innocently with a raised brow. Then it turned evil. "What did you think I was gonna say?". Ventus pouts at the older man and crosses his arm, grumbling something. Aqua, however, slapped him on the stomach, glaring yet blushing at the hint and tease in his voice. She knew damn well the man wasn't above tormenting her brother with hints and ideas of what adults do when they're in love and share a bed.

"And Sora goes without saying, right?", Axel says with a knowing smirk. Everyone bar the two subjects of the conversations, all agree, making Sora blush and pout. "What? I'm not THAT whipped!", argued the boy.

"Sora, sorry, but could you pass me the pillow, it's just a little tricky to get comfortable", Kairi asks softly.

Sora immediately reached over and grabbed the pillow, placed it on his lap and gently laid Kairi's head on it. "That better?", he asks. She giggled and pecks him on his cheek and says: "Yes, thank you". He beamed but then blushes when everyone gave him smug looks, prompting him to shoot everyone a glare before he returned his gaze to Kairi. Axel rolls his eyes and makes a groan, exclaiming: "Damn, is everyone here paired off but me and Iggy?".

"Well I'm married", Mickey says, pulling out a chain with the wedding ring for his finger out of his collar, showing everyone. "Nearly twenty years now, time flies". There were some praises and coos from the girls, everyone bar Sora not noticing Noctis was eyeing Lunafreya's wedding finger. His blue eyes looked to Sora, who gave him a knowing wink. Donald then brags he's in a loving relationship as well, but Sora and Goofy shared a chuckle among themselves. The duck glared at him but Goofy stops him before he could escalate.

"What about you, Goof? There a misses waiting for you?", Gladiolus asks. "Aww shucks, I hadn't been married for a long time, Gladio. It's just me and my son".

"SON!?", everyone except Donald and Mickey exclaimed.

Goofy laughed and nodded, "Yup, my son, Maxy!". He showed the party photos of his son carried in his wallet, showcasing a young teen and less "goofy" version of himself. "How come you never told me you were a dad?", Sora asks, surprised he kept such an important piece of his life from him. Goofy scratched his head and says: "I thought I did, guess I must've forgot. But it ain't like you'd catch him at the castle, he's always off with his girlfriend and friends".

"Max is being trained to be the next captain of the guards", Mickey revealed, "Just a bit too young and stubborn yet".

"You'll have to introduce us next time", Kairi says, "I bet he must be so proud that his father is out there saving the worlds". "Plenty of stories to tell him", Aqua concurs. Axel then playfully elbows Ignis, smirking. "Guess it's the single life for us then, huh?", he says. Ignis, however, raises his brows and plucks out a small piece of paper from his breast pocket. "On the contrary Axel, I believe I may have a fair chance in the dating department should I survive the war".

Curious, Sora looks at the paper and sees it's a list of phone numbers. His eyes bulge open in shock. "I know these numbers! Yuffie? Paine? Yuna? TIFA!?", he lists. "Wait, Tifa!? As in that one with the huge rack!?", Axel says, sitting upright. "Also, with raven black hair, brown often mistaken for red eyes, bar owner and martial artist", Riku groaned, "But why remember those qualities?". Axel groaned and slumps in his seat, realizing he was the only one who was gonna remain single for the rest of his life.

Sometimes life was just unfair…

For the rest of the night spent before everyone headed for bed, the team watched more awful movies that paled in comparison to their adventures. An action movie so over the top, even Sora and Riku rolled their eyes at and with one-liners so cringy Axel suggests to the team if they used them on the organization. Prompto, however, argued they wouldn't understand since they wouldn't know what fun is.

A comedy that made a few of them snicker and chuckle at the absurdity of the situations the characters were in and even a few snickers from the Oracle. Though they paled in comparison to the tales Sora had.

Then comes a horror movie that, again compared to their adventures, did little to spook them. Though it gave Kairi plenty of excuses to snuggle and cuddle up to Sora because she "got scared" and would bury herself into him. Even during the scenes that had no scary moments. Aqua mostly laughed at the movie, finding them amusing than frightening. Not that it stopped her from snuggling up with her boyfriend mind you.

After their last film, which was a sci-fi themed movie that Ventus wanted to see, everyone cleaned up and returned the seats, bid each other a good night and headed for their room.

Laying down on their bed with a small yawn, Aqua allowed herself to be wrapped in Gladiolus' arms and cuddled. "We're getting closer to the end now", he says, stroking her back. "Yeah…", she says. "So, you think they're ready?".

Aqua faces him and nods. "When the time comes closer to the end, I'll uphold my promise", she assured.

The war draws closer as their training reaches its end, and soon enough an oath made by the master will be fulfilled. With luck, history won't repeat itself.

A/N:

…I'm so sleepy…

This is a very different sort of chapter I normally avoid doing, but I'm sure a lot of you are getting tired of the delays and are raring to see the keyblade skirmish finally start so we're breezing by the months while finishing it all off with something that's long over due!

First off, shout outs!

Keybladelight: they suggested the cooking scene, except I suck at cooking so instead of a cook off, it was my usual stuff but thank you for the idea!

Jikker Jack: They suggested the movie night along with Max (yes Goofy DOES have a legit son) be acknowledged, so thank you again for the help.

VashTheStampede0409: Aside from helping with opinion and suggestions, big thanks to the idea of Ignis building a harem while we leave Axel single.

QUESTIONS!

Q1: Thoughts on this chapter?

Q2: Ignis being a girl magnet?

Q3: The cooking scene?

Q4: Was Ventus being cringy (I know I hate me for it).

Q5: What are you looking forward to next time?

Q6: What do you think is gonna happen next time?

Q7: Naminé and Roxas scene? Thoughts?

As always everyone, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	68. Chapter 68

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 68

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

*Month Twelve: Day Three hundred and sixty*

Five days.

Only five days (six technically) remaining for the guardians of light to finish their training and then take part in the great battle between light and darkness.

Once they reached the final month of their year-long training session, everyone had put two hundred percent into improving their strengths, all free time was spent honing their powers and whatever else needed to be ironed out. With the royal retinue having finally exceeding the limits of humanity, mastering the new powers given to them, and several sparring sessions showing the other they were ready for the clash.

The less trained keyblade wielders having finally graduated to novices to skilled veterans of the mystical weapon, evidenced by Axel holding his own against Noctis and Kairi at once and even managing to win over the princess, to Ventus finally able to stand against Aqua despite the vast gap of strength between the master and apprentice. And most importantly Sora having grown alongside his friends with all his training, mentored exclusively by Aqua while sparring with Riku.

The silver master is convinced whatever power his best friend had lost because of Xehanort had returned to him, and it only was evidenced when Sora finally won against him in one sparring session.

Today had started normally for Sora and Kairi, get up, dressed, and have some breakfast but when they exited the cottage, Riku was already waiting for them outside. He said Aqua wanted to have a word with them and said nothing more, leading them on. Curious and worried about whatever their master is concerned with, they followed him. His silence did not stop them from pestering him with questions and concerns, yet all he would do was walk onwards with a smirk on his lips.

When they came to a clearing with the others waiting, they see Aqua speaking to Mickey before she turned to her students. The king nods and walks away from her, just as she gestured them to come to her. The two islanders looked at each other before they nodded together and walked over, until Sora was stopped by Donald and Goofy, allowing Kairi to go ahead of them.

He looks at them both, searching for answers in their eyes yet there is nothing to glean from them. They were strong and hopeful yet there is pride in their eyes when they were focused on Sora. Goofy patted his shoulder kindly and strongly, somewhat like a father would do to encourage their son while Donald pats the boy's leg, comforting yet assuring him. He did not know exactly why they would feel this need to assure him of whatever comes, but he appreciated their kind gesture. Maybe he looked more worried than he thought.

"Good luck", says Goofy as Donald hands him a keychain. "You've got this", assured the duck. Once Sora took the chain, they leave him to join the others.

Kairi watched them, smiling at the bond before she clasped the pearl hanging below her neck, trying to brush off the nerves plaguing her mind. She feels a hand placed on her shoulder, kicking her worries and musings aside and turned to see Axel there. She expected him to smirk or tease her about her worries, but no. Instead in his green eyes, there is something warmer and brotherly in them, his smile was gentle and kind. Completely different from his usual ones, heck she never has seen him smile like this.

"No more worrying about whether or not you're good enough", he says, squeezing her shoulder, "Everyone here believes you've earned your place among us, and now you've gotta believe it yourself". Kairi stared at him with an open mouth, taken aback by the sheer honesty and genuine belief in her from him. Granted he never teased her about her doubts, nor did he ever downplay them, yet he never really addressed them. Having him speak to her as if she were someone he respected and the confidence in her shook her.

He then points to his head and says: "Got it memorized?".

She giggled and replicates his gesture with a smile, promising she indeed memorized his words. He squeezes her shoulder one more time and walks away to join the others. Sora joined her side the moment he is done with Donald and Goofy, and they stood before Aqua with Lunafreya standing next to her. The master of the keyblade gives her a nod, and without a word, the Oracle tapped the earth with her trident's end. A corridor of light opens before them, glowing with gentle white and yellow light.

"Follow me", instructs the master of the key, walking through the corridor. Together the islanders followed their master, embraced by the warmth and gentle light.

*?*

When they walked through it, to the surprise of the two teens they were no longer standing in the secret forest, but rather what could be space for all they know. Standing on a single small grey island of stone, surrounded by many floating islands and platforms of stone, planets, not worlds, hovering millions of miles away from them, cosmos trails surrounding them with billions of stars decorated around them.

They took in their surroundings with wide eyes and gasps of awe, looking around before their eyes fell onto Aqua's back. Suddenly they felt a change in the air as the corridor of light disappeared behind them, isolating them from the others and leaving only Aqua as their only company. Aqua turns to face them, her eyes held expectations yet great faith within them, facing her students.

"We have little time remaining before we cross swords against Xehanort", she reminds, "And today will be your final lesson". The islanders looked at each, surprised that there would be no more for her to mentor them on, then back at Aqua. She summons the Master's Defender and takes up her stance. "Your final lesson…is to face me", she instructs. "And I want both of you to come at me with every intent to win".

Kairi gave her master a look of worry as did Sora, though he was more suspicious of this. "Me and Kairi?", he asks, not wanting to misinterpret her words. Aqua nodded and said: "Correct, and no holding back. Come at me as if I were Xehanort himself". Kairi makes a small smirk on her face, and says: "You sure about this? Not to brag, but me and Sora aren't the same when we started".

Aqua raised a brow disapprovingly at the confidence of her student. "And you think *that* will matter in the fight? If you are not willing to give me your all, Kairi, then please stand aside", instructs her master. Kairi's smirk is wiped from her face and shock replaces it, never hearing her master sounding so…bossy like that. Here is when the princess realizes her master is dead set on this session, no more room for playful banter nor half measures.

Kairi calls for Destiny's Embrace as Sora calls for his Kingdom Key and the two take up their stance.

Without another word, Aqua makes the first move by dashing to them so quick she manages to get right behind them before either could comprehend it. It is only thanks to their quick reflexes they managed to spin around and identify her in time to parry her attack. The legendary keyblade was halted by the two wielders, a loud clang ringing out from their spot and across the cosmos. Sora was the one to stop her attack but even with his superior physical strength it still took him an extra dose of strength to not be thrown off his feet.

Kairi swung her keyblade at her master's waist while her keyblade was locked with Sora's. Only for Aqua to dislodge her key free of Sora and swipe against Kairi's, throwing it upwards and struck back at Sora when he tried to attack her. Both students combined their assault as keyblades clashed in the cosmos, the master using only one hand to parry and deflect the attacks of her students. She spins her keyblade with such elegance and grace yet with the strength of a dragon to counter them, never stepping back or surrendering ground.

A subtle look to each other, Kairi leaped away from Aqua and allowed Sora to continue the thrashing of keyblades without worrying about hitting Kairi. He started to use to handed strikes against his master, this time his strikes forces Aqua to replicate his stance by grabbing hers with both hands. While Sora kept Aqua busy, Kairi spins her keyblade in one hand, creating a ring of fire manifesting into a flare-based spell.

With it in a reverse grip, Kairi swung the flared ring at the two, Sora allowing Aqua's strike to knock him away to avoid the attack. The master meets Kairi's spell with her left hand aimed at the ring and fires a ray of blue ice at the ring, the ray immediately froze the roaring hot ring. She sliced the ring in half when it was turned into crystallized ice and aimed her hand at the girl. A sparkling chain of yellow lightning raced towards Kairi, nearly reaching her before she rolled away from it.

The static of the attack stung her leg though as it strikes a large boulder and obliterates it into dust. Kairi aimed her keyblade after rolling to her feet and fires off several balls of fire at her master, but Aqua just danced around her magical assault and easily evaded them all with what Kairi feared was the minimal effort. She easily closed the gap before her student and spun around, swinging her keyblade upward. Kairi blocked the attack by lifting her keyblade but the sheer unexpected power from Aqua throws her up in the air.

Sora rushes in to stop the master from flying up to meet Kairi in the air, his body glowing in a golden light. He yells as he performs his old signature move Ars Arcanum, striking at his master with incredible strength and speed. Even with her strength, the blue head's guard has quickly defeated thanks to Sora's strength, he almost lands a hit on her had she not cast a wall of magic just the second he brings down the keyblade on her. The shell-form barrier was strong enough to repel Sora's attack and bounce his key off it.

Exposed, Sora was kicked in the stomach by his master which sent him flying. He back-flipped mid-air and struck at the air, creating a sphere of red from the tip of his keyblade. He fires off several fiery rays at his master that swirled and danced in the air. Spinning her keyblade in front of her like a fan, she creates several spheres of light like a clock. The spheres fly to the rays and upon contact exploded, destroying both spheres and rays and resulting in a dense cloud of smoke.

Sora lands on his feet as the smoke evaporates, his master standing on the other side facing him down. She spins to her right, hands-on her keyblade, and fires a blue ray of light at Kairi, who was on a floating platform's side. The princess quickly leaps off it just before the beam touched her, destroying the platform she once rested on and jumps onto another platform. But her master refuses to let up, unleashing more rays onto the girl.

Kairi jumps from platform to platform as Sora charges in again to stop this attack. Together the two dashes toward Aqua, covering air and land and unleash a barrage of attacks onto the master. Once again Aqua kept up with them both, standing her ground while Kairi flips and air-dashes around her while at the same time attacking with Sora keeping the strength in check for the two. The hero's raw power against Aqua should have, normally, trounced her yet even with Kairi striking alongside him she kept up with both keyblade wielders.

Sora's attack is repelled by a swift retaliation from Aqua's keyblade and she grabbed Kairi's wrist and flung her to the boy. Sora was smacked by Kairi's body and both were thrown across the ground.

Kairi apologizes to him as she quickly scampered to her feet and yanked him back to his. They took up their stances again to face the master, not even panting or sweating from this bout. They both felt the pressure from her, the strength and magic she was using are beyond what she was like back in Eos, and even during their separate sessions with her, none of the two had ever seen her this strong. Kairi clenched her keyblade, pondering what would be the best method against her.

Sora looked at Kairi, and they both nodded. The boy swapped out his usual key and changes it into his Shooting Star keyblade. Quick as lightning, he changes into his Element Form and calls for the Arrow-Guns. Sora dashes into the air and begins to rain down arrows of light on Aqua. This makes the master dance and evades his arrows while at the same time strike at the arrows, leaving Kairi to gather up her magical energies.

She clenched the keyblade in hand and shifts into her Form change, Strike Form, and changes her keyblade into the Dual-Blade. Kairi rushes in during Aqua's dancing, catching her off guard and swings her blade at her. The master flips over her attack and her student, striking the arrows during her flip and lands behind the girl. Aqua raises her head at the girl as Kairi begins a storm of flashing steel on her master.

With her longer weapon covering range, distance, and having two blades attacking at once, Kairi regains control over the fight between her and Aqua, seeing her master was putting herself on the defense. Plus, even if Kairi had left opportunities for her to counterattack or even had an opening in her attacks, Sora covered his lover by firing arrows at specific points during the fight where he knew for certain Kairi would not be hit.

From the air and ground the combined might between Sora and Kairi had put Aqua into a very precarious situation where the tide was slowly but certainly turning against her. She is utterly amazed by the synergy between these two, it is as if their hearts were one with each other. Sora knew where to shoot where Kairi would not be hit accidentally and she knew where to strike to give him a chance to hit her master.

This display of teamwork is amazing and greater than she had seen before, but it would not be enough. She knows they were more capable than this. Aqua raises her left hand, a sphere of violet appearing in her hand. A large pillar of violet magic rose from her feet, encasing her in a barrier that expanded and forces the two to get out of range. Sora and Kairi leap away from the barrier a few feet, but then tendrils stretch out of the barrier and begin to charge at them like arrows, breaking off the barrier.

Sora and Kairi combined their evasive leaps and jumping with their striking, Kairi cutting the violet chasing arrows while Sora blasted them with his guns. The arrows that didn't hit them destroyed the ground near them, likely trying to trip them up or catch them off guard and give them as little legroom as possible. When they were forced to the ledge of their platform, Aqua condensed her barrier pillar into her keyblade, cloaking it in purple magic. Grasping her keyblade in both hands, she raises it and aimed it at the two.

A large sphere of black and purple forms on the tip of Master's Defender, the power from it blowing the broken debris aside with a wild gust of wind ran wild through the platform. Aqua fires the dark sphere at the two, breaking the stone beneath it as if it were ripping through the earth.

Kairi immediately stepped in front of Sora and raised her hand, bathed in the golden light of a princess of light. "Mighty Guard!", exclaims Kairi. A large shell-wall of dark and light blue appeared before her just as the sphere reached the two. It collides with the barrier, a loud "bang" noise booms across the field, the cosmos. The boulders around the platform were blown apart by Kairi's barrier and Aqua's attack clashing, yet even with the superior magical attack Kairi's wall did not break nor crack under pressure.

The princess grits her teeth as she poured her light into the defense, allowing Sora to jump into the air well over ten feet. He flips in the air as his Arrow Guns changed into the Magic Launcher and aimed it at the sphere that was trying to break through Kairi's wall. One glance towards each other, communicating with each through their hearts. Kairi turned back to the sphere, dismissed her keyblade, and raises her other hand to form a small dome of yellow magic around herself, lessen the magic for the guard.

Sora fires his giant sphere of magic at his master's. Their spheres immediately exploded the moment they were in contact with each other, a flash of light blasts forth and nearly blinded them all. The explosion created from it utterly eradicated the platform the keyblade wielders stood on, but fortunately for them, all the amount of smaller floating platforms drifting lazily in the emptiness of the cosmos provided plenty of ways to get around.

Once the explosion occurred all three were thrown off the platform, allowing themselves to be thrown off and used Flowmotion to skirt and hop on the platforms until they all reached another large battleground worthy platform.

The apprentices of the master land on their feet and faced their master, looking at the two with respect and approval. Despite their turnaround and halting Aqua's attack, neither of the islanders believed she was running out of steam. Aqua then sighed and folds her arms, studying them.

"I'm impressed", she confesses. The two islanders relaxed their stances and looked at her. Aqua gives them both a proud smile before saying: "You two are almost completely in sync with each other, and your strengths have grown so much since we started". The level of pride in her voice caught the two of them off guard, never hearing her speak so genuine about their performance. "But…now's the moment where you two are going to show me if you are truly ready".

Aqua raises her keyblade and crosses over her chest as her body glows in white light with glyphs of petals appearing around her. Then the light around her shines brilliantly and divine it forces the two to shield their eyes with their arms. Grey dust from the ground is thrown up into clouds, the powerful wind rushing past them, and even made the two keyblade wielders stand firm before this strength.

The light fades as the wind dies out, granting them mercy on their eyes, lowering their arms. They stared in awe at the sight before them, their master in her keyblade armor. Except not in her original armor.

Aqua's new armor is mostly colored in shades of silver, grey and blue, in homage to her original minus the black. Notable additions include a silver breastplate resembling an upside-down crescent moon and with two grey sashes crisscrossing over her chest with her emblem proudly stamped on it, colored in sapphire.

The armor on her arms was grey and blue that represented her older form just in far more pristine shine, with each elbow having a short wing curved blades on them. Her shoulder pads were similar to the armor on her elbows but akin to wings of an angel with dark blue metallic feathers that glowed with magic glimmering.

A single dark grey/blue sash around her hips with a single silver wrap holding it, her legs adorned in silver and blue steel with two prongs on each knee and one on the back of each heel. A cape is that of a navy color with grey stars and half a crescent moon etched on the back. Her helmet's visor was dark like the original except instead of a smooth visor it had sharp teeth patterns on the top and bottom of the visor, two prongs on each side of the helmet, dark blue lines for the jawline.

In her right hand is neither Master's Defender nor Brightcrest, but a new keyblade. The blade is long as her master's keyblade with crystal see-through blue water that mimicked a river, the blade's teeth are three points of a star with crystal spheres on the tips with the end of the blade was flat, crystal blue. The ring guard is silvery and grey, jagged in the shapes of crescent moons, the handle is grey. Finally, the key chain is her emblem except dark blue.

Her keyblade remade, the Queen of Storms.

The master raises her keyblade at the two, silent as her students take in that the training gloves had been thrown off and burnt to dust. Their master had no intention of restraining herself and the aura of aggression from her only told them that no more half measures.

The true battle had begun.

Sora quickly switched out his original key for Oblivion and just narrowly managed to block Aqua's attack, her keyblade brought down onto him. The collision from their attack sent of a monstrous shockwave that splits the small boulders surrounding them creates a small crater beneath their feet and even tossed Kairi away into the air. Sora grits his teeth as horrible vibrations ran through his arms up to his shoulders, never in all his journeys did blocking someone so strong felt so utterly agonizing. He throws his master's key off and swings at her, only for Aqua to retaliate with a swift swing that knocks his key out of his hands.

Sora gasped in shock for less than a second for Aqua placed her armored hand on his chest and fires off a force push that rocketed the boy across the platform. He crashes through a boulder and bounces off the ground until he slammed into another boulder with a heavy crash. He falls to his side, groaning in pain and coughing out blood, shaking his head from the agony. The boy barely had time to raise his head to see his master teleporting above him and fired a barrage of icicles at him.

He was saved by Kairi intervening and responding to Aqua's attack with a vortex of flames that melted her attack. The flames did not reach her but Kairi used her version of the warp-strike to close the distance and struck at her master with wild swings. In the air, the two keyblade wielders dueled with Kairi using two-handed strikes as Aqua repelled her attacks with just one hand. Her master teleports when Kairi swung at her and reappeared atop a boulder.

Kairi lands on a single stone pillar as Aqua lifts her keyblade and holds in front of her with both hands, flames encircling around it until the key shifts into a new weapon. Now in the hands of the master as her armor turns crimson and red is a wide two-edged masamune. Wide as Gladiolus' original sword with many details representing Storm Fall but bathing in flames, Aqua holds it and dashes toward Kairi.

The princess of light jumps in the air as Aqua slashed the stone pillar in half before she air-dashed after her student. Kairi aimed her keyblade and cried: "Blizzaja!". Kairi's entire keyblade is shrouded in frost as shards of frost form on the teeth of her keyblade, a large crystal manifesting before she fired a car-sized chunk of ice at her master. Aqua grabbed her sword and holds it upwards, her body is bathing in intense roaring flames like a cloak.

"Hellfire!".

Aqua's body is then shielded in a roaring pillar of flames that rose right below the two and erupts up to Kairi. Her powerful ice spell is instantly melted into water and at the same time evaporates into nothing. Shocked, Kairi quickly erects a barrier in a desperate attempt to shield herself from being eaten by the flames. Her dome was swallowed quickly by the flames, she could feel the heat rivaling a volcano wash over her and sweats profusely as her magical wards slowly crackled from the attack.

She could not even open her eyes from the intense heat. Aqua reaches her and slammed her sword on her barrier and knocked her out of the pillar of flames, through a mountain and back to the ground, her barrier holding on long enough for her to land on her feet and dig her heels to stop herself from smashing into a wall. Kairi pants from the exertion of her use of mana and wiped the sweat off her head, looking to see Aqua landing a few feet before her, still crimson.

Before Aqua attacked her though, she spins around to block a flying Oblivion that had just narrowly missed her shoulder with a loud clang. But the weapon is back in hands as suddenly Sora appears right before Aqua. He made several quick strikes at her as she blocked his attacks, but his surprise attack caught her off guard and he struck her in the stomach with the teeth of Oblivion and pushes her back from him.

Although the attack was superficial at best given the density and toughness of her armor, Sora took satisfaction he managed to hit his master. The master in question stares down the boy, now in his Crownsguard Form with ghostly blue light cloaking his body as Oblivion is surrounded by fluttering crystals. Sora warps to Aqua as her reverts to her normal armor form, their weapons clashing with the boy back on equal footing with her.

Sora takes a few hits on the cheek, shoulders, and sides of his stomach yet he managed to land several hits of his own on Aqua, though there were merely bumps and dents to her armor in comparison. Their fight grows intense as Aqua and he started to move across the field, striking at each other. Sora phases from one of her attacks and appeared behind her and slammed the keyblade onto her back. Even then Aqua managed to spin around and halt another attack of his, seemingly unharmed.

Sora warps to the top of a cliff, gripping the keyblade with both hands several ghostly crystal-like keyblades appeared around him, a total of six including his own. He lets out a yell as the weapons rocketed toward Aqua as he warps at her. The master dashes backward, using her keyblade and magic to deflect the weapons while Sora appeared in front of her with his own, swinging Oblivion at her while occasionally grabbing the ghostly weapons that became physical.

They both flew across the battlefield, Sora striking at her wildly with every ounce of his strength and speed, splitting the ground and mountains near him while a few of his hits did land on Aqua. He heard a few grunts and hisses of pain from her, indicating he was finally harming her at long last. Sora grabs one keyblade, warping back from her while leaving the other keys to keep her occupied. Sora crosses both keys across his chest, the ground shaking from him gathering up power.

The moment the final ghostly keyblade strikes Aqua, Sora zooms across the field and swings both keyblades at the master. However, before he could open his arms, Aqua slammed Queen of Storms right in the middle of Sora's keys, effectively stopping his attack. The boy stares at her in utter disbelief, horrified she had the speed and reaction time to halt him even when she was dealing with every key he used to keep her off balance.

His ghostly key disappeared but he did not register his missing weapon. Aqua struck at him and sends him five feet from her, earning a yell from him. Sora rolled onto his side and back to his feet quickly just as Aqua's keyblade shifts into another weapon while her armor takes on a rocky brown color. Her keyblade takes the form of an otsuchi, a giant hammer, much like the masamune it had a lot of Storm Fall's design.

Aqua grabbed the gigantic weapon that none of their party would ever dream of her wielding and with all her strength, she slammed it right into the stone of their battlefield. Not only did the whole field shake as if an earthquake was occurring, but giant spikes of stone rose around her like a fort, pillars of stone reaching high as small homes and the earth splitting apart. A row of spikes raced towards Sora, making him leap and stay off the ground by using Flowmotion to zip around the pillars and run/jump on them.

When he uses Oblivion to latch onto a pillar and spin around it to give him a boost of speed, he jumps into the air and sees Aqua smacking a giant boulder at him. Sora responds to her attack by slicing it in half and air-dashes towards her. She levitates more stones and bends them to turn into pikes to launch at the boy. Sora, undaunted, flips over them and slices some. He roars as he reached Aqua and brings down Oblivion on her.

"Gaia's Wrath!", Aqua yelled.

Aqua slammed the hammer into the ground, a burst of stone pillars arose to shield her and some smacked Sora, repelling him and sending him back into the sky. The master rides a rising pillar upward that exceeds the speed of the others and in no time she stands above her pillars. Aqua jumps off her pillar backward and when she was halfway down, she struck the combined towers with enough force to break them into hundreds of pieces and fires the broken stone at Sora.

Sora managed to luckily slice and cut several stones from pummelling him into a paste. However, he reverts to his normal form, weary and wounded too badly to effectively keep himself from being hit several times by the stones his master fired at him. Sora falls to the ground with just as his master, like himself, reverts to her original form. Slowly he gets to his feet, not out of the battle yet as Aqua stands on top of a cliff, staring down at him through her visor.

Sora grits his teeth, body aching with pain as he staggers in his stance, his keyblade felt so heavy in his hands yet he refuses to give up. The master's keyblade, much to Sora's dismay, shifts again into another weapon while her armor takes on a jade color. Now in her hands is a yumi, a much longer than average bow while on her back were arrows of wind along with small green tendrils of wind on her weapon.

"Oh come on…give me a break…", he groaned out, realizing what was coming next. Aqua didn't disappoint.

Aqua aimed the bow and fired an onslaught of arrows at Sora. Before they reached him, Sora was suddenly yanked from the battlefield, and the next thing he knew he was flying. He blinks and looked to see he was riding on Kairi's glider as she drives them to safety, herself armored up. When the arrows struck the earth, large tornados of wind explode and decorated the battlefield, their suction so strong it nearly yanked the two keyblade wielders back into the field and causes Kairi to nearly go off course.

Kairi swerves and rides around the tornados as Aqua uses Flowmotion to chase them across the mountains and cliffs, firing arrows to the ground and occasionally at the two to try and strike Kairi. The youngest keyblade wielder stays on course, keeping herself and Sora from being sucked up and ripped apart, even with the number of tornados her master is making. Until Aqua teleports just a few feet from her students and lets loose a single arrow at them.

Panicking, Kairi turns a hard left that just narrowly evades the arrow and flies closer to the ground. Seeing her student's quick thinking, Aqua stands on a pillar and aims her bow upward and bathes it in green light.

"Call of the Crosswinds!".

Aqua fired a single arrow into the sky, watching it soar to the heavens before it descends to the earth. Sora looks behind them to see the arrows explode into hundreds of arrows, darkening the cosmos skies as they rained down onto them. With each arrow striking the ground, large tornados swarmed the two and despite Kairi's best efforts, they were both sucked up into the tornados. Yelling and trying to stabilize themselves with dozens of tornados fighting each other, they could not even keep track of each other.

Kairi tries to control herself in the ocean of tornados, only to escape on and be sucked into another. Kairi grunts as she is thrown out of one tornado through the top and uses her magic to regain control over herself and uses it to stay above them. Through her visor she sees Sora being spun around within the dozens of tornados. She uses her magic to shoot one beam of light that upon contacting Sora, engulfing him in a barrier.

With him shielded and safe, Kairi summons Dearly Beloved and calls up all her magic within her. Her armor crackled with lightning as sparks of gold flashes around her, she raises her keyblade high and lets out a cry: "Thundaja!".

Ten bolts as wide as skyscrapers roared down around Kairi, striking the tornados. The explosion of wind versus lightning destroyed the platforms around them and the very one they stood on, bursts lightning explodes from the ground and obliterates the ground. The light so bright it could have blinded anybody.

Once the spell ended, Kairi recalled her glider and zooms to Sora as he falls. She catches him and together they fly onto the last large platform unharmed by Kairi's magic. They land on the platform where Aqua waits for them, reverted to her normal form but Kairi sensed her master's magic had dropped to a good portion, but it paled to her lower amount. The princess and Sora hopped off her glider and landed before her, keyblades in hand.

"She's…really strong…", Kairi compliments, dismissing her helmet.

"Yeah…maybe even stronger than Ardyn…", Sora concurred.

He lets out a weak chuckle, the vast gap of power between them, and Aqua was staggeringly clear, not that he was completely surprised. This is a master after all. He felt his confidence dip slightly, wondering if he is having so much trouble against Aqua, then just how would he fare against someone like Xehanort? All his training and yet he still cannot see himself beating Xehanort and the doubt that plagued him since he failed his exam came back at full force.

Kairi herself could feel those own inner voices telling her she was out of her element, that this before her is someone she strived to be, to be that strong to keep those she loved safe. Is she strong enough or was this a horrible reality check to remind her she was still nothing but a hindrance to her friends? All her training and now before her, she was still unable to match her master's strength.

Both unaware of their master refusing to give up on them, never had her confidence and faith in the two been so strong. Deep within her heart, she knows they can do this.

Kairi shakes her head, stubbornly. No, she was not that weakling anymore. She is not that same helpless girl who was forced to be put on the side-lines, no more would she be a burden to Sora. This training was to make her stronger, to be able to push herself to be able to be her lover's shield against the worst of times. Her time with Axel, her time in Eos, and nowhere, they would be for nothing. Not while she had a say in the matter.

She turned to Sora and gives him a smile that evaporated her doubts. "But that doesn't matter!", she asks, "Together, we can beat anyone, right?". Sora looks at her, then to his keyblade, and feels that gentle warmth in his pocket, reminding him of the strength that had kept him pushing onwards no matter what comes their way. The strength that helped him keep her safe. Now with her by his side, as an equal, he feels invigorated and even stronger.

With a large grin, he nods. "Yeah, you and me, we can take on anyone!", he agrees. He reaches into his pocket, pulling out the old keychain Donald and Goofy had given him. His friends are what gives him the strength to surmount any trial that laid before him, and with Kairi, his source of strength that not even the darkest beings could halt, he knew within his heart he, no, they could do this. With one final glance to each other, they nodded and yelled: "Let's go!".

Kairi dons her helmet again and dashes towards Aqua as Sora equips his new chain and the very moment it connected to his keyblade; an overwhelming surge of power enveloped around him. He flips in the air and yells out as light engulfs his body.

The princess struck at her master, their keys meeting on the field with a loud clang that rumbled within the earth before they unleash a flurry of strikes upon each other. Sparks covering them as hits landed on their armors yet neither faltered in their clash, both dead set on winning the bout between each other.

Aqua baths her keyblade in roaring flames while Kairi retaliates by engulfing hers in ice, clashing with her master as the opposing elements clashed. Each swung from their keys they would swap out magic and face each other's opposing element, their bouts ending in draws, thunder crushing the wind while the flames were doused by water, and so on. Aqua ripostes Kairi's attack and struck at her with a downward swipe, hitting her and blasting her away from her.

Kairi's armor now bears a large tear in the chest but she is fortunately unharmed. She pants from the surprise of the attack and grits her teeth. She rushes at Aqua again as her master lifts her free hand and makes the earth bend to her will. She aimed her hand as stone pillars and spikes shot up from the ground. Using her magic to break off some of the points she fired them at her student who meets these stone spikes with her magic.

Kairi aims her key and cried: "Rays of Light!". Her key fires off twenty thin rays of golden light at her master, destroying the spikes charging at her while she sides steps and dances around the rising pillars. Aqua leaped into the air while being chased by Kairi's attack, crying out: "Reflect!". A dome of bright light covered the master and the very moment Kairi's rays struck her, they not only bounced off but were redirected at Kairi.

Before the rays could strike their creator, a wild hurricane of swords suddenly appeared before Kairi and eviscerated the rays like they were thrown into a blender. Kairi and Aqua land on a mountain, joining the princess was Sora. Except in a new form that Kairi swore reminded her of one of his older powerful forms.

The Ultimate Form. Sora's clothes are now adorning a silvery-white and black color scheme, like Final Form he once donned. Black wisplike stripes can be seen on his pant legs and three crowns on each of his sleeves. Now in his hand was the legendary weapon few keyblade wielders have ever wielded, Aqua herself at one point even, a fabled key that could rival even Xehanort's keyblade. Ultima Weapon.

Sora was even hovering above the ground, light surged around him as power practically seeped from him. He turned to Kairi, together they nod and back to Aqua. Together they glowed in their shared light, a blend of golden and white as Kairi's armor glows and even repaired the tear on her chest plate. They both zoomed towards Aqua, Kairi's rays of light surrounding her while swords fly around the boy.

Aqua lifts her keyblade quickly as her armor glows in violet light, shifting her keyblade into the strongest form she had in her arsenal. The weapon shifts quickly into a beautiful and elegantly made katana, grey and blue steel with the hilt in the form of her Wayfinder with the handle longer than average katanas and a single token dangling from the pommel which is her emblem. Her armor turns black and red with her helmet morphing and shaping into what looked to be a dark knight's helm.

The three collide with their weapons with all the might within their bodies and hearts, a trinity of light clashing. The very second the weapons struck, a burst of some of the purest and strongest light explodes in a pillar that reached the heavens. The ground splitting and breaking apart as the three flew in the air, striking with keyblade and magic. Their steel ringing out across the cosmos, the master striking away one to deal with another while the combined union of the apprentices' light pressed hard on her.

Sora's attacks covered nearly every space while Kairi's impossibly unending pool of magic covered where he could not. Aqua had taken more hits than she ever expected from the two, her armor dented and battered, though not as much as Kairi's and Sora's clothes were getting closer to becoming tattered. She managed to finally land a devastating hit on Kairi that cut her armor and throw her back to the ground with her going through a mountain.

This leaves just Sora to deal with. Even in the skies and despite Sora's army of weapons, Aqua's katana cuts through them and forced the boy to use his main arm. Their weapons clash and sparked while their magic was met at standstills, their attacks even in strength and accuracy to the point where it felt neither were pushing the other. Aqua uses her magic to teleport back to the ground to give her some space from Sora.

While she takes the ground, Sora remained in the air as his swords swirl around him and glow in the light. He grabbed his main blade as he readied himself for the final clash with his master as she sheathed her katana, holding it by her side while bending her knees in a stance. Without a word from either, they both rocketed towards them, crying out their attack names.

"Ultimate Finish!", cried Sora.

"Shin-Zantetsuken!", declares Aqua.

A flash of light beamed for a second, Sora and Aqua now on opposite sides of each other. Sora's multiple swords suddenly shined with several blade sized cuts and then they all fell apart like broken glasses and he falls to one knee. Aqua's armor fared better than his swords but it slowly reached the pinnacle point of breaking apart and she feels the pain from the attacks finally.

The master turned to Sora slowly try to stand on his feet, but the damage had been done and from the way he had one eye closed and hissing through his clenched teeth, she believed he is on the last ounce of his will power.

Then before she could put him out of the fight, Sora suddenly is encased in light for a brief second and when it fades, there he stands in Kairi's armor minus the helmet. Aqua gasped and only had a second to stop Kairi's attack from the distance. Her katana turning back to her keyblade in time for her to raise and block a stream of light that immediately pushed her back despite her heels digging into the ground. The large stream would have been enough to decimate her armor had she not blocked it.

Using, regretfully, another large portion of her depleting mana, Aqua teleports out of the direction of the beam and reappears a few feet from Sora and sees Kairi warp-striking towards her. The master counters her attack by erecting a wall of stone in front of her and them jumps to the top of the wall. Kairi slices through the wall and brought it down too late for Aqua to tumble and fall, but she instantly casts gravity on her master.

Trapped in a small black ball of stars and magic, Aqua is thrown back down to the earth to meet her student once more. She slammed on the ground but rolled onto her side and stares down at her student. Unlike herself, however, Kairi was panting and her body showed her armor may have stayed off more grievous wounds, yet it was clear she is on her last legs. Aqua could sense her magic had reached its conclusion and figured that gravity spell was her last attempt to deal damage to her.

Even still, she sees Sora joining her side, staggering and weakly yet the moment they stood together, the fire within their eyes burned even brighter. Kairi dismisses her armor from him and together with shaking limbs from sheer exhaustion, they take up their stance again and ready for the next attack their master was going to throw at them.

Unbeknownst to either of them, Aqua could see the light within their hearts and sees the dark within Sora's is contained. Many instances he could have gone wild with his Rage-Form and maybe even turn the tide against her yet she saw the control he had over it. The bond those two shared, the way they fought together as if they were one mind and heart, their strength surpassing any keyblade. She smiles behind her visor.

"That's enough", she declares.

Her armor and keyblade dismissed, showing the two she was wounded too. While not as bad as her students, she certainly felt like she had been through the worst those two had done. She was going to feel all this in the morning.

Her students gave her confused and baffled looks before they dismissed their keyblades as the corridor of light opens behind Aqua. "Come, we're heading back", she says. "H-hey, wait, what was the point behind this?", Kairi said taking a step but then flinches and nearly stumbles, being caught by Sora who flinched as well. Aqua replied: "Later. Come and heal".

*Secret Forest*

Once the three returned, almost immediately Sora and Kairi were taken by Riku and Axel, having the two practically collapsed and losing consciousness. The master told the two to take them back to the cottage and have Donald and Lunafreya heal them while she speaks to Mickey. She assured the others they would be informed what this trial was after the two awaken. With that, the other dispersed and headed off.

The master sighs before she nearly collapsed to the ground, being caught by Gladiolus. "Hot damn, Blue…", Gladiolus remarks, lifting her and throws one of her arms over his shoulder. "You look like shit".

"I feel like beaten shit, yes…", Aqua concurred, groaning in pain. The fact she swore only affirmed Gladiolus' worries she was probably in a state that could only rival near death. Bruises decorating her exposed skin, cuts, and wounds with stains of her crimson blood painting her clothes, her cheeks bruised too along with some nicks. He didn't want to imagine the aches her body must be enduring. "Hang on, we'll get you patched up there…", he promises, helping her get back to the cottage. He would have carried her but despite liking to be pampered by him on the off occasion, he knows the woman's pride as a master was at stake.

Not that it would stop him from taking good care of her when they got to their room of course.

*Later*

As night falls and after the trio of the keyblade users healed up, Sora and Kairi were currently waiting in their room waiting for the call. After they were taken to their room and healed up, Riku had told them to just wait around and rest up until Aqua called for them.

Sora busied himself by pacing around the room while Kairi sat on the bed with her hands clasped and pondered what their master was up to. The fight itself gave her little clue as to what she was planning, she thought it was to see if she and Sora were prepared for what Xehanort was conjuring up for them yet the battle felt as if Aqua was trying to maul them. Never had her master shown such power before, even in Eos and today had broadened Kairi's views on her, wondering if that is the true strength of a master.

The fact even together with Sora at their fullest they still ended the battle at a standstill, neither had been defeated and despite how tired and hurt they were she still believed they could have won through perseverance and will alone.

Their door opened and Riku peeked in, saying: "Alrighty, we've kept you both in suspense long enough, come on".

Without waiting for a reply, Riku walked off. Chasing him for answers, the two younger wielders followed him out of the cottage and back to the training field once again. There the party outside of Mickey and Aqua sat down at the sidelines, watching them intently and without a word. Kairi tried not to let her nerves show as the suspense is slowly killing her, what exactly was going on here?

Riku and the king stand side by side as Aqua addressed the two. For the first time since they knew her, none of them could tell what was going through her mind, her eyes were guarded and somewhat reminded them of Yen Sid. Just somehow…more nerve-wracking.

"We're coming to the end of our training, and soon we'll be taking part in the war that split one world into thousands", Aqua says, firm and strong. "At first, as many of you know, it was to help our friends prepare for Xehanort and his vessels…but as time went on, I confess, I had another motive".

She looked to her apprentices, both standing straight when her gaze fell to them like good pupils. Kairi held her breath as Sora resists that nervous prone fist-clenching he does, neither speaking. Aqua summons her keyblade and holds up to look at it, to show everyone it. "Our time in Eos has helped me grow not just as a wielder of the keyblade but as a master as well. Not only that, but it helped me see the potential you two carried within you".

"Kairi", she starts, making Kairi stand even straighter. "You, possibly among all of us, have had the least experience as a guardian of light, and many probably would say you shouldn't be amongst us because of your status as a princess of light", Aqua says. "And yet not only have you shown excellence as a keyblade wielder, your aid has not only saved one of our own, but you've displayed bravery, loyalty, and strength beyond what anyone could expect from you".

Kairi held back the little sniffle in her throat, stinging sensations running amok in her eyes as all of her gaggle of friends nodded and silently agree with what Aqua is saying. Joy swells within her heart, not being seen as a princess but a true member of the guardians, she didn't think anything could top being praised by Sora, but this is a definite close second.

"Sora", Aqua says, turning to him next. She makes a small sigh but says: "Truth be told, I don't even know where to start with you. But I'll try anyway". She clears her throat and lowers her keyblade. "Between saving the worlds from Xehanort's heartless and nobody, saving so many of us, myself included, and bringing another set of guardians to us, accidental or otherwise. Its thanks to you, we are all here, and have a fighting chance against Xehanort. And to top it all off, despite you not being chosen at first, you have shown and demonstrated exactly what makes you a worthy choice of the keyblade".

Sora looked lost for words, genuinely unable to think. He never before felt such gratitude for all he had done, everything from day one he did it because he followed his heart. Sure, he did not do anything this for glory or a reward, but to have someone be this thankful for all he had done, and even praise him despite not being chosen from day one. He smiles softly back, nodding to his master.

Aqua nodded in turn before she turned to Riku and Mickey. "Can you two vouch for them? Do you believe they've earned their place?". Now the two glanced at each other, concerned. Was there something they were not informed about? Were there concerns about them being part of the battle?

"Yup, wholeheartedly!", Mickey says.

"I think so, without a doubt", Riku concurs with a nod.

Aqua nodded and turned to their friends, Axel, Donald, and Goofy standing up. "And you three? What do you think?". Donald and Goofy both gave thumbs up while Axel merely smirks and salutes Kairi. With a smile, Aqua turned back to her students.

"Then, as a master of the keyblade, I, Aqua, herby acknowledge you two, as masters of the keyblade".

Sora and Kairi's bodies loosened up as the words as they were registered in their minds. Sora's eyes were wide as they can be while Kairi repeated quietly what Aqua just said, unable to believe it. She knows Sora deserved a second chance, absolutely and knows if he hadn't been interrupted by Xehanort he could have, no, WOULD have made master. Herself she never even considered worthy of it, let alone Aqua of all people believing she deserved the title.

She looks at Sora, seemingly unable to accept he had finally become something he had tried to obtain for so long. "A-Are…you sure?", he whispered, low and soft, almost too low for Aqua to hear. The master smiles warmly and gently placed a hand on his shoulder, prompting him to look up at her. "You would have become one before, but now after everything you did along with how strong your heart is, there is no doubt in my heart you are worthy". She turns to Kairi and says: "You have shown to be worthy of it, not because of your royal blood but because of your feats, strengths and that the light within you".

"As far as I am concerned, no, as far as everyone here is concerned, there are none who deserved those titles than you two", she affirms warmly and strongly.

Sora and Kairi looked to each other one more time before they started to sob and hug Aqua. She holds them close as everyone cheered the two, praising them and congratulating them all. The master held her students as they kept thanking her, she sheds a tear of joy for them.

"I'm so proud of you two", she thinks to herself…

*Month Twelve: Day three hundred and sixty-five*

The day has come at long last. A year together, stronger than ever and ready for whatever comes next, the party of fourteen leaves the Secret Forest with renewed strengths and hopes for the battle ahead. The moment they walk out, their final day of peace will be all they will have before the fates of all worlds, the fate of the realm of light, will be decided.

Sora glances back to the forest one more time, thanking it for the memories it gave him and marking it as the place where he finally became a master. He feels his hand being grasped gently, turned to his fellow master, Kairi with a beaming smile.

"Let's go", she says with a smile.

Together they exited the forest…stronger than ever, but more connected…

A/N:

We are in the endgame now folks, the training arc concluded.

Now before somebody says: "Wait, shouldn't they be going to fight Xehanort on the seventh day?", Ardyn said they had "seven" days before the war, meaning after the seventh, THEN they fight.

I know a few will argue Kairi shouldn't be made a master yet when we compare her to Sora, but…who's gonna complain?

QUESTIONS!

Q1: Thoughts on this chapter?

Q2: How do you like the ceremony?

Q3: Thoughts on Aqua's armor, weapons, and specials? If ya get the references you are instantly awesome!

Q4: How did you like this arc altogether?

Q5: What are you excited about next?

Q6: Happy to see Ultimate Weapon?

Q7: Should Donald and Goofy explain where they got the token for Ultimate Weapon?

By the way, according to an artist on tumbler who does a LOT of KH stuff (some awesome ones by the way) they showed off an old image of the original kh game where Sora could in fact summon Bahamut. What are your thoughts on that? I would say that's pretty awesome!

As always everyone, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	69. Chapter 69

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 69

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

*Keyblade Graveyard*

Closer…the day of reckoning draws near…

Soon the clash between light and darkness will commence, the battle to decide the fates of all worlds. One would feel the trepidation of such an event, one should wonder just what could happen when all thirteen keys are forged, or what could happen when the door to the heart of all worlds appears.

Such things are meaningless to a man of no consequence, these fanciful fears and speculations are nothing more than minor concerns to him. All that truly mattered to the man who was shunned by the light is the end of the Lucis line. But revenge will come soon, oh it will come soon.

"Might I ask, why are we talking a stroll through these wastelands?", asked the man of Eos, looking at his traveling companion. The young man says nothing, walking on through the vast emptiness of the wasteland as the sun slowly descends once again. Normally Ardyn wouldn't be so patient for answers to his questions even if they were all mostly waiting for the clash to happen and being strung along for potentially nothing does terrible things to one's patience.

But in this case, he was treading lightly for a nice change of pace. Because his companion was nothing like the other vessels of darkness. No, he was much worse. Power coursed through him like water in a canal, full of knowledge beyond his youthful years and carrying a keyblade of his own. Of course, he'd be this strong, he would expect nothing less than Xehanort's youth.

Young Xehanort has mildly tanned skin, golden eyes, and silver hair which both slightly spikes and falls past his shoulders in the back; it is styled similar to Terra-Xehanort's, just with four bangs framing his face, the back two thicker than the front two, and the two backward spikes on the sides are absent, the topmost one slicked back. He wears a black coat like everyone else, nothing distinctive or remarkable.

Soon once they were at a good distance, the young master turns to face Ardyn. "The day of destiny is coming soon…when it comes, there will be no half measures", he instructs, his tone dry and cold. Ardyn raises a brow and rubbed his stubbled chin with interest, wondering if the boy had that youthful confidence to openly patronize him. The young master calls his keyblade, effectively telling Ardyn this is going to another sparring session.

Because he did not have enough of that it seemed…

This keyblade is predominantly colored in different shades of blue and is decorated with elaborate, spiked shapes. The tip is modeled after a stopwatch, while the teeth are diamond-shaped spikes that are connected by a black web structure like the design on the base of the top spire of a skyscraper from the old nobody world. The keychain shares the time theme represented in the blade, with an hourglass as its token. Its shaft resembles his ethereal blades that Xemnas uses with just blue instead of red, as does the blade with its neon-like glow.

With a dramatic wave of his hands to brush the dust off his clothes and flick of his wrist, ruefully Ardyn called for his Armiger and clasps his Raksha blade. "Is it needed? I believe beating your flowery friend and his vixen of a woman is proof enough?", asked Ardyn. The young man scoffs as if he were insulted by such a question. Not that Ardyn could deny it was a bit of a stupid one, did not take much for Sora to defeat them before after all.

"If you intend on fulfilling your vengeance, then wouldn't you make sure history doesn't repeat itself?", asks Young-Xehanort, before a smirk appeared. "Or do you want the chosen king to remind you of your place again?".

With a twitch of a snarl attempting to appear, Ardyn aimed his blade and fires an onslaught of red Armiger spears at the young man. Young-Xehanort huffs as his keyblade shifts into a silvery-grey whip.

Swinging his right hand with his key-whip, the master slashes and smashes the crystalized weapons in an instant. He dashed to Ardyn as his keyblade returns to its original shape, sweeping at the older man. Ardyn, in turn, uses his Armiger to phase through his attacks, sidestepping him and getting around the younger man before warping back to give him breathing room. Young-Xehanort turns on his heels and sweeps again, releasing crescent-shaped waves towards him.

In response, Ardyn aimed his hard to form a violet and crimson ball of flames and launches it at the attack. Their powerful attacks explode on impact, but the younger man hovers across the field, keyblade replaced with ethereal blades in both hands. He swings at the older red-haired man, nary making a sound with every swing while Ardyn meets his attacks with parries and deflections. The powerful blades should have cut through his easily but even Young-Xehanort's powers do little against the Lucis arms.

One of his blades managed to land a hit on the former chancellor's side, earning a yell from the older man. Young-Xehanort then does a high sweep kick and struck him in the side of his neck, throwing the man onto the ground.

Ardyn grunts, the roaring ache in his body filled his senses. He had yet to fully adapt to being in pain again even with some of his "buddies" landing a few hits on him. But that just motivated him to make that smug brat share the same expression of pain. Young-Xehanort tries to stab him in the back, but Ardyn quickly spins and strikes the ethereal blade hard enough to throw the master off balance, and using his right hand, he grabbed the boy's neck.

He slammed him into the ground with a monstrous thud that leaves a body print in the earth and even sends cracks spreading in four directions. The master beneath him grunts in pain, narrow teleporting away from Ardyn's dagger being plunged into his face. Ardyn looked to see the young man reappear a few steps from him, suddenly three vortexes of flames erect around him in a tri-formation as he is levitating from the ground.

Ardyn calls for his crossbow and unloads a barrage of dark arrows onto the master as he soared towards the man. The arrows were consumed by the flames easily and with the young master closing in on him, this forced Ardyn to start warping further away from him, using dark magic to blast him as opposed to using any more Armiger. Young-Xehanort eventually aimed his hand and sends two of the vortexes at the man, sucking up the loose earth and destroying the ground in their charge towards the man.

Ardyn called for violet lightning and struck down the vortexes, destroying them and the ground they were roaming on. He calls for his Sword of the Tall just as Young-Xehanort fires the final vortex at him, he brings down the giant sword and demolishes the flames as if a more powerful hurricane eradicated the vortex.

Ardyn had no time to enjoy his victory over the young man, as the whip returned and wrapped around his waist, yanking him up to the skies. When airborne, Ardyn sees the young master rushing up to him and lands several strikes from his keyblade before with a downward slash, slammed him back down to the ground.

Ardyn bounced off the earth once before he rolled to his feet, growling as his body houses more pain. He simply chuckled tersely, however, snapping his fingers and then being surrounded in green tendrils and light, healing himself. The wonders of magic. He stands up to the boy, now walking towards him as the royal man sensed something is changing, shifting around the master. Ardyn feels the world around him stilling like all had ceased movement, the winds go silent, the dust fluttering in the air stills and even he feels as if he could not move.

He smirks mentally.

Young-Xehanort jumps and brings down his keyblade onto him, only to his utter shock see Ardyn riposte his attack with his Raksha blade and throw him over himself. Ardyn struck the boy's back with a full swing during his fall, cutting into him and with enough force to throw him away. Young-Xehanort falls to the ground, quickly getting to his knees. He grunts in pain, turning to the older man nonchalantly spinning his sword, humming.

When his own golden eyes met Young-Xehanort's, he smirks evilly. "Oh? Come now young man, did you think you were the only one who can do this?", he asks with venom in his tone.

Young-Xehanort scoffs, snapping his fingers and healing himself and returning to his feet. The master and Ardyn raised their weapons and ran at each other, clashing and dueling within frozen time, their weapons making dull roars of steel on steel and sparks barely lighting up for no more than two seconds.

The world around them unaware of what was happening, frozen in place as the two contested in their domes of time. A dual between the keyblade with ethereal weapons against the royal bloodline's royal arms, youthful confidence against wiser experienced combatants. Both taking hits and beatings from each other's weapons, taking breaks to heal and use magic to cover themselves, Ardyn's endless phasing against the young man able to warp time to heal himself, it is as if the battle would continue for centuries.

One final deadlock, however, puts an end to the halted flow of time, both dropping their abilities to hold time in place for themselves. They both warped/teleported away from each other, though the young master was levitating in the skies. With a cruel smile, he raises his hand as fiery portals amass behind him, like a wall hovering behind him. Ardyn sees flaming stones slowly form from these portals until the master drops his arm, firing a horde of meteors down onto Ardyn.

With a dark smile, the darkness of red and violet surges around Ardyn as veins of what appeared to be the blight started to stretch from his jawlines to his eyes, darkening into violet. He laughs at this as a ghostly apparition slowly hovers behind him. Black and violet flames rose in pillars around him, his hands covered in the corrupted flames as he aims them both at the hurtling meteors. Without a single utter of the spell in mind, Ardyn's flames blast a torrent of darkness at the young master.

His meteors obliterated into nothing as Young-Xehanort growls and teleport away from the attack, just barely evading becoming ashes. The master reappears back to the ground in front of Ardyn, his darkening form receding as the flames disappeared. He gave the younger man a smirk, gloating. Young-Xehanort merely scoffs, brushing off the dust from his sleeves. "It seems the gift-giving to you hasn't been a waste of time, after all", the boy remarks.

Ardyn looked at his hand as his weapon disappeared, smirking his new powers. "I suppose I owe your…what was it, heartless version? Thanks for this", he says with amusement. Young-Xehanort huffs dismissively. "At least you'll be of use to us when the time comes", he says, clicking his fingers and called for his dark corridor. Before he goes in though, he says: "How confident are you in your powers now?". Ardyn hummed and clenches his fist. "I was already more than enough to deal with the boy, but with this, it is a guarantee he will join his father", Ardyn replied, arrogantly.

Young-Xehanort scoffed, shaking his head. "Is that so? Noctis has grown as a keyblade wielder, and combined with his royal arms, being mentored by Eraqus' student and having an ally such as Sora, odds are he's exceeded far more than you have". Ardyn hums in turn, holding back the growl in his mouth. With his Armiger and new powers, the boy would stand no chance against him at this point.

So…why did that brat's words bother him so?

"I'd be cautious, were I you", Young-Xehanort says with a smirk, "You've underestimated him before when he wasn't anything more than a fledgling and look how your battle turned out". Wordlessly the man leaves Ardyn alone in the wasteland.

He chuckled mirthlessly as he stares at the space. "Oh my boy, you of all people should know by now", he says to himself as a dark shadow manifests behind him, "The king and Sora both share the same weaknesses…the best way to hurt them is going straight for their hearts…".

With a smile, Ardyn decides to go for a walk…

*Mysterious Tower*

Gathering in the study for what could be the final time, the guardians of the light stand before the master. Aqua had relayed everything to him, her reports on their progress, the lessons, and most importantly the ceremony.

Sora and Kairi had not said a word since entering the room, allowing Aqua to speak without interruptions. While they genuinely did this out of respect for their master, they didn't want to stoke the fires that would consume the old man's patience and goodwill anymore than their actions have burnt. The last thing anyone needed is an angry Yen Sid on their case.

"Thus, we've completed our training and then some", reported the master, her tone was calm and collected, a large difference compared to her stoic and respectful tone she had the last time addressing one of the oldest masters. The old man absorbs the information and has remained silent throughout Aqua's report, mulling. He turned his hard gaze onto the newly promoted masters, frowning deeply but none of the two even flinched at him.

Truthfully, he wasn't angry they had become masters if nothing else he was proud they had. The moment he looked at them he saw a massive change within their eyes compared to how they were last time. In Sora's eyes, he sees confidence and strength not seen since he first took the exam, while Kairi's no longer carried the eyes of one who lacked the faith within themselves. Their light is stronger than ever now, but along with them, he sees the king of light himself had grown.

"And you believe they are ready?", he asks, facing the blue head. Aqua nodded, "We don't know what will happen at the battle, Xehanort will undoubtedly have a plan for every and any outcome that could play out", she says, "But in comparison to how we would have fared then to now? I am more confident that we will win this".

The master hears the confidence within the young woman's voice, not there before. In its place before was a concern for her companions and the harsh truth of being unprepared for the battle. Unknown to them all, Mickey had informed the master of their progress but had detailed most of Aqua's duty to the team. The dedication to empowering her students, to give them that strength to face any challenge that will befall them.

Her eyes showed the wisdom and maturity gained from her year of mentoring, leading the party. Even those without keyblades all felt more powerful than ever, he'd even go so far as to say even one of Xehanort's vessels may prove to be a minor challenge to them at this point. He holds his composure and resists to chuckle at her confidence, believing her. Her master would truly be proud his pupil had gone above the role of a master to such a degree.

"Aqua, you know that should you fall, the realm of light will perish, and the darkness will rule overall", he warned.

"That won't happen", she states firmly, "Not so long as one of us draws breath".

"Aqua's right", Riku affirms, "Xehanort may have his vessels, armies of heartless, nobodies or whatever else, but this time he won't have the advantage of surprise".

"Do keep in mind one of his greatest talents is scheming and planting seeds of doubt between people", Ignis says, recalling the "history" lessons from Aqua about the man. "Without that, all we truly have to worry about is his back up plans".

Yen Sid hums, agreeing to an extent with Ignis. "Xehanort's intellect is only matched by his cruelty and ruthlessness, young man. He will use whatever he can to create the keyblade war". "Meaning we'll just have to beat all his vessels and then take him down altogether", Gladiolus says.

Axel lets out a sigh as he leans against the wall. "You guys make it sound like a walk in the park", he sighed, "We're not going up against anyone like Xemnas or even that heartless version, this is the strongest guy out there". Prompto groaned in reply, saying: "Sheesh…not helping out here buddy…". He turned to the five masters with a smirk: "We've got five keyblade masters and the strongest Lucis here, and they only have one master!".

"Along with Ardyn", Riku reminds, "But if Sora and Noct can beat him at their early state, then I guess we shouldn't worry so much".

"Not to say we shouldn't tread lightly", Ignis says, "It's likely Xigbar and Ardyn have informed him of what Noct's capable of".

"But that was then, remember for all they know we didn't do anything during the seven days", Goofy pipes up, Donald nodding. "Yeah! He doesn't know anything about the Secret Forest!", added the duck.

"That's right", Kairi agreed. "And thanks to Axel and Sora, we know exactly who we're up against".

There is a collection of agreements and confident retorts, nary a trace of fear, doubt, or worry within the guardians. Yen Sid hides a smile from them, their union more powerful and connected than it had ever been. Perhaps he was wrong to doubt them, maybe they could turn the tides…

Perhaps…the realm of light was in good hands after all.

"Then I have no more to add to this", he says, "You all know what you must do". The guardians saluted him for what could potentially be the final time and slowly dispersed from the room. Yen Sid bowed his head just as the door closed behind the final member, feeling the ending of age is upon them. Tomorrow, the final war will commence. Closing his eyes, he uttered one last prayer for his fellow guardians.

"May your hearts be your guiding keys".

*Outside*

Several gummi ships were waiting for the groups to split off and return to their worlds for the final day of peace. By Aqua's recommendation to take their last day in the realm of light in peace, she asked Cindy if she could procure a few ships for everyone to take. She and Ventus opted to remain here, promising together the next time they would return to the Land of Departure would be with Terra, and finally, give their master a farewell he deserved.

After some hard farewells to each other, wishing everyone a peaceful day and hope to see them again when this all ended, more so towards the Oracle who would not be joining them. While Lunafreya was far from a wallflower, she reluctantly agreed in the grand scheme of things she would be nothing more than leverage for their enemies to exploit and feared she would be more of a burden than a beneficial ally.

There were some sad farewells and she prayed for their safety in the battle before she boarded the ship. As everyone boarded theirs, Gladiolus giving Aqua one kiss before he left, leaned into her ear, and whispered: "No matter what happens, we're getting him back". She nods, smiling at him before they would part again. Both carrying unspoken feelings towards each other, that would later be revealed in time.

When all her friends had gone to their worlds for their last day of safety, the master takes her seat on the stairs with Ventus.

"Can't believe the big day's coming", Ventus says, looking up the stars. "Me neither…", Aqua remarks, smiling. The boy takes out his Wayfinder, holding it with both hands while thinking of his brother. Tomorrow he would see him again, but this time on the opposite side, clashing for the fate of all worlds. He bites his inner cheek, mustering the strength to mentally prepare himself for it.

"You're afraid", Aqua says softly, looking at her brother. Ventus looks at her and nodded. "Yeah…I'm, worried about fighting Terra". Aqua nods sadly as she looked at her talisman, dreading the upcoming conflict with him. Once more their keyblades must cross with each other, a battle to the death. She breathes out a weary breath, closing her eyes to compose herself. She may be ready to fight; she had grown numb to the pain of facing him. Third time is the charm after all.

"I know that feeling…the first time I fought him made me sick to my stomach", she confessed, "And the second time where I nearly let the darkness within my heart consume me". Ventus reached for her hand but she shook her head, her smile soft and loving like a sister. "Its ok, I…made peace with that day, my faults are mine alone to bear", she assured. "But we won't leave him alone any longer". Aqua turned to her brother and held her charm up.

"Remember? These charms will always lead us back to each other", she reminds, "And when we see him again, we'll bring him home". Ventus holds his charm up with a cheeky grin. "Yeah, its always up to us to save his butt!".

Aqua raises a brow at him before giggling. "Ahem, "us"? I'm the one who had to save your butts dozens of times!", she says cheekily, "Remember when you and Terra tried your gilders out and broke one of the statuses? Who covered your butts?".

"H-Hey! That was…my idea…", Ventus says as his bravado died out before he says: "Oh yeah? What about that time you froze the entire living room? Who had to take the fall for that little accident?".

Aqua gasps in horror, placing a heart on her chest. "Ventus, are you saying it was my fault the living room turned into an igloo?", she accused. "Do you think me OR Terra could pull that off?", Ventus asked with a smirk. Aqua opened her mouth for a witty retort before she closes it and huffs. "Well…I mean…", she muttered. "Yeah? I saved your butt plenty of times too!", argued the boy with a cocky smile.

They both laughed at their little competition, leaning back on stairs to look up at the stars, smiling. The master looked back on her journey through Eos as Ventus stargazes, remembering both the good and bad times there, looking at her new armored hand. Part of her wondered how much of her had changed during her time there, taking up the role of the leader and slowly maturing as a true master. Back then when she was first announced as a master, she did not perform her role as well as she wanted to believe.

Taking up the role as a mentor to Kairi, then teaching Sora, befriending people close to her heart, meeting Gladiolus, it was an experience she loved. On her first journey, she never had a real chance to just explore a world without worrying about Ventus or Terra, constantly going from one world to the next without so much as taking a souvenir. Memories of the trial scarred her heart, flashes of her shadow looming in the back of her mind.

Facing her fears, her doubts, and coming out stronger than ever from them, she knew a part of the old Aqua had long since passed. She had lost some of her soft edges, had grown more aware of the dangers, and felt older because of it. Looking at her charm to see her reflection, tracing her scar down her cheek with a finger, she sometimes wondered how her master would react to seeing her like this. Aqua truly hoped she at least made him proud of her.

She smiles gently and turned to Ventus. "What do you wanna do when we get Terra back?", she asks out of the blue. Ventus turned to her with surprise but she encouragingly says: "Come on, tell me. We get him back, what should we do?". Ventus looks at his charm and then smiled. He rummages through his clothes to pull out a passport and holds it up to her.

The Disney Town Passport.

She grinned at it, taking her own out and showing it to him. "If Terra still has his, we can all go together!", he says, "They've got all those cool rides and everything!". "And amazing food too!", Aqua says, recalling that delicacy of ice cream the town makes. They both nod and swear to drag Terra if they must, a day of fun for the three of them, no heartless, no monsters, nothing but a good time between three close friends.

Together they stared at the stars and already dream of having their friend by their side…

*Twilight Town*

Taking one small bite out of his ice cream, relishing the cold yet delicious taste of his treat. The never-ending sunset basking the world in gentle light and warmth, the bell tower tolled earlier signifying the day was slowly reaching its end.

Many stories were surrounding this old clock tower, many of them range from heartfelt sweetheart tales, hauntings, to even some speculation that the original creator was from another world. For Axel, however, this clock tower would be the place that held his best memories. Resting atop of the ledge of the tower in his usual sitting position, the pyro stares at the horizon in contemplation and peace.

When everyone else went their separate ways to prepare themselves for the upcoming battle, Axel opted not to go back to Radiant Garden and instead revisit his favorite place. No sooner had he walked around the corner to that familiar spot where his brightest memories were made, he felt a wave of nostalgia hit him. Nothing changed, the spots empty as they always were, and he could hear the voices echo from the past.

He had not been here since his revival as a human, not that he did not have a good reason seeing as he was thrown into the training quickly. Even after he and Kairi had gotten out of their training, the moment Sora went poof and seemingly everyone else was going along with him, he mostly stuck around at the tower. Being back here felt odd, in a good way but also pain tugs on his heart. Again, he believed it was the other one who often joined him and Roxas.

As he finished his ice cream, he chucked the stick behind him and debated if he should eat another. Then he scoffs and chuckled to himself, realizing he was acting like a depressed teenager, drowning his sorrows in ice cream. What would Roxas say if he could see him now?

He was already acting pathetic enough by holding two more in between his fingers on his left hand. Silly as it may seem and sound, he felt this tradition within him. Axel was the one who provided the ice cream after all, and he never let on how he managed to afford all of it.

Just as well his assassins were good a being sneaky as they were at killing.

"Should've been there for you…", he sighed, looking down at the streets below him. Now that he was alone for the first time since his awakening without anything to ponder on, coming back here may have brought him good reminiscing from his happiest times even as a nobody. But they also brought back the worst of him.

All the secrecy between them, every lie he told Roxas just to "keep him safe" and refusing to be upfront with him. Looking back, he hated how he was so dismissive and arrogant to his best friend, wondering if he had been more open to him would things have turned out the way they are? Maybe the poor kid wouldn't have ended up as a pawn by that old asshat Ansem the Wise's tool, maybe they could have escaped the organization.

Yet he blew it.

He let himself choose between friends and ended up losing all of them. Roxas to the worlds and in a way to Sora, the mysterious girl in his memories. Lord knows how he lost her and why he is still unable to recall is beyond him.

And then…

"Shouldn't you say goodbye to your *real* home?".

Axel looked up in surprise to see his former best friend turned enemy waltzing around the corner. Saix simply looked at him with that usual cool and composed expression, even with those eyes. Axel tenses up, wondering if this were a surprise attack or something, he could never be too careful around Saix.

"Why…?", he growled, holding back his anger and pain. Saix takes a spot near Axel, planting himself on the ledge with a small sigh. He turns to Axel, still composed and dare Axel would say, relaxed. "I'm not here to fight, relax", he says, like it was a regular occurrence between the two. Then he easily takes one of the lodged ice creams from Axel, prompting the man to vainly reach for it back, but in doing so would drop the other.

Axel glares at him, yet Saix merely wagged the treat in front of him in a lecturing manner. "You can't eat all this", he says. "Says you…", Axel grunts out, turning away to face the sunset. "Getting stomach cramps before a fight is ill-advised, the last thing you need is a trip to the bathroom during the clash", the blue-haired man says with a coy tone. Axel huffs, begrudgingly allowing him to snake on his treat.

Saix looked at the treat in hand, then back to Axel's and says: "Why did you buy three of them? One for Roxas…and the other two for good luck?". Axel looked at his hand carrying the ice cream, then back to the stick he threw behind him. He scoffs and says: "I dunno. Felt like it!". He clenched his fist, hating that a part of him felt joy in having his old friend back for a while. Even if this was "Saix" and not Isa, it was still his buddy at the end of it all.

This only hurt him more when the two of them part ways, the next time they see each other it will be on opposite sides. Once again Axel would rebel and Saix would be the one tasked to punish him. "Why are you here then?", Axel demands, trying to get this feeling out of his system. He didn't need to feel bad he was going to kick his best friend's backside tomorrow, he already felt like garbage just seeing him like this.

"Got it memorized?", Saix asked, almost mimicking how his old friend used to ask that question. Axel contemplated punching him for that, only Kairi gets a pass for saying it aloud.

"When we were still friends, we used to sneak into the castle, remember?", he says. Axel frowned in recollection; how could he forget? The days when they were nothing more than little brats trying to be "heroes" and rescue a poor damsel in distress by apprenticing to Ansem the Wise. Every time they snuck in they would always visit her, talk, bond, and play with her. The strange girl that had no name, home, nor even her memories. He then turns to Saix. "Yeah, and we failed!", he reminds, "She was just gone! Poof, disappeared!".

"You gave up", accused Saix, facing him. Axel throws his hand up with a yell. "I did not give up!", argues the redhead. He huffs stubbornly and turns his gaze to the sunset. "One day we become his apprentices, then the next Ansem goes away, and then the very next day, we're nobodies", recollects Axel. He still felt chills remembering that day when his life as a human had been snatched away from him and on that day Lea died…Axel was born.

Thinking back to himself as a nobody, he never realized how empty he was to everyone. How he could just take someone's life so easily it did not even take a second thought for him to snuff out someone's life. He cold and laid back he was when things went south, indifferent to the world around him and every day was like a trek through an endless loop of forced living. And on top of that…

"Then we got stuck doing icky jobs for Xemnas…", he spits with tiredness in his voice, "I couldn't keep up with you…".

It was true, Saix was more determined than he ever was when it comes to serving the organization. Axel would do his task and no more, not caring of other agendas and potential leads while his best friend goes the extra mile and then some with his tasks. Though with resentment Axel believed him being the assassin gave him far more gruesome and darker tasks than his best friend.

"Following Xehanort's, nobody was the best lead to discover what had happened to her", Saix argues, arms folded and contemplating. "She was his lab rat after all". "And so? Did you find her? I helped you rise through the ranks, so I hope it paid off", Axel says with skepticism. Saix looks down in thought before he replied: "No. Nary a trace".

He looks to the sunset and continues with his musings: "I started to wonder if we'd imagined her. Maybe she never existed". Axel grits his teeth, something about those words triggered something within his heart. The girl without a name and face flashes for a moment as if somehow she was what he was talking about, and for a moment he considered calling his keyblade and demanding he'd take that back.

"In time…I awakened to a new purpose…I could be stronger", Saix says. "Well, ya blew it! So wise up and quit already!", Axel says. "You know what's coming, you know damn well that bald-faced jackass ain't gonna give two squats about you, so why not just leave and…and…". He falters when Saix turned his gaze back to him.

"You need to face it. Roxas is just like our other friend", Saix says in his usual logical but cold tone. "Gone forever. You need to accept that".

"Screw that! You can say it all ya want, but I am getting him back! And those girls!", he states. He waved the ice cream at his friend and declared: "Hell, I'm even dragging *you* home too!". Saix finished his ice cream, not facing him during his little rant. Not that Axel would have wanted him too, he was close to snapping at him. Saix chuckled with a smile Axel could not tell was real or not. "The marks under your eyes. They're gone", he states, looking at him.

Axel pauses and falters before scoffing. "Yeah? I don't need them!".

Saix gets up with a sigh and stands straight, facing him. "I told you they would stop you from crying. Your upside-down tears", he says with cockiness and knowingly. Axel truly hated how much this guy knew him as well as he does. He could not take any more of it, this moment where for once ever since they lost their hearts, they were bonding again. Trying to hold that piece of their friendship that could have been salvaged had either of them been wiser.

Or in Axel's case, had he not chosen.

"Gah! Would you get lost? I'll kick your ass tomorrow!", promised Axel.

With a light chuckle and smirk just as a dark corridor appeared around him, Saix parts with these final words. "I expect no less", he says before disappearing.

All alone again, Axel huffs and sighs, facing the ground again. The words exchanged hurt him, a pain that never healed aching within him. Yet he unspoken vow remained unchanged. He isn't the same nobody that wouldn't care less for anyone, he isn't alone anymore. Roxas and that other girl are important to him, more than he would have anyone ever know. Looking on the days he spent training with Kairi on their own, how she somehow became important to him too.

He never did forgive himself for how he used her to try and turn Sora into a heartless again, and despite his apologies and constantly feeling like crap he felt like nothing could make up for it. And yet, she had forgiven him from day one.

Even people he was at one-point enemies with, they welcomed him back with open arms and accepted him as a friend. But that did not mean he was leaving anyone else behind. He might have failed Roxas, that girl, and Saix in the past when he could have done more, but the training was more than him becoming a keyblade wielder or a guardian of light. He was doing it all to bring home his friends, old and new.

Maybe that is one of the reasons he would not change his cloak because it is a part of his life he could not part with until he reunites with them all again. This cloak is a part of him as his chakrams and his name.

With a grunt, deciding he is done lamenting on this space alone and promising next time he comes here it'll be with all his friends. He gets up and approaches the discarded stick and is use small embers to burn it away, he stops and reads the stick.

"WINNER" was sketched into it

"…Humph…guess we'll have more to share then…", he chuckles.

Putting it into his pocket, he walks off the tower and leaves…unaware that in an ethereal form sitting on the spot, watching the sunset with tears in her eyes.

*Eos, outskirts of Insomnia*

Never would he ever say it aloud, especially in Gladiolus' company, but sitting here around a campfire made Noctis look back and appreciate these quiet moments. He had not gone camping with his friends in such a long time, even within the forest they used the cottage for sleep. True he appreciates having a bed, an Oracle by his side, and not worrying about accidentally rolling onto a rock or jagged pebble.

But now sitting around the campfire with his brothers in arms, he didn't' realize how much these nights outside had meant to him.

Looking around the campfire he sees Gladiolus doing some squats near the edge of the Haven, more out of killing time than exercising. He wondered how the man was holding up with the upcoming battle that loomed over them, saying nothing relating to it and mostly keeping his thoughts to himself about the whole ordeal. At least that's what Noctis thought, in truth, the shield was mentally preparing himself for the war and thinking on Aqua and her brothers.

With Prompto nesting by on the edge of the Haven with his camera in hands, occasionally from the light, Noctis sees he was going through the gallery. The gunner's robotic limb had gotten a recent cover-up by Cindy, now looking closer to armor with better circuits and some decals Prompto added. He swipes his photos across the screen, smiling at each one while making separate files for albums for his friends, Kairi asking him if he could.

Finally, there is Ignis at his favorite spot in the Haven, the stove. Once they set up the campsite as the dark came he started to work on dinner. While the party offered to help he would have none of it, saying it would be their last meal before they would be thrown into the greatest battle of their lives and deserved one more fantastic meal. The man was content with doing the dinner again for only four, while he admitted having another hand helped, he was relieved to be doing only a meal for a small group again.

The king had already said his farewells to the Oracle after they returned to Eos, opting to let her stay in Insomnia with some of the recently reformed Crownsguard. When they arrived at their old home, Aranea had been promoted to Kingsglaive Commander (a title she made up with the permission of her radiance) and informed his majesty that she had already got recruits to help out rebuilding the city and guard.

Granted by Noctis' opinion she would probably charge him a king's ransom for her work, but he couldn't deny having her as an instructor and commander of his guard was a bad idea. Once Lunafreya had settled into the Citadel and promising to return to her when the war ended, the king sets off with his brothers to the outskirts while Cindy took their ship back to Hammerhead for some final tune-ups. He was mighty grateful the woman even offered to be their pilot to the world.

The king leans back in his chair, quiet and thinking. Surprised at himself that he was not scared of what tomorrow is bringing, nor even feeling nervous. Maybe his training did more to bolster his confidence in himself, or maybe he was just accepting it for what could be the greatest fight or even his last fight.

"Come and get it", Ignis called out.

Stirred from his thoughts, Noctis gets up and is handed a bowl of dinner from the man just as the others join him. All four of them gathered up and settled in their seats, eating quietly while making small talk. The chosen king listens in intently to their chatter, mind wandering about the battle among everything else that is happened to them. He thinks fondly on the day he met Sora, how a meeting with a boy from another world had changed so much.

"Kinda weird…doing this again", says Prompto as he holds his bowl at his lap. The three glanced towards him, seeing him having a rare thoughtful look on his face. "I mean…do you guys think this night feels…different?", he asked, "Just the four of us?".

The trio shares a glance, taking in the meaning behind his words. Ignis hums and says: "It has been some time since it was just us four camping. I dare say I cannot recall when", he answers. Gladiolus makes a low grunt of an agreement, understanding where their friend is going with this. "Yeah. Since we met those three, then add Aqua and Kairi, it was not just us anymore, and then we got Riku, suddenly we're a larger group".

"Imagine our reactions if we knew just exactly what we signed up for", Noctis says with a smile, "I mean Donald and Goofy should've been a warning already but then again…here we are".

"Keyblades, light and darkness, heartless, nobodies and other worlds, sheesh…and there we were worried about getting you hitched", Prompto chuckled with a cheeky smile. Not blushing in the slightest nor even attempting to hide it, the king nodded at his friend's words. Something that at a time was so daunting and surreal feels more like an easy task now, and to think it all started so simple. Hurtled into a battle none had known about, thrust upon enemies that outclass them all and going through so much.

The king frowns softly when he did have to think about what his friends endured while journeying with him through all this. Gladiolus' defeat and scars, Prompto's discovery of his origins and loss of his right arm, Ignis losing his sight and forever scarred by the dark and light all at once. And tomorrow they may lose so much more. The only thing he had lost was is his sword, given to him by his father for his sixteenth birthday, and gained a lot more scars than he had thought possible.

"None of us could dream of what was in store for us", Ignis says, pushing up his glasses slightly, "And even with all our training, we're still venturing forth into uncertainty".

"Up against the worst the worlds got to offer", Gladiolus adds.

"And against a guy who's supposedly the best of the worst", piped Prompto.

Noctis nods to each input of his friends, yet even with all that he still felt no fear. "But we're going anyway, regardless of how scared, nervous, apprehensive or anxious we all feel", he says, staring up to the skies, seeing the stars and/or worlds. "Not just because our home is in danger, or because of what'll happen if Xehanort wins…but more than that, we want to keep those we hold close to our hearts safe".

He placed a hand on his heart, feeling the connections it had created with so many wonderful people. The people at home and out there in the other worlds, people who stayed by his side through the worst even with their struggles. Memories of his father, the people who served him, his subjects that perished because of the emperor and Ardyn's schemes. He's lost so many important people to him, and reflecting on those days without Sora, how they all dealt with losing such a vital friend.

"I dunno about you guys, but I'm not going to lose anyone else", he swore, "We've come this far not just because of Sora and the others by our side, but we've stuck through it together as brothers". He turned to his brothers with a grateful smile, not trying to make light of it nor would he keep his feelings aside.

"I wouldn't have gotten this far without you guys, and…I'm…grateful, for everything you've done for me", he says, suddenly feeling his eyes grow prickly. Gladiolus huffs, but the king sees the man's own eyes shimmer for a moment as Prompto unashamedly lets one tear roll down while Ignis, stoic yet heartwarming smiled back at his king. Noctis clasps his hand and says: "Every time I got nervous, you'd kick me into gear, whenever I needed to face the trials, you were there to support me…and on days I felt like crap, you've been the first to perk me back up".

He did not need to specify who he was referring to, every one of his family knew their roles, and when and where they were needed most. Gladiolus always pushing him to be better than he thinks, Ignis supporting him whenever his doubts reared their heads and Prompto being the person to always put a smile on his face. Without them, Noctis could never say this would have been possible without them, and even with Sora at his side, he still would have needed them.

"No matter what happens…just know, that I can't ask for better brothers to go on this journey with me…and…you guys…are the best", he finishes.

"…don't talk like we're going down…", Gladiolus says, gesturing to himself with a thumb and smirk, "As your new and improved shield, I'm making it my damn mission to get your royal ass back home". Noctis rolled his eyes at the confidence of his big brother, before smirking and pointing. "Well, you better bring your ass back here too! No way am I gonna deal with Aqua if her boyfriend kicks the bucket!", reminds Noctis.

Gladiolus laughed and said: "Who said I'm gonna be done in? I'm more worried about doing the heavy lifting!".

"Hey! Don't forget me and Iggy! You guys wouldn't be able to handle ANYTHING without us!", Prompto says with a beaming smile. "Indeed, you two may be our strength but your plans leave much to be desired", remarks Ignis. "Hey, my plans are fine!", Noctis argued with a smile. "Most of your plans are just "warp strike until you die" and then winging it!", Prompto reminds with a cheeky grin. Noctis rolled his eyes and held his hands up, caught out. Prompto leaned back in his seat with a smile and says: "I dunno how helpful I'm gonna be, but there's nowhere else I'd rather be then with you guys…".

"Plus, after what Axel told me about that girl and how Ven wished he had more memories of Terra before all the garbage happened, I promised them I'd make them an album, so they can look back at those memories".

"I have made my mind up long ago, and if losing my sight did nothing, then this will be no different", Ignis states, "I owe Riku and the others a great deal for giving me a second chance with my sight".

"And no way in hell am I leaving Blue again", Gladiolus states firmly, "And I don't give a damn what that bald bastard has in store, we're getting Terra back".

"They've done enough on their own, this time they'll have friends by their sides", Noctis says. Together the brothers lifted their bowls and all at once cried: "For hearth and home!".

*Destiny Islands*

A small world, yet part of something so much bigger.

Hindsight was something, as Riku started to see more of whenever he had a chance to settle down and reflect. He could not believe how impatient or how ungrateful he had been during his days of ignorance and peace in this small world.

Looking at the sunset while lazing on the beach, the keyblade master watched the ocean waves gently lap over the other, glistening in the low sun descending. The summer breeze, the smells of sea salt, the softness of the sand beneath him, he allowed himself to relax and be at a reasonable sense of ease. He had cast all thoughts of tomorrow aside in favor of basking in the warmth of his homeworld welcoming him back.

"How long did you know I was with you?".

Startled for a moment, breaking him out of his trance of peace, Riku turned with a smile and replied: "You *did* save me".

Sitting near him is an old acquaintance of his, from an enemy turned mutual ally, the other Riku Replica. The younger version of him stared at him pensively and almost attempting to look antagonistic before he cracked a smile and scoffed. The older Riku rolls his eyes, trying hard not to laugh at how cocky he was as a youth. It still perplexes him how Kairi would never tease him for that smug cockiness of his in today's time.

"You've been pretty busy I see…saving a world, discovering more of your power, helping that four eyes get his sight back", lists the other Riku. He smirked and says: "Getting a girlfriend". The older Riku laughed, scratching his neck sheepishly, realizing his replica must have seen everything that occurred since they first met up back in the realm of darkness. The younger boy waved his hand with a sigh. "Sheesh, how much of a sap did Sora make you? Can't even say you're dating without acting like him".

Riku gives his younger self a rude hand gesture, furthering the boy's smirk and teases. "So you here to make fun of me or…?", Riku asks. "Just wanted to say hi, I guess", Replica Riku answers unsure. "Doesn't sound like it to me. You came here for a reason", Riku says wisely. At that, the replica frowns and speaks up. "I didn't make much of myself, as a replica". He faces the ocean and continues: "I was a failure, after all, failing to beat you and take your place. And then, after you and Sora moved on", he explained. Part of Riku felt for his clone, although he was rather relieved he did fail. Not that he was being hurtful but call him selfish, but he'd rather be alive than dead. "My body then fell into ruin, and the darkness took my broken mind".

"And then I showed up in the darkness, and you took that as a sign to what? Say "screw it" and work with me again?", the older boy asks. The replica laughed heartily at that, shaking his head at the humor. "You could say it, it was fate or maybe…if I have to face the end…I'd rather face it with you then the darkness", he admits finally. Riku frowns, a sudden sense of guilt and concern taking over his playfulness.

"That's what you want?", he asked.

"Yeah", replies the replica. "But don't think I'm throwing the towel in yet…I've got one last thing to see through to the end".

Despite saying that, he refused to enlighten the older version and just resumed his gaze back to the ocean. Deciding that his replica deserved to keep some of his secrets, Riku smiled back and joined him in staring at the ocean for a minute before a phone call goes off.

He scrambled for his phone as Replica Riku laughed. "Have fun", he says.

Riku looked to him but finds out he was alone on the beach once more. Frowning with wonder, he looks at his phone and answers it.

"Riku?".

"Iris? Hey there…", he greets the moment he sees the Amicitia girl on the other side. The girl smiles back at him, waving. "Sorry I took so long to get on to you…Aranea's been running me through the wringer like Gladdy on a bad day with Noct", she says with a giggle. The master chuckles in response, easily imagining those scenarios. "Sounds like good old Aranea isn't waiting for you to become the next Kingsglaive, better work harder!", he teases.

"Pfft, easy for you to say!", pouts Iris, "Unlike you I wasn't trained to jump over buildings and run halfway through the city!".

"…she has you running laps through half of Insomnia?", Riku asked, genuinely curious and slightly worried. "Yeah! Heck, she once made someone do FIVE laps because he was staring at her butt!". Riku did not know why but suddenly racing to Eos and bringing Iris to the islands was starting to sound good to him and would be beneficial for her. He just hoped she'd be alive when he gets back from saving the worlds with the others.

The girl smiled at him, yet he sees it was forced and full of concern, her amber eyes dim. He knows that look; it was the same one she had given to him when he left with the others to rescue Sora. Except here felt more sullen and glum, like for all she knew this was going to be the last time they speak. A tug on his heart did occur when he thought about it like that, and with death looming over him like a cloud about to unleash a storm on him, he could understand why she was not all smiles and rainbows.

"Hey, come on, what's with that look?", he asks lightheartedly, hoping to lighten up her day. "You guys said tomorrow is the day you're going after Xehanort, right?", she asked knowingly. "Well, yeah…I mean, he's not given us much of a choice. Either we confront him now or he will attack other worlds, and call me pessimistic, but I'm worried he'll do a hell of a lot worse", confesses Riku. "…right…", Iris says, defeated. Sounds to Riku she was hoping they could have had more time together, even when he got out of training he had only at the very most an hour with her.

"Iris…", he started before she shook her head. "No, sorry. I know I'm sounding like a brat, whining that you've gotta go again…", she rambled. Riku cuts her off and says: "Hey come on now…you're not the only one who wants to spend more time together…", he assured, before saying: "Truth be told, if we did have one more day I'd have been happy to just spend all day with you…".

He then snaps his fingers and says: "Hey, why don't we do that?", he asked. Iris looks at him before he continues. "Pick a day, ANY day after we beat Xehanort, and I promise you, wherever you wanna go, it'll be just you and me. No keyblade duties, no heartless, nothing to distract us, ok?", he offered. Iris grinned and nods. "I'll hold you to that!", she swears. "I'd be worried if you didn't!", laughs Riku. He smiled at her, missing her presence greatly.

"Say, are you doing anything?", he asks.

"I'm here all day for you", she promises.

"Then can we keep talking?".

With a smile, he sees her settling on her bed and they begin to talk…

Watching from a distance, the two closest friends to Riku sat on their familiar tree in silence. Sora was occasionally staring at the older boy with a wondering expression, worried he was losing his mind when he was seen talking to himself before likely Iris rang him.

Kairi had assured him their best just wanted to have some alone time, likely prepping himself what was coming next. After everything Riku had done, Sora would not be selfish enough to take that from his friend, even if he would have preferred it would be the three of them again on their little spot before they would go to their final clash.

The final battle…even thinking that did not sound real to Sora. Of course, throughout his adventures, there had always been one final fight remaining and each one took everything he had to offer to win. Here though, it still felt so strange and worrying to hear it, namely since every major enemy he's ever faced would be there, his worst adversaries and strongest foes. In a place where so many hearts had been lost, where the darkness would be at its absolute worst within the realm of light.

And not only that, he had so much more to lose…

"Here".

He was broken out of his trance with a startle, leaning back and looking down. His heartbeat suddenly increased wildly.

In the hands of the one who owned his heart, was the Paopu fruit.

The boy's cheeks flushed when he managed to roam his eyes upward to Kairi's smile and blushing cheeks and sees in her other hand another fruit. He opened his mouth but does not speak. "Tomorrow is going to be our toughest fight yet…maybe even more than back at Niflhiem…", she explains, her smile never leaving her face. "So…I want to be a part of your life, no matter what happens". Something about that sentence struck Sora…

The way she spoke was soft and loving, yet he could see the underlying sadness and fear in it. He moves his hand to the fruit offered, yet he grasps it while holding Kairi's hand at the same time. She lessens her smile into a small one, ultimately changing it into a look that expressed her fears. None of them were naïve, and no matter what they told themselves, nor with the amount of training that they worked through, there is a chance one of them could perish.

Sora hated to admit it especially with how far she had come from her newbie days and no words would ever be able to express how proud of her he was, but the battle and the looming cloud of death that followed them was one of the reasons, gods forgive him, he wished she'd stay safe. But asking her to remain behind just to be safe was not only selfish of him but a slap to Kairi's face for all she had done to reach his point for them.

Plus, how could he ask her to abandon the others she had grown so close to, people who are counting on her.

Sora sees Kairi's hand slowly droop as she nearly looked away, maybe she had second thoughts or whatever gesture of goodwill had turned sour with his silence and her thoughts of what could happen. But he gently squeezed her hand, making her face him again. This moment between them, memories of their little drawings back in their secret place, once unspoken feelings between them now a symbol of their connection.

He gave her a warm and loving smile as he took his fruit and raised her docile hand to his, offering hers while he offered his own. "No matter what happens, even if we somehow are apart, I will find you again", he swears. Kairi's smile comes back, warmer, and lovingly. Together on the mental count to three, they both take a bite out of the legendary fruit.

The sweetness of the succulent fruit tasted truly beyond these worlds and the next, something had locked between the two.

Slowly they lowered the bitten fruits before the delicacies slipped from their hands and Kairi embraced him. He holds in his arms, letting her rest her head on the heart she ruled over. "We'll keep each other safe, right?", he asks, stroking her back. "Yes…", Kairi promised.

She raised her head to face him, his hand brushing aside a stray of her hair to let him bask in those beautiful eyes. She, in turn, runs a hand up to his cheek and through his spiky hair, pressing their foreheads together and allow the world to fade from their minds. They were scared, none would pretend otherwise, and even though those fears stem from whatever may come from the battle ahead of them, they refused to give into it.

"I love you", Kairi says, "Now, and forever".

Sora cups her cheek with his warm smile only her eyes would ever be blessed to see, the smile that had given her strength to fight whatever came her way. No more would she stand on the sidelines and allow him to bear the weight of the worlds alone, no longer would she let him suffering and silence. Her power had grown not just through fighting with the others but experiencing an adventure with him, seeing the world, and making friends who found places within her heart.

"I love you too…more than anything", he swears.

She closes the gap between them, and as their eyes shut, the warmth of their kiss spreads through their bodies. Whatever happens, they know deep in their hearts, they will be together…

*Next Day, Gummi ship*

The day had finally arrived.

The day where the fate of all worlds will be decided…where if the light would be consumed by the dark, or would it persevere through the bleakest of despair?

The now Thirteen Guardians of Light…vs the Thirteen Darkness…

Hands clasped together as he waits for their pilot to announce their arrival, Noctis stares at the space on the main deck of their ship among his brothers awaiting for their descent to join the others. None in their usual garbs, having returned to their homeworld, they had final donned their Kingsglaive uniforms. They were also given cases containing new weapons for them, made by Cindy and Cid.

The Kingsglaive uniforms worn by his brothers consists of a black frock coat, black pants, black fingerless gloves, and black, knee-high boots. There were noticeable differences between each other, Gladiolus was still wearing Terra's armour for his left arm, Ignis had a silver pauldrons on his shoulders that were lighter with his right sleeve adorned a special etching that enhanced his magic. As for Prompto, he took the usual mask that came with the uniform.

They asked why and he merely replied it made him look cool.

For Noctis, he wears a more formal and sophisticated attire, befitting his regal standing: a black suit with gold jewellery accenting it, a black and gold pauldron on his left shoulder, a golden knee guard around his left knee, accompanied by a cape with intricate gold chains and black shoes. The outfit is like the one worn by his father but without stripes or neck ornaments, as it is tailored to him.

"Fellas, we're here", announced Cindy.

They all faced each other and nodded before proceeding to the transport deck.

Once they arrived, Cindy was already waiting for them to go and save the worlds, making small talk about the whole ordeal. "Sora and the others have just sent the word, they're already waiting for us", she says, "Guess they're more eager to get this whole thing over with".

"Can't say I blame them", Noctis sighed.

The mechanic makes a grunt of the agreement as she starts up the teleporter, giving them the "ok" to start. They thank her and as they approached the machine, she calls for Noctis. When they turned to face her, the woman placed a hand on her chest and bowed to him, saying: "It's been an honor working for you, your majesty".

Noctis stared at the woman, words failing him before he smiled back and bowed to her. "Thanks for everything Cindy…", he says, "I mean…you went above for us". She smiles at him and says: "Ya'll come back, ya hear?". She points at Prompto and says: "Especially you mister! We've unfinished business!".

The gunner salutes with a large grin as his brothers smirk knowingly at the younger man. Noctis turned back to Cindy and nodded, promising to return.

They were then transported to the world below them, leaving Cindy alone on the ship. But the mechanic's services weren't over yet, and she taps into her communicator, calling her boss-lady. "Hiya, they've just been transported".

She nods at the commands and heads back to the main controls. "Don't worry, I'll be there faster than Gladio consuming cup-a-noodles!".

As the Highwind Xv sails to its next destination, the clash is about to take place.

The final clash is about to begin.

A/N:

…THIS IS THE LONGEST CHAPTER I'VE EVER DONE!

This is it folks, no more chills, we're finally…FINALLY, in the final arc! Who's excited!?

QUESTIONS!

Q1: Thoughts on this chapter?

Q2: Which reflection part did you enjoy?

Q3: The fight between Ardyn and Young-Xehanort?

Q4: How do you think this is gonna play out?

Q5: What do you think Cindy's planning?

Q6: What are you looking forward to?

Q7: Do you hate how long this chapter is?

Update: Changed the Chocobro's uniforms to the Kingsglaive with slight alterations. Due to people not liking the new look. Sorry for confusion!

Thanks for reading! As always stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	70. Chapter 70

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 70

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

*Keyblade Graveyard*

When their visions were no longer obscured by the bright light of the transporter, Noctis and company took in the world around them.

The king held back a gasp of horror when he sees the namesake of this world, behind them on a hill were dozens of keyblades, old, rusted, and withered through the passages of time. The sandy world was so devoid of life it was as if this world were death incarnate. The darkness isn't so strong he felt it suffocate him nor did he feel the warmth from the light either. He would have compared it to Twilight Town, except this world was nothing but emptiness and wrought with a bloody history.

Noctis sees Sora and the others ahead of them, greeting the other guardians while they joined them. But Noctis didn't see any smiles or playfulness within their eyes this time. Nobody had a smile on their face, no one tried to tease them for being late nor make a joke. Even Sora had the same look on his face, one where was ready to face whatever comes his way.

"Have you waited long?", the king asks, looking to Sora. He shakes his head and says: "No, just a few minutes".

"Where's Xehanort? Or has anyone come yet?", Ignis inquires.

"No one", Aqua reveals, "Maybe they're waiting for us".

"We'll see. The Keyblade Graveyard is just up ahead", Mickey informs, staring ahead. Following the mouse king's gaze, the king of Insomnia sees ahead of him through the thin veil of dust a narrow cavern leading to the graveyard. The thirteen guardians assembled; all eyes set on the path that lies before them. Noctis clenched his fist, wondering when Ardyn will show up, and how would he fare against the new king of Insomnia.

"Someone's coming", Sora announces.

Through the dust, the king sees a man walking through it with his hands behind his back. When he bypassed the dust, with yellow eyes and a wicked confident smirk, some of the party gasped in shock, some glowered and for the king, he gritted his teeth and narrowed his gaze. Standing before the party was none of than the man who instigated the whole thing, the very man who kicked started the end of all worlds and had brought the realm of light to its weakest point.

Xehanort.

Instantly the king could feel that dark power resonating within him, sensing a deep well of strength he had not thought possible. It is no wonder why Aqua and Mickey feared his power, even the king wasn't willing to clash with his head-on. He glanced subtly to Aqua and sees the burning rage in her eyes, the scorn for this man for all he had wrought on her friends, to Mickey's own eyes shining with disdain for this man.

He stands before them all, not remotely phased by the sight of there being four more additions to the guardians nor even a hint of trepidation for standing before a more powerful group. If nothing he seemed completely amused by their bravery to stand before him. His smirk turns into a wicked smug grin.

"Legend speaks, that darkness once covered the world", he says, like a storyteller regaling youngsters in folklore, "We know so very little of the Keyblade War…only that it was just the beginning". "If ruin brings about creation…what do you think a second war will bring?".

Noctis remembered the old tales Aqua had spoken to him about during his training with his keyblade, about how at some point all worlds were one. He remembered little of the vital information, save for that when the first keyblade war occurred, it shattered the world and brought destruction, yet in turn, allowed the worlds to survive as fragments of the one world. According to history anyway.

"When the darkness fall, will we be worthy of the precious light the legend speaks so fondly of?", he asks. On his left suddenly appearing is another of the organization, one of the four guardians knew all too well. Ansem, the seeker of darkness, and the Xehanort's heartless. Ansem's skin is tanned like the others, sharing Terra-Nort's long white hair, as well as the three spikes on the top and sides of his head, but he lacks the bangs.

He wears silver-white gloves on his hands, each with a grey band on the wrist, while the rest of the glove, which has three black buttons lining one side, bells outwards. There is a black pauldron on both of his shoulders, each attached to his coat by two straps. He also wears black pants and black, silver-lined, knee-high boots

Ansem's black leather coat is red on the inside and lined with yellow and has a large grey section that covers the lower half and shoulders of the coat. Upon closer inspection, this grey section seems to be attached by several small pins or buttons around the hip and neck sections of the coat, as well as by a belt that wraps around his back and attaches to the rim of the coat. This coat is high-collared and completely unzipped, showing the second, shorter jacket he wears underneath.

Ansem's second jacket is white and high-collared much like the outer coat. It is mostly unbuttoned and exposes Ansem's chest before being closed by three buttons and two belts near the dark being's waist, only to flare outward again, leaving three buttons undone. On his chest is the heartless emblem, but it seems to be just decoration as it appears attached to the long coat.

"Or will all of creation be instead, returned to shadows?", he asks alongside his somebody. "Today we will recreate that legend and see which roads it will take us". The two island boys glared at him, memories of his misdeeds upon them burned within their minds, only to avoid needless fighting or potentially weakening the others halts their arms. In time as well for the other side of the heartless to appear, Xemnas.

The leader for the former organization stands beside Xehanort's right, staring down at the guardians. "But first…your light shines far too brightly", he lectures, "It needs to be extinguished before we see the truth".

Finally two more enter the stage, two young boys roughly the same as the islanders and Ventus. Vanitas, and Young Xehanort.

Vanitas, masked, boastfully proclaims: "Only when your hopes have been broken by battle upon battle can the key be claimed to Kingdom Hearts". Ventus grits and bares his teeth and nearly launched himself at the boy. Suddenly stopped by a raised hand from Aqua, halting him. Young-Xehanort smirked and adds: "And break you, we shall".

Noctis steps forward to join Sora's side, his eyes showed no fear and only resilience to their boasts. Vanitas must have seen this rebellion within the king and smugly taunted him. "And this is the supposed king of light? Doesn't look anything special to me". Noctis scoffs and even chuckled lightly, making all eyes set on him bar his royal retinue. He then gives Vanitas a smirk. "You've got a lot of nerve bragging about this like you already won the war", he remarked. "But from my viewpoint, it's pretty obnoxious of you".

His smirk shortens to a more callous. "Especially when all four of you had lost to these guys in the past, and they were barely half as strong as you". The king's words had struck a chord within some, Vanitas stepping forward by a foot and snarled at the king while the older ones glowered at the mockery displayed by the king. Not missing a beat, Sora stepped forward with his liege.

"I don't know what you're expecting, but you're not gonna win this", promises the boy, "Especially not when we're all together this time!".

The guardians rallied at this combined bravado of the king and master, whatever fears or doubts they carried were stomped out. Xehanort though remained unchanged, though there is a twitch in his smirk. As if it almost dropped. He huffs as darkness begins to swirl and manifest around the dark warriors, and slowly their darkness expands and flies around the area, around the guardians. Over the tall cliffs that trapped them in a clearing, the skies darkened into dark blue and violet and over them.

Surrounded in the dome of darkness, the guardians looked up to see it was raining heartless. Some gasped while some grunt or cursed as the heartless slowly covered the field, trapping the guardians within a circle. Weapons were drawn as they gathered in a huddle, staring down the army of heartless surrounding them all.

"So, breaking our hope means they're just gonna throw an army of heartless at us…", Axel groans, keyblade resting on his shoulder.

"What? You disappointed?", Gladiolus asks.

"Was kinda hoping we skip the tutorial and get into the real deal, ya know?".

Sora and Noctis looked at the army of darkness, then to each other. With smirks, the two guardians called forth their weapons, Ultima and Noctis' new sword, the Ultima Blade. A modified and re-forged Engine Blade that Cindy had put back together, just with a new engine and raw power. As each guardian stares down the horde, nary a trace of fear within their hearts, Noctis boldly claims: "First with the highest kill count wins!".

"Oh, we're doing that game again?", Gladiolus laughs, "Good, maybe with the masters, I'll have some competition!".

"Lowest kills will have to do the dishes for the after party!", Kairi throws in with a grin.

"Better ensure you step up your game, Axel", Ignis says with a smirk.

"Oh what? Like Prompto's gonna do better than yours truly?", asked the pyro.

"Excuse you? I've got guns!", Prompto bragged, "I'll probably be in the top ten!".

"One way to find out!", Sora says, "Let's GO!".

The thirteen guardians ran into the fray, some running while others took to the skies as he heartless piled upon them.

Sora cleaves his way through the horde of shadows with his old-time companions following close behind him. He splits a shadow in half and leaps over the one behind it, allowing Goofy to crush the small beast with his shield beneath his feet. No longer using his Knight's Shield, the captain carried his strongest shield in his arsenal, Save the King. Donald rushes to his side as his staff is shining in golden red, he skids the ground and waves his staff across the field, spraying a torrent of flames upon the dark beings. Like Goofy, Donald bears the most powerful staff within their gear, Save the Queen.

The new master uses several air-soldiers as steppingstones to cut down the flying wyverns rushing towards him. Sora slices through them as if his keyblade were a red-hot knife cutting through butter while he flips over them, reaching towards the skies to deal with the invisibles that were starting to form from the darkness along with some angel stars. The mockery of angels fires a barrage of blasters that homed on the boy.

Using the flying heartless to his advantage, Sora skilfully dances in the air around the blasters, allowing his heartless platforms to take the hit for him as he jumps towards the invisibles. Six of the pureblood beings swoop down to meet with the chosen master, bring down their dark blades onto his holy weapon. Sora swings his keyblade with both hands and not only does he decimate their swords but obliviated the invisibles as if they were nothing.

The angels all gathered to fire a more powerful blast, only for the legendary shield to blitz and ricochet from all seven of them and soar back down to the captain of the knights. Then all angels were gathered up in a vortex of pure white energy with sphered of red and blue rotating around it. Trapped and all bunched to gather like being stuffed into a small box, the angels were at Sora's mercy and received only a quick execution by the keyblade master.

Sora gathers energy within himself and rockets himself towards them with his keyblade held out straight. He pierces through all of them like a bullet piercing paper, appearing on the other side of the dogpile. They were vanquished and their captive hearts fluttered up to the skies to return to their hosts. He looks down at his two buddies with a grin and thumbs up, they, in turn, do the same before rushing to the aid of others while the young master resumes his task.

On the ground cutting through the hordes of soldier heartless, Gladiolus swings his giant sword across the field with speed he would never have been able to achieve in the past. He swung his sword so quickly it appeared as a razor-sharp gale slicing through even the heavy armored beings like they were nothing but minor pests. He grabbed the blade with both hands, performs a front flip, and brought down the massive blade right on the head of a large body, splitting in half and when his steel slammed onto the ground, he created a wave of small pillars of rock piercing the beasts.

In the hands of the shield of the king is a large buster like a sword, Blade of the King. Wide as Zack's own with two edges made of ebony steel, the tip curved like a katana while the body was grey steel with the same eagle design on it, the hilt golden and grey with the handle longer.

He spins around with a roar and decimates another large body, ripping through the rubbery fat and runs into the horde of armored knights. They struck at him with their smaller blades, Gladiolus, in turn, crushed their sword and their bodies with his massive blade, and spins around with only his right hand on the handle. He sweeps his blade and throws them aside thanks to a gust of wind created from his blade, throwing them or the blade ripped them apart.

One had leaped into the air to try and jump him, but the shield turned with his armored hand grabbing its head. He slammed the heartless into the ground, crushing its skull easily. Gladiolus turned behind him to see an assault rider rushing at him shoulder first. He meets the heartless with his armored shoulder with a roar, halting the larger heartless' momentum and not even budging from his spot. The beast tries to overpower the smaller being, yet Gladiolus is the one pushing it back.

He overpowers the heartless by throwing it off him, then punched it as hard as he could in the stomach. The attack winded the beast (if heartless could breathe) and left itself open for Gladiolus to plunge his giant sword into the heartless. The body evaporated into nothing as its heart fluttered to the skies, the shield grunted and backhands a shadow trying to leap onto his back. He was nearly crushed by a morning star from behind, and when he turns to identify it, it was already blasted into nothing.

Flipping in the air while firing sparks of lightning at the heartless, Mickey lands before Gladiolus, and together they fought off the heartless that were persisting in follow their dark master's command. The mouse king and shield of the chosen king were fighting in perfect harmony with each other, the king would flip and dance in the air slashing at the heartless while the shield would deal with the groundwork and destroy heartless left and right. Despite their clear differences in fighting neither is a hindrance to the other, none of the two had to worry about hitting each other nor did the impeding horde cause any hassle.

Mickey splits a neo-shadow in half just as Gladiolus destroys a large amour with one punch. The king looks to the skies and sees Sora being harassed and ambushed by all forms of that small element based heartless, nearly overwhelmed with little recourse. Seeing this, Mickey turns to the shield and gestures him to give him a toss. With a quick nod, Gladiolus grabbed the back of the king's collar and spun around and then literally tosses the king into the skies to join his fellow master.

Evading and dancing around the dual blades while at the same time slicing and cutting them into ribbons, Ignis flicks one dagger into the forehead of a dual-head before he kicks aside another. With a single dagger in hand, he quickly imbues it in lightning and begins to zip across the field, striking at the vitals of a dual blade heartless, armored knights and soldiers. The clumsy knights and soldiers had little chance to pick up Ignis' speed and even the superior combatant's dual blades had no hopes installing the man's dagger.

Ignis flips over one dual blade and recalls his second dagger, plunging them both into the back of satyr and killing it. Like his fellow Kingsglaive, he now carries new daggers made for him by Cindy, the Daggers of the King. They were as elegantly crafted as antiques but as lethal as a professional assassins' blades, singled edged and curved with the skull of glaives carved onto the hilt and pommel, steel silver and shining like a blade in the dark. They were nine inches long with traces of Lucis magic shrouding them.

He flips on in hand before he tosses them both across himself and striking two soldiers in their heads. Ignis' now empty hands as suddenly cloaked in violet flames as his eyes glow in dark violet, manifesting into large torches of flames. He leaped into the air and fired the dark flames with both hands, creating a massive torrent of flames that eats the heartless in a fiery hunger. The heartless surrounding him stood no chance of surviving his magic.

After that, he flips over a wyvern trying to attack from behind and uses the dark teleport to appear right as it flew beneath him, spear in hand. He plunges the lance into its back and forces it to turn and crash into one of the surveillance heartless. Ignis falls to the ground in time to meet with Axel roasting the heartless into nothing but ashes, chakrams in hand. The pyro turns around tossing one at a row of six behind the advisor, ducking under his attack, lopping off the heads of the soldiers.

Ignis repays his aid by firing a spike of dark energy at the armored knight behind Axel, piercing through the chest. He stands back to back with Axel as the heartless, neo-shadows, began to surround the two. In response, Axel gives the older man a smirk as he starts to spin his chakrams with his fingers quickly, and in turn, Ignis smirked back with his daggers, nodding.

"BURN BABY!", Axel cries as flames cloaked the two of them. He grabbed the chakrams, aimed one to the ground, and fired off flames into the earth, essentially turning it into a burning ground. The heartless around the edges were all consumed by a wall of flames that erected and created a sizable dome, entrapping the foolish creatures within it. The burning earth also played a part in incinerating a few but none of the tougher ones.

That is why the two guardians were here for.

Both jumped into the wall of fire, seemingly consumed together. In truth, the flames could not harm their creator, and Ignis had already erected a flaming barrier around himself via the darkness. They phased through the flames as if they were wraiths, appearing to cross the dome and into the wall of fire, leaving trails of flames to finish their work.

Trapped within the flames, the heartless were burnt to nothing thanks to the combined effort of the advisor and assassin. When they joined up into the middle of the dome, Axel lifts his chakram as Ignis crosses his daggers across his chest, the flames were flowing into their weapons. Now Axel wields a chakram of flames the size of a large round table while Ignis carried essentially swords in his hands. They both jump into the air, back to back, and together throw their burning weapons into the hordes. Axel throws him to the skies while Ignis burns the world beneath him.

The table-sized chakram immediately hits a dark ball group and detonates in a fiery explosion that probably could have destroyed half a village while Ignis' burning swords struck the ground and erupted into large pillars of flames, burning both foot soldiers and airborne heartless alike.

Back on the ground, they shared a fist bump and ran to continue their attack on the dark creatures.

Back to back, the former apprentice with her master stared down the neo-shadows that surrounded the two beauties of the light. Neither in their armor, as they were conserving power for the true battle that would unfold after this, keyblades held high in their stances. Kairi glanced at her master, and she, in turn, smiles in agreement to the unspoken question between them, they channeled their magic together.

Kairi rushes forth with Destiny's Embrace in hand, striking her heartless adversaries while her master dances with magic. Aqua cart-wheels around them while using Queen of Storms to cut down the legions of evil.

Kairi changes into her Strike-Form and brings out her Crossed Pike, splitting it in two, and like a wild hurricane, she strikes at them with raw power. The weapons were easy for her to manage despite the size and awkward method of uses of dual-wielding two at once, yet she balances this while combining them to give her all the strength and dexterous advantages she needed. Kairi stabbed one blitz spear in the stomach along with three neo-shadows behind it.

She releases her grip on her left pike and uses the right hand one with both hands, much like her Dual-Blade. The master spins the weapon around her body, effectively breaking and cutting down heartless that came near her, over her head, behind her or her sides, she was completely untouchable. A large body tried to body slam on her, but Kairi easily repelled it by spinning her weapon over her head, bouncing the monster repeatedly before she swung at it and knocked it into the skies.

She then throws her pike at the heartless while it was covered in lightning, it spins like a saw and cuts through the obese heartless. It hovers in the air spinning faster and faster until it expels lightning from the blades and fell on the heartless, shocking them and destroying several of them. She recalls her weapon back after the heartless perish, reverting to her normal form in time for her close friend to jump in and repel a lance soldier's weapon with a small barrier.

Once that heartless perished, the blue-haired woman narrowed her gaze at the bunch of heartless before her, her eyes seeing something shimmering amongst them, invisible yet she knows something is there. Aqua nods to Kairi and leaps to the shimmer, firing a spiral of ice at it. Like she had expected, the heartless moved and trampled some of its allies in its haste, but Aqua ruthlessly chased after it by blasting more magic at the beast.

Timed perfectly, one of her ice spells burst open upon hitting one solider and the radius was wide enough to hit the invisible creature. It revealed itself as steal sneak, one of the strangest heartless Sora had slain in his previous ventures through the worlds. It hissed at Aqua, standing up as its eyes shimmered with a strange light, then it fires two streams of light at her. Aqua swatted one aside and air-dashed around it, dived towards the stealth sneak and with a single stroke, decapitates the heartless. She front flips onto its back and leaps off it, keyblade glowing in the light before she unleashes a flurry of strikes.

A barrage of magical blade arcs struck the heartless below her, destroying the ground and heartless alike. Aqua descends onto one spear lizard's hear, knocking it onto its back and plunged her keyblade into its stomach to finish it off. Shadows attempted to dogpile on her, but her former apprentice appears beside her and throws her keyblade upward and uses her magic to send a ball of light from the tip of her keyblade.

The ball shines above the two, rays bursting through it and then exploding without harming the keyblade masters, the same could not be said for the shadows. Undeterred by their loss of numbers, the heartless kept jumping and running at the two, Kairi and Aqua meeting the reckless abandonment of their well-being with grace. Together they flipped, cart-wheeled, and danced around their spot, striking the heartless but keeping within their circle.

Like clock-work, both masters were using magic and keyblade at once, flipping over the other without hindering the other or forcing the other to adapt to their new strategy. Kairi ducks and Aqua would cut down a heartless and doing so Kairi easily turns and fires a burst of magic at the ones behind her friend. Aqua blasts their enemies in front, Kairi rolls to cover her flank, in turn, Kairi parries and counters the attack, and her friend strikes down the ones sneaking on her side.

They turned to see two purple metal gauntlets flying towards them, fired by a guard armor from a distance. They shared a glance and smirked together, Aqua instantly running to meet the fists. She easily destroyed the right hand with one strike of her key and with a blast of magic, Kairi destroys the other hand. Together rushing and cutting through the heartless, Kairi fires a low tier aero ahead of Aqua, which immediately sent her friend into the air, body coated with the magic from the Flowmotion.

Aqua flips and dives towards the torso of the guard armor while Kairi slides on the ground right under the heartless. She strikes the two metal feet and breaks them apart, leaving the torso exposed and Aqua quickly splits it in half before it could retaliate. The armor in half, cracks and falls apart, and the heart it kept prisoner flies to the skies. The two masters gave each other approving nods before they resumed their dance against the heartless.

One headshot after another, roll to avoid the big guys, then blow them up. These are one of the methods Prompto was constantly using to keep himself both safe and alive while making his friends' lives a little easier to deal with. Spinning his new gun in hand, Kings Sharpshooter.

The gun is a triple-barrelled, triple-cylindered revolver, ornamented with Kingsglaive patterns, a small skull in place of the iron sights on each barrel, and a silver chain in the shape of a behemoth with a wing hanging from the end of the grip.

The weapon is a semi-automatic, break loading revolver with three barrels and three cylinders, a large change from his usual guns. Capable of holding 18 shots at once, having six chambers per cylinder. The gun is reloaded by a braking mechanism that tilts the barrels and cylinders at an angle, allowing the ejection of spent cartridges and the placement of fresh rounds, ending with a flick of the wrist that snaps the barrels back into place. Three bullets are fired at once, allowing for only six shots per round.

He believed this is the fourth most beautiful thing his eyes had ever been blessed to witness. And the best part, since he has unlimited ammo, he could take three shots at a time with each pull of the trigger.

The gunner fires off more triple shots at the heartless, mostly dealing with the ones in the sky to give Mickey and Sora some breathing space while he would cover some of his friends with careful shots to avoid hitting them by accident. Air soldiers didn't have a chance to avoid his bullets considering their recklessness and with three bullets spreading out enough to take away any chance of swerving and dodging.

The lets out a small "yikes" when two hammer frames tried to hammer him into paste, he narrowly evades them by jumping back from them. Their hammer faces smashing into the ground just as six rabid dogs charge at him, barking and hungry for his heart. The gunner switches out his robotic limb and donned his gatling gun, already spinning with a low purr like sound. He aimed his arm and yelled: "The lead buffet is open for business!".

He unleashes a barrage of bullets onto the dogs, firing twenty shots per round and bringing them down one by one. Mowing down the heartless like it was nothing, Prompto took down the hammer faces as well and started to rotate on the spot, firing at the flying heartless and any big ones that stood out. Careful to keep the bursts of his gatling gun in control to not hit his friends, he mostly stuck with the heartless infested spaces without his friends nearby and kept hitting the big boys.

Prompto spins on his heels and aimed his gatling gun at his sneaking foe before he gulps when he sees looming over him was a rock troll. It brings down its axe on him, making the gunner roll away from being pummelled into the ground. He changes out his gatling gun and brings his fourth limb and slowly but surely a personal favorite of his. It is another robotic hand designed for combat, crimson red with streaks of blue and silver.

The youngest Kingsglaive aimed his robotic fist and fires his arm at the troll. The first collides with its head, making it stumble backward but it was not done. The fist then grabbed the top of its open helm and the jet behind it grows larger and more intense. It lifts the heartless off its giant feet and into the air. This doesn't go unnoticed by Riku, who was decimating the invisibles that plagued the group and sees Prompto's handy work.

He shares a glance to his gunner friend and sees the hidden request in his eyes to lend a hand. Riku jumps toward the troll, the Way to Dawn keyblade coated in a violet aura before he vanishes from sight. He appears as an invisible blur that cuts and slices the heartless with ease before he grabbed the flying limb and front flips from the heartless as its metal body falls apart. Standing before the gunner, he "hands" him his arm, and together they turn to see catastrochorus charging towards them, using its massive head to knock aside the heartless.

Riku gives the more worried Prompto a confident smirk and gestured the beast with his head, encouraging the gunner to make the first move. Feeling his confidence come back instantly, Prompto calls for Kings' Sharpshooter as he replaced his rocket arm with his normal part. He unlocks the gun and pulls out three blue bullets Cindy made him and inserts them into the cylinder, cocked the gun, and lowers it like he was about to draw.

When the catastrochorus was close enough, Prompto quickly draws his gun and fires the three shots at it. The three bullets fly and strike the beast in its large nose, sinking into its dark flesh and the ice from the bullets spreads quickly over the body of the dinosaur. With its upper torso frozen with legs slowly becoming frigid and harder to run, Riku took this opportunity to reel his right hand back with a growl. His body darkens with a violet aura and then with a yell and a single thrust, he fires off a blast of dark energy just as the monster reached them.

His strike is so strong it shattered the dinosaur in half, and in less than five seconds later the rest of its body evaporates into nothing. The gunner gave the keyblade master a thumbs up with a grin, Riku bumping his fist with his own before they turned onto the heartless again.

In the skies with Mickey and Sora, Noctis uses Night's Sky along with Ultima Blade to deal with the more persistent and trickier heartless. Aerial knockers, surveillance robots and fortunetellers, more tricky and cunning than the other aerial heartless, but ultimately fodder to the king's weapons as he splits and cuts down the aerials before they could even take a swing at him, the robots blasts were deflected easily, making them do the work of executing themselves for Noctis.

The fortunetellers were mostly dancing around him and firing freezing shards of ice that he phased through and retaliates by blasting them with roaring hot lightning. Using his Armiger to bring out only the first base of his true strength which allowed him to stay in the air with Mickey and Sora without using a heartless for steppingstone. Noctis could fly towards the heartless and bring them down with just two of his weapons as opposed to switching it out. He was saving that for a certain usurper.

When he destroyed another heartless, his blue eyes fell to what was potentially a real issue for the group right now. Standing out in the sea of darkness was a larger and without a doubt more lethal-looking heartless, towering over almost all of them. Kurt Zisa, a powerful heartless Sora likely slew in the past, and now it crawled back from the depths of the dark world for vengeance. Too bad it was leaving empty-handed.

Noctis immediately warp strikes to a few heartless before it, plunging both key and sword into two armored knights and standing defiantly before the large heartless. It hisses at Noctis, its neck suddenly extending like a snake as the cobra head lunges to the king. His majesty uses some of his reserved mana to easily phase through its quick and lethal strikes, weaving in and out of being physical and ethereal to try and wear it down.

He flips over the neck and then warps back a few feet from the munching fangs, its neck receding into its hole between the shoulders. It swings its giant silver crescent swords at the king, forcing Noctis to meet its steel with his. Their blades clashed feverishly and while its size should have overpowered Noctis, the king's attacks outclassed it and everything else it had to offer. With a yell as his weapons glowed in Armiger light, Noctis struck the two swords and shattered them into hundreds of pieces.

With a flick of his hand as the heartless stumbled back in shock, five of the king's Royal Arms appeared in crystal form, rotating around him. But before he could do anything to it, Kurt Zisa suddenly levitates, and a barrier of red covers its body. It floats away from Noctis, leaving trails of levitating spheres of flames for the king to contend with. Noctis hisses at this annoyance until he spots Ventus in the air.

Using his glider without his armor (something he learned to do during his training) he swoops into his king's aid and grabbed his hand. In the air with his pilot doing the guiding, Noctis aims his keyblade at the fiery mines and fires a torrent of water balls at them. Not only was he destroying at a distance but the moment they hit them they detonated with other heartless sprawled around them. The heartless turns to the boys in the sky as Ventus and Noctis jump off his glider. Reverting his glider to his keyblade, Ventus dives for the heartless' barrier and with a yell, he strikes.

The keyblade at first hits the barrier and nothing happened until it suddenly bursts like Ventus smashed his way through a glass wall. The heartless tries to grab onto the boy, but Ventus was too fast for it. He easily flips over the hands, simultaneously striking at the armored hands. His keyblade cuts and slices them off, and he did this repeatedly until none of its six arms remained and it is brought to its knees.

"Noct, you're up!", Ventus exclaimed, kicking off the head of the heartless to get into the air. Noctis jumps to the heartless, yelling a quick "thanks" to Ventus as his Royal Arms rotated around his body even faster. Calling each of them, Noctis strikes the Kurt Zisa rapidly with each arm until he grabbed both his key and sword and brought them both down onto the heartless from head to between its legs. Slamming the two weapons onto the ground as he descended, Noctis stands and walks away from the heartless as it splits into pieces.

The body evaporates and the heart is freed.

The king looks around himself and much to his dismay, the heartless army was seemingly unaffected by the vast executions of their allies, and despite taking down some of their strongest it seemed they were still insistent on fulfilling their dark master's command. He strikes down one zip slasher just as Gladiolus sweeps his blade to bring down a solid armor. The party all gathered up on the spot, weapons out as they all stared down the dark forces.

The chosen king hissed a growl through clenched teeth, realizing their efforts in slaying the heartless is ultimately fruitless. Cutting them down with this pace is doing them nothing but delaying the inevitable of their demise, for everyone they bring down more will take their place. He glances at the masters for a solution, but he frowns when it dawns on him their only solution would be using a spell that would wear them out too much. And having even one of their masters out of the fight before confronting the thirteen darkness was out of the question.

His eyes fall to Sora, giving the heartless a smirk as he eyed the king. He lifts his keyblade and cried: "Hop on!".

A burst of light shines from the keyblade as the king's ears picked up a sound of what sounded like a train whistle. He stares ahead of him to see railways forming in the air and through the narrow passage ahead of them, and a brightly lit colored steam train drives into the battlefield. Before the king could even question it, suddenly he and everyone found themselves in a single cart of the train with Sora leading them in the first one.

The large chimney of the train fired off several fireworks from its massive pipe, landing on the heartless horde with colorful explosions as the train honks. The train's rails go for all sorts of loops, hills, and slopes with amazing speed except unlike the teacups, Noctis feels the thrill of it. It is like going a roller coaster ride at a theme park, except instead of spitting on people at the park, he and the others are using magic and weapons to strike death from above on the heartless.

The combined powers of the thirteen and Sora's train had finally done in the army of darkness. From one final loop and descent to the ground, Sora used all the train's power to fire off hundreds of firework bombs onto the horde while Aqua and the other magic users along with Prompto's gatling gun rained hell onto the dark beings.

With the area cleared from the darkness and after Sora dismissed his train, the guardians gathered up to check on each other for wounds or worse. Luckily minus some minor injuries and weariness, none of them needed magical healing, using only potions to patch themselves up.

"Haha! Bet'cha old Xeha-jerk isn't gonna be expecting us so soon!", Prompto bragged with a single fist pump to the air, "We totally wrecked those heartless!".

While some shared his enthusiasm, Aqua shakes her head with a forlorn look. "Don't let this get to your head", she lectures softly, "Remember, this is only the beginning. And so long as we remain in this world, this will not be the end of the horde".

"Blue's right. That old bastard probably spent what time he had to gather up those little beasties", Gladiolus concurs, "And something tells me this tactic is gonna get old quick".

"And I fear Xehanort may push harder if he truly wishes to extinguish our light before the actual battle begins", Ignis adds, cupping his chin, "If this is only the start of what we can expect from the heartless, then I dread what lies in store for us".

"Then we'll just have to play it by ear", Noctis says, "Can't do anything about that now". The others agreed with their weak plan, and together the thirteen ventured through the cavern to the other side.

Once through it, they came to an open plain where more graves marked by decaying keyblade lied, surrounding them all. Up ahead of them they see the long stretch of the land, likely where Xehanort and the others lied in wait for them. None of the team sensed any more heartless around them, many surmising they were waiting in ambush for them. Up ahead of them before they moved on, Kairi immediately tensed up and readied herself for the next fight, calling everyone's attention.

Waltzing to them through the dust is Ardyn, casually approaching the guardians. The three of the kings' retinue immediately tensed at the sight of the man while Noctis stared down his ancestor. It should not have been a surprise the man of no consequences would be brave enough to greet the people he's tortured, even without his immortality. Even that said, Noctis frowned slightly when he looked at the man, sensing something very wrong.

Something had changed with Ardyn…and not just his eyes.

"Well this is quite the reunion to be having, now isn't it?", he asks with a sarcastic bow, smirking at the guardians. "Here we are, standing on the very ground where the first keyblade war occurred, thousands of hearts lost and keyblade masters perishing on these fields, fighting for whatever reason their small minds could come up with". He gave them all a darker smirk, as though the fight had already been won and he is merely giving them a sense of false hope.

"What a fitting place for you all to perish". He raised his hand and points at them, "For today is the day, you will lose it all".

"The hell are you talking about?", Noctis asked with a low growl. "Your boss, his duplicates, and apprentice all scurried away and left the heartless to do your dirty work, and you've still got the nerve to say we'll lose?".

"Of course. For you see, before you even face the thirteen, each and everyone one of you shall be ripped apart heart from the body", Ardyn promises. Riku then stepped forward and asked: "Has your boss forgotten to mention he needs to clash with us for the X-Blade? We perish, then all this is for nothing". Ardyn chuckled with a dismissive hand, as though the master's words were nothing of importance.

"Oh, worry not my boy, the X-Blade will still be forged, with or without you", he assured. "We're just not going to waste any more on you".

All eyes burned into this man, his words had fallen flat and his attempt to intimidate them go unrewarded with the desired effect he wished. "We're not going to lose to you", Sora replied with confidence and conviction, "You won't beat us, Ardyn". The man of Eos' smirk turned more wicked as his body is cloaked by darkness, and with a crooked grin, he suddenly vanished before their very eyes.

All but one pair.

Aqua sees him in time Ardyn appearing right before Ventus, Raksha blade in hand as he prepared for a swing. The master had only a split second to react, she quickly shoved Ventus aside and takes his place on the spot. No time to defend herself, Aqua received a devastating upward strike that cuts through her armored clothing and sends her flying across the field. She falls on her back as she skids the earth, coming to a halt slowly.

Ventus stared at his sister in horror while on his backside as the others finally registered what had transpired, Ardyn frowning slightly that he hit the wrong target. Likely he was not expecting Aqua to be able to react quick enough to spare her brother from his attack. He sighed in annoyance as some called Aqua's name while some turned their rage onto the man, now turning to face them all with a cruel smirk.

"That's it!", Sora shouts, calling his keyblade and rushing to him. He closes the distance with a swing, only his attack to be halted by an invisible force. The force lifts Sora into the air and throws him into an attacking Axel, sending them both aside with grunts of pain. The former chancellor turns to parry Ignis' daggers with a single hand, deflecting the speedy attacks from the man. He stabbed at Ignis, missing him thanks to his footwork and sidesteps the attack.

Ardyn swings his sword with enough force to knock Ignis back while he was guarding and manages to turn on his feet in time to lock blades with Mickey and Riku at the same time. He was pushed back by their joint attack, however, and he is forced to use his Armiger to phase through Prompto's bullets. He leaps back from the party, seeing Donald and Kairi rushing to Aqua to help her. Not wanting the superior keyblade master to return to the fray so soon, Ardyn stops phasing and warp-strikes towards the two.

But before he could get close to them, Gladiolus is already in front of his aim and with his blade out. His strike collides with the massive blade of Gladiolus, his attack did not even make him budge an inch. Strangely for the man, with superior strength, he should have broken through the shield's might easily like breaking a wall of sand. But Gladiolus' eyes were burning with unfathomable rage as he pressed his sword against Ardyn's royal arm, pushing *him* back.

The man clenched his teeth as he desperately tried to push Gladiolus, but like a mountain against the wind, Gladiolus refuses to bend to him. "Oh dear, have I touched a nerve? Did seeing that woman getting hurt upset you?", mocks Ardyn. He would soon come to realize he had made a terrible mistake. Gladiolus takes one step closer to Ardyn, easily pushing him back as his heels dig into the ground. The shield breaks the deadlock with a swipe of his sword, allowing Ardyn to strike at him.

Gladiolus raised his armored hand and swipes the blade aside, exposing Ardyn. He grabbed his giant sword and swings it against Ardyn's body, bringing it down from shoulder to his right waist and blasting him away. Ardyn cries out in pain, using his warping power to get further away from the enraged shield.

The man used his Armiger to quickly heal himself up as much to his annoyance and bafflement, Sora and Axel had gotten back to their feet while the two healers tended to Aqua. Here for the first time since his immortality had been ripped from him, Ardyn had realized just how poorly the odds had been stacked against him. They had greatly grown more powerful than their last clash, especially Gladiolus.

If the shield of the king can overwhelm him with sheer strength, then just how powerful had his descended had gotten?

Just as well, he thinks, he had some of his own tricks.

And the opportunity comes from the enraged Ventus who managed to get around him without him realizing it. The boy's speed should not be this swift but again, he surprises the man. But when Ventus tried to strike at him from the back, he was suddenly faced down flat on the ground with a loud thud. As if something had weighed down on him, earning a cry of his name from his friends. Ardyn gave the party a wicked grin, dark thorns matching the nobodies dancing around his shoulders as a figure manifested behind him.

"Oh, my apologizes, I forgot to introduce my companion", he says with a light laugh as Ventus is being held up.

He clutched his neck as a torso of a monstrosity appeared above Ardyn, despicably like Ansem's old guardian. Except it was not a heartless but a nobody version of it, muscular with silver chains around a grey heart-shaped hole in its chest, clothed in a white tattered robe with a metal muzzle. Its arms were bulky like Gladiolus except inhumanly large, but where one was clothed in a tattered robe, its left armor is decorated in the armor of silver and violet, cracked and broken like it endured a horrible beating.

"The hell is that!?", Axel shouts as the party was torn between worries for Ventus and shock for this new nobody. Sora and Riku shared a knowing glance, seeing this sort of heartless before, but unknown to them Noctis stared at the creature, and only when he sees its eyes does his heart feel like it had been torn apart.

Purple and blue eyes glowed within the cowl of the beast.

"Ravus…", gasped the king.

The party who journeyed through Eos looked at him in horror before they returned their looks to the nobody, suddenly seeing the resemblance. Ardyn chuckled amusedly as if he hadn't expected any of them to tell that this wretched creature was the nobody of Ravus. "Impressive insight, "King Noctis", quite the resemblance, isn't it?", Ardyn mockingly praised, "He had such a strong heart, obviously he would have an equally powerful nobody yes?".

"Ahh but alas, where his strength is great for fighting, his sense of self and will power leaves much to be desired. Easily to bind to my will thanks to Xigbar once we found him". Noctis felt the despair Vanitas had bragged about grabbing his heart, horror etched on his face when he watches the man mockingly bragged about his new pet, unable to sense anything of the old Ravus within this nightmare of a creature.

But then before he would unknowingly submit into despair, Noctis felt his power rise along with his anger. His fists clenched so hard the knuckles turned white, eyes burned with a raging fire. Once more, this wretched ancestor had the nerve to use more people he cared about against him. Warping and twisting them into something nearly unrecognizable, as if corrupting him into a heartless was not enough.

"ARDYN!", bellowed the king.

In a burst of speed, Noctis fires himself toward him and called Ultima Blade. He roars and brings his sword down onto the bastard of an ancestor, expecting him to call for his Raksha to defend himself. When their blades clashed, a cloud of dust exploded and blocked them from everyone's sight. Within the cloud, Noctis pressed his blade down on Ardyn, but when he sees what exactly had been used to protect the man who had brought so much pain to the chosen king, Noctis' eyes widened in disbelief.

The cloud dissipated and revealed the two, and the weapon Ardyn carried in hand. All eyes who witnessed it could not believe it. A keyblade. Much like the Royal Arms, it was a direct mock-replica of Noctis' keyblade Night Sky, except covered in dark red miasma and darkness. Ardyn's smug smile only brought back the king from the bafflement. As if this man couldn't possibly give another finger to the king.

"Surprised to see myself worthy of a keyblade, Noct?", he mocked.

"Worthy of a knock off? Not even remotely", growled Noctis, "But then again, you were always the winner of the silver medal most of the time".

Ardyn's smug smirk evaporated in seconds as his nobody guardian snarls at Noctis and raises its armored arm to strike at him. Only to be halted by Goofy intercepting the attack by jumping in front of the fist with his shield. The attack recoiled from the shield and threw the nobody's fist back while Goofy is thrown aside from the attack. But the captain of the knights called out for Prompto while he fell.

Ever the opportunist to land a good shot, Prompto already had his rifle out and takes one shot at the nobody's head. The bullet struck home and harmed the beast, it slammed its free hand over the struck head while Sora rushes in and brings his keyblade down onto the wrist of the hand holding Ventus. While he could not cut it, something told him not to, the strike was enough to free Ventus from its grasp.

The boy falls to his feet and almost stumbled to his knees, coughing but safe. With his friend rescued, Noctis dismisses his sword, and with lightning covering his right hand, he slammed his palm onto Ardyn's chest and discharges the lightning and blasts Ardyn away from him.

The man is pushed back to where he stood before his attack, now in pain and staring down the full force of the guardians of light. Sora and Noctis standing side by side as they did the first time they clashed with Ardyn, now more powerful and less than tolerant of this man's schemes. The chosen king of light aimed his sword at him, threateningly.

"You didn't stand a chance against me and Sora before, so unless you've got that X-Blade in your pocket, I've got a feeling you won't last long against ALL of us!", threatens the king. Ardyn stands tall as he dismisses his keyblade, smirking. "Rest assured, Noct", he patronizes, "That light of yours will be snuffed out…", he promises.

Before Noctis could demand an answer, Prompto yells out "heartless" and made him turn around to see a horde of shadows fluttering in the air like flocks of birds. Not only that but more and more of those heartless were coming from all over the place, gathering up around Ardyn. A dark corridor opens before him and as he enters it, he says: "Farewell, guardians".

With him gone, the heartless all gathered up into that spot, creating a large hurricane as more and more flocks were being absorbed by the hurricane. A ring of wind gathered around it as the hurricane grows so tall it rivaled the size of the skyscraper in the old nobody world, the darkness unimaginably powerful and the power from it could rival the most powerful heartless from the dark realm.

"You have got to be kidding…", Axel said, staring at it, "How the hell are we supposed to beat that?".

"There's gotta be…thousands of them…maybe even millions", Mickey gasped.

Sora stares at it tensely, grabbing his keyblade tightly as he realized that this was Xehanort's most powerful backup plan. Wear them down with the first batch, then wipe them out with a hurricane consisting nothing but heartless. If they get sucked in, there could be no chances of their hearts surviving it, not even Kairi's possibly. No wonder that old man was so confident in there is no clash between them, not with something like this at his disposal.

He glances back at the others, everyone either looking uncertain about their chances at winning or holding on to that small glimmer of hope that by some miracle they will survive this. The boy turned back to the hurricane just when Noctis stood beside him, looking at the hurricane pensively. "Sora, if you've got any more surprises up your sleeves…now's the time to dish them out", Noctis says. "I…don't have anything for this one…", Sora confesses weakly. Noctis in response chuckled weakly, his confidence steadily decreasing with each passing moment.

Behind them, Kairi bites her lip in contemplation, wondering if she used that "Holy" spell again, maybe she could bring it down a peg for the others. She turns to Aqua to ask for aid but sees her master's face had taken on a look of utter disbelief and despair. Her lips mouthed to utter a silent "no", her hand lowered as if she had seen the end times. The princess looked to see what was disturbing her master, and then her eyes widened in shock.

Swimming in the eye like sharks, gathering up is a flock of Anti-Aquas.

"Guys…", Kairi gasps. The rest of the party looked towards the princess' gaze and each held a similar reaction to Kairi and Aqua, excluding Gladiolus. His eyes narrowed darkly as he jaw tightened with rage. "Oh…great…", Axel groaned, "Hurricane of heartless and evil Aqua…what's next, a tsunami of evil Kairi? A thunderstorm of evil Noct!?".

"Don't jinx us!", Prompto complained.

The flock of Aqua charged toward the master, intending to rip her heart from her body. The first light will be snuffed out. "Move!", Mickey ordered as the party splits off. All but Aqua, however, standing there, shellshocked.

"AQUA!", cried Ventus.

The master's shocked state broke from the heartfelt cry, freeing her. As the flock got closer, she bared her teeth and raises her keyblade to strike back. With a cry as her keyblade bathed in magical light, she swings the keyblade down before her, firing a magical blade-shaped wave that sped towards the flock. All were ripped asunder like paper, their bodies disappearing like a shadow heartless as the attack clears the path before her.

The others all gathered in the air, staring down at the master with malicious glares despite the void emptiness in their golden eyes. Aqua raised her keyblade at them, challenging them to fight her will. "If you think I'll bend knee now just because there's more of you, then you're in for a very rude awakening!", she proudly proclaimed. The flock snarled at her and raced towards the master, only to be intervened by Gladiolus with a roar and a swing of his sword.

He cleaves through the flock while breaking the earth beneath him, sending cracks across the dried and dead ground. The flock of heartless tried overpowering him, but the shield's raw power and speed aren't just overpowering them, but their fragile forms were a guaranteed kill for him. When he sliced three down, they floated before the two, unwilling to risk combating the shield's rage and master's determination.

Gladiolus glanced back to Aqua and says: "I wasn't strong enough the first time I saw those wannabes…this time, I'll keep you safe". She gave him a light scoff as she joined his side. "Appreciate the sentiment, but if I can beat a stronger version of her on my own, these fakes won't be any different", she says. Aqua then gave him a soft but grateful smile in response to his words though. "But thanks for the offer".

Gladiolus rolled his eyes and muttered: "So much for being a gentleman".

Their banter was interrupted by tendrils of heartless breaking off from the hurricane and fluttering into the skies, surrounding the guardians. A flock flies towards them, Riku quickly stepping and striking them with the same technique he used with Prompto earlier to hold back the horde. He grunted with exertion when the flock refused to die out, pushing him back and more just infused with the flock to replace the ones his attack killed off.

Prompto calls for his gatling gun to hap hazardously fire at the flocks in the skies while Ignis and Donald used magic to try and pick them off while Mickey and Ventus took to striking them with their keyblades.

When Riku's attack sadly wore out, he was grabbed by the horde and taken to the skies. Not going unseen by Kairi, who quickly called for Goofy to for a boost. The captain heled his shield over his head as Kairi jumped and lands on it. Goofy then launched him and her off the ground as if his feet had turned into rockets, launching them both into the air. Kairi then leaps off his shield and lands on top of the horde of shadows, then she runs along with them while slashing and cutting them down on her way to Riku.

Even as the shadows tried to claw her and grab her legs, Kairi's march went unhindered as he divine weapon cut down their numbers on her quest to rescue her best friend. Managing to reach him before he was consumed by the darkness while going down fighting, she grabbed his hand and aims her keyblade at the "head" of the horde and fires off a burst of light the breaks Riku free from their grip. They both leap off the horde and sky-dive back down to the group, the heartless chasing them from above.

"Heads up!", calls Axel.

Two roaring flaming discs race between Riku and Kairi and detonated in a fiery explosion upon hitting the flock of heartless. The explosion consumed them all in flames just as the two masters land on their feet and re-join Goofy and Axel. With quick thanks given, they called their weapons as more flocks began to swarm around them. Riku grunts out a curse to the numerous numbers of the dark beings while Kairi's grip on her keyblade tightens, wondering just how many more miracles they could pull off before their bad luck would catch up on them.

Sora and Noctis stood back to back as the flock of heartless surrounded them, they would strike back them but for each they slay, more would just take their place. Sora could not even call for that roller coaster attack again, that one for whatever reason only came to him when it felt like it. With the number of times he could have used it in real pinches, their journey would have been far more forgiving.

"This is never going to end…", Noctis growls after a swing, "We can't fight all of them like this!". "But what else can we do?", Sora asks, bringing down four shadows. That is when he took another look at the storm, a memory of his awakening. "Noct…the hurricane…". The king glanced back at the storm then to Sora again with a: "What about it?". "Aqua said in the realm of darkness when she fought a demon tide like this, there was a core thingy within it! When she destroyed it, the tide broke apart!", he explains.

"So, what you're guessing is that hurricane is just like it? That its weak spot is inside it!?", Noctis questions, firing one of his Royal Arms at the flocks. "Pretty much!", Sora affirmed. The two looked at the hurricane, dawning on the fact they only way through would be ripping into the wall of shadows protecting it. Even Sora alone can't break through it, but with Noctis, the boy believed they would be more than enough to break it down.

But it could also mean they would perish during the assault.

At that thought of losing their hearts, it only took one potentially final glimpse at their friends fighting against the darkness for them to decide. Sora looked at his king with a face that said he was ready for this, and this close friend nods in agreement. "You sure?", asked the king. "Without a doubt", answers Sora. Noctis smirked and scoffs at the stupid question of his, both turning to the hurricane. "Then let's go!".

They broke through the flocks surrounding them and raced towards the hurricane. Aqua finishes off another Anti version of herself and sees Sora and Noctis rushing towards the hurricane. Her eyes widened in horror, realizing what they were planning. "SORA, NOCT NO!", she cried. She started to strike down more of her Anti versions in a desperate attempt to stop their sacrifice, yet the false imitations of her refused to give her a chance to save them.

Her cries reached the others, and many tried to follow and stop them, but like their companion, they were all barred and halted by the flocks. Kairi and Gladiolus being the most desperate to protect them, the shield practically calling the shadows every curse under the sun while like a wild beast ripping and tearing them apart as Kairi became a wrathful being of light.

The two reached the closing distance of the hurricane as the wind almost sucked into the hurricane as more towers tried to grab them. Both keyblade wielders stood together as the darkness blocks off any attempts of an escape or rescue on the other's part, cutting them off entirely. Together Sora and Noctis raise their keyblades as they both glowed in the light, the king in his usual blue crystal while Sora in a gentle heavenly glow.

Their light combined into a tower that reached above the wall cutting them off, like a beacon in the depths of shadows before their powers combined.

"NOCTIS!", cries Sora.

"BEHOLD THE POWER OF LIGHT!", roared his majesty.

A force of divine light tears the wall surrounding them and even eradicated the flocks and towers around them as they levitated above the ground, bathing in their respective lights while Noctis was surrounded by his Royal Arms and Sora with all his keyblades he gained from his third journey. Together they dived into the hurricane, breaking through the wall and right into the eye of the storm itself.

In the center with their weapons rotating around them as the heartless gathered around them, neither showing any fear that this could be their final contribution to the battle, only searching for the core. "Guess we'll have to do some extra work for it to come out", growls Noctis as his weapons rotated faster around him. "Looks like it", Sora agrees.

The heartless all charged towards the two warriors of light, immediately Sora and Noctis held their ground by allowing their weapons to fly around and strike at the shadows.

Explosions of blue and gold covered the air as they used their main keys and sword in Noctis' case to slay the heartless coming closer to them or slipping by their weapons. Together in the air, they rotate themselves to cleave, cut, slice, and eviscerate beings of the darkness. In the hurricane where the darkness was suffocating them and even feel the clawing on their hearts, they levitated in the air strong and resilient to the heartless.

Thoughts of their companions still struggling outside filled them with determination and will to go on, unrelenting their attacks on the darkness. Invisibles formed in the walls of the hurricane and rushed toward them, earning the king of light's wrath as he grabbed Ultimate Blade and vanished in blue light. He appears in several places at once, striking at each invisible with his sword and destroying them in single strokes of his kingly blade.

Sora, far more verse with flying than his royal companion, darts across the hurricane, and using his new abilities granted to him by the king fires his keyblades at each heartless that tried to hit him with either physical or magical attacks. Dashing and moving so fast it is as if he were teleporting, no heartless could even comprehend how he was moving at such speeds as he eradicated them. The boy looked down to see gazing up as it arose from the pits of the hurricane was a darkside, reaching for him.

Gazing at the long-time adversary of his, Sora grabbed his Ultima weapon in one hand and calls for Kingdom Key, crosses them both over his chest. As his body is cloaked in a golden aura, Sora yells and dives towards the darkside as it starts to stand on its bendy legs. The darkside swings a punch to the child of light as Sora crossed his keyblade over each over and opens them up. His attack destroys the hand as he speeds right past the darkside.

As Sora flies back up to re-join Noctis, the darkside is sliced in so many parts it explodes.

Back together, Sora and Noctis stare down at the heartless that still surrounded them, sensing their efforts were starting to show as the stronger heartless started to populate the walls of the hurricane. Their defenses tightened up only granted the two confidence their valiant deeds are bearing good hopes for their friends on the outside.

"We can do this!", exclaims Sora.

"We'll destroy you all!", cried Noctis.

Thousands of heartless charged towards the boys as their weapons in crystal light began to wildly thrash around them and create a dome to protect the two. While their crystal weapons shielded them, the two fired barrages of light-based rays at the heartless while spinning on the spot, effectively turning themselves into a small vortex of power.

The joint attack kept heartless from reaching them, yet even with the hurricane's shields waning the boys' light and power were slowly evaporating from their excessive amount of power usage. Between using their combined strengths to destroy the heartless and using the light to stay off the darkness from leeching off their hearts, it would not be much longer before they would be at the mercy of the darkness.

Both knew this and yet they refused to let up. Especially now when Sora called out that their final bastion had revealed itself to them, a true darkside. Larger than any other Sora had ever encountered, with red twisted tentacles around its face, violet arms, and its body cloaked in a dark violet aura.

The two boys stared at it as their bodies and hearts reached their limits, their last push.

Together their lights glowed and joined as one while their weapons all were drawn into their keyblades, even Noctis' Ultima Blade. They held their keyblades in both hands as their auras went crazy like wildfire, keyblades covered in their light's colors as they extended and widened into large swords.

They both yelled as they propelled themselves to the darkside and its charging fist. They collided with it with enough force that it shook the hurricane itself, breaking apart its windy walls and even demolished some of the heartless within them. The two lights against the violet darkness fist, Sora and Noctis roared as their aura extend and went more blazing.

They break through the fist and eradicated it, like arrows charging towards the head of the darkside.

"ITS OVER!", Sora proclaims.

"YOU'RE FINISHED!", roars Noctis.

Together with perfect synergy, the boys of light swing their weapons downwards and destroyed the darkside bastion, the body is torn asunder by the light of the king and master, dozens of heartless died from the outburst of the attack and some of the walls were beginning to break apart with large gaps within them, which would have allowed Sora and Noctis to escape…

As the bastion vanished into oblivion, the core Sora had been talking about had finally appeared before them, a dark reddish-orange and black ball that practically oozes the darkness. However, even right before them, Sora and Noctis' bodies have lost their powers, their auras fading out and keyblades disappearing from their hands, they levitating in the air as they slumped while they were slowly being surrounded by the heartless.

Noctis couldn't even warp himself and Sora to safety.

As they clawed hands grabbed onto them, the two were suddenly yanked from the heartless. Held by the collars of their jackets as they were pulled out of the hurricane through one of the small gaps, free from the suffocating darkness.

Sora weakly glanced to see Kairi in her armor and glider piloted by Ventus, flying to the group. The moment the glider was just a few inches above the ground, Sora and Noctis were taken by Ignis and Riku and lifted further away from the hurricane, the master yelling to Aqua. The two glanced to see Donald and Aqua both glowing in white light, magic rising while Prompto called for his bazooka and takes aim.

He fired one rocket at the hurricane, the wall destroyed in a fiery explosion and exposes the core. "DO IT!", cried Prompto.

Together, Aqua and Donald aimed their weapons as their magical potency had reached its full power.

"ZETTA FLARE/NEO ULTIMA!", they both exclaimed at once.

From the tips of their weapons, Donald fires a large beam of white with red outlining the beam while Aqua's beam is dark-greenish. Their beams struck the core with a shockwave the shakes the ground and impact could be felt from the party themselves, the large stone mountains behind them even cracked and began to break apart from the joint magical attack. The core struggles against the powerful magic before slowly but without a doubt, the beams begin to pierce through the blackened core.

The beams rocketed through it and into the sky as the hurricane falls apart with heartless either fading away to the dark realm or become nothing but ashes from the beams intense heat.

When the dust clouds passed, the remaining standing party stared in awe at the destructive power the two magic users displayed, the hurricane had been completely wiped from the face of this world. None could sense the heartless or even traces of the darkness from it. By some divine miracle, they had survived.

Aqua and Donald's bodies lost their light from their magical attacks, dropped their weapons, and collapsed. Donald falls face-first into the ground while Aqua falls to her knees, wiped clean of energy and stamina, but luckily they were still conscious. All the training to use even a tiny grain of their mana to maintain consciousness had paid off in the end. They were quickly checked by Gladiolus and Mickey, the shield fussing over her.

"Damn it, Blue…", he grunts, helping her stand on her feet by letting her lean on him. With a weak and weary giggle, she looks at him with a winning smile. "It worked…didn't it?", she asks. He pecks her forehead, muttering a "yeah" as Mickey loans Donald some of his magic to recuperate some of his magic. The duck pants and shakily stands but gave his long-time lord a thumbs up to assure him he wouldn't have to worry about him collapsing again.

With the two keyblade users, Kairi was already using her magic to help restore them and using her pure light to cleanse any traces of the darkness that clings to their hearts. All the while chastising Sora.

"You are an absolute reckless dummy!", she chastises, pouting at him as he gave her a sheepish smile. "You couldn't have just waited, or better yet TELL us what your plan is?". Sora rubbed his neck while Noctis snickered at the younger boy, happy the princess is more concerned about him to lecture him about personal preservation. That is until she snapped at Noctis and says: "Oh don't think you're off the hook, wait till Luna hears about this!".

And suddenly the king almost wishes he did perish…

"If I told you what we were gonna do, you would have stopped us…", Sora argued with his smile still gracing the girl. "No excuses!".

While their friends tend to the weakened and weary with spirits lighter, Riku himself could not help but smile at them. Until his eyes glanced to were once their doom stood, and suddenly all the cheer from this victory is drained as the smile on his face takes on a look of shock before anger takes over. Ignis looks and sees a figure within the cloud of dust dancing on the field, but senses darkness from it, likely another member of Xehanort's vessels.

"Everyone, we're about to have company", he warns.

All heads turned, but before the winded party could partake, Goofy immediately stands in front of Kairi while she quickly resumes healing the boys while Gladiolus hands over Aqua to Ventus and calls his shield. The rest of the guardians stepped up quickly, weapons drawn.

Strutting up to the guardians with his sword casually laying on his shoulder, a cocky, even arrogant, smile plastered on his young face is to the shock of almost everyone is Riku. Except younger wearing a dark and twisted suit of clothing that screamed the darkness. The silver-haired master's eyes darkened as he sees his greatest moment of weakness come back to mock him, smirking at the others.

"Well, well…three keyblade wielders down already?", he mocks, "I guess overestimated you guys". He aimed his sword at the downed Sora and Noctis, grinning. "Can't believe you of all people were made a master, when you're needed most you STILL end up being dead weight".

A loud bang boomed across the field and Dark Riku felt a sting across his cheek. He blinked and cheeked his cheek to see his dark violet blood leaking from him, and with a snarl turned to see Prompto with his gun aimed at him, smoke slithering from the barrel. "Big talk from over there, wanna come over and say it?", he asks, "Or just keep standing still, pretty sure super powered up or not, you won't walk away from a headshot".

Dark Riku gives the gunner a murderous look before he laughed darkly. "Ha, cute! Hope you enjoyed that moment because here is where you're all going to hell!", he proclaims. He growls as darkness manifests around him, slowly his dark shadow turns into a torso of a humanoid heartless with bright yellow eyes. It loomed over the party for a moment before it suddenly raises into the skies and like their first bout, rains down heartless upon them.

"AGAIN WITH THIS!?", Axel shouts, "How many of these things do you guys have!?".

Dark Riku laughed at the looks on the team before he re-joins the other members of the darkness, leaving the party to be consumed by the heartless. Nearly in an instant, the battlefield is covered in heartless as the day darkens, with the violet and dark blue walls blocking out the light and trapping the gang.

"Iggy, idea please!", Prompto begged.

"Form up, protect the others!", instructs Ignis.

Quickly the ones still standing formed a circle around the downed members while their guardians kept close. As more and more shadows started to form up around the guardians, they see numerous versions of the heartless were starting to appear among them. To Sora's horror, he was staring down every single heartless he, Donald, Goofy, heck EVERYONE had ever faced and slain. Big to small, powerful warriors to lethal mages and trickiest creatures he's ever crossed paths with, and one stood out as a new but potentially more powerful than them all.

Dark Inferno.

The heartless is a large, muscular, humanoid figure with a large, heart-shaped hole in its chest, like the invisibles. Raised portions and ridges on its black skin give it an armored appearance. Large, spiked horns on the sides of its head, and two more rising from its forehead which forms the shape of a heart; all four horns fade from black to red to yellow, giving them the appearance of heated metal.

Its tail ends in a bladed fin with a diamond-shaped hole through it. Its two-toed, clawed feet stand upon swirling vortexes of white energy, has undersized, purple bat-like wings on its shoulders and dull purple tendrils wrapped around its throat like a scarf, which drapes down on either side of its "heart."

It also has tendrils wrapped around each wrist, which fade to the same burning yellow color as its horns. In each hand, it holds a large blue sword with hook-like extensions near the tip and an exaggerated gold hilt with a knuckle bow.

From his spot, Sora could feel its monstrous power and feared it'd take almost four of them together to even stand a chance against it.

"This is cheating!", Prompto curses as he shoots one soldier, "How the hell are we supposed to deal with all this AND still fight Xehanort!?".

"Stop complaining and keep killing!", bellowed Gladiolus as he guards against a large body's body slam.

But Prompto's question did leave the group in a state of worry and fear. This is the third bout with an army, three keyblade wielders down and many of the guardians were getting closer to exhaustion. The numerous variety of heartless is staggering and too much for them, many of them range from being super being levels of strong. Even if they could manage to survive, how many would even have the strength to take on Xehanort and his vessels? And who is to say he did not have back up plans for it?

Sora looked to Kairi for encouragement, yet instead of seeing the worry dancing in his eyes, the girl was staring at him with acceptance, and fear is nowhere to be seen. He feels his strength return as Noctis stands up and called his sword with Aqua joining Gladiolus' side. She outstretches her hand to him and asks him with her eyes to join her on this journey, to see the end of this battle with her and their friends.

He looked at her hand before shoving his worries into the corner and takes her hand, letting her lift not just him back to his feet but his spirits up. As the thirteen gathered in a circle together, weapons out and striking any oncoming heartless, plans were being discussed.

"I can use Ultima again, maybe clear the area and someone could do something similar?", Aqua suggests as she repelled a neo-shadow. "And have you too tired to fight? Can't have that!", Ignis says, "Sora, do you happen to have any summons or by god more of those rides?".

"Nothing that'll clear all this!", reveals Sora. "Prompto? Don't suppose Cindy gave you a nuke for an arm?", Noctis asks as he shields the party with crystal barriers. "Sorry, buddy! We didn't get to that stage of development!", replied Prompto.

While the party still argued for plans, Kairi's eyes caught something shining above them and glanced up. A beautiful golden ball of light pierced the dark clouds and dives to the ground. "Everyone!", Kairi exclaims.

All eyes look to the dive bomb as it landed a few feet in front of the guardians of light, and when the shining light fades, to their surprise their saviors are none other than Yen Sid, and Lunafreya.

With a huff, Yen Sid raises his hand as they shined with a powerful light, and with an exclamation, he fires off a wave of light that repelled the heartless. The light formed a large circle around the guardians and created a pathway leading into the battleground where Xehanort and the others awaited.

"Go forth, champions of light", commands the old master. "We shall buy you as much time as we possibly can".

Noctis looks at Lunafreya, eyes glowing with concern at the words the master spoke. Even with two of them alone, there is no chance they could fend off this many heartless. "But master, you can't stop them just with the two of you!", Mickey said, pleadingly. Then Lunafreya smiled at her guardians and shakes her head. "You all have done enough, it is time for the worlds to defend their futures", she says warmly.

She then turns to the pathway and grabbed her trident with both hands and stabbed the prongs into the ground. Divine light shines from her as they hear her chanting in an unknown tongue, but the light she used felt different to Kairi's. Suddenly the guardians sensed more light coming from behind them, familiar ones too.

When they turned around to the back, they saw a large corridor of light shining behind. Before they could ask, suddenly warriors leaped out of the corridor just as Yen Sid lowered the walls to allow the heartless through. A gunshot was made accompanied by steel brandished on heartless foes, the sounds of punches landing on them and they saw shurikens flying around the area.

More heroes ran out of the corridor and started to wage war on the heartless.

The Radiant Garden Restoration Community.

Sora sees Leon slicing through the vast army of heartless, Yuffie disappearing and throwing her ninja stars at them, Tifa pummelling them all into a paste. Even Cid came out with a spear in hand, yelling profanities and destroy the heartless while the Gullwings jumped out and lend a hand to the defenders. Before anyone could ask, the guardians of light were suddenly cloaked in green tendrils and felt their strengths replenish. Exiting the portal is Zack and Aerith, the latter with a staff in hand and waved at the team.

The guardians looked to Lunafreya, who was sporting a cheeky smile. "I thought you could use some assistance", she mused, "And considering they know of other worlds, I'm not breaking any rules".

Never has Noctis ever wanted to kiss a woman so badly before.

The victorious joy of seeing their allies finally lend a hand to them is short-lived when the Dark Inferno breaks through Yen Sid's barrier and rushes towards the Oracle. Only to be stopped by a lone warrior who halts its rampage by brandishing his massive sword onto its twin blades. The Dark Inferno retreats from the warrior, now standing up and laying his buster sword on his back.

Cloud glances back to Sora over his shoulder. "Go. We got this"; he instructs. Before Sora could argue, Cloud turns back to the Dark Inferno and dashes towards it, bringing the battle to the air.

Seeing everyone fighting for them, and with their path cleared, Sora nods and rushes down the path, his friends by his side. As they rush onwards, the Oracle performs a prayer for them, her heart full of faith for their success.

*Nearing the Battleground*

Quickly the group raced to the final battle, hearts invigorated by the sight of their friends and hopes renewed at an all-time high. With Kairi alongside him, Sora kept his eyes ahead of him as they see the crossroads.

However, they would not make it there. As they neared the end, suddenly walls of stone rose from the ground. They stopped running as walls began to surround them all, some yelled in surprise. Then a wall erects itself between Sora and Kairi, cutting them off just as a tower of heartless surprised the boy and quickly grabbed him. Taken from his friends and to the air, Sora heard his name being called out by the others.

Noctis shouted for him before he warps strikes to the tower to rescue him. But in doing so when he reappears before the boy, he was tackled by another tower and separated from his friend once again. More walls began to form and rise around the guardians, the towers of heartless attacking and splitting the party up like chess pieces being put on certain spots of the board.

When he finally managed to wake up from being presumably knocked out, Noctis groans and pushes himself off the ground and shook his head. "Son of a…", he starts before his eyes drink in his new location. Towering over the king are walls that reached the skies, only a single path laid bare before him, and worst of all, he was alone.

He calls for the others but hears nothing bar his voice bouncing off the walls of this maze. When he stands on his feet, he worriedly deduced this was another plan from the old man to try and break the morale of the party, and what better way to harm a group like theirs than to keep them away from their friends? Noctis curses Xehanort's name and runs down the corridor of the maze, deciding that standing idly by will not bring him closer to his friends.

On the other side of the king is Sora running down his corridor, having just woken up sooner than his king and immediately springing into action. He feared Xehanort's plan of separating the gang is more than to induce solitude and isolation, but also to try and pick them off one by one without substantial aid from the stronger guardians.

Just thinking of Kairi on her own against someone like Xemnas, Ansem, or Young Xehanort with another member of the darkness had put him on edge. He races down the corridor at the same time as his king, both unaware of their coordinated race as they came to their paths. For Noctis he sees Riku and Ignis fending off against Xigbar, that false Riku and Ansem, while on Sora's end he sees Mickey, Donald, and Goofy going toe-to-toe with Marluxia, Larxene, Luxord AND Xemnas all at once.

They both raced towards their friends.

The clash between the thirteen guardians of light vs the thirteen darkness has begun.

A/N:

I AM SO SORRY THIS IS SO LONG!

Meaty chapter, first part of the Keyblade Graveyard is done, (THANK GOD!) and…yeah a lot of changes.

So, the first change is obviously there is no time travel here, explained later in future Author's Notes but simplified: I hated it. Not because it killed the party (my heart says otherwise but ya know) but because it just felt like an excuse for Sora to be Jesus. I know story wise it held a lot of significance but that is just me. But worry not, Sora will still have to use the Power of Waking. You will see!

Now I probably know what you people want but for fun, you get to choose whose fight goes first, Sora or Noctis. Let me know what you want in your reviews and the most wanted will have their fight done.

Before my questions, massive thanks to people!

Michael Chen for the idea of Ardyn getting a keyblade, it'll be a fun experience.

Jikker-Jack for the Ravus idea of becoming a nobody and helping expand on the idea, massive help!

VashTheStampede0409 for pretty much helping out a lot and the idea of the RC members coming to help. Originally we wanted to do something akin to the Avengers Endgame with all the Disney characters Sora has met…but that be a nightmare to do so…yeah.

Enough of my ramblings, QUESTIONS!

Q1: Thoughts on this chapter

Q2: Did you like the fights?

Q3: Hate me for the changes?

Q4: Thoughts on Ravus' nobody?

Q5: Prompto's new arm add-on?

Q6: How are you liking this arc?

Q7: What are most excited for in this one?

Q8: Do you want these chapters to be shorter in future?

As always everyone, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	71. Chapter 71

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 71

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

Soul Eater clashes with Braveheart, sparks flying from the collision of steel, the two Riku's dual before Ansem, watching with mild interest.

That smug look on the younger version of himself almost made Riku lash out angrily and wildly at him regardless of the power gap between them. The younger version shows not only was his strength inferior to his older counterpart, but the master can detect and spot several flaws in his fighting style.

Granted it was his old stance he used back in his days of weakness absolutely but his is far more refined and honed compared to his. The only reason Riku could not capitalize on the weakness in the stance is because of the darkness Xehanort had granted him. The power coursing through him combined with all the abilities he carried from his time as Ansem's vessel gave him equal footing against the older Riku.

The Dark replica steps back while deflecting Riku's attacks, still sporting that smug grin even as he gave up grounds for the master. One strike from Riku managed to push him back and surrender more space to him, only for Xigbar to butt in and leap above the boys. Upside down like the cocky sniper he was, he unleashes fire pink arrows at the boy.

Riku does not budge from his spot, because Ignis stood in front of him with both daggers drawn and without missing a beat deflects each arrow away from them. Only with the fifth one did he reflect it to Xigbar, narrowly missing his head. He scoffs and lands back on the ground with Dark Riku staring down at the two guardians, now frowning darkly at Ignis. In response, Ignis merely flips his daggers into the reverse grip and readied himself.

"Good timing", praised the master.

"Shame I missed", Ignis remarks, "Though at least I'll have the chance to make him suffer a tad longer for what he's done".

Their light banter is interrupted by Xigbar raising both arrow guns and unleashing a torrent of arrows upon them like a gatling gun. "Keep your eyes on the birdie, boys!", taunts Xigbar as the two split off to dodge the storm of arrows.

While Riku ran to the left, his dark version dashed towards him to continue their battle. Ignis becomes the main target of Xigbar's, using both arrow guns to try and mow him down. The advisor flips and jumps over the barrage of arrows as they strike the wall and ground, sometimes having enough time to deflect them back at him. But this game had lost its fun long ago and Ignis refuses to allow this man to treat him like a mouse being chased by an overweight cat.

He flicks his dagger at Xigbar, letting his now free hand glow in violet light. Xigbar expertly shoots the dagger out of the air, stopping the attack but in turn allowing himself to be distracted enough for Ignis to slam his hand onto the ground and cry out: "Stonga!".

Xigbar looked at the man in alarm before the rocks around him shot up, four balls of stones with one materializing above his head the size of a boulder. The small balls rushed to Xigbar, and only by his amazing reflexes was he able to shoot all them of by crossing his arms for the first two and then spread them both out and fire to the other two. He managed to teleport the moment the boulder came down on him, appearing above it.

His smug victory is short-lived when Ignis appears from the dark and stomped on Xigbar's face. The sniper falls back off the stone as Ignis uses his scarred face as a platform to jump off him, turn around and fire an array of dark fire at him. Xigbar is hit by the array, small explosions covering him as Ignis lands a few feet from him.

When the smoke clears, Xigbar is clutching his arm with a scowl on his face, cloak licked by embers and scorch marks on his face, but nothing Ignis could happily call lethal. Not that it lessened the satisfaction of seeing this man burn for what he had done to his friends. Xigbar huffs and uses his good arm to fire more arrows at Ignis, who remains on his spot and starts to deflect all the arrows with his daggers easily.

Ignis opens his arms with both daggers to send a wave of force to blow away the other arrows and then runs towards Xigbar. The one-eyed man of the organization huffs as darkness cloaks his body and his stance goes from hunched pain to him standing upright again. He raises his hands together and then inserts them into black and white portals around him.

Ignis only had a fraction of a second to react in time, fore when he looked from the corner of his eye he spotted the same portal with Xigbar's hand and arrow gun aiming for him. The advisor grunts as the arrow are fired and his senses picked up from sound they were being fired from another direction too. He spins around and throws his dagger at the oncoming attack, the strength in his throw being enough to cut through the barrage of arrows.

He then turns and slammed his free hand onto the ground just as the arrows were in the range of striking him, a pool of darkness opening and swallowing him quickly.

Xigbar turned around too late to fire at Ignis, who had reappeared just three steps from him and rushes out of his transport. Xigbar's arrow guns, however, were quickly slammed aside by Ignis free arm and with his weapon in hand, he tries to slice or cut Xigbar. The vessel starts to use his arrows guns as clubs to either deflect or protect himself from Ignis dagger, their weapons clashing and battling for supremacy.

Meanwhile, the two Riku's fought on with the younger one using mostly ranged attacks, firing a never-ending barrage of dark fire on Riku. This tactic forced the master to stay on the move and dodge the onslaught of attacks, sidestepping, and using his dark powers to teleport further from him. Only when the younger version got too cocky for his well-being did Riku take the chance to show him up.

He shoots a single dark firaga at the older boy, and this proves to be a fatal choice. Riku air-dashed and slices through it easily. His momentum does not end there as he manages to get close to the false Riku and land a single strike of the keyblade from his shoulder to his waist, cutting through the dark bodysuit and throw him back.

Dark Riku grunts in pain, placing a hand on his chest before he looked at Riku with fury then turned to shock when the other Riku had already stood before him again with his hand opened as dark fire surges.

"You like this attack? How about when it's fired at *you*!?", Riku taunts.

The blast rockets the false Riku across the field and on his back. He grunted out in pain and slowly gets to his feet as Riku is already in the air and keyblade in hand to plunge it into his empty heart. But just when Riku was about to put down one of Xehanort's vessels, only to be intercepted by Ansem, suddenly appearing in front of him.

Violet spheres appearing around him and they launched a stream of lasers at Riku. The boy managed to lift his keyblade to shield himself from most of the attack, but the lasers struck him enough to blast him away from Ansem and his false brother.

Riku backflips in the air and lands on his feet, skidding backward and then falls to his knee. He curses out the pain as his body fought the searing heat the lasers discharged on him. With clenched teeth and a pained hiss, he glared back at Ansem as Dark Riku returned to his feet, that smug look back on his face as if Riku was the one who had the odds against him the whole time. He made a mental note to punch him if he got a chance.

Ansem, however, had a disappointed look on his face, as if he was expecting more from Riku. Whether he does or not didn't matter, because now he raises his hand and creates a large ball of darkness, violet, and dark blue. He channels more darkness into it before letting it fly towards Riku, either it'd kill him or worse, make him a vessel for Xehanort.

"Riku!".

Appearing from above, Noctis slammed the Sword of the Tall right on top of the dark ball. The mighty sword demolished the attack and sent it crashing into the earth beneath the king. Saving Riku in time, Noctis dismissed his sword and calls for his crossbow and fires a stream of Armiger arrows to the two beings of the dark.

Both jumped out of the way, evading the attack. Noctis dismissed his weapon and quickly turned back to Riku and hands him a hi-potion. "Am I late?", he asked casually. Riku chuckled lightly as he heals up and stands with his king, frowning when he sees no one else but Noctis. "Where are the others?", he asks, turning to Ansem and Dark Riku.

"You tell me", Noctis answers, calling his keyblade, "Woke up on my own, figured the others are further in". Riku lets a worried growl rumble in his throat, hoping nobody was on their own against whatever these vessels had in store for them. "Then we'll have to hurry up and finish this", ordered the master. Noctis grunts in agreement as Dark Riku dashed and swung at the master. Noctis takes this chance to go against Ansem while leaving Riku to fight his lesser, deciding that is a fight he'd wanna settle himself.

Ansem levitates away from Noctis while at the same time leaves more of those violet spheres for the king to deal with. The lasers launched to the king like an armada, Noctis retaliates by using Katana of the Warrior and quickly slashes the lasers into nothing but particles and warps to Ansem. He calls for the Sword of the Father and the Wise, swinging them both at Ansem. The heartless keeps evading and dodging the king's strikes as if he were a formless being that could bend and twist away from anything thrown at him.

The seeker of the dark fires more spheres of darkness at the king of light as he maintains his distance from him. Warping and phasing through the attacks, Noctis reappears higher up in the air and calls for some of his Royal Arms to surround him. He aims his right hand and the ghostly weapons charged to Ansem at high speeds, cutting through his spheres and forcing him to go on the run. Ansem keeps flying away from these attacks while using his dark power to protect himself from the divine weapons.

While he was too busy fending off the ghostly weapons, Noctis takes this opportunity to call for the Blade of the Mystic and perform their missile warps, firing three ghostly swords at Ansem. The three weapons bypassed his arms and all three struck the bringer of the heartless in his chest. Noctis finishes this combo with a fourth warp strike using the blade and himself.

The gap closed, he struck at his stomach with a side-ways slash and blows the older man away. Ansem regains control and hovers in the air with a grunt, looking at his stomach and sees a slash and blood leaking from him. He turns on the king as Noctis stands before him on the ground, calling his Ultima Blade and staring down the man.

Before Noctis could resume their fight, he was struck in the shoulder and stomach by Xigbar's arrows, making him yell in pain. Another had struck his chest and knocked him off his feet and onto his back with a thud. He hisses as Ansem stands on the ground, his wounds instantly healing thanks to the darkness. With a grunt, he crosses his arms and then opens them with a roar expelling from his throat, darkness beginning to seep out from beneath his feet and slowly spreading across the battlefield.

It started to even coat the walls and Noctis takes on look at the man and Xigbar and feels their strength significantly grow even more. However, Ansem has his back turned to the king and then starts to fly away. This does not go unnoticed, as Riku cried out for him to stop and leaps after him.

"And where do you think *you're* going?", Dark Riku asks, appearing alongside him. Before Riku could do anything, his dark replica hits him with a roundhouse kick and knocks him back to the battlefield. Riku bounced off the ground as he loses his grip on the keyblade, letting it clang loudly in front of him. Noctis called the boy's name as he felt his Armiger patch him up quickly in time, seeing Xigbar aiming his arrow guns at the boy again.

He fires them at Riku, but both Noctis and Ignis stepped up and deflected the attacks quickly. Now staring down a smug-looking Xigbar, who was casually laying one of his guns on his shoulder. "Hey, let's speed things up!", he boasts, "Gotta keep the line going!". Ignis uses a spell to heal up his friend and readily stares down Xigbar as Noctis called for Night's Sky. Riku huffs and returned to his feet, picking up his keyblade in the process.

Xigbar gave the men from Eos a smirk and says: "Never thought I'd be picking fights with you again, Iggy". Ignis scoffs as he pushes his glasses up with a finger, staring down the man. "Hey now, don't give that look. I was not the one who took your eyes", Xigbar mocks.

"Quite right, I'd be ashamed if you were the reason for my temporary loss of sight", Ignis rebukes, "I doubt I'd be able to bear the shame that scum such as yourself is the reason I lost my eyes". Xigbar's smirk twitched, that jab hitting him as Ignis continues, daggers brandished. "But things are vastly different from the last time we clashed. No Ardyn to save you, and your master has abandoned you", he lists.

"Pfft, what? You think you've got a chance against us because we don't have the old men with us?", Dark Riku taunted, "I thought your eyesight came back, sounds like you're more blind to the odds than I thought!". "This coming from the boy who ran with his tails between his legs and left the heartless do the work? I wonder where all that bravado comes from", Ignis replied curtly. Dark Riku must have been more offended than the others had thought because next thing they knew he was right before Ignis with his sword coming down on him.

He brought the sword down just as Ignis leaps back from him, narrowly evading from being split in half. That is until a small flash of light appeared between his glasses and then they fell to the ground, cut in two. Ignis looks down at them then back to Dark Riku, now sporting a crap-eating grin on his face. "Hope those weren't important to you", he sneers. Ignis furrowed his brows and both king and master sensed something changed within Ignis.

Dark Riku rushes him with another smartass comment raising. When he swung his sword at Ignis, the man in a blink of an eye caught the attack and repelled it. The sword was thrown out of Dark Riku's hand as he staggered backward, but Ignis wasn't done. With his daggers crackling with lightning, Ignis zips around the boy, striking him while zip-zapping around the battlefield. He leaves multiple chains of lightning with each stopping point, and with the last zip-zapping, he appeared behind Dark Riku and strikes him in the back one more time before zip-zapping away from him.

At a fair distance, he raises his hand and in a very calculated voice, proclaims "Cataclysm". He clicks his fingers and then the stopping points where lightning gathered all struck Dark Riku, completely encasing him in blue lighting. He yelled out in pain as he is lifted off the ground from this attack, and the lightning trails up and into the skies. Finally, a large bolt of blue lightning descends from above and struck the boy.

Dark Riku roars in agony as his body is surrounded by lightning that splits the earth beneath him. With a beastly shout, the replica uses his dark powers to create a barrier that would keep the pain off him long enough to escape the bolt. He teleports out of it and a few feet from the others, panting and grunting with pain as smoke rises from his body, eyes bore into Ignis with unbridled hatred and seething rage.

Then Ignis cocks his head at him before he pulls out from his breast pocket another pair of glasses, flicks them open, and stylishly puts them back on. He faces the boy with his new lens and smirked. Dark Riku gritted his teeth and readied to attack, but then Riku steps in front of Ignis and stared down his poor imitator.

"This is between you and me, let's finish this", Riku challenges, raising his keyblade. Dark Riku growled but accepts the challenge and goes for Riku just as the master dashed to him. With the Riku's fighting, Noctis and Ignis took their fight to Xigbar, now smirking confidently at them. The king calls his keyblade to his hand while Ignis shifts his daggers in the reverse grip.

Xigbar teleports and reappears behind them, firing a barrage of arrows on to the duo. The king spins around and erects as a wall of crystal to protect the two. Raising his left hand, bathing in white crystals, Noctis calls for Ignis and the man runs towards Xigbar by running around the barrier. Xigbar aims both arrow guns at the advisor, crosses them over his arms, and fires smaller but much faster and plentiful grey arrows at him.

Ignis runs at him regardless of the hail of arrows, shielded by the ghostly weapons of Noctis' ancestors, the larger weapons shielding him while he rushes into the Xigbar.

Realizing this Xigbar teleports again just as Ignis reached him, appearing upside down in the air and takes aim at the advisor.

"Don't look away!", taunts Noctis, appearing right in front of him. Unable to react in time to the sudden appearance of the king, Xigbar was pummelled by Noctis. Five consecutive hits with the fifth slamming him back to the ground right as Ignis reached the landing zone. Xigbar backflips and landed on his feet, quickly combining both arrow guns into a modified looking sniper rifle and aims it at Ignis. The shot fired was much stronger than his usual arrows as well as twice as fast. It is only thanks to enhanced sight and reflexes combined Ignis was able to dodge it.

Xigbar fired two more at him before aiming at Noctis and firing it at him, then teleports again once the two were distracted by his arrows.

The man of the darkness appears farther away from the two and charges up energy within him. Using this he dispenses the energy into his arrow guns and fires a spread of arrows upon the two. With Noctis able to avoid them thanks to warping and phasing, only Ignis had the real battle of evading and parrying the arrows while getting nicked here and there. With his friend being stayed by arrows, Noctis air dashed to Xigbar, swinging his keyblade at him.

Xigbar teleports again away from the king and when he appears again, he takes potshots against the king of Insomnia. Only thanks to his crystal barrier were Noctis spared from getting shot, and in response, he fires two ghostly arms at the man. Xigbar shoots one with a blue arrow instead, strong enough to break the ghostly weapon while he evades the other weapon.

Ignis races to his king, noticing several arrows he managed to deflect had fallen to the ground and were sticking upwards. His concerns were founded when he saw the glow from them in a sinister light, suddenly realizing what was coming next. They started to detonate around the man in pink energy, nearly taking his legs with them. The man of the king's retinue waves his free hand to cast a dark barrier around himself, realizing running would only increase his chances of losing a limb.

Within his shield, Ignis channels some of his dark powers, bathed in darkness.

Pushed back by another strike from Noctis, Xigbar grunts out in pain and glared at the king. "What's wrong? This all you got?", Noctis taunts, "Kinda expected one of Xehanort's top men to be a little more of a challenge". Xigbar spits out blood and scoffs at the confidence this fledgling of a keyblade wielder spouts. He grinned madly and replied: "Aww, ya want me to get serious? Okay then!".

Xigbar teleports again further away from Noctis, reappearing in the center of the battlefield with his body glowing in dark energy. He levitates in the air as he combines his two arrow guns into one large bow and fired one single arrow into the air. This arrow creates a spatial rift and then next thing Noctis knew it was raining arrows infused with dark energy. The arrows were endless and covered the field slowly while Noctis uses his Shield of the Tall to hunker down and protect himself from the rainstorm.

The arrows bounced off his shield like hailstones, bucking his shield and made him grit his teeth to soldier through this assault. As the wave of arrows goes over him, he thought that would have worn Xigbar out enough for him to attack, except the man appeared beside the king and blasts him with a fully charged shot that blasted the king away from the sniper. The man then fires homing arrows at the king as he bounced off the ground and flips onto his feet.

Noctis parried one arrow but two managed to strike him on his shoulder and left side, making him yell in pain. Xigbar then proceeds to unleash a barrage of arrows upon the king, forcing Noctis to use some of his Armiger to try and mitigate some of the pain while he uses his arms to block the attack. He hisses and grunts out as each arrow cuts his skin and flesh, slowly pushing him back from this onslaught of pain.

"Keep standing still your majesty, makes my job a lot easier!", sneers Xigbar as he shoots the king of light. Then he sensed a dark power surge from behind him, and knowing that advisor of the king, Xigbar immediately turns around to put an arrow between his eyes. Except Ignis was not there, just the emptiness of the battlefield. He frowned in thought, he was certain Ignis was right behind him, he even sensed his presence right there.

There again he felt his presence and spun around to shoot him, but again there is only a weakened Noctis before him. He lowers his guns, slightly concerned that the advisor was somewhat turning into a ghost. Xigbar feels a slash across his right shoulder, making him yell out in shock and pain. He turns and fires at the direction where the attack came from and only ends up shooting the air. Again, he is struck on the back, and when he staggered forward he feels something cut his right leg.

Enraged and panicking slightly, Xigbar teleports into the air. Now with the higher vantage point, he thought he would have a better view of wherever Ignis was and aimed his guns at him. Yet again he could not see him. He is nowhere to be seen on the battlefield. The only people he saw were the two Riku's still fighting but no one else.

His search is cut short when he feels the two daggers cutting into his back and then a kick to his stomach. Xigbar coughs in pain and is then stomped on the back of his shoulders, slamming him back to the ground with a loud thud.

The one-eyed sharpshooter gets to his feet, grunting with pain running through his body as Noctis stands up, healed thanks to his Armiger. The gunner turned on the king with a yell and fired one of his blue arrows at him. The arrow does not even reach halfway to Noctis, it is deflected by an invisible force and it harmlessly is planted onto the ground with a light "ting" sound deflecting it. Now standing before Xigbar is Ignis, except with his body cloaked in violet darkness with one dagger held up high across his chest, his eyes glowing violet.

Ignis lowered his arm to show the man the cold and disinterest look on his face, completely emotionless in his stance. Xigbar aims his arrows guns and unloads a barrage of arrows at Ignis, but the advisor in response fires a large spike of black ice at the arrows. The shard is as large as Gladiolus which though it was being chipped by the arrows, it still rocketed towards Xigbar like a large dart. Xigbar dodged the shard from impaling his shoulder.

When he was safe from the spike, Ignis was already right behind him back to back. Xigbar freezes when his senses finally picked up on Ignis, shocked the man moved so quickly he could not detect him in time.

"H-How? How the hell are you doing this?", he demands.

"…the darkness Riku manipulated within my heart. After regaining my sight, I mastered its other gifts…", Ignis coldly informed. "It turns out, there is more to it when nurtured properly and without allowing the mine to be swallowed by the heartless". Xigbar lets a nervous chuckle escape him as his smirk returns to his face. "Heh…is that right? Shame you're wasting your potential with that brat of a king", mocks Xigbar, "Could probably have taken him out long before he'd became too much, and then boom, you'd be king".

He spun on Ignis with his right armed hand but Ignis' dagger was already planted within the weapon, piercing it and thus rendering it useless. Xigbar's jaw falls at the reaction time his foe possessed but what truly took the breath away from him was seeing Ignis giving him a look so cold and downright murderous it sent a chill of fear through his heart.

"The audacity you possess…trying to assume I would stoop so low as to usurp the man I call my brother", Ignis chastises with restraint anger. "Unlike like you, you backstabbing scheming scum of the darkness, my loyalty cannot be bought by promises of power nor will I be blinded by lust for power". Xigbar tries to smash his usable gun on Ignis' skull if he couldn't shoot him the bludgeoning him was his only option.

But when he tries this, Ignis blasts the gun with a spark of dark lightning, destroying the weapon. "I understand why got along so well with Ardyn. You are both nothing but snakes", harps Ignis. "And for every pain, you inflicted on Sora and the others", he continues, his aura glowing more intense and darker as Xigbar feels true terror coursing through his body. "I am going to make you pay".

He vanishes in a blur of violet, catching Xigbar off guard. But before he was able to escape the wrath of Ignis, he was struck again on the shoulder, then the stomach, back, sides, and even his cheek felt the sting of the wind brushing against the cut on his cheek. He tries to detect and spot Ignis for a counter, but he may as well be invisible for all the help his naked eye is giving him. With a snarl, the one-eyed sniper tries to use his broken gun to hit Ignis.

Only for a keyblade to halt the attack with a clang. Xigbar glared at the king of Insomnia defiantly halting his last means of self-defense. The king knocks the weapon out of his hand and with his keyblade bathed in Armiger light, he struck Xigbar with a slash from his left hip to the right shoulder and knocks him into the air.

"Iggy!", Noctis calls.

His right-hand man just before Xigbar, Ignis carrying his black flamed infused spear in his right hand held up. "You're through!", exclaims Ignis as he throws the spear. Xigbar couldn't muster enough strength to teleport away from the attack, the spear pierced his body and soars into the sky behind him, disappearing back into Ignis' pocket dimension as the sharp-shooter falls to the ground like a broken rag doll.

The two members of the retinue watched Xigbar, miraculously get to his feet weakly and staggeringly, before ultimately he collapsed on his knees, defeated at last. As he knelt there in defeat, darkness floats from his body and into the air, turning into a small tower of darkness before quickly disappearing into the setting skies. Slowly Xigbar's body starts to fade out, mirages shimmering around his body as darkness leaked from him and evaporates.

"Figures", Xigbar says with a lazy tone, as if his death was such a minor nuisance, "If I had a keyblade…this would have ended very differently". This makes Noctis scoff in disbelief. "You? A keyblade wielder? Pfft, like you were good enough for it", chastises the king. Xigbar chuckled cockily at that jab, smugly grinning at the two. "Oh, I am worthy", bragged Xigbar, "That old coot had promised to bequeath me his. Why else did you think I put up with all this garbage?".

"Xehanort would have given you his?", Ignis says, then scoffs and shook his head. "You're far more delusional then I thought". Xigbar slowly rises to his feet, grabbing his shoulder as his body slowly shimmers and fades, glaring at Ignis. "Oh? That what you think, specs?", the man sneered. "It would have been wasted on you", Ignis says firmly, "That much should have been obvious". Xigbar scoffed at the man's final jab, a dark corridor consuming him.

Noctis raises his weapon but one arm held out halts him. He and Ignis looked up to see Xigbar standing on the edge of the tall wall surrounding them. With a callous smirk, he steps back until finally, he allows himself to fall back into the abyss.

Noctis grunts, wondering if Xigbar did this to just deny them the privilege of them seeing him fade away into the darkness like another heartless. Not that he'd care, either way, the man was finally out of their lives. Now all that remained to press onward, was to rid the false Riku.

The dark version of himself is wildly striking at the master, sparks flying as the weapons of opposing realms clashed in the fated battleground. The darkness covered Soul Eater while Riku's dark power cloaked his body as the two used only one hand to clash.

Dark Riku reflects Riku's keyblade and tries to stab at him, only for the master to use quick footwork to sidestepped the thrust. The darker replica staggered forth, using too much strength in his momentum and the other Riku gets behind him and kicked him in the back, jumping off him.

The replica stumbles forward, but spins on his heel and fired a blast of dark fire at Riku. The master air dashed away and avoids being burnt to ashes, swing his keyblade to fire of dark energy blades at his fallen reminder. Dark Riku matched this attack with a single disc of darkness coming from one swipe of his sword and cuts through Riku's attacks. The master flips over the disc and lands back on his feet to face the younger warrior.

Dark Riku cackled as his body glowed in the darkness, slowly his feet leaving the ground before he vanishes. Recognizing this attack from previous uses, Riku immediately raised his guard and looked around for him, only to sense he was above him. Dark Riku descends upon Riku from above, just missing from plunging his sword into his skull when Riku rolled away from the attack. He dives into the darkness on the ground and repeats this attack at least seven times, getting closer to plunging into Riku.

The final attack had him slamming the blade into the ground when Riku avoided him, but the strike sent a shockwave of darkness that struck Riku and knocks him on his back. Dark Riku wastes no time and jumps, holding the blade in reverse and dives to Riku.

Just as the tip reached Riku, the dark replica is struck in the back by Noctis. With the mace of his ancestors slammed into Dark Riku's back, the dark replica was thrown across the battlefield and skidded along the ground before he managed to flip onto his feet. With a snarl at the king, seeing Ignis help Riku back to his feet and heal him. "STAY OUT OF THIS!", roars the corrupted boy. He places both wrists against each other as dark flames gathered, manifesting into a boulder-sized ball of dark fire.

With a roar, Dark Riku fires off this boulder towards the three guardians. Scorching the dried dead earth and turning the heat up to a heatwave that only islands could rival, the boulder almost reaches the three. Noctis nearly calls for his arms, only to see Ignis dashing past and stand before the boulder. The man crosses his daggers across his chest as darkness cloaked his body, turning from light to a chilling aura of violet and grey.

Ignis aims both daggers at the boulder and yells as a large dense beam of black and violet ice soars from his daggers' tips and toward the fire. Upon impact, the cold nearly froze the boulder instantly, covering it in a dense layer of frost and dousing any heat it carried. Now hurtling towards them all was a giant boulder of ice and a more manageable threat. Ignis dismisses his twin daggers and calls for his spear.

With a spin and a thrust of the weapon, the spear's blade stabbed into the giant boulder and not only does it halt the momentum of the lethal attack, but it shattered in chunks of ice. Ignis unfortunately, however, falls to a knee as the darkness leaves his body as well as his weapon. With a grunt of pain and exhaustion running through him, he remains on a knee, too tired to fight on. This does not stop the master from wrapping things up, however.

Riku speeds towards his dark replica with a yell, catching him off guard and landing a hit on his shoulder with his keyblade. The darker boy growls as he is slammed into a wall by the attack but kicks off it to charge towards Riku. Both meet steel with steel, the younger growing more frustrated and desperate to land a devastating hit on his "replica", but the master meets all these attacks with an equal measurement of strength and accuracy, skilfully reflecting the attacks and keeping himself safe.

The vessel breaks their constant clash by spinning around and slamming his sword with enough force that Riku reluctantly leaps backward from him. The lookalike then fires off several balls of darkness that mostly strikes the ground surrounding Riku, almost as if he is blindly shooting at him out of desperation. Except, Riku had quickly deduced the plan. All it took for him to see through this tactic is a glance at the positions of the balls and his feet.

Dark Riku is essentially creating a minefield to trap him.

Riku quickly aimed his hand down and fires off one small burst of darkness that helped him rocket up into the air, escaping this trap. But Dark Riku gives chase, forgoing his tactic to trap the master. This is exactly what Riku had hoped he does out of sheer youthful recklessness and lack of foresight.

The master changes Braveheart out for The Way to Dawn keyblade, not just to spite his younger self but also for a boost. His body glows in a dark aura as he grabbed the handle of his keyblade and proclaims: "It ends here!".

Like his replica, Riku vanishes before his sight, not before he saw the look of realization dawning on his replica's face. And unlike his false clone, Riku was not striking from above but from the sides. He appeared on his left and struck him, then reappears in front and strikes him, and the cycle of him appearing and disappearing around him repeats for a total of twenty strikes, each increasing the speed of his warping.

Final at the twenty-first strike, Riku is above the cut and bleeding replica. He spins and tossed his keyblade at him, stabbing him in the stomach which sent the boy down into the minefield. He then aims his hand at the boy, darkness covering his arm and fired the last dark firaga his replica will ever be struck with. As Dark Riku lands on the ground, the ball of flames strikes him and explodes, detonating the other mines surrounding him.

In a horrible display of dark flames and smoke rising, the force of the explosions making Riku backflip and land at a distance from the barrage, he recalls his keyblade and stands up in a relaxed stance. The fight had been won.

When the purple smoke cleared, he sees in disbelief Dark Riku was standing up, hunched over with plenty of wounds adorning his body and like Xigbar, sees the darkness leave his body and rise to the skies like a dark tower for a few seconds before it entirely evaporates. The replica pants and grunts in pain, slowly lifting his left hand and glaring at it, fury, shame, and disbelief all mixed in his eyes. "You're not…real", he gritted out.

A confused "huh" escaped Riku for a moment, as his clone seethed: "I'm…the real one…". Riku narrowed his eyes, and asked: "Aren't you me from the past? self? When Ansem possessed me?". As much of a stain that was on his past and ultimately his greatest shame and failure, Riku would never forget that outfit nor that darkness that had tainted his heart so long ago. Seeing how this, in another life, could have been where he would have ended up were it not for Sora and Mickey, it made him feel something within him…

"No".

Riku looked to his left and sees his Other, glowing in light and floating near him with a hand on his shoulder. "You beat Ansem and you're still here", he says, reassuring the boy. The Other then turns on the Dark Replica and says: "This guy… is me!". Without delay, he flies towards him and when his fallen lookalike just raised his head to see, he places his hand on his heart.

Darkness bursts forth from the boy as he lets out a horrible cry of pain. Yet the Other did not stop what he was done despite the horrified look dawning on Riku's face. The darkness envelopes his fallen replica and then when it was clear, the body was back in the organization cloak with the hood thrown over his head.

"I knew it…its a replica", the Other says. He then smirked. "Just another soon to be a vessel. I've been waiting for this". The Other then entered Dark Riku's body as darkness envelops the two of them. He then floats out of the darkness with Dark Riku under his arm, flying in the air as the darkness fades away. Now in their place is a perfect replica in the organization's coat, falling to its knees then upon its face like a broken doll.

Riku stares at the doll, surprised to see it was a perfect replica before he called for his Other. "Wait, take the vessel!", he says, "This is your chance to have a body of your own!". However, the Other turns and refused. "The world already has you", he says as he turns to face Riku. "Besides, there is someone else who needs that more than I do".

It dawned on Riku upon one more glance to the replica, remembering that there was indeed another who needed it more than his Other. He gives the Other a grateful look though it was clear on his face there is remorse. Even after everything that has happened, with how hard his Other tried to become his person, he would still do whatever it took to make Naminé happy again. He still had her in his heart the whole time.

The Other nods to Riku as his body shines in golden light, slowly encasing his body. He wishes the master good luck before he and the dark one both disappear. Wherever they were going, even for his dark self, Riku hoped they found the peace they could not find in this life.

He sighed in remorse, staring at the body as Ignis and Noctis join his side, the king having an exasperated look on his face. When Riku looked at him, the raven sighed. "How many of you are there? Between Sora's lookalike and Kairi's…I am surprised there's no Axel twin", he sighs. Riku chuckled lowly, then he looks at Ignis pushing his glasses up, looking in pain and weary. He senses his dark powers had done more harm to his body and worn him out worse than they expected.

"Seems I may have gone a little overboard…massive consumption of mana and overusing the dark power is quite the harming mix", he sighed, "But what's important is Xehanort is two men down and we have a body for Naminé's heart to rest".

"So what do we do? I wanna help her out but…", Noctis says with unease, not wanting to disregard Naminé's chances of joining them. "We've still got the others to deal with…", Riku replied understanding.

"Then perhaps someone from Radiant Garden could assist us?", suggested Ignis, plucking his phone out, "I can contact Ienzo and see if he can get somebody to pick up the replica".

"We can't wait around for that", Riku warns. "Without a doubt, I'll remain here and rest up before re-joining the battle", he offered, "Once the body has been taken, I'll catch up". The master and king nod with his plan, deciding it'd be their best option for Naminé to gain a body for herself. The two rushed off into the maze, Riku going for Ansem while Noctis running for his friends to lend a hand.

"Ienzo? Its Ignis. We've claimed another replica for you, is there anyone you can send to transport it?", requested the advisor as his body heals. He nods and confirms the suggestion would work, albeit it was more out of lack of other options. Ending the call and now waiting for the pickup, Ignis starts to ponder on the possibilities of the progression of this battle altogether. Should things play out in their favor would Xehanort have a backup plan for such an event?

The man had gone through great lengths to ensure this war would occur, to begin with, and even if he is a man who believes destiny cannot be changed, would he allow things to play out regardless if it means he'll perish? Somehow Ignis could not believe he would accept defeat that easily. With two of his vessels already defeated, likely this is a step closer to creating the ultimate key to Kingdom Hearts, it would only be a matter of time for the rest to be forged.

His thoughts break when a corridor of darkness opens and stepping out from it is Demyx. Though he looked rather skittish and ready to run despite his smiles and chilled looks. The former vessel looks at Ignis and heaves a huge sigh of relief, putting a hand on his chest.

"Iggy, my man! Great to see ya", he greets, "And no one else that may wanna hurt me!". It still perplexes the advisor how a man with such disdain for fighting had survived his time with the previous organization.

The water user looked at the fallen replica and raised a brow at the advisor as if he were expecting the body to at least be standing. Ignis holds back a sigh of irritation and gestured the replica. "This is it. Hurry and take it back to Ienzo, I believe he'll be putting it to use soon enough", he instructs. Demyx nods and lifts the replica over his shoulder, grunting with slight exertion. "Righty, I'll be off then!", Demyx says, "Pretty sure you guys got it covered over here, right?".

"You're welcome to come back and lend a hand should the need arise", Ignis offers half-heartedly, knowing the man's aversion to fighting. Demyx gives him a very uneasy smile, chuckling awkwardly and bids him good luck before he goes through the corridor. Ignis sighed, shakes his head, and then looks down the path Noctis took, and without a moment's hesitance, he follows suit.

*Further in*

Fate often brings people together, and like destiny no matter what one does, it is unavoidable.

In this case, for Gladiolus, it was seeing Terra again alongside Aqua and Ventus, jogging to the clearing where the man who stole the body of their friend lied in wait for them. Along with Terra, using Xehanort's keyblade, is Vanitas. Of course, the boy of the darkness would never miss the chance to further torture the students of Eraqus, and adding someone dear to Aqua's heart to mix was all the better.

The three guardians stood before the two vessels, in their stance and ready for the next battle. Ventus however, nearly to Terra while calling his name, but was stopped by Aqua. "Look closer, that's not our Terra", she stressed, stepping forward to keep her brother safe. Ventus shakes his head stubbornly and replied: "I'm still calling his name, even if it's not him".

He then turned to Terra with the determination he had lacked in the past and without a doubt in his heart, says: "We have to light his way home". Aqua looked at her brother before Vanitas cuts in. "Hey, guys. Feeling a little left out here", he says impatiently.

"Hold on a bit brat, we'll kick your asses in a minute", Gladiolus says. Ventus then says: "You're coming home too, Vanitas".

In response, Vanitas scoffed and says: "My home is in you, idiot. You know what's gonna happen, I'll disappear forever". He lays his keyblade on his shoulder and then in a very condescending tone, says: "Don't you have any love for your brother?".

"We're not brothers. We're the same!", stated the boy from the realm of light.

Vanitas tilts his head, confused before he began to laugh maniacally, placing his free hand on the helmet as his laughter boomed in the clearing. Even not knowing him as well as the other two, Gladiolus could not help but feel contempt for this brat, the arrogance in his voice, the condescending attitude towards Ventus. And here in the middle of the great war, he acted like a teenage bully. "If you truly think that, then you're more of an idiot than I thought! Your naïveté is disgustingly hilarious!".

"We are nothing alike! I was always within you, all Xehanort did was free me from that cage you call a heart!", exclaims the boy of darkness. Ventus grits his teeth and waved a hand, exclaiming: "Then go back to where you came from!".

"…make me", taunts the helmet-wearing boy.

Terra, having been silent during this whole exchange, chuckled. He raised his head and opened his eyes, smirking at them. "If it is darkness you desire, Ven, worry not. I have plenty of darkness to go around", he bragged. "Soon, we'll be together again, all three of us…maybe we can include Gladiolus if you want, Aqua".

Instantly, the master aims her keyblade at him, eyes burning with hate for this mockery. "Stop this! You're just using our friend's body for your sick games!", she ordered. Instead of being intimidated, Terra chuckled mockingly. "A keyblade master who wields her keyblade in anger? How shameful", he mocks, "I expected that from Sora and Riku". Aqua lets a low growl emitted from her throat, but she refuses to be baited by his audacity.

Aqua lowers her keyblade, the rage within her quelled. She was not here for revenge nor blood, but because of the people who mean so much to her. "I fell into darkness, and for nearly twelve years I've wandered the dark realm", she says. "And now, here I am".

Closing her eyes, feeling the strength from all the bonds connecting to her heart, and with a warmth radiating from her side by her heart's pillar of strength and light. "And now, there are two things I want, with all my heart", she says. Opening her eyes and showing the power she had gained from her trials, she proudly says: "Xehanort…I will cast you out of Terra's body!".

She and Ventus readied themselves for their most challenging fight yet, while Terra smirks at Gladiolus. "And you? Here for payback? Or is it to shield her from her weaknesses?", he mocks.

"I'm here to do three things actually", Gladiolus reveals, calling Blade of the King. "First is keeping my king safe, second is putting an end to the pain you've done to Aqua and the others…and third…", he lists. He stares down Terra as his body glowed with the blue light, slowly cloaking his body as the armor Terra had granted him hummed with renewed power. Taking up his stance as Terra and Vanitas readied for their clash, Gladiolus shouts: "Is kicking your ass out of Terra's body!".

The five charged into the fray…

A/N: The first fight is done…and many more to go…

Next time is Sora's fight, despite the little teaser for Aqua's fight, just figured I'd do the ReMIND DLC's cutscenes after the fights and to build up the future battles.

Sorry if this one wasn't so good, Xigbar is really hard to do, you'd think he'd be easy since he's a super Prompto…maybe I just suck? Probably.

Anyways: QUESTIONS!

Q1: Thoughts on this chapter?

Q2: How was the fight?

Q3: What did you think of Ignis in this fight?

Q4: Whose fight are most excited for?

Q5: What are you looking forward to the most in this arc?

Q6: How was the Riku's in this one? Annoying or easy to follow?

Q7: Which fight in the game, ReMIND especially, was your favourite?

Also, to any writers reading this, what sort of music do you listen to when writing?

And important, due to work obligations coming this week, the next chapter MAY not be posted next Sunday. I cannot promise I will get it done by this Sunday coming but I will do my best to get it done. So if you don't see the next chapter, you'll know it'll come either on Thursday or Sunday.

As always everyone, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	72. Chapter 72

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 72

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

*Within the Maze*

Looking left and right to see himself surrounded by adversaries, Mickey holds his keyblade tightly when he sees Larxene and Luxord appear on opposite sides of him. The yellow-haired vixen throws five knives coated in lightning while Xigbar fires five cards at the mouse king.

Mickey leaps into the air, avoiding both sides of the assault. Though as he hovered in the air for a while, another vessel comes from behind him to slice him in half with a pink scythe. The king's instincts kicked into overdrive and with an impressive backflip, he avoids having his small body be cut in half by the grim weapon.

The mouse king flips several times before he lands on his feet, eyes fixed on the four vessels before him. The man who carried the pink scythe laid said weapon against his shoulder, smirking at the mouse king. The king knew this one, among all of the vessels bar the Xehanort group, was potentially one of his most lethal allies in this war, the one who ruled over the castle and had used Naminé to try and warp Sora into a puppet of the organization.

Marluxia.

A tall and elegant nobody, Marluxia wears the basic Organization uniform of a black cloak, black boots, and black gloves. His hair is shoulder-length and rose pink with ruffles, eyes are golden, likely they were another color before him becoming Xehanort's vessel.

The female of the party laughed haughtily at the king, cold and empty as always when she smiles wickedly at the keyblade master. "I can believe the luck you've got mousy! Bad enough you're up against the organization, but four of us? Even *I* feel sorry for ya!", she mocks, laughing. Mickey huffs before her wicked grin turns more madder and cruel, knives in her fists held high before she speeds towards him with nearly invisible speeds.

She managed to appear before the king and plunged her knives toward his skull, only to have a shield intercept her attack with a loud *clang* booming within the area. Larxene snarled at the determined-looking Goofy, who did not budge from her attack nor even had his shield be knocked aside from her attack. The captain had both feet firmly planted on the ground and did an uppercut attack to throw her away from his liege, missing thanks to Larxene's lighting fast speed.

Once her feet touched the ground again, Larxene's eyes fall to the earth and saw a red glyph appearing beneath her. With a shocked yell, she quickly jumps back in time for a geyser of flames roared to life from where she stood. She backflips and lighting zip back to her group, turning her golden eyes on Donald, staff alit with magic and Goofy in front of the king, shield held high. Before she is about to rip into them, Marluxia hummed thoughtfully.

"You may want to wait a moment", he advises, turning to the entrance, "We're about to have a reunion". Larxene followed his gaze to see Sora joining the king and the others, keyblade in hand and gaze hardened at the sight of his previous enemies. This made the woman forget the interruptions the idiots of the king performed and with her wicked smile coming back, she takes up her stance. At least now she could hurt Sora in more ways than just physical pain.

"You three ok?", Sora asks, surprised to see no damage to his friends. "We've been cornered a few times, but nothing we can't handle", Mickey assured, frowning when he saw only Sora had arrived at their aid. "Are you alone?".

The boy nods with worry, wondering how much farther their party was into this place. He just hoped Kairi was not on her own, but his worries for his girlfriend would have to wait for now. Sora looked at his long-time companions, they each gave him thumbs up. With a brief smile, he nods and turns to their enemies, keyblade in hand and ready for the real fight.

Behind the three combatants, Xemnas huffs in amusement at Sora's timely arrival and started to levitate himself to the air. Dark energy surges in both hands before he slammed them both together and unleashed a grunt as he opens his arms. Blackthorns race out of his hands, his body in a dome of grey energy, and the thorns had started to trap everyone bar himself within the thorns. Likely in the unlikely event that they would attempt to flee from combat.

Their arena settled, the clash between light and darkness begins anew.

Larxene immediately rushes in for Sora while her compatriots hanged back, Marluxia disappearing while Luxord was already shuffling the cards in the air before him. Sora meets Larxene first, his keyblade swinging at her while she danced around his attacks. She tried to stab him after evading a swing from him, only to have her arm caught by Sora and then using planned footwork, he managed to place his left leg behind her and with an extra push, knocks her onto her back.

Larxene zaps away from him by turning into a bolt of lightning and zip-zapping a few feet from him. When she returns to her physical form, she throws ten knives at him, five from each hand. Unaware of Marluxia had appeared behind him and was already going for the newly turned master's head with one fatal swing of his scythe.

Sora swipes away the knives with two strokes of his keyblade and spins around to block the pink scythe from lopping his head off. Marluxia spins his weapon and unleashes a flurry of strikes that left trails of dark pink energy waves that acted like a secondary blade Sora had to deflect and keep away from. While he is busying with Marluxia, Larxene got up and rushed to him again, jumping into the air and throwing her knives at him.

"Sora!", Goofy calls out, jumping in and blocking the lightning coated knives from impaling his friend. Goofy's shield performed its take and the master was spared from a shocking pain, but then he throws his shield at the witch. Larxene flipped over it and laughed at the captain's useless attack, only to then to be struck in the stomach by Mickey's keyblade. The king unleashes a barrage of attack on her with his mystical weapon and strikes her back to the ground.

Mickey glances over his shoulder to check on Sora and Goofy, the two exchanging blows from Marluxia's weapon and then when he looked ahead of him he saw Donald and Luxord fighting.

The gambler was throwing cards at the duck while the wizard swapped between using defensive and offensive magic. The cards were so thin and small it impresses Mickey that Donald was keeping up with the man, not receiving a single scratch on himself as of yet. The duck shoots a gust of wind at the gambler, the powerful gales threw the cards up and all over which leaves the man exposed to more attacks.

Donald runs toward him and jumps, attempting to bring down gambler through brute force. Unfortunately for the wizard, Luxord smirks and vanishes when the staff's head nearly touched his forehead. Donald stumbles onto his feet, confused, and lets out a yell of frustration, not sensing Luxord had appeared right behind him. Too late to turn and identify the threat, Donald was helpless before the gambler as he snapped his fingers and then a cloud of purple smoke surrounded the duck.

To Mickey's surprise, the duck has been turned into a six-sided die, and a sentient one. With an expression of shock and surprise on the face of it with the duck's sailors' hat as the numbers, Donald lets out several "waks" of surprise, confusion, and bafflement as Luxord admires his handy work. Mickey grunts and tries to jump down and lend his friend a hand, only to be interrupted by Larxene appearing behind him and grabbing the hood of his jacket.

Mickey was jerked back and thrown away from Donald, still in the air as Larxene chases after him. They engaged a dual in the air, two of the fastest members of their respective sides clashing in the air leaving their comrades to face off each other.

The tip of the scythe was caught in Goofy's shield, allowing Sora to make a quick run to strike at the pink-haired nobody. Marluxia yanked his scythe out of Goofy's shield in time to raise it and allow the pole of his weapon to take the hit from Sora's keyblade, saving himself. The nobody pushed the boy off and used the pole to smack him in his side. Sora grunts out in pain but yelled out when Marluxia slashes his chest and throws him into the air.

But before he could chase after the boy, Goofy stepped in, and shield tackled the previous usurper of the organization. The man grunted out in shock, amazed someone like Goofy had the bravery and strength to lay a hand on him, and more so Goofy didn't have even the smallest glimmer of fear within his eyes. The captain of the knights struck at the grim reaper poser with his shield, pushing him back and bent his knees and jumped up with his shield striking Marluxia's jaw.

The man staggers backward, giving the captain space to throw his shield and smack him right in his chest, knocking the pink-haired warrior into the thorns. Hitting them he was stricken with dark energy burning into his back, Marluxia yelled out in pain while Goofy runs the landing spot where Sora nearly slammed to the ground.

Catching the boy with both hands, Goofy sets him down and handed him a potion to patch up his wound. Gratefully the boy downs his bitter drink and once he feels his flesh knitting back up, he quickly jump-kicks back to his feet and calls for the keyblade once more to protect them from Marluxia's scythe. The pink bladed polearm was thrown at them and had they been a few seconds late both would have their heads rolling on the ground.

Sora swung the keyblade upward just as the blade reached him, harmlessly spinning in the air them. But Sora grabbed the weapon and throws it right back at Marluxia, along with several spheres of magic for the added touch. Marluxia hissed and uses his darkness to disappear from the weapon, tearing through the thorns with the spheres of light chasing it.

With Luxord and Donald, the duck was bouncing across the field yelling as the man was trying to strike him with his unlimited cards, cursing at the speed and bounciness the duck displayed. The duck kept hopping like a mad duck the second he realized he had been turned into a die, evading the attacks while getting more and more frustrated at how long it was taking for him to change back. Sora had warned him about his previous fights with this man, how he had been turned into a card, and die.

Except where Sora said it took a total of two minutes for him to regain his body, Donald swore it was taking FAR longer than two minutes. He wobbled and hopped around the field was Luxord kept firing cards at him, growing angrier and angrier at this predicament he had been put in. Here he is, the court wizard of the king's group, forced to run as a die like a complete buffoon while his friends were fighting back against them.

He sees Mickey being assaulted by a barrage of knives and lightning, Larxene using her duplicate trick to rip away any ground or space for the king to navigate. Furious between the die predicament and seeing his friend being ganged up by this loudmouth brat of a woman, Donald lets out an enraged roar as he stays in the air, steam whistling from his die body as he even turns bright red with anger.

He charges to the clones and with a bellowing roar, tackled the back of a clone and sent her crashing into another, both were cloaked in sparks and lightning while the real one stops and looked at what had happened. She lets out a "what the" before Donald tackled her next with a yell, right into her stomach. Donald sets his die body on the ground and starts to attack Larxene while dodging her attacks, getting minor scratches on his body that were at best superficial.

Even as wide and bulky his die form is, even Larxene had trouble hitting him with how quick and unpredictable his movement was, and with all his tackles that just seemed to be endless, he was easily eating away her patience.

"You feathered freak!", she screams, swinging her fist at him. Luckily, Donald's torturous existence as a die had finally come to an end, a puff of purple smoke boomed around him as he ducks underneath her knife covered fist. Mickey rescued his friend by blasting Larxene with a pearl attack, striking her in the back and forcing her to leap further away from the two.

With Sora and Goofy, the two pushed back Marluxia with their joint attacks with the captain guarding Sora's flank and the hero matching one of his worst enemies with greater strength and determination to win. With all three fighters of the organization backed to the wall, Xemnas smirked, amused. He aimed his hand and sends a large torrent of grey and dark energy into Luxord's body, making the man gasp in surprise before he hunched slightly over and the as he stands stall, his body glows in the darkness.

Power runs within him; new feats of strength he never attained before and would even go so far as to say he is just as strong as Xemnas was in the past. The thorns surrounding the fighters slithered back and returned to Xemnas' body as his dome of grey and black disappears. He gave the guardians of light one final smug smile and chuckle before a dark corridor takes him away. Sora called out his name, frustrated that the man runs away instead of settling the score here.

Mickey though kept his eyes on Luxord, standing before the four with a chuckle and smirk. He holds up one card before with a flick, dispenses a total of five in hand. "Exactly, what I needed", he says, his cards glowing faintly in red energy. He crosses both arms, and then extends them outwards, sending cards from his body around the arena. Slowly in the place of the thorns where they once acted as a ring, the cards grew as tall as a body and as wide as an ornate door.

Trapping the combatants in the space, no one notices Luxord had one card already between his two fingers and was eyeing Sora in particular. With a flick of his hand, the card flies towards Sora. The king of Disney Castle quickly sees the flying card and yelled for Sora's name, jumping in between him and the card.

Mickey swipes his keyblade and deflects that card. However, the piece of paper did not cut nor were there any signs of damages done to it. It turns straight up and faced the hovering king, suddenly a vacuum of light pink energy envelops around Mickey. The king had no hope of escaping the vacuum and was sucked into the card while yelling out in surprise. His body disappeared and the card, no longer plain white, shows the mouse king was trapped within in.

"MICKEY!", Donald and Goofy cried out as the card flies back to Luxord. Sora curses lightly, Luxord however looked far more amused. "One final game, Sora", he offers. He holds up Mickey's card and says: "Rules are simple, find me within these cards and strike me down within the time limit". The moment he finished that sentence, a green sphere appeared around Sora's torso, green and grey glyphs of clocks surrounding him and startling the two members of Mickey's court.

Sora placed a hand on his chest as the glyph disappears, staring at Luxord as he flicked his hand to add more cards to his current hand. "Of course, it wasn't going to be that easy", he says, "Where's the fun in the game if there is nothing to be lost?".

He snaps his fingers and a bright flash blinds the trio temporality to escape from their sights. When their visions were no longer impaired by the cheap shot, the trio sees Luxord had vanished and only his co-workers remained, likely as an obstacle to delay Sora. The master huffed in frustration when he saw the cards started to rotate and pick up speed, Luxord's taunting yet encouraging voice echoed on the battlefield.

Sora grips his keyblade as Marluxia and Larxene rush in to ambush him, but Donald and Goofy jumped in front of Sora and held back their attacks, Goofy stopping Larxene and Donald using magic to hold back the pink-haired nobody. They both gave him encouraging looks with determination burning in their eyes, pleading him to rescue their king. While he worried how well they would go against two of Xehanort's vessels alone, Sora reluctantly puts his faith in their skills and runs into the center of the field.

Soon as he stepped into it, Luxord appeared before him and throws five cards from each hand at the boy, in response Sora calls for fire to surround his body and engulf the cards. He expends his firewall to covered more ground and makes Luxord jump away from him, but Sora dashed out of the flames and got close enough to bring down the keyblade on him. However, when he sliced Luxord, all that happened is his body disappeared and a card fluttered to the ground.

He had forgotten the man could do that.

The boy sensed a presence and turns around to identify it. He narrowly parried one sweep from an oversized card that nearly lopped his head off and swats away another that went for his hips. Luxord spins and saunters to the boy while swinging his giant cards at him. The boy uses more strength to slice the cards in two and stabbed at the man, who disappears away from the boy once again. Sora groaned, irritated by this cheap tactic.

Sora then sees the man appearing just a few steps from him, throwing up a bunch of cards that, from what he could glean, symbols of the nobody and fireballs on them. Once they fluttered to the ground like feathers, Luxord spins around like he was closing a door behind him, a card appearing on his back, and then it falls forward to the ground. Like snakes, the cards shuffled together on the ground and then slithered to Sora's feet.

The cards stood up and had their backs facing the boy, hovering around him. Remembering this from his previous battle with the man of fate, Sora narrows his eyes as he desperately wracked his memory for what symbols were on the cards and which of these would reveal the man. He could hear the faint ticking of the countdown rumble in his ears, pressuring him to make a choice quick. This felt so much worse than the first time, where at worst it would be only his life that would perish.

Now he was playing for the king's freedom.

He sees one card careful turn as to avoid giving away the symbol it carried, but Sora spots a glimpse of a fireball on it and then an idea occurred. He spins the keyblade and fires one burst of magic at the card and once it was done, he turns on his heel and strikes the card right behind him. The card is sliced in half and shows nothing but blank while the other explode at a safe distance and takes two cards with it.

Two remaining, Sora throws the keyblade around him, letting it spin like a saw through the air. The keyblade cuts through the card behind him and revealed it be an explosion that propels Sora forward. He kicked the other card, his foot firmly planted in Luxord's stomach when the illusion is destroyed. The gambler groaned in pain as Sora calls his keyblade back and strikes the man twice and when he tries for a third hit, his keyblade hits nothing but air.

Sora lands on his feet and spins around swiftly to see Luxord with man-sized cards behind him. With a calculated smirk adorned on his face, the gambler sends the cards before Sora, barring his way. "You know the rules?", he inquired as the cards showed a consistent change on the faces. From circles to x's, another game Sora was forced to endure in the past and he feels the aches from previous failures. But this time his reflexes were shaper and reaction times here and now trounced his reaction speed in the past.

He hits all five circles before him, the cards disappeared and Luxord slumps, time glyphs surrounded him monetarily and left him helpless. Sora immediately charged in and starts to strike Luxord when he got the chance, not letting up and delivering several hits on the man. He strikes him hard enough to throw him away from the boy, then proceeds to fire an onslaught of light bullets at the man. Luxord's cards appeared as he soared over the ground and like walls, ate the magical light, and keep their user safe from harm.

The man of fate disappears within a card while Sora leaps and flips over the onslaught of cards flying towards him like knives. Given how thin and long the cards are, Sora didn't evade them unscathed sadly, taking several nicks and slashes across his body.

Luxord reappears farther from the boy, in both hands are five cards each and with a quick toss, he scatters them across the ground surrounding the boy. Sora looks at the ground too late to react when the cards suddenly shoot up and surrounded him, turning into tall walls. On the faces of the cards were fireballs and lightning bolts, each glowing the respective colors before they fired their magic at the hero.

Sora ducks, rolls, jumps, and does everything in his power to escape these attacks, having a mixture of success and fails in the process. Burns on his clothes and flesh, but that wasn't all the warrior had to deal with. When his feet touched the ground, he was struck in the back by something sharp and let out a cry of surprise mixed with pain. Sora spins around to see in time Luxord with another over-sized card in hand disappear and then on his left see him reappear with another attack.

Somehow the two elements didn't affect him as they did to Sora. The boy knew his magic would not harm him while he tried to slice him up like a blender, but now caught trapped with everywhere being attacked, he had no recourse to fall back on. Sora just managed to deflect a swipe of the card to the head but took a hit to the back by a fireball and is thrown off his feet and face-first onto the ground. He rolled away to avoid a bolt of lightning from striking him, flipping back to his feet as Luxord shoots more cards to the ground.

Surrounded by a horde of explosive cards, Sora doesn't risk striking them for the fear of creating a chain reaction of explosions. The boy of the islands is forced to dance around them and avoid using his weapon to protect himself, as he starts to feel his time was reaching the unfortunate climax of the fight. Luxord is unrelenting however throwing his cards at him while at the same time switching them up to create all sorts of trappings for the boy to deal with.

It is here Sora realized just how this man was going to win this bout if he doesn't come up with a back plan. Luxord knew an upfront fight with Sora would only end with the boy as the victor, and so to deal with him in a time limit, keep him on the defenses and leave absolutely no room for another means of coming back from the fight. The master feels the sweat of the pressure hinging heavily on his brow, unable to fight back without risking more injury.

"Come on, Sora. You're running out of time", Luxord warns playfully as he flicks more cards at him. He lifts his hands and as Sora stands there trying to catch his breath, he is suddenly surrounded by a cylinder wall form of cards. All of them were trap cards with the fire symbol on them, trapping him.

"Victory is mine, Sora", bragged Luxord. He clicks his fingers and the cards start to glow red. Within the unmoving tornado of cards, Sora grunts out in dismay before his grip tightens on his keyblade. He had no choice but to risk it all.

As the cylinder of cards detonates, turning into a tornado of explosions, Luxord smirks in victory. Yet…he still senses Sora's time…wasn't up.

Several rays of light pierced the cloud of smoke until a burst of the divine light clears the cloud, hundreds of slashes of light shining wildly and with one burst of strength, the cards that hadn't detonated were ripped into shreds as the cloud clears. Now standing, wounded but alive, Sora carried both Oathkeeper and Oblivion in his hands as his clothes patched themselves up and turned into their clash of black and white.

Even with obvious wounds on his face and body carrying the damage of Luxord's ultimate, Sora stared him down with determination and unyielding might. Luxord grunts as he calls for more cards, summoning all he had for this one toss. One last chance to make or break.

"Looks like we're in the end game, shall we see if this final attack shall determine the victor?", he asks as his body glows in dark grey energy while Sora's body shines.

"All in", Sora affirms, crossing his arms over his chest.

Luxord cries out and fires a barrage of cards at Sora with the full intent to rip him into pieces. Sora jumps towards the storm of cards, opening his arms and spinning around wildly like a hurricane of swords. Sora's hurricane slices and cuts through the cards, the speed he uses was so quick he was cutting at least fifty cards with each turn, protecting himself and reaching Luxord. The man of fate just smirks as the boy rushed past him and lands on his feet behind him.

Darkness soars from Luxord's as he staggered in place, cards falling from him, and only when the darkness needed for the X-Blade is depleted from him, he falls to his knee. His body beginning to fade away and soon he would return as a human. Sora reverts to his normal form while walking to face the man, and too his surprise he does not see any remorse or sadness. Instead, the man looked satisfied and even proud.

"You… were born for these kinds of games…", he says, respectfully. He then scoffed, and before Sora could say anything, the man flicks a card to the boy. Instinctively, Sora managed to catch the card. He blinks and stares at it, openly asking the obvious question. "It's a wild card…you've earned it", Luxord says simply, "Ignis was right…perhaps the cards weren't in our favor after all". Sora looked at him, begging to ask the question yet somehow he felt as if it did not need to be spoken.

"It could turn the tables…", he mutters quietly.

Strange as it may have sounded, for all the organization had done, Sora truly felt no malice or even animosity towards this man. It might have been him, but he truly felt as if Luxord, among all of the organization, was the least…evil? He felt…bad, that this man had to go through this end once again because of Xehanort.

With a smile, Sora says: "Play ya again, when we're just guys". Then, Luxord chuckled, and then it turned into genuine laughter, shaking shoulders and head thrown back. The man shakes his head, a smile donned on his face. "*just guys*? Sora, you are far from just a guy…but…", he jokes, before his smile turned softer and friendly even, "I would very much, like that". With his final words given, the man of fate disappears as the darkness leaves him, his body evaporating into nothing.

All that remained is a card floating in the air, and then the same light purple glow shines. Mickey's body performs a front flip whilst being covered in the light before it leaves him, and he returns to his normal form. He gave the boy a grateful smile and nodded to him, saying: "Thanks". With a wink and a thumbs-up, Sora grinned as the cards that had him trapped with Luxord fade away.

Once gone, the two masters looked to see their friends, miraculously, standing their ground against the organization's former usurpers. Donald dodging Larxene's knives while firing magic at her as Goofy blocks and clumsily avoids Marluxia's scythe. They both shared a quick nod and rush to lend a hand to their friends.

Donald jumps back from Larxene's insistent stabbing tendencies despite her lightning-fast strikes, only getting his clothes nicked and cut here and there. The woman swung her leg to the duck's bill, manages to strike him away and on his back, but when she dashed to confirm the kill, Donald bounced off the ground but during a flip he aimed his staff at the ground and fired a burst of magic that rocketed him to the air, evading Larxene.

The woman looked up at the flying duck, a hand on his hat, and aiming his staff at her. Donald waves his mystical weapon and slowly created a barrage of what appeared to rocket. He yelled and waved his staff at her, firing the rockets at the woman as they burst forth. Larxene leaps and jumps from the chasing fireworks as Donald falls to the ground, firing more and more rockets at her and uses his free hand to chant other spells on standby.

Larxene grits her teeth, her short patience had reached its end with the persistence Donal had displayed. For as long as it had been, the woman is certain that he was never this strong during their fight at the old castle, if nothing else he was more of a sidekick to that heartless hero. But now it was as if she is fighting someone completely different, and what further enrages her is that he was still the short stack of the loser guardians of light.

And she, Larxene, was having trouble with this feathered freak.

Crossing her arms over her chest as the rockets flew toward her, she bathes her body in electricity. The yellow lightning spreads around her and struck the rockets and detonated them all, ending Donald's barrage of attacks and freeing plenty of space for the woman of the darkness to exploit. Like a bolt of lightning, Larxene zips across the field and reels her right hand to deliver a shocking pummel to the duck, who lacked the same reaction speed his friends possessed.

"Donald!".

Sora appears in a blink of an eye, standing between the duck and nobody. His keyblade is raised to stop the fist, the lightning however slithers on the keyblade and onto Sora. Immediately Sora is coated in lightning, shining brightly as his entire body is shocked like he had been struck by a million bolts, his screaming agony ran through the battlefield. Donald could only stare in the horror of his long-time friend being in pain before Larxene hisses.

"Outta the way, loser!", she snarled before kicking him in the side of his head, removing him from her path. Sora skids on the ground, only stopping a few feet from the two, twitching and shaking in agony as flickers of electricity coats his body. The woman scoffs at him with a callous smirk, taking satisfaction from the payback she had been waiting to dish out to him. The only thing that'd be even more satisfying is if that red-haired brat saw her boyfriend in such a pathetic state.

One thing at a time she thinks then turns to Donald.

And is blown back by a burst of magic that kicked the air out of her lungs. The woman of lightning backflips and lands on her feet, raising her head to see a very, VERY angry Donald. His magic was sparking wildly around him as his eyes were red with fire, even his feathers took on a reddish hue to them as if he were boiling with rage.

Undeterred, Larxene cackles cruelly while standing up. "Aww, did seeing your buddy getting shocked ruffle your feathers?", she mocks cruelly. With steam screaming from his ears, Donald waves both arms up and down while hovering above the ground in a furious fit, his magic splitting the ground beneath him before creating a small crater beneath his feet. The duck roared: "YOU'RE GONNA PAY FOR THAT, YA GIGANTIC PALOOKA!".

The duck's staff shined in pure magical energies with little popping magic around the tip, himself levitating in a bubble of energy as magic swirls around him. The mage aimed his staff at the woman and fires seven beams of magic at her that bent and twisted toward him, forcing Larxene to leap and dance around them. Except when she was close to one by flipping over it, the beam explodes into fireworks. The blast strikes the woman and sends her into the air.

The rest of the rays chased her and exploded when they were close enough, blasting her in firework magics. Higher and higher she goes with each strike from the duck's awesome magic, casting a never-ending assault of magic and awe.

Larxene snarls and blasts the magic away with a burst of electricity, her eyes boring into Donald with the fury that matched his. She swings her arms to throw her knives, turning them into thick and huge bolts of lightning at the duck, but Donald meets her with a feathered hand raised and fires a stream of energy of magic at them. The stream swallows the lightning and blasts towards Larxene, zipping further up into the air to avoid the stream of mana.

With a growl as lightning grows denser and wilder, she elongates her knives into claws and then dives right into the ground. Plunging her claws into the ground, she conjures up several pillars of lightning around the area. Donald's bubble shields him after he added more mana to preserve it, but his eyes fall to the slumped Sora, a pillar of lighting readying to erect beneath him. Donald aims his feathered hand and fires off one ball of green magic that not only blasts Sora out of the erecting pillar but then healed him.

Sora quickly flips in the air during the blast, his eyes locking with Donald's for a moment, together forming a counter.

The court mage returned his furious gaze to Larxene, seeing her bathed in bright lightning and closing the distance between her and the duck. With an enraged yell, Larxene starts to stab rapidly at Donald's bubble barrier. Though Donald's fortress managed to hold off several of her attacks, the more she struck the quicker and more powerful her attacks got until her attacks seemed invisible to even the most trained eyes.

She reeled her fist back and with all the lightning she carried within her very being, she punched the bubble with every fiber of her rage and being. Donald's bubble bursts open and he is thrown across the field, caked in lightning. The duck skids and bounces off the ground, rolling onto his side after coming to a halt. The woman panted, grunting from the exertion her body endured with all the hits that feathered freak managed to land on her.

Larxene's victory is short-lived though, her yellow eyes expand in disbelief when Donald got to his feet, despite the pain his normal glass body had taken. He still had the livid look in his eyes, his magic still running wild through him and he even lifted his staff to continue the battle. "Why…how…HOW ARE YOU STILL STANDING!?", she demands, "You were NEVER this strong against us!".

Donald huffs grumpily and readies himself to cast whatever spell he was going to need put an end to this fight. Larxene's enraged look shifted slowly into one of smugness, cockiness even. "Pfft…what am I whining about?", she sighed dramatically, "Even if I gotta kick your feathered butt as many times as it takes, there's no way you can win against me". Donald stubbornly hated to admit it, but even with all the training he and Goofy had done to catch up to Sora and the others, his power wasn't enough to win the fight between himself and a member of the organization.

And that is why he is going to win this fight. Because what Larxene never seemed to get a grasp on, why Donald and the guardians were going to win this, is because they were not going at these fights alone.

Larxene narrowed her eyes at him, realizing he hasn't done anything since she mocked him, and looked to where Sora's twitchy body was. It is only when she saw he was no longer there did she turn back to Donald, now smirking at her smugly, did she suddenly realize she had been played. Quickly Larxene spins around and sees Sora too late to stop history from repeating itself.

With a final cry from the boy, Sora swings his keyblade and cuts her down, speeding past her mid-swing. The woman stands still, her body not registering the fatal blow being dealt with her, taking in too slowly to realize she had been slain once again. When the darkness is spirted out of her body like her comrades slain by the master and king, Larxene staggered and collapsed to her knees, looking at her hands and sees her body was already fading out like before.

"You…gotta be kidding…", she cursed, begrudgingly accepting her demise at Sora's hands. Sora stares at her, panting from the adrenaline leaving his body. "Look on the bright side…you'll be recompleted", Sora says, strangely wanting to comfort her.

"Did I ask for *your* opinion?", Larxene snapped, "I lost! To a bunch of losers like you!". Sora's expression does not change, feelings intact from the snappy response. He may not remember entirely the whole story of his time in the castle, but he still feels a sense of déjà vu. The woman then heaved a giant sigh as she lowered her arms, done with all this. "But…I guess it could be worse…Become that old coot's heart tank? Pfft…no thanks", she says.

"Did…you wanted to be a part of all this?", Sora asks, curious. Larxene huffs and looked away from the boy, before weakly shrugging as her strength evaporates. "Honestly? I was along for the ride. I don't care whatever that old coot wanted", she explains half-heartedly and vaguely. Sora tilts his head, confused as he tries to remember if the woman cared about anyone else bar her fun and amusement. "Along the ride with who?", he asked.

Larxene turns her eyes back to the questioning boy, then smirking mischievously and placing a finger on her lips, chooses her final words and her last way to screw with the boy. "My secret", she teases before she disappears into the next world.

Sora watches the vixen disappear, wondering when the next time they will meet. Even if she was cruel and malicious, he strangely hopes the next time they see each other, maybe they could be friends. Speaking of friends, Sora rushed to Donald, falling his hands and knees, panting and shaking. He kneels to check on him and sees the duck weakly smile at him.

"Ya did it…", he praised.

The boy pats his shoulder, grinning. "Couldn't have done it with you", he reminds, gently punching his shoulder.

On the other side of the battlefield, Mickey quickly joined Goofy in his struggle against one of the strongest members of the organization. To the captain's credit, he mostly had to deal with fatigue and a few bruises in the time he used to keep the man of the dark off Sora during his task to rescue Mickey.

Marluxia's long weapon stole more space from the two residents of Disney Castle and with the sinister blade so sharp and powerful, obviously Goofy struggled to get close without potentially losing a limb. Mickey on the other hand could keep up the pace with this man, flipping over his polearm and even boldly run along with it thanks to his shorter and lighter stature. Marluxia teleports away when Mickey was in arms reach of the man, reappearing behind him and almost brings his weapon down to slice the king in half.

He was tackled by Goofy, the shield slamming right into his back and staggering him long enough for Mickey to spin around and strike at him with his mystical weapon. The king hits Marluxia several times in a furry of swift hits with the final one swung upwards. Marluxia is then thrown into the air but teleports again further from the two.

With a flurry of swings from his scythe, he fires dark pink-ish blade-shaped energy at the two. Mickey is then grabbed by Goofy, throwing himself in front of the attack with his mighty shield up high and feet firmly planted in the ground. The attacks struck the shield and any other man would have long been tossed aside or even their shield would have been split into pieces. But Goofy didn't so much as budge an inch from this insane onslaught of attacks.

"Come on!", he cries and then propels himself through these attacks, shield taking all the hits. Even Marluxia was flabbergasted by this display, not even Sora would be bold enough to charge through his attacks with the confidence this clumsy fool of the king's party possessed. Goofy reaches the man and swipes his shield to the left and catches the tip of the scythe within the gaps of his shield's design, effectively halting any attempts of a riposte of the dastardly blade.

Mickey refuses to waste this golden opportunity his trusted friend has given him and jumps to close the gap. But Marluxia coldly smiles at the two, just as Mickey's keyblade nearly lands on his head, he teleports again behind both guardians and swung his scythe up and struck them both into the air. Goofy yelps in pain while the king squeaks in surprise, quickly flipping upright as Marluxia reappears to unleash a ruthless combo upon them.

Upside down, Goofy spins and throws his shield at the nobody, which was quickly deflected by the scythe. In doing so left him open to a free hit from Mickey, who dashed toward him and places the tip of his keyblade on his chest. He blasts Marluxia with a burst of light and blasted him away from himself and Goofy.

Marluxia lands on the ground and once he stood up properly he swung his scythe and created a whirlwind that immediately sucked up the air, dirt, and rock around them. Including Mickey and Goofy, both being sucked into the vortex-like paper caught in a hurricane. With the two guardians spinning around unable to get their feet to the ground, they were rendered helpless and easy prey for the nobody, brandishing his scythe and raising it to secure the kill.

But before he does, Goofy managed to flip himself up upright and then spin around willingly with arms outstretched and likes closes together like he was trying to stand on his tippy toes. Spinning faster and faster, Goofy appeared as a blur of green as the whirlwind that ensnared himself, and Mickey started to take on a neutral color and Mickey was able to escape it. Marluxia feels the wind trying to pull him into it, planting his feet firmly on the ground and grabbed his scythe with both hands. The blade glows a sinister dark light and with a swing, he fires a giant blade of dark pink energy that rips through the earth and towards Goofy.

Because of the suction of his whirlwind, Goofy practically brought the energy attack to himself. The captain lets out a yell of a surprise when his eyes managed to glance at the attack during his spinning. The captain holds his shield in front of him just in time to be in the position of the attack reaching him and smacking him out of the whirlwind he took over, feet slammed into the ground as he desperately tried to stop the momentum the attack carried before he was crushed into the wall.

Mickey rushes Marluxia, engaging him in a battle of steel on steel. Marluxia fires razor-sharp petals at the king while trying to slice the mouse king in half, meeting on his keyblade and the air around them, occasionally slicing bits of the old dried earth. Mickey jumps over pole and leaps to Marluxia, missing him again when he teleported to evade his demise. Mickey turned around, well-aware of this man's seemingly predictable attack patterns, and fires a magic barrage at him.

However, he hits nothing but the air.

Mickey spots him just a few feet from him, his hand carrying a dark ball surrounded in dark green rose thorns. With a cruel smirk, his yellow eyes gestured the ground and when Mickey follows his gaze, he saw his feet were standing on pure darkness and around it was more of those thorns. He quickly tries to jump out of this trap, only to be struck by a vine of thorns that slashes his chest, more stretching out and wrapping around his arms, legs, and even his neck.

Held helplessly in the air as the darkness begins to stimulate with power, Mickey struggles against the thorns cutting into him, yielding little success other than more harm done to himself. Marluxia's smirk turns into a cold smile as he readies to rid the guardians one of their masters, but he quickly leans his head back to avoid being decapitated by a shield that zoomed over his head.

His yellow gaze falls to Goofy, but he is then struck in the forehead by something made of metal and it made a loud *clang*, making him grab his head in pain. Shaking his head from the pain, he looks down to see what Goofy could have possibly thrown at him.

A…horseshoe?

He blinked, opening and closing his mouth, unable to find the words. "Guess somebody doesn't know one of life's valuable lessons", Goofy says, his shield coming back to him. Marluxia glared at the captain, insulted. "You dare lecture me, YOU of all the fools in Sora's party?", Marluxia sneered, eyes dead focused on the king's shield. Goofy nodded, not registering the insult. "Yup, tossing horseshoe is kinda like how life works", he says, knowingly.

"It's all about focusing on your goals".

Marluxia grits his teeth as he brandishes his weapon, ready to remove Goofy from the realm of light. Yet the captain is completely calm and even casual about the fight as if he were just giving a young man a valuable life lesson. "I sincerely hope, a slow as your brain functions, you put a lot of thought into those being your last words", he warns. Goofy just smiled and nodded. "Well no, I don't think those will be my last words, I still got a lot more to say to Sora when he grows up", he says, "Because you didn't learn your lesson".

"And what was it, pray tell?", he mocked.

"You ain't focusing on your goal, remember?".

Marluxia's eyes shot open and quickly turns to Mickey, now bathed in light. With a yell, Mickey's light covered the thorns and trails down to purify the darkness beneath his feet. Nature's chains undone, Mickey is free to resume the bout once more, all thanks to his trusted captain of the guard. Marluxia growled in fury, he had been completely fooled by possibly the stupidest member of Sora's group, and he did it so easily.

*HE* used *HIM*.

With a roar of shame and fury, Marluxia swung his scythe at the king, firing off a beam of energy at him. Goofy quickly tossed his shield to intervene and luckily his weapon proved to be the attack's undoing. Mickey would go so far as to say it worked…too well. As if…Marluxia was not *trying* to kill Mickey of the bat.

His twisted smirk solidified the king's worries as the shield was knocked further from himself and even more so for Goofy, laying face down on the earth. Mickey's eyes widened as he turns pale, suddenly realizing what this man was planning and cried out for Goofy to run. Marluxia's scythe is bathed in grey as the blade is coated in a miasma of darkish pink energies and even grows. "What good is a shield if you cannot protect yourself!?", he mocks. He brings the weapon down onto the ground, sinking the curved blade into the earth, and fired a blade-shaped energy wave the size of a truck towards the captain.

The speed was too great for Goofy's reaction time to run, yet he faced this with his head held up high and determination. Even if he was the one to go first into the new worlds, he was thankful he saved his king and hoped in some way his efforts would at least ensure only he would fall.

Before he welcomes his demise, Sora appeared right in front of his old friend, and with the blade held in both hands, he roars and slammed the blade against Marluxia's attack. Halting it at first before his legendary blade cleaved right through it and dissipated the entire attack, saving his friend from an early death. Goofy looked at the boy, relived he was fine, and most importantly safe, but the young man stood up and faced the nobody. He glanced over to the captain, smiling.

"You've always had my back when I needed you, figured I'd play the shield for payback", he said, winking. Goofy smiles back gratefully at him, proud of the young man who stood before him.

Marluxia watched the two, his anger vanished and in its place…acceptance. He didn't even register Mickey reaching him and with a yell, brings down the keyblade onto the former ruler of the forgotten castle. The battle was over.

Like all the others, darkness quickly evaporates from him and soars to the skies, disappearing to help create the legendary weapon. As he felt his life slowly seep away from him, he dropped his scythe to the ground, letting it disappear in petals before he falls to his knees. Looking at his hands slowly fading away along with him, he lets a tired chuckle.

"Oh…so now it comes back to me…", he said exasperatedly, perhaps annoyed it choose the worst time to come back. Looking at his hand, he then chuckled…a real laugh. This somewhat spooked Sora, never hearing a nobody laugh so genuinely. "Is…that a real laugh?", Sora asks, more so to himself. This makes Marluxia chuckle again, low and soft. "It seems…my heart is remembering what it is like to feel".

"Really? That's good", Sora says, softly smiling. Goofy smiled subtly behind the boy, more about him than Marluxia's joy. It warmed the captain's heart to see Sora is capable of making friends, even with his enemies. "And now, I am on the cusp of reclaiming my identity", Marluxia says, nearly joyfully. "My purpose for being…".

He looked at Sora with a genuine look of gratitude and says his final words: "Thanks to you, Sora". His body disappears like all the others, the final image of him for the boy would be a smile that was grateful, and almost human of Marluxia. Biting his inner cheek, Sora looked down and even wondered what could happen the next time he meets him…or his human form.

The four gathered up with Donald still too winded to continue the hunt, Goofy kneeling to his old friend and pats his back comfortingly. "You two hang back for a while, we'll go on ahead", Sora says. "Sorry bout that…", Donald grumbled, earning a light chuckle from the boy. "Look after him, Goof", Mickey says, "I'll head after Xemnas while Sora goes help the others".

"Be safe, both of you", Goofy ordered. The two nod and split up, going down their separate roads.

*Further in*

Sometimes fate can be truly a cruel mix of despair and hope, something Kairi had started to notice when it came to the bonds that connected the people close to her.

Here on the great battlefield where the first great war had taken place would be the reunion between Axel and Saix, and only one is going to walk away from this bout. She hadn't felt this apprehension about engaging a fight since she first met Ardyn, and she wasn't even the target of this fight. Ahead of them stood Xemnas, Saix and that hooded member Demyx had told Axel awhile ago. Kairi held back a scoff, somewhat honored that her first fight against the dark thirteen would be against Xehanort's nobody.

And gratefully she wouldn't be alone in the fight.

"Well, guess this was inevitable", Axel says unamused, directing this disdain toward his old "friend", before glancing at the hooded one. "And who's the plus-one?", he asked. The "plus-one" says nothing, still and silent while Kairi glanced at her, trying to gauge her and even see if she of all people knew them. Prompto by her side stared at the trio of nobodies ahead, keeping his breath steady and robotic fingers loose, ready to pull the first shot.

"Inevitable indeed", Xemnas concurs, then gestured the hooded one, "And this *guest* of ours has an old score to settle with you". Kairi frowns and glanced at Axel, seeing no recognition in his eyes. Looking back at the silent member, she wondered if this was indeed someone from his past, or was an old adversary of Sora's, but she couldn't recall him ever bringing this one up.

"You a traitor of darkness, as it is of light", Xemnas eludes, almost taunting them of their lack of knowledge of this one. Kairi felt a twitch in her brow at him describing the person as an "it", and Prompto's jaw tightened too, likely that description may have hit a little too close to home for him. She made a mental note to hit that smug nobody in the face as hard as she could. With a shrug, Axel casually yet coldly rebukes: "Well, I guess I can live with that".

Xemnas simply glanced at their silent guest, saying: "It is a being of whom we have no memory of". More questions booming in their minds, Kairi convinced this had to be someone new. If even their allies didn't know them, then how else could they someone they knew. "A true nobody, hailing from the edge of oblivion", Xemnas says, as if this was a rare species.

"The being before you was recreated…from the records left by Vexen", Saix adds in, "And the many experiments performed by Young Xehanort".

"Does this mean they're a replica?", Kairi asked in her mind, fuzzy with all the details. Or was it an entirely different matter altogether?

"It was erased from all memories, and it harbors absolutely no knowledge of itself, it doesn't even know who they are", Xemnas continues: "Even I forgot it, and like the others, I cannot recall who it is or why I forgot". Turning to the three, "Truly, a perfect pawn for this very battle".

"Pfft, alright then…who is it then?", Axel questions, "If they're perfect for this, then ya have to have given it a name".

Saix smirks then turned to Kairi. "You called on one of the seven new hearts", he notes, unamused and unimpressed, "Truly you must be desperate". Kairi felt that sting for a second before she felt the warmth from the crown around her neck and stepped forward. "First off, I'm one of the originals, thank you very much", she clarifies, "Second, you're acting pretty tough for someone who was going to let the heartless do all the work".

"Girl's got a point!", Prompto adds in, "And trust me, she's like our fourth best master and next to Aqua, our trump card for magic!".

"As the blondie says, if I'm the traitor, he's the joker and she's our trump card", Axel states confidently. Kairi glanced at the two, taken aback by the confidence they had in her, and even a little bashful. This however doesn't even sway Saix. "So it isn't desperation I spotted within you…just foolishness and lunacy", sighed Saix. Axel lets out an angry "huh" but before he retorts, Xemnas cuts in.

"Without the battle between the seven lights and thirteen darkness, Kingdom Hearts requires the seven hearts", Xemnas reveals, then coldly smirked. "That is why we need to eliminate the guardians. Are you foolish enough, to believe you can stop us?".

Axel growled and shouts: "What do you think!?".

"I think you'll lose, Axel", Saix replies simply and straight to the point. This makes the guest break their silence and utter: "Axel". None would pay attention to this silent utter, except for Saix showing a look. A…hopeful one.

"Even if you possess the strength, this being cannot be defeated by your hands", Xemnas warns confidently. "Even if memories are lost from you both". Prompto steps forward and calls his gun. "You know you guys like your wordy speeches, and kinda have a bit of superiority complex", he notes, "But all I'm hearing is: "BLAH BLAH BLAH DARKNESS, LIGHT, NOBODIES, YADA YADA".

Xemnas raises a silver brow at the gunner, amused. "Here you guys are saying we'll lose, we can't stop you, but news flash buddy, we gave your boss a big old "screw you" when we survived against THREE armies worth of heartless, and pretty sure Noct and Sora are cleaning house right now", Prompto says with confidence he never had before. Kairi steps forth with him, her eyes glowing with determination. "Prompto's right. I may be a princess of light, but I am also a keyblade master and a guardian of light", she says firmly.

"And so long as I'm still standing with my friends, there is no way I'm going to stand by and watch them be hurt!".

"Damn straight", Axel agrees, calling his chakrams, "Let's skip the chit-chat and see if we can't win this!". With a yell, he throws his burning wheel-shaped weapons at the guest. Then to their shock, the guest calls for the keyblade they wielded during their training and smacks the two burning weapons back at Axel with ease. The wheels were caught expertly by Axel, now reverting them to his keyblade and shouldering it.

"Oh, come on, ANOTHER keyblade wielder on their side?", Prompto groans, getting into his stance. Kairi however looked at the keyblade in the guest's hand and gasped. "Wait…that keyblade, Sora used it before!", she says, remembering him showing her his old key chains. Axel pauses, and then a thought occurs to him, only one person could wield a keyblade thanks to Sora, and feared that this fight may be a repeat of a horrible fight from the past.

"Is that…you, Roxas?", he asks. Axel feared this could be another Dark Riku or Terra-Nort situation, Roxas' body being a vessel for Xehanort. The guest uttered the name of the boy who Axel holds dear, somewhat familiarity in their tone. Saix scoffs, and growls: "No, it's not Roxas, Axel!". Prompto and Kairi took a deep note of how he said their names, strangely as if he was trying to jog something from their guest.

The guest clutches their head, saying the two names that Saix seemed intent on them remembering. Staggering and weaving side to side as if they were about to faint, but then they suddenly rushed towards Axel, screaming. It isn't like a war cry or a scream to get the blood going, but to Kairi, it sounded like a mixture of anguish and rage and pain. It somehow tore her heart apart, like she felt a connection to this person.

Kairi jumps in front of the guest and with Dearly Beloved, slammed her keyblade against their Two Become One. She grunts at the power behind this shadow, despite their smaller frame compared to everyone else here they packed incredible strength. Kairi glares at her with gritting teeth of exertion before the guest faced her and she saw the guest looked almost like herself. A girl…

"W-Who are you?", she asked.

The girl just yells and throws Kairi off her keyblade, forcing the two keyblade wielders to jump back. She would have gone after they had Prompto not suddenly stood between them, gun aimed at her and firing a warning shot at her feet. The nobody jumps back, her stance tense and full of fury while the gunner switches out his normal robotic and goes for the gatling gun.

Kairi and Axel quickly re-join his side, weapons out as Xemnas disappears into a corridor of darkness.

The stakes of the fight had just risen…

*A little bit away*

Rushing unknowingly together down their separate canyons, Sora and Noctis come to a path each and spot their friends in a familiar scene.

Down the road he must travel, Noctis sees in the air is Ventus facing off against the masked boy Vanitas while on the ground floor, Terra's possessed body squared off against Gladiolus and Aqua. On his end, Sora sees his heart's light, Kairi, facing the cloaked girl with Prompto taking careful potshots at the enemy while Axel and Saix dueled in the distance.

Both quickly ran down their paths to join the battle…

A/N:

*Bows* I AM SO SORRY IS A WEEK LATE!

Work obligations took over my life for a week, and when I thought: "I COULD GET THIS DONE ON THURSDAY AND MAKE ANOTHER CHAPTER IF I WORK THROUGH THE FEW DAYS BEFORE SUNDAY!".

…but life said no.

Two fights down, only…a random amount to go! Again, you guys can choose who's fight we'll do next, choose in your reviews please and again, thanks for waiting!

QUESTIONS!

Q1: Thoughts on this chapter?

Q2: Which one was your favourite?

Q3: How were Donald and Goofy in this one?

Q4: Which fight are you excited for most?

Q5: Anyone wanna see Yozora in future?

Q6: Can ANYONE figure out the horseshoe reference is from?

This is probably the most development or action oriented chapter for Donald and Goofy I will ever do. Also to all the writer who read this, have you ever have an idea you wanted to put into a story but when you got that section done you forgot it and regret it? Let me know!

As always, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but most importantly stay safe!


	73. Chapter 73

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 73

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

*Secret Forest: First Month*

Using her Dual-Blades, Kairi combines spinning her weapons around her while she flips and dances around the charging balls of light. Flipping over one that narrowly misses her back, she performs a front flip, splitting her blade in two and starts to jump around, cutting and slicing through the armada.

The princess of light skids beneath a row of six and aimed one blade at the source of these attacks, fires a burst of light that condensed into a single ray of light. The powerful beam struck the attacker's divine barrier harmlessly, the shockwave from the collision destroys the balls of light surrounding the two and blows the trees leaves so forcefully branches snapped and broke apart. Kairi scrambled to her feet as she switches keyblades and brings out Oathkeeper, runs towards Lunafreya.

The Oracle taps the end of her trident onto the ground and when Kairi's foot touched the ground, a holy glyph appears beneath her and stretches out into a large radius. Kairi gasped as in a pattern of a star, balls of light shoot up from the corners and entrap her, shining brightly like bombs. She raises her hand and shouts: "Mighty Guard!".

A brilliant golden dome closes around her just as the balls detonated around her, shaking the ground and nearly taking her hearing with them. The barrier shook and bore the full brunt of the point-blank attacks, though Kairi didn't even hiss from this attack. Gone were the days something like this would make her headache like someone took a hammer to her skull, even Lunafreya's magic couldn't even slow down the wielder of the keyblade.

Kairi then pushes both arms out and yells, the dome expanding and blasting away the balls of light. As soon as the barrier goes away, Kairi propels herself forward and swings her keyblade against Lunafreya's barrier. Her newly refined strikes were more than enough to shatter even Lunafreya's barrier, shattering it like glass.

The two royalties stared at each other, Kairi aiming her keyblade at the woman while panting from all the moving she had performed. Lunafreya sweating slightly from her use of magic and even using more powerful spells against her soon to graduating apprentice before both relaxed the moment she nods. Kairi slums on one knee, dismissing her keyblade and pants heavily. "H-How was that?", she asks, looking up at her master with a confident smile.

"Far greater than I had expected, I underestimated your reaction speed and strength", praised the Oracle, pulling out two bottles of ice-cold water from her pocket dimension and hands one to her student. "Your barrier has reached a new level of strength along with your previous test results", she lists as Kairi downs her beverage. More parched the older woman, the princess wipes her lips with the back of her sweaty arm while her grace uses her magic to heal any sustaining wounds.

"Soon enough there will be nothing left for me to teach you", Lunafreya says, pride mixed with a touch of sadness, "A pity too, I enjoyed our time as master and student".

"I guess there's only so much even you can teach me", Kairi teases as they walked to their campsite, "I'm just glad I managed to get all the spells down before my brain exploded with all the tests you've been given me".

While cleaning herself from the sweat from her rigorous training, Kairi watches as Lunafreya settles down on her chair. "So there is no other spells or tricks you've got for me to learn?", Kairi asks, sitting down on her chair and facing the woman. "I'm afraid so, I have taught you everything I can, and even still your training is far from done", Lunafreya says with a touch strictness, "Remember you are still a novice compared to the other wielders of the keyblade".

"Bar Axel", Kairi teases with a cheeky smile. In turn, Lunafreya giggled and affirms the innocent jab. They both giggle, then Kairi looked at her hand with a smile. "I can't wait to see what else Aqua's got for me…wonder if she'll teach me the Ultima spell", she muses to herself. Lunafreya hums in thought but then frowns and shakes her head. "I do not doubt future she will, but now it would be an impossibility", she said.

When Kairi looked at the Oracle with a questioning look on her young features, Lunafreya settled into her seat and says: "Ultima is one of the most powerful spells in all forms of magic, very few have been able to use it without destroying the world or killing themselves. However, even someone as adept to the magic as king Mickey and Aqua, it requires every fiber of your strength. It would take years of mental training and fortitude to even cast it".

Kairi pouts at the information, a tad deflated that the gap between herself and her master's magic was still at such a distance. Then again Aqua was training far longer than the girl, and even then she was still not a grandmaster of the spell herself. She shrugged and sighed good-naturedly, smiling. "Good point, aww well. Not like I don't have my own super spell", she bragged innocently, "If I can get the hang of using that Holy spell, even Xehanort wouldn't-

"No, absolutely not".

Kairi's rambled ceased and she is taken aback slightly when she saw the dead serious and even a bit of the "Yen Sid" glare. Not since their encounter with Ardyn in Altissia had Kairi seen how so serious and dead set on something.

"You are NOT to use Holy, no matter what happens", Lunafreya stresses. "But that spell helped me take down the Horned King and save Radiant Garden!", Kairi argues, "And if it can help us in the battle, why not?". "Because you will be exposed", Lunafreya states. Kairi rolled her eyes and placed a hand on her hip. "And you think Sora is gonna let anyone near me if that happens? Or Noct? Gladio? Aqua?", she challenged.

Lunafreya shakes her head and sighed. "Your body being exhausted is not what I meant, Kairi", she clarifies. "Tell me, do you even know where that power came from?". "My mana?", Kairi tried, but Lunafreya shook her head. "No. That spell draws power from the pure light within your heart", Lunafreya explained, placing a hand on her own heart, "Spells like Holy are the result when we use the purest light to combat the darkness, as you saw with your own eyes it dwarfs even some of the most powerful vessels of the darkness".

Then her eyes hardened and turned steely. "But at the cost of exposing our hearts to everything around them. Once cast, the spell takes every bit of light within us to vary results. Your time asleep was your light replenishing but were you in the hands of the heartless or worse…then your heart would have absorbed darkness".

Lunafreya stands up and approached the girl, placing a hand on her shoulder as her steely look shifts into one of concern and almost motherly. "In a place like a graveyard, the darkness may be at its worst, and should you use that spell, not even Sora's light can keep you safe", she warns. "You must promise me, Kairi, you will not use that spell. No matter what happens". Kairi frowns and looks away, hating this. A dear friend of hers, asking her not to risk it all to save those she held dear to her heart for her good.

"Luna…you can't ask me to do that. Especially if it means losing Sora", Kairi pleads. "And I am forced to stay behind while the king of my heart is forced to fight for our future", Lunafreya counters, "We all must make sacrifices Kairi…please. Promise me".

Kairi looks down before she takes a deep breath and faces her master. "I promise".

The Oracle smiles gratefully and squeezes her shoulder once more before she offers to make them some tea before they turn in for the night. Kairi hums in agreement, her face showing guilt and remorse. Behind her back, her fingers were crossed.

"I am sorry, Luna", she apologizes in her mind.

*Keyblade Graveyard, present*

Keyblades clashing within the forgotten battlefield, the sounds of battle ringing out across the maze, light fighting against the darkness.

For the first time since she had ever picked up her keyblade, Kairi stood against one who wielded the divine weapon in the name of the man who obsesses with the darkness. The girl who wields the symbolic weapon in her gloved hands fought the princess like a wild and enraged animal, her strikes followed with cries and grunts of rage as her weapon collides with Kairi's.

The princess meets her fury driven attacks with trained deflections and careful footwork, using all the hard lessons Aqua had put her through to counter against such an opponent. Reframing from using magic to conserve for a more lethal opponent, she hopes that if she could win this fight with just using on physical combat as opposed to her usual mystic style. While she and her friends were looking for the others, she felt great points of darkness appear for moments but then vanish as quickly as they would appear.

There is no doubt in her mind Sora and the others must have defeated some of the vessels that were hunting them, or, in this case, waiting for their arrival. Five in total so far, meaning if they could keep this up, and if she were right in thinking Aqua is already fighting Terra, then chances of them reuniting again before confronting Xehanort would greatly increase. At least, she truly hoped so.

The girl's cries of fury brought her out of her calculations, her keyblade swung with both hands into the princess' guard. Kairi's feet are launched off the ground for a second before she lands a few steps from the girl. When she tries to rush the guardian, Prompto jumps in front of Kairi with his triple-barrel gun and fires nine bullets at her. The organization member deflects them all with several swipes of her keyblade, now her target went from Kairi to Prompto.

Prompto quickly dismisses his gun and calls for his switchblade in time to parry a strike from her, letting out a yell when she unleashes a wild flurry of swings at the gunner. Kairi quickly re-joins the clash and takes over the battle immediately, striking back at the girl's furious assault. With a single thrust, Kairi plunged her keyblade at the enemy keyblade and with the precision of a sniper, her tip gets caught within the ring guard of the keyblade.

She quickly yanks both keys out of the girl's hand and throws it over their heads behind her and Prompto. Disarming her adversary with Prompto by her side, Kairi stabbed the keyblade towards the mysterious girl. The girl ducks under the stab, using her right arm to sway it aside underneath the blade while spinning as she takes a step closer to Kairi. The girl grabbed Kairi's wrists and flings her over her shoulder and slams her on her back with a loud thud.

Kairi gasps in pain just as the girl catches Prompto's armed hand and aims it aside just as his finger pulled the trigger. The nobody elbows Prompto in his stomach kicks him in the knee and forced him to collapse thanks to the attack. On one knee, Prompto was blown away by a force spell the girl performs, turning around and aimed her hand at Kairi likely perform a more lethal spell, but Kairi aims her keyblade at her and blasted her with a gust of wind that sends her flying into the air.

Kairi rolls onto her feet as Prompto scrambles to his feet in time to barely evade a wave of blue fire nearly swallow him up. Saix rushes toward him, eyes turning completely yellow with his scar larger and more jagged, even his hair is spiky and unruly. The wild man swung his giant weapon down onto Prompto, forcing him to roll away and take shots at him. His bullets, much to his shock just bounced off the man as if he were covered in armor.

Saix swings his weapon at the gunner, slamming the top of it onto the ground and creating shockwaves of blue flames that almost turned Prompto's boots into toast. Swinging his weapon to Prompto's waist, Saix almost struck the man and likely would have broken him in two, except Prompto backflips from his attacks, and during a flip, he swaps out his robotic limb for his gatling gun. One a knee, he quickly raises it and unloads a barrage of bullets upon the berserker.

Saix remains unfazed by the bullets, raising his claymore to block them as they harmlessly bounced off his steel. Prompto keeps on shooting however, getting to his knees as he unleashes the storm of bullets, smirking. Saix catches that smirk and spins around to quickly block Axel's keyblade from slashing his back. Back-stabbing, of course, Axel would use that tactic.

The pyro and berserker strike each other's steel, despite Saix's superior strength Axel parried and keeps up with the man. Saix was knocked back by a surprising display of strength from Axel's swing during a guard. His feet dig into the ground, but the pyro splits his key back into his chakrams, opens his arms out like a "T" as his chakrams roar with fire. Axel begins to throw several large balls of flames at Saix just as Prompto gets out of the blast zone, each time they met Saix's weapon they would explode into larger balls of explosions.

Even if the blue-haired warrior shares the same element as his former best friend, the flames burn him as much as they would burn anything else. He feels the roaring determination of the man before he had grown stronger. He snarls, and then a burst of light releases around him, the shockwave from this blows out the flames and repels the hurling balls of fire.

Saix's enraged eyes bore into Axel, grunting as he switches back to the keyblade again. Joining his side is the mysterious girl, keyblade in hand and now staring down the trio as Kairi and Prompto join Axel's side.

Wordlessly the girl turns to the entrance of the labyrinth, prompting everyone to see what caught her gaze. Walking towards his friends is none other than Sora, roughed up but otherwise ready for more. Kairi smiles in relief as Prompto and Axel waved the boy down, the gunner grinning. Sora smiles back at them, then turns it into a glare when he stares down Saix and the girl, keyblade already summoned for more.

"Already in need of back up?", Saix taunts calmly, "Thought you were above that".

"Says the guy always getting me to do the dirty work", Axel retorts bitterly.

Before more words were exchanged, the girl unleashes a scream of rage and rushes for Kairi, completely catching everyone off guard and unable to react when she suddenly is right before Kairi. Kairi had nothing less than a second to react and raise her keyblade to prevent a more devastating wound. The keyblade struck hers and throws the girl into the skies, the shadow girl chasing her with fury rivaling a wild animal.

Sora calls for Kairi but isn't able to join her because he was rushed by Saix, nearly crushing him with his massive weapon. Prompto tackles Saix in time with a lunge to save the boy while Axel rushes in to lend a hand to the gunner. Leaving Sora free to give his girlfriend a hand, quickly leaping into the skies to duel the unknown girl.

In the skies, the two wielders of the keyblade clashes with sparks raining down from above, the girl's attacks more aggressive and ferocious with each strike of her keyblade. Kairi was thankful for all the sparring sessions she had with Gladiolus, it made dealing with these runaway truck worthy attacks more manageable for her. But the more she fought the girl, the more she feels a strange connection to her like she somehow knew her.

Her trains of thought were kicked aside when she sees Sora quickly arriving at the occasion and kicks the girl away from Kairi. The organization member backflips as they all descend to the ground, taking the fight back to their familiar territory. The couple quickly retakes their stances, but the girl grabbed her head with both hands and unleashes a wail of anguish and rage, darkness bursting around her like a horrible aura.

Kairi quickly retorts this potentially lethal assault with a spell of light, her free hand bathed in the golden light. She yells: "Banishga!".

Beneath the girl's feet, a burst of light that outshines the darkness erupts and blasts her, making her wails cease into yelps of pain. She is struck several times by the eruption, battered left and right before Sora rushed in and strikes her several times with his keyblade before with one final strike, sent her flying across the field. The girl bounced off the ground and flips in the air, but suddenly teleports from their sight and behind Sora.

He is unable to react in time to defend himself; she strikes him in the back and knocks him up to the air, spins on her heels in time to deflect a ball of magic fired by Kairi. With the ball cast aside, Kairi is immediately on her with her keyblade brought down upon the girl. Their keyblades entered a deadlock, eyes bored into each other as Sora falls on his stomach with a thud.

With Axel and Prompto, Saix is in the air throwing multiple claymores at the two jokers. Each time a claymore strikes the ground, a burst of fiery energy covers the field and forces the two to run around dancing through the explosions. The two guardians of light constantly take shots at the man, Axel throws his chakrams while Prompto shoots at him, but all their attacks seemingly were no more effective than trying to use a glass of water to put out a house fire.

Saix grabbed his weapon of destruction and dives down upon Axel, the pyro swung his keyblade to meet his weapon. It wasn't a fruitful move however, Saix easily brings down Axel's weapon to the ground and when his claymore hits the ground, it makes an eruption of blue fire that sends Axel flying while burning at once. On his back, Axel grunts out and sits up in pain as his former best friend jumps into the air and brings his weapon down.

"Get back here!", yells Prompto, firing the hook-wire from his robotic limb. The sharp spike from the wire pierces through Saix's hood, and with one powerful yank from the gunner, Saix is yanked roughly back to the blonde. He is then roundhouse kicked by Prompto in the jaw, sending him into a wall of their arena with a thud. Prompto then calls for his bazooka and aimed it. "See if you can brush THIS off!", challenges the gunner.

The rocket flies towards Saix and explodes upon impact, covering him temporarily in fire and the entirely in smoke. With a grin, Prompto turns to Axel with a thumbs up, but frowns when Axel gave him the "are you serious look". A yell catches his attention and quickly returning where his gaze was previously, Prompto sees the nobody was mostly unharmed save for a few soot stains, burnt cloth, and some bruises on his face.

"Did you really think that was gonna be enough?", Axel asked impatiently as he gets to his feet. "How many people do you know who can survive a rocket!?", Prompto asks exasperatedly. Axel groaned in response, not bothering to remind the boy about their legion of friends who could survive a house falling on top of them. Saix summons another claymore and grips it with his free hand as his body glows in his lunar light, Axel sensing his strength had reached its peak.

The blue-haired warrior rushes towards Prompto and slammed one weapon right into his stomach. Prompto's lungs are emptied before he is thrown across the arena like he was made of nothing and slammed into the wall with a loud and heavy thud that shook the entire field. The impact so powerful it sent a large crack spreading upwards to the top, the gunner falls off the wall and lies on his stomach, out cold.

Kairi calls his name out in horror while Sora duels the nobody, Axel staring at the fallen comrade in disbelief. He turns his eyes back to Saix, staring back at his friend while dismissing his second weapon, almost unamused. Axel grits his teeth, his grip on the keyblade tightening to the point where his knuckles turned white with rage. Saix raises a brow at him, somewhat surprised he was already this angry over someone he had barely known.

It didn't matter though; he wouldn't last much longer without aid. He huffs and runs towards him, dragging his claymore in the ground before he brings it above his head to crush Axel once and for all. Except Axel changes his keyblade back into his chakrams and bathes them in such blazing heat he was glowing himself with a bright red fire. With a shout and out-stretch of his arms, Axel unleashes a roaring barrier of flames that acted like pillars, surrounding him and blowing Saix back.

The man flips and lands on his feet and looks to see Axel already within range with his keyblade roaring with flames. He reacts quickly to clash with his heated weapon, the two exchanging blows as their steel rings out across the battlefield, red and blue flames roaring around them as Axel's attacks started to go from concentrated and well-timed to him just lashing out wildly and angrily at the man he called a friend.

Saix deflects a swing from Axel and aimed his palm at him as it burns with energy. But Axel quickly slammed his palm against his with burning heat, locking their hands as fire surrounds them both, red and blue clashing as their arms are cloaked in flame. The green-eyed assassin stares down his yellow-eyed enemy, gritting his teeth as the flames burned him. Saix starts to push him back with a single step forward, prompting Axel to swing at him again.

Saix kicked Axel right in his stomach, making him groan out in pain as he loses his grip on Saix's burning hand. This allows the scarred warrior to thrust his claymore at him and only thanks to Axel quickly reacting in time to put his keyblade in front of him was he able to prevent himself from being impaled. The attack knocks him off his feet and forces him into the air for a moment, bent down, and nearly falls to his knees from the attack.

From the distance, while combating with the girl, Kairi spots Axel's bind and after she parries another swing of the keyblade, she struck her in her stomach to knock her back. When at the right distance, Kairi aims her hand and yells: "Bind!". Three large hoops of light appeared around the girl and quickly tightened around her, effectively binding her. The girl thrashes and struggled to break free but her efforts are fruitless.

With her taken care of, for now, Kairi nods to Sora and together they raced towards Axel to lend a hand.

Saix glances at Kairi and Sora running to him and responds to their foolish attempts to help Axel by spinning around on them, swinging his weapon over his shoulders. Slamming his weapon into the ground and fires off six waves of blue fire at them. Caught off guard, Sora and Kairi had no time to dodge the attack and were both struck by the flames. Thrown off their feet and slamming onto the ground, wounded, Saix takes this chance to rush in finally be done with this fight.

"Stop this, Isa!", shouts Axel. A wall of flames roars to life, cutting off Saix from Sora and Kairi. Leaping from the wall of inferno, Axel swings his keyblade once more to try and land a hit on the man. Except without any form of restraint, Saix retaliates by slamming his weapon as hard as his berserker strength could muster into Axel's stomach. Even using the keyblade to soak up the force and damage wasn't enough to stay the attack, forcing Axel to bend the knee and be subdued.

Panting from the pain, Axel glares heatedly at the man, his yellow eyes hiding his emotions and thoughts. His weapon rises, likely to deliver the final blow, but a dark corridor opens behind him. And who else would appear to witness the demise of the traitor to the organization, other than the previous leader of the organization?

"Xemnas…", gritted Axel, glaring.

Xemnas walks up to Saix's side, staring at Axel. "In the past, I once counted on you to deal with traitors", he reflects, giving the red-haired fire user a look as he passes by Saix to stand before Axel. "Now this betrayal outstrips them all. You know what the penalty for betraying the organization is, correct?", he asks. Axel makes a pained smirk, scoffing. "What? Becoming a dusk?", teases Axel. Unamused, Xemnas sighed while shaking his head. "Fool…even that is too good for a man of your dishonesty", he says.

"What final words do you have for your superior?", he asks, morbidly curious. Axel chuckled ruefully, resting a hand on his knee with a shake of his head. "Ooh I've got plenty of words to choose from, but bet'cha want some profound? Something like your human-self would say?", taunts Axel, mocking the man's habit for long-winded speeches. "How about: "You were never my superior"? Would that suffice as final words worthy?".

Disgust etches itself on the "superior's" face, the gale that this traitor still carries even in the face of his execution was admirable indeed, however, misplaced it was. "The rogue pawn, as always. Knocked from the board early in the game", dryly lamented Xemnas. Axel huffs in response as if the idea were too maddening to even be thought of. "You kidding me? Do you know how many people I got rooting for me?", he asks with a cocky smirk.

"I'm even more popular than Iggy, and that guy probably got a legion of fans for him. So sorry boss man…but NOBODY axes Axel". He points to his forehead and says his ever-famous words: "Got it memorized?".

He lunges forth and brings his keyblade down onto Xemnas. Only for the man to grab his keyblade right below the teeth of his flaming key. Axel's eyes widened with surprise and even a small trace of fear. Xemnas however remained stoic and unamused as usual, even though there was a smirk plastered on his face as he drinks in the look Axel displayed. "Is this a keyblade? It seems more of a joke than anything else", mocks the superior.

Before Axel could even comprehend the situation, Xemnas summons his dark thorns and struck the keyblade right between the ring guard and blade. The thorns pierce it and to the shock of the spectators' bar Saix, the keyblade dematerializes into flames before evaporating away into nothing. Axel staggers backward but the superior was far from done with this meddler, blue lighting dances around his hand before with a single wave of his hand, he entraps Axel in a space, isolating him. Amidst the darkness, red lasers surrounded the pyro and with a flick of the superior nobody's wrist, and a barrage of lasers is unleashed upon Axel.

Stuck from all corners and sides, Axel could only stand and take the merciless hits from his former boss, growling and gasping in agony as his body endures this horrible punishment. Only after what felt like thousands of searing hot bullets striking Axel's body, the superior ceases his attack and releases Axel, allowing him to fall to his knees in defeat and pain. With a flick his right hand, a single laser saber outstretches from his palm as he marched towards the man who mucked up so many of their plans.

"Our plans have been dashed by your interventions, far more then I would care to count", says Xemnas. Axel weakly but defiantly glared at his former master, head held high as he readies himself to resign to the fate that lies before him. "But now your constant meddling end here, I will purge that light from you…with darkness!", proclaims Xemnas. He thrusts his palm-laser into Axel, but then before the tip could even reach his heart, the blade was stopped.

Axel looks to see the laser is caught by the hand of the mystery girl, knelt and between the two. Steam rises from her grip on the blade, likely burning into her skin already yet she did not even whimper in pain nor even seemingly register the burning. This even gets Xemnas to address her with bemusement. "Changing sides, again?", he questions.

"…we need him alive…you know that", the girl finally speaks, and to the two masters she almost sounded like Kairi. With a scoff, Xemnas' glare turns even colder and less human, if that were possible. "We only need his heart to forge the key, his soul is of no concern", he lectures. But then there is an expression on his face, as if though he had suddenly remembered something interesting. For a moment there is the smallest trace of shock before it is kicked into the ground and standing over it was a cold and empty smirk.

"Oh…that's right…you were "friends". Then…you can take his life", he instructs. Dismissing his weapon and allowing the girl to stand up and call her keyblade. The girl with her key in hand aims it at Axel to finally remove him from the battle. Yet there is hesitation in her hand, something Kairi had taken note off immediately when she had been secretly healing herself and Sora using a spell Lunafreya taught her.

A shared glance between her and Sora was performed as the boy gets to his feet.

Axel raised his head to the girl, unable to see her face still like the others but somehow he feels that familiar feeling again. The one that cuts his heart and brought tears to his eyes more than he would have liked to admit. Even without seeing her eyes, he just knew there was a great deal of pain residing within her heart, and it felt like his. "Who…are you?", he asked, near pleaded to know. She lets a low gasp escape her, and even tilts her head to look away from him for a moment but returns to face him again.

Her keyblade was then gently gripped by a hand, and when she looks, Sora was there. This time he did not look at her with the eyes of an enemy, but one that cried sympathy and genuine concern for her. Almost like…the other boy.

"Don't do this", he pleads, softly and kindly.

She looks away, but then with teeth clenched to hold back the voice that wanted to express her true anguish, she throws his hand off the keyblade. Sensing her aggression was coming back, Sora jumps back as she chases him.

Sora lifts his keyblade to guard against her attack, slamming her keyblade onto his with crying out in anger. Each strike from her keyblade, Sora could feel her pain, that horrible agonizing pain that had burrowed deep within her heart. A pain he had felt for so long, a great pain no one should have ever be forced to bear. When she slammed her keyblade on to his, she tried to press down and force it down to remove his guard.

But even with all her attacking, Sora refused to strike back. "It's alright! You can stop now!", he says, no, he begs. Tears were running down his eyes, shocking her. Her hands shake as she stares at the boy's face, the same tear-stained face she had been on the receiving end in the past. The tears of someone who endured a horrible pain and loss, the same feeling on the day she had perished, her only memories of the boy who shared that special connection to her heart bore that anguish as she.

"It's alright…Xion".

She gasps…and then tears ran down her cheeks. Slowly memories of her old life came flooding back to her, not the painful days of her discovery but the days she had spent with two of the most important people to her heart. Days on the clock tower, eating ice cream and taking the sunset in, friends by her side as their existence slowly grew with purpose. More memories rush into her, making her clutch her head and thrash as her keyblade falls to the ground. Her cries of pain and misery echoing throughout the labyrinth, only to be cut off when Xemnas teleports right in front of her and Sora just before she could look at Axel.

"Useless puppet", spat Xemnas.

With a kick to the girl's stomach, she was thrown into Sora, and both fall to the ground, her hood finally falling back to reveal herself to the world again. She looked almost like a complete twin to Kairi two years prior before their adventures started, having her blue eyes and virtually the same haircut, though her hair is black, and her bangs part on a different side, some tucked behind her right ear.

Axel even flinches and grabbed his head but his eyes open wide quickly when the name he had been so desperate to remember came back to him. "Xion…", he whispers, memories opening in his heart. "XION!", he shouts as Xemnas approaches to finish her off. With adrenaline rushing in his veins and even with his body nearly breaking apart, Axel lunges to Xemnas with a cry. The superior only turns his head slightly grant the man the smallest bit of attention before he fires a laser that struck him in the chest.

Even a direct hit like that did nothing the halt Axel as he took a swing to the man's jaw. Xemnas merely sidesteps him and trips him up and allows the man to fall by Xion's side. Axel rolled onto his side and stares heatedly at Xemnas, placing himself between the man and Xion instinctively. "A broken body and keyblade, but you still think you can play the role of a guardian of light?", mocks Xemnas.

"Screw you…", growls Axel, forcing himself to stand up and adamantly stand between Xion and Xemnas. Even staggering to stand while clutching his left arm, the burning determination runs within the man's eyes, now more than ever determined to keep the girl he failed before safe. Xemnas however, unimpressed by the stubbornness of his worst subordinate. "It figured, you would throw your life away for a failure…a mistake that should never have been created", cruelly proclaims Xemnas.

"Don't you dare…call her that…", Axel growled out, "She's NOT a mistake!".

Xemnas laughs mirthlessly as if Axel had said the funniest thing he had ever heard. He cruelly fires another laser at the man, striking him in the knee and this forced Axel to bend the knee at him. Another laser fired, and another, and another until Axel is forced on both knees, wounded and unable to get up. "A puppet and a traitor… at least rejoice. You'll both die together, and this time you will be forgotten by all".

Before the laser that would take Axel's head was fired, a gunshot rings out and Xemnas is struck in the chest by three bullets. He staggered back with a grunt, using his laser saber to destroy the other oncoming bullets that almost found a home in his head. Xemnas glanced to see Prompto with the gun in hand, all wounds healed and eyes burning with resentment. He marched towards then man as Kairi quickly rushes to Axel and Xion, and when Xemnas tries to strike Axel again Prompto shoots.

Destroying the bullets again, Xemnas regards Prompto with an impassive look. "The failed experiment", he mocks as Prompto stands in front of Axel and keeps his gun trained on the superior. "Ardyn did say the king of light picked up a malfunctioned MT…", he muses, before he cruelly chuckled, "Oh, I see…do you feel a kinship towards the puppet? Both of you were failures in your little ways, after all".

"…says the biggest nobody of them all", Prompto spits bitterly, "Using and tossing everyone aside when they aren't any use to you". Xemnas raises a brow at the sudden bravado the gunner carried within him. Looking at his robotic limb where the lingering tattoo that once marked him, Prompto feels that irritation on his wrist for a moment before he clutches his gun tightly and stares down Xemnas. "I dunno what the whole story is about her, but what do know is she's no different than me, Kairi or anyone else here…", he says confidently. "It doesn't matter how she was made or where she came from. She's got friends waiting for her to come home, and there's no way you're gonna take all that away from her!".

Prompto unleashes several shots onto Xemnas, the man using his laser sabers to protect himself just as Saix runs into the fray. The gunner yanks out a disc-shaped device from his back pocket and flings it to Saix, yelling: "Heads up!". The disc lands on the ground just before Saix and then a burst of electricity creates a dome around Saix and shocks him into place, making him roar with pain as Prompto takes more shots at Xemnas.

Xemnas teleports before the blonde swipes his laser saber at him, Prompto in response raises his robotic limb to catch the attack and guard against it. Xemnas' blade doesn't cut through the limb, much to his surprise as Prompto smirks at him. "My girl is the best mechanic in the worlds, even laser proof!", Prompto brags, quickly aiming the gun at Xemnas' head with his left hand. "But is your skull bulletproof?".

Before Prompto could pull the trigger, however, he gasps when a searing heat runs through his stomach, and he glanced down to see Xemnas' left hand was resting on the gunner's stomach with the laser piercing his stomach. Prompto drops the gun as his body staggers and slowly slumps to the side, Kairi and Axel screaming his name. Xemnas spares a glance to the fallen gunner clutching his stomach as he bleeds, groaning in pain before turning to the remaining guardians.

"There will be no more delays, your lights will be purged", he states confidently, calling both lasers to his hands.

Just when he is about to bring down the numbers of the guardians, Sora's body shines with light as a heart suddenly leaves his body and soars to the skies. No sooner had the heart vanish, a giant pillar of light rockets down to the battlefield. Xemnas quickly leaped away from it, fearing not even he could survive a full-on collision from this light. Dust flies up as the guardians are hidden within the cloud, Xemnas sensing a familiar presence returned to the realm of light.

"It…cannot be…", he says, disbelievingly.

But it was who exactly he thought it was, as the cloud is cleared. Standing in front of his friends like a shining beacon of hope, two familiar keyblades in hand, and with a simple lift of his hood, Roxas stands before his former superior.

"Roxas…", Axel gasps, grinning.

The key of destiny turned to his friend with a small smile and replied: "My turn now". The raven-haired girl looks up at him, uttering his name as she and Axel stand together. He gives her a beautiful and warm smile that made her lips form a joyous smile. Slowly behind them, Sora rises to his feet as Kairi immediately tends to Prompto's wounds, the blond smiling weakly. Roxas looks at him with a grateful smile, saying: "Thanks".

"No need to thank me, divine intervener", Prompto groaned out, coughing.

"This is impossible…where did you get a vessel?", commanded Xemnas, glaring at the boy who defied fate. Roxas in response stares daggers at the man who had caused himself and his beloved friends so much pain. "Same as you. Most of the organization's members, their hearts here traveled to the past as hearts", explains Roxas. "You had replicas ready for every one of them, waiting".

Xemnas grunted out in restrained anger, another traitor amongst them had once again benefitted the guardians of light. "And who told you?", he ordered. "Too many to list right now, but let's just say you know a good majority of them", Roxas hints as he raised his keyblade to the man. A cruel realization dawns on the superior's face as he seethed. "Ansem the Wise…Zexion…", he lists with a scowl. "And that's just the scrapping of the surface", Roxas says, before tauntingly says: "Looks like you're not as good at winning over people's hearts as you think".

"But there was one last thing I needed to be whole again. A connection, and who better to help me connect than the very person who connected us all?", he says as Sora recalled his keyblade. One glance to Kairi and Prompto, his wound healed although he was still unfit to resume immediately, Sora sees the girl giving him a confident nod. With five keyblade wielders all together and even with Prompto at a distance, the odds of victory had greatly increased on their ends.

Together they all raced towards the two nobodies, weapons held high as morale skyrockets to the heavens.

Saix immediately runs in, however, going for Roxas and Xion. He is intercepted by a trio of bullets that forced him to sidestep, they zoomed past his head and through his blue locks. Axel immediately brought the keyblade down on his claymore, striking it with enough force that Saix is pushed backward and with another swipe of his burning keyblade, Axel knocks it out of the way of his torso. Axel slammed the blade into his stomach and ignited his weapon's tip to create a small explosive burst that finally harmed the berserker and blasted him away.

With Saix being handled by Axel and Prompto, the four keyblade wielders took their fight to Xemnas. Sora is the first to reach him and engage in a battle of laser and steel, his divine weapon bouncing off the weapons of choice. Xemnas huffs and with a single riposte swats Sora aside, leaving Xion and Roxas to rush in with the former skirting around behind the superior while her best friend takes to the air and brings down Oblivion down onto the man who took him into the organization.

Xemnas managed to hold back both keys from his former subordinates despite being attacked from two sides, the gap in power between them is clear. Even as Roxas and Xion pressed down on his laser blades, the man smirks and easily repelled them both by swinging his weapons around and disengaged their weapons. He shoots dark energy at Roxas and sends him flying before spinning around and kicking Xion in the shoulder and knocking her aside.

The final keyblade wielder close to him jumps down from above with her hands gripping the keyblade tightly. He crosses his lasers in an X formation to hold back her attack, but Kairi's keyblade cuts through the lasers and destroys them, rendering him defenseless. Shock dances in his eyes as Kairi lands and rushes into him with a flurry of strikes while he levitates away from her amazing display of skill. Not even Sora had the strength to break through his lasers.

Grunting while flicking his wrists to call forth more of his laser sabers, Xemnas clashes with Kairi as she relentlessly keeps moving forward while parrying his lasers. The determination in her eyes, no traces of fear within them, and her light shining so brightly it almost left the man of nothingness speechless, this was not the same girl his second in command had brought to them a year ago. A true guardian of light that stands amongst her peers.

But still, she bares the same great weakness Sora will always carry.

He glances at Xion getting to her feet and made sure to take as long as it took for Kairi to follow his gaze long enough to put two and two together on what he was about to do. He snaps his fingers and then a ring of lasers trained on Xion surrounds the raven. Kairi tosses her keyblade at Xemnas in retaliation before she turned and aiming her hand at Xion, chants a quick spell to encase the girl in a dome of light.

The lasers bounced harmlessly off the dome, Xion is saved. And that was exactly what the man hoped for. He quickly turned his palm onto Kairi who only realized too late what the man was doing, and fired tendrils of grey and black at her. Upon touch, Kairi is levitated and trapped in an aura of grey and darkness, letting out several whimpers and groans with her strength being sapped away, a sudden wave of weakness washes over her body as she slumps in the barrier.

"Kairi!", shouts Sora.

The boy rushes towards Xemnas, blinded by concern and rage. The superior turns swiftly and aimed his free hand at the boy and struck him with the same sapping energy and traps him. With both masters levitating by his side, trapped as their light and strengths are being sapped away, Xemnas smirked coldly at the four guardians before him, Saix standing right in front of the master like a guard.

"Now watch…as your friends wither away to nothing", he smugly taunts as the two masters groan out weakly.

Prompto growls and feels sweat run down his forehead, the tables have turned on them in less than a minute. He looks at Kairi's withering form, eyes closed as painfilled whimpers escape her as he sensed her getting weaker and weaker, his grip on his gun tightening. He shares a glance at Roxas, his teeth bared as the boy's anger rises, both of them nodded and readied themselves.

Making the first move, Roxas runs in toward a flying Xemnas, going for the toughest one first while Xion and Axel trail behind him. Saix snarls and then several levitating heads of his claymores surround his body before he propels himself towards the three friends, but Prompto runs in and swaps out his gatling gun for his rocket punch. With a quick aim, he launches the rocket arm towards the berserker and quickly swaps out the connections with another weapon.

The arm struck Saix in the shoulder and knocked him back to the ground and on his feet. Yellow enraged eyes snapping towards Prompto, but Axel quickly obscured his view and stood in front of the man. Xion dashes past him and leaps towards Xemnas with Roxas in tow. The two younger teens swing their keyblades at their previous leader, Xemnas meeting their keyblades with his laser-sabers and maintaining his levitation while they use their air-dashing to keep up with him.

With Xemnas handled, Axel turned on Saix as the man's blue flames grow more intense, his rotating claymores surrounding him. As much as his ego hated to accept it, Saix was more powerful than the red-haired keyblade wielder had expected, maybe even a master level of strength. With Prompto having his back he might be able to pull off another lucky win, but he isn't an idiot, even their strength is enough, and it would be a matter of time before Roxas and Xion would fall to Xemnas.

Time to get serious…

Axel switches his keyblade back into his chakrams, stretches his arms out in his usual T-pose stance, and then unleashes a roar. Flames suddenly cloak around the pyro, roaring fire that acted like an aura imitating a volcanic eruption as Axel's chakrams suddenly burst into wheels of flame. Axel's eyes glowed in fiery light, flames licking his shoulders as golden red tattoos resembling his old tear marks appeared on his face, the chakrams silver was turned into crimson with golden flames licking the spikes. Axel tilts his head up as the flames around his weapons and body grew hotter and more intense.

With a wild grin plastered on his face as all sense of self-preservation and caution against Saix's berserker tendencies were thrown out the window, Axel exclaims: "LET'S TURN UP THE HEAT!".

Axel dashes towards his old friend, leaving a trail of flames as his levitates above the ground and brings his chakrams down to Saix. His speed dramatically catches Saix off guard, allowing him to slash his chest with a burning chakram. His steel cuts the berserker's cloak and even spreads small embers along with it, even his fire couldn't compare to the heat Axel carried. Axel dances around him while throwing his lethal weapons, striking his body and weapon while fire dances around him.

Saix leaps back into the air and throws his claymore at the pyro. Axel raises a wall of fire behind him and leaped back into it, disappearing just when the weapon struck the ground and fires a shockwave. Axel's wall of flames appears and he propels him out of it and soars towards Saix from behind, catching him off guard and striking him in the back. Saix grunts out in pain but Axel aimed his left hand behind him and fires a torch of flames blasts the two of them back to the ground. Slamming Saix on his stomach, Axel slams the face of his chakram down on his back and scorches his body. The flames covered the ground and turned the earth into a floor of burning earth as Axel uses more flames to create a dome of flames.

Cutting Saix off from helping Xemnas and keeping the others safe, Axel jumps off him and dances on the spot, chakrams rotating in his hands as the man gets up, raged coating his face as the blue flames grow more intense. Axel laughing wildly says: "Come on, LET'S KEEP THIS UP!". They rushed in and clashed, flames of opposite colors clashing as the steel bends and melts each other's, Saix landing blows on Axel's more lanky frame but the assassin slices and cuts Saix in retaliation.

Axel jumps back while throwing his chakrams at him, the wheels spinning quickly and appearing as pure disc-shaped flames that roared. Saix swipes them aside and tosses his weapon at Axel, the man front flipping over it as it gets absorbed by the flaming wall. Axel recalls his chakrams and skirts around Saix, getting behind him and swung them both up his back, cutting cloth and flesh. Saix is launched into the air and Axel gives chase, striking him several times and drawing more blood from his old friend as his flames flicker wildly.

His arm is caught by Saix and the berserker lands a solid jaw-breaking punch to Axel's face, halting his momentum and staggering him. He swung Axel over his shoulder and slammed him back onto the ground with enough force to leave a body imprint on the burning earth. Axel grunts and spits out blood but then he wildly grins as he grabbed the arm holding his in place and sends his crimson flames up Saix's sleeve.

This causes Saix to release his grip on Axel and quickly uses his flames to overwhelm the opposing fire to control it. Axel rolled on his feet swiftly, aiming both hands at his foe and fired a giant ball of fire that smashed into Saix and rockets them both to the wall of fire before detonating. Saix collapsed to his knee, his uniform smoking with embers and burns, but when he raised his head to Axel, his teeth were bared as his hair becomes spikier and more beast-like. Saix suddenly launches himself forward, tackles Axel so hard they both break through the dome of fire and escape it.

Running with Axel still in his arms, Saix slammed him into the wall with so much force he almost buried Axel into the wall itself. One he is stuck in the stone, Saix begins to beat Axel repeatedly by punching him, each punch pushes Axel deeper into the rocky wall. Axel groans in pain with each blow, knocking his senses out along with the air in his lungs.

Saix reels his fist back but when he tries to punch him, it is constricted. Looking at it he sees a wire had wrapped around his wrist like a snake and following the wire he sees a lone robotic limb planted from the elbow. He glowered at the position of the hand, a single middle finger up-right.

He turned to Axel but Prompto suddenly appeared in front of him with a large machine-like weapon in his hand. He slammed the weapon's barrel against his stomach, the machine purred to life as it sucked in the air around them. Prompto pulls the trigger and blasts Saix with what could only be described as having a runaway train smash right into his stomach going a thousand miles a minute. Rocketed across the battlefield until he slammed into the opposite wall, Saix crashes into the wall and is somewhat buried within it.

Prompto drops the machine and helps pry Axel out of the wall, breaking some stone along the way while hearing his friend groan and grunt in pain. It took a bit of extra effort on the gunner's end due to the restrictions Axel's prison endowed on them but Prompto managed to yank him out and onto his knees despite how deep Saix's brutal beating put the man in. Axel grunts out in pain, but he instantly shoots back to standing up, grinning crazily while summoning his weapons.

Xion strikes Xemnas just as she ducks underneath his laser blade and slammed Two Become One into his stomach. Her attack may not be as painful as Sora or even Kairi's but sending Xemnas flying through the air and then seeing Roxas descend upon him while wildly swinging his keyblades he gave her satisfaction she had caused harm to this man who had taken so much from her and those she held dear.

Roxas strikes his former superior with both keyblades, not cutting him per se but damaging him none the less with the powers of light and darkness. Wild flurries of keyblades before slamming them both down on his shoulders, slicing through with trails of light and darkness following their respective keys. The two glared at each other following his attack, teeth bared as Xemnas kicks the boy from him and weakly hovers in the air.

Before Xemnas could do anything however, a golden trail of light suddenly shines upwards and skirts right in front of his eyes, blinding him. A Starshell from Prompto as Axel forms up with his friends. "Roxas! Xion!", Axel yelled. Together with the two teens nodding at once, glimmers of light shining on their hearts just before they all ran towards Xemnas, Axel proclaiming: "Let's get back what's ours!". They both yelled in agreement as Xion, Roxas, and Axel jumped from three different directions just as Xemnas' sight starts to return.

They all bypassing him, swinging their weapons and cutting into the man who had taken so much from them. Landing in a perfect triangle from their former master, Xemnas hovers in the air bent over as a small sphere of light leaves his body. It forms an "X" of light before splitting into three rays of the beautiful light that struck all three former nobodies' hearts.

Raising their hands where the light touched their hearts, the same "X" appears hovering in their palms.

"Is this…is this the Sigil?", questions the girl softly, holding it so dearly. Axel confirms her suspicions and says: "Yup, the mark Xemnas gave us. Its what connected us from the start". With a small soft smile appearing on his lips, almost in a nostalgic look, Axel hummed. "It's the very foundation of the bond we share". Holding it in his hands, it just then struck Axel that for all the evil his former boss had done in the past, in a strange twist of fate he is the sole reason he met Xion and Roxas.

In a way, Xemnas was the one who brought them all together for the first time. And even now, technically he brought Xion to Axel, and in turn, Roxas returned to them as well. He scoffs, dismissing his Sigil as Roxas and Xion joined his side with Prompto aiming his gun back at the nobody ruler. "The mark will disappear along with Xemnas, and that's fine", Roxas says, accepting. "I just wanted to reclaim it for myself".

"This is the connection we needed", says Xion warmly. "That's why you needed Sora's help, so we can end this battle once and for all".

"…Okay umm not to ruin your moment but uh…you are gonna explain all that later right?", Prompto asks, "Because I am lost".

"You're not the first buddy…", Axel sighed.

Roxas rolled his eye while Xion giggles, then they turn to see behind Xemnas the two masters were on the ground, free of whatever curse the man marked them with. The boy senses they were safe although their strengths had taken a horrible hit, and judging by how much of a struggle the two showed just to raise on the elbows, Roxas feared they wouldn't be able to re-join them so soon. He turned his eyes back onto Xemnas, who callously smirked at them.

"That connection of yours…is nothing but an illusion", he mocks, darkness raising around him along with the grey energy as he levitates into the air. Prompto quickly aims but is then surrounded by a ring of lasers that quickly struck his body. He yells out and falls to his knees, his body a far cry from the durable form of the others as usual while Axel shouts his name and turns to Xemnas. Axel calls his chakrams and emblazes them with more fire and tosses them both at Xemnas.

They chakrams however were quickly repelled by flying lasers, blasting them aside. Unarmed but not out of the fight, Axel reels his arm back to toss a large ball of fire. However, during his toss, he freezes and then grunts out as the flames on his shoulders go out, eyes returning to normal and his tattoos fading away.

He groaned in agony and falls to his knee, heaving and shaking profusely. Quickly Xion and Roxas runt to him to inspect him, while Xemnas laughs in victory. "Pathetic…your new power came at a cost, it seems", he mocks. Xion looked at Axel and with a grunt of frustration escaping him, he confirms the insult. He knew the form he took on was going to come with a serious hangover of sorts but this pain felt as if his bones were all ground to dust and every beating he took from Saix came in full swing on his body.

"I do not need hearts…I will scatter them all to the winds…", proclaims Xemnas as he crosses his arms and then opens them up. Entrapping the four guardians in a den of darkness where the only light sources were the thousands of lasers glowing within the void of shadows. Roxas and Xion gasped and looked around to survey their predicament, slowly realizing that the superior may uphold his claims and rid them from the face of the world.

"Begone, worthless pawns!", Xemnas bellows as he unleashes a storm of lasers upon the four. The blazing red beams fly towards the four, Roxas quickly flipping around and deflecting them to protect the three. Xion quickly tries to huddle Prompto and Axel close as she could to at least cover them from the attack, joining Roxas in protecting them. Roxas and Xion dance and flipped around the two older friends deflecting the lasers as best as they could, but unlike Sora and Riku's battle where even weary as they were they had succeeded in warding off the attack unharmed, the two less experienced wielders of the keyblade's defense is a far cry.

Even as agile and skilled as they were, none had been spared a hit. Roxas takes a hit to his shoulder while Xion receives on in the stomach, and many more hits find homes on their bodies. And the blasts were seemingly unending, likely Xemnas had more than enough power to fire as many as he wanted until there would be nothing remaining of the four guardians.

The four guardians were pinned down, Kairi slowly musters enough of her sapped strength to rest on her elbows and witness her friends in peril. She bows her head in dismay, weakened by Xemnas' curse to the point where even a direct hit from her keyblade would be no more lethal than a bug bite and even her magic would probably barely flutter half a foot from her. Kairi glances to Sora to see he is in no better state than she, probably more so with all the fighting he has been doing.

No potion could fix her state, any healing requiring mana would only lessen her pool of mana and strength and likely waiting for help is a sure-fire way to see her friends perish. Looking at her hands, slowly concluding that the promise she had not made, had finally come back to her. Closing her eyes, knowing that whatever happens will be out of her hands, and for all she knew, it may be her undoing in the end.

But she promised she would keep Sora safe, just as he would do for her. And that promise extends to his nobody.

Grunting and groaning with exhaustion and pain, Kairi slowly rises to her feet, keyblade called but remarkably heavier than ever as it dragged her hand down. Marching towards the dome trapping her friends whilst dragging her keyblade in the dirt, Sora weakly calling her name to plead her to stop whatever she was planning, the princess of light raises her hand, golden light shines brilliantly as it opens the dome.

Bypassing it, she marched slowly and weakly towards her friends, the lasers fixed on them instead of her. Xemnas notices the girl but does nothing as she got closer to the others. Kairi inhales deeply and breaks into a sprint as the lasers firing quickens to near gatling levels of speed. She jumps into the middle of the storm and levitates above her friends as she spread her arms and legs out, crying out as light bursts from her. Roxas and Xion looked up to see a divine light race down from the skies and shields the four from the lasers.

Kairi immediately feels the horrible strain on her body and heart as she cries out in pain, head downcast as she squints her eyes shut to fight the pain. This agony never happened to her when she fought the Horned King, never had she felt something was wrong when she uses this light. But her worries were cast aside, her friends needed her to be their shield and she was going to make sure they would all go home together.

Facing Xemnas as his lasers stuck her pillar of light, she cries out: "HOLY!".

The pillar shines with the most divine light the entire combatants had ever witnessed, the pillar expanding and covering the field that the dome claimed, the lasers swallowed up by the powerful light that was Kairi's will and power. Xemnas was forced to teleport away from the wall as it closes in on him, even he would not risk testing his resilience against such pure light. When the pillar touched the dark dome entrapping them, Kairi screams and uses every ounce of her light to break free.

Outside, Sora sees several thin rays of light pierce the dome until a burst of shining light breaks free and blinds all who witnessed it.

The light faded away; silence falls on the battlefield. Sora got to his knee and looks to see Kairi still levitating in the air but feels her light had diminished to almost nothing. Kairi's skin looked so pale and frail like she had suffered a horrible sickness all her life and her keyblade disappeared from her hand. She could barely look at him before she falls back into a slumber and falls to the earth.

But before any of the guardians could catch her, she is caught by a reappearing Xemnas. Sora's eyes shoot open in terror as their friends screamed her name while she is being held by the waist, slumped like a doll.

Sora yells out and breaks into a frantic sprint for the nobody, leaping towards him while crying out Kairi's name. He doesn't even get within range of the two before Saix reappears in front of him and swings his claymore at him. Sora quickly dashes backward in the air and away from Saix, landing back on his feet and watches Xemnas opening a dark corridor in the air. "What difference does one little light make? You have others", Xemnas questions mockingly, "Just as we have more darkness to replenish our ranks".

"Let her go!", Sora shouts, "If you hurt her, I swear I'll make you pay!". Callously smirking, Xemnas says: "If she means that much to you, then come after me, Sora". He disappears into the corridor with Kairi in tow, Sora crying out her name one more time before she is taken away from him. Clenching his fists in anger, Sora returns his angry gaze to Saix and growls. Saix almost starts to rush at him, but then he is struck in the side by Roxas and cast aside, the boy giving chase.

Sora watches him before he feels a hand on his shoulder and looks to see Prompto placing an elixir in his hands. He helps crush the bottle and replenishes Sora's strength, then pats him on the back. "Go", instructs Prompto, smiling. Sora looked at him before the gunner points down the open passageway leader further into the ruins.

"Go after Kairi, we'll take care of Saix", assures Prompto. Sora looked at his friend with remorse, ashamed that he was putting Kairi above everyone else, especially when he was needed. "What are you waiting for?", Axel calls out, clutching his wounded arm as Xion heals him. The two looked at the pyro before he gestures the passageway, smirking at the kid. "Go save her royal butt, we can handle Isa".

"Besides, didn't you promise you'd keep her safe?", Xion asks playfully with a warm smile. Sora looks between the three, before nodding and thanking them. Patted his shoulder one more time, Prompto gives him a thumbs up before Sora sprints after Kairi and Xemnas, leaving the others to deal with Saix. Xion looked at Axel with a firm look, "We'll handle this, I'll fight in Kairi's place, while Roxas fights in yours", she assured. "And good ole blondie fights for Sora", finishes Axel. "Somebodies gotta pick up the slack", jokes Prompto, running into the fight with Xion.

Roxas takes several steps while attacking Saix, using his superior mobility and dual-wielding style to overwhelm the berserker long enough for Xion to jump over Roxas and slam her keyblade down onto Saix' shoulder. The roars out in pain before the girl jumps over him and Prompto jumps in with his machine weapon, spewing a cloud of violet smoke. Saix coughed as the poisonous air filled his lungs and burned his eyes, but Xion strikes him in the back, cutting into him.

He slammed his claymore into the earth with enough force the clear the area of Prompto's poison cloud and even pushed back the guardians. Saix turns around and slammed his weapon down onto Xion, who raises her keyblade to block his attack with surprisingly solid defenses. Though her knees buckle under the massive weight and force behind his weapon, Xion holds him in place for Prompto to fire nine bullets at Saix, five of them hitting him as he calls for his floating claymores to shield him.

Roxas rushes in with keyblades crossed over his arms and cuts through his wall. But before he was able to attack again, Saix grabbed his face and slams the boy into the earth hard enough to break the earth beneath them. Xion glides to Saix and rescues her friend by unleashing a wild torrent of strikes upon Saix, cutting and beating him with light and darkness embedded within the keyblade as they glide above the ground.

Xion thrusts the keyblade into Saix but one sidestep from the man causes the girl to miss and expose herself to him. He smashed his weapon into the girl and smacks her across the battlefield, bouncing off the ground and slamming onto her stomach, keyblade falling out of her hands. Saix turns his gaze onto Prompto, gun in his left hand while his right arm now wears the driller modification, spinning quickly and frantically. Prompto runs at him, firing more shots from his triple barrelled weapon, all blocked or deflected by Saix as he glides to the man.

When Saix swung his weapon at Prompto, his devastating weapon is met by the drill and their collision combined with the speed and sharpness of the drill was enough for Prompto to pierce through and almost land in between the eyes of the berserker. Saix releases his grip on the weapon and lets it disappear into blue embers and calls for another just as Prompto tries to drill a hole into the man.

Saix's hands were already armed with another claymore and with a swift swing, he decimates the drill arm and renders it into pieces. Prompto yells in shock as he witnesses his weapon be reduced to scrap metal, and already dreading how enraged Cindy was going to be. He just managed to get away from Saix before he pummelled him into a paste by rolling away and taking several steps back from him while taking shots at him.

Reluctantly Prompto unlocks the connections of the drill arm and lets the holster fall like it was raining scrap metal before he quickly calls out for another limb to take its place. Saix tosses his claymore at the gunner, only for Prompto to toss his revolver up in the air and front flip over the weapon but still he grabbed the handle of the weapon. Once on his feet, he spins around and tosses back the claymore at Saix.

The blue-haired warrior is caught off guard by this display of strength and is struck in the chest by the massive head of the weapon. Prompto's new arm materializes from the pocket dimension as he shoots a charged triple shot from his revolver the moment he catches it from falling from above. The three charged bullets struck home onto Saix's shoulder and two in the chest, exposing him to be wide open for the fatal blow.

Feeling his new weapon lock-in with his metal stump, Prompto aims and says: "Game over!". Until he looked at his arm and gawked in dismay and embarrassment. It was the biscuit cannon…again. "OH, COME ON! OF ALL THE FREAKING TIMES!", bemoans Prompto as he stares at his limb with frustration. "Why did I bring you!? Wait… *why* did I bring you instead of that flame thrower mod!?".

His frustrated ramblings were cut short when Saix suddenly appeared before him and slammed the claymore on top of the gunner and pinned him to the ground. Coughing out blood as Saix pressed the large head of the claymore down on Prompto's stomach, the blonde stares up at the berserker. He firmly placed a foot on Prompto's chest to hold him there as he grips the weapon with both hands and raises it above his head.

"W-Whoa! Hang on, don't I get a last request? O-Or anything like that?", groans out Prompto, chasing his arm. A brow twitches on Saix's face before with a sigh, he asks: "What?". Prompto raises his biscuit gun and presses a button on the surface of it, popping out a biscuit into his hand. "…can I eat this before I die? Don't wanna go to the other side on an empty stomach, ya know?", Prompto asks with a sheepish grin.

Saix's brow furrows in impatience and irritation, this man reminded him too much of Demyx. "Is that your true wish? To eat a worthless morsel before perishing?", questions Saix with disbelief. "I'd like to live…buuuuuut chances of you letting me go are kinda slim to nothing, right?", groans Prompto, "So I'll ask Xion".

Saix grunts and spins around too late to stop Xion from striking him in the shoulder with all her might, the teeth of the keyblade dug into him. She flips and while upside down aims her keyblade at his chest and fires a beam of light that struck him with enough power to send him flying away from Prompto. Saix's heels dug into the ground but it was fruitless, for when he stops and raises his head, Roxas is already before him.

With his arms crossed as light shines beautifully around his body, the nobody of the chosen wielder of the keyblade dashes towards Saix. He opens his arms and strikes Saix with all his might, finally bringing down the berserker for the final time. Landing behind the man who had torn his friends apart in the past, Roxas pants and collapsed to a knee while Xion tends to Prompto, helping him to his feet as Saix tries to stand from the attacks his body had endured, but not even with the darkness given by Xehanort was he able to bear much more.

Darkness pours from his body and raises to the skies like the others before him, his weapon disappearing as he falls to his knees in defeat. Axel, still unfit for battle, runs to his dying friend while Roxas and Xion checked on Prompto. Letting their oldest friend give what they feared his final goodbyes to Saix.

Standing over his fallen enemy, his friend, Axel could not help the tears that threatened to spill from his eyes. He should have been happy it was over; he had gotten two of his best friends back, he helped in the clash and now Saix would be recomplete. Yet seeing his friend in this state, reduced to being disgraced once more for the man who had taken so much from them, he felt fury and despair. Saix merely chuckles however when he looked at Axel as if he were not expecting him to weep.

"Why…so sad?", Saix asked with a lazy smirk. Axel hisses as the tears slowly form in his eyes, with a swing of his arm, he yelled: "You let them reduce you to this?". Saix looks at him with bemusement and says: "I thought…you outgrew the markings underneath your eyes". Axel subconsciously places two fingers on where his old tattoos used to be before he hitches a breath and asks why Saix was bringing them up.

"You look like you need them, now", Saix remarks, playfully. "Stop it…this act…everything you've done…I thought it was all for her", Axel says, his voice tinted with pain and remorse. "At first…", confessed Saix, his eyes cast down to the earth. "I sacrificed everything to try and track her down", he reminisces, "But you were the one who went off and made other friends, leaving me and her in the dust".

Prompto and the other two watch the interaction with sadness, somehow feeling the same pain this man had endured. The gunner looked at his robotic limb, feeling the tattoo mark haunting him again as Saix's words struck a chord within his heart. Left behind by someone who meant so much to you for other friends, that one friend you could not replace but being replaced yourself must have hurt beyond any words.

"It infuriated me…how you just exited our lives", Saix says, grunting as his life force begins to fade away, a hand placed on his chest as his strength fades. "I lost…all sense of purpose". Axel is immediately by his side, a hand placed on his shoulder as he comforts his best friend. "I didn't forget you…or her…", he says, his voice fragile and close to tears. "I…know…I knew you wouldn't do that".

Saix looks towards the three new friends of Axel, and even confessed: "I was…jealous". Axel gasps lowly and with a fragile smirk, he teases: "You admit it". Saix scoffs this off, knowing this man will hold it over him until he finally passes onto the next world. Axel pats his back as his smirk fades into sadness, realizing this man was about to pass on, and who knows when they will see each other again. "Well…next time you come around, maybe you could hang out with his buddies too".

Saix and Axel looked at Prompto, sporting a knowing smile as he holds up his hand. "My friends accepted me, even despite knowing I'm not like everyone else. So…maybe instead of staying behind, why not just go with your friend next time?", suggest the gun user. "I mean…the more the merrier, right?".

Saix chuckles lowly at the gunner, amazed that he would offer to befriend him even after such a brutal fight. Truly Sora must pick the strangest of people to be friends with. "Well…if I do make it back, none of you will get it out me a second time", warns Saix as he stands on his knees. But even that was too much for him as he slumps to the side in Axel's arms, his body slowly evaporating into nothing.

A shared glance of sorrow between the two, a hidden promise is made between the long-time friends.

"See you, Isa", Axel says.

"See you, Lea", Saix hums before he vanishes into the void.

Kneeling still as he takes in the grief and pain of losing his friend again, Axel heaves a watery sigh before he holds the tears back. As Prompto said, the next time they met he'll be part of the gang. There will be plenty of ice cream to share after all.

The man gets to his feet as Prompto approached him. "I'm gonna go on ahead, try to catch up to Sora", Prompto says, "You guys rest up and meet us later, cool?". Axel nods and gives him a bro-fist, smiling at him. "Thanks…", he says. Prompto grinned and nods to him and the others, then sprints after Sora.

Axel watches him leave as Roxas joined his side, he mutters "what now" to himself. He glances at Roxas and sees the boy's smile, making himself replicate the sentiment. But they hear sniffling and sobs behind the boy and turned to see Xion crying. Instantly seeing the tears, Roxas rushes to her to help while Axel awkwardly stays behind and sheepishly says: "Guess I…should've brought some ice cream…".

The two looked at him as Xion's tears don't stop and Roxas' own eyes go watery. With a shaky smile before his tears flowed forth, Axel stumbled forward and all three embraced each other. Unashamedly crying as his two best friends lay their foreheads against his chest while embracing him, his arms around them protectively.

Their sobs cut deeply into his heart, yet Axel couldn't help but smile that he could hold them again, be with them once more. The pain that haunted them for so long had finally been lifted…A/N: I have no idea how the hell this went on longer than it had any right to…

I am sorry if the fighting was so good, I am just so burned out from all the fighting and worked hard to get this one done. We have got more to do sadly, so hope no one's sick of them as I am. But hey, next time is Noctis and co vs Vanitas and Terra, how will that go?

Not gonna lie but I hate myself for putting Kairi back in the damsel in distress role…again, but hey least she got captured AFTER she expended all her strength. Trivia about Kairi, she was supposed to fight the Xehanort trio with Riku and Sora, but I scrapped the idea.

ANYWAYS…Questions:

Q1: Thoughts on this chapter?

Q2: How was Xion and Roxas in this, they will get more in the future!

Q3: What did you think of Axel's new power? Thought it would be a nice switch instead of form changes.

Q4: Prompto in this?

Q5: What are you excited for next time?

Q6: Anyone annoyed Sora and Kairi did not get much spotlight?

Q7: Biscuit gun, best joke weapon?

Anyways, I am not entirely sure if the next chapter will be posted due to the fighting wearing me out but hey, keep moving forward! Thanks for reading everyone! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	74. Chapter 74

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 74

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

The fated reunion had happened, the day where Aqua and Ventus would reunite with Terra once again. It seems like a dream to the woman, a future where she and her brothers could be together again and enter a new age of light.

But that dream is tainted by the corruption of her brother, the very brother she once again clashes keyblades, the only difference here is she had far more to lose than ever.

Terra brings down his dark keyblade on her divine blade, forcing her back with the impact of his cruel steel. Any attempts to pursue her are dashed when Gladiolus rushes past a retreating Aqua and swings his giant sword against the Dark Gnaw. Terra's raw power against Gladiolus had gone from dwarfing the shield of the chosen king to now rivaling him, for each strike of their large blades neither would take a step back and met each conflict with raw power and force that sent tremors into the ground beneath their feet.

Not only is the shield more ferocious than before and now stands on an equal footing to Terra's power, but Aqua refuses to risk Gladiolus fighting alone and would re-join the fighting quickly. With the speed and nimbleness of the master backed up by raw power and destructive force of Gladiolus, Terra is forced to go all out against the two. Every time he would deflect Aqua's attack, Gladiolus would step in and take over the fight, and every chance Terra had to land a blow onto Gladiolus, Aqua quickly takes his focus and redirects his attention to her.

Maddening as it is that both had grown significantly more powerful than his last encounter with them, even with Ventus the child of light had a solid foot in the ground against his "brother". The boys were in the air, keyblades at each other's throats while the born from the dark boy is striking at him with ferocious and unyielding ruthlessness. Ventus, however, dodges them so efficiently and with the grace of a bird and retaliate with the equal strengths of a runaway truck.

Gladiolus strikes the dark keyblade out of the way and side-steps to allow Aqua to step in and plunge her keyblade's tip into Terra's stomach. Once her key hits him, she fired a blast of magic that blew him off his feet and knocked him back from the two. Terra flips in the air before landing on his feet, his body glowing in darkness as Gladiolus steps in front of Aqua. Terra dashes forward to the shield, unleashing a barrage of attacks upon him.

These strikes land on the shield seven times, each one stunning him before the last one has Terra slamming the keyblade downward on the shield and knocking him back. But without mercy, Terra flips into the air and brings down his keyblade upon Gladiolus again, except Gladiolus calls for the shield given to him by his Will and raises it to meet the keyblade. The make of the incredible shield easily repels the dark key and throws Terra off balance while in the air, hands up, and exposed.

Aqua jumps and kicks him in the side to knock away from her boyfriend and spins before tossing her keyblade at him. It spins like a saw as lightning traces it from the tip and then strikes Terra, creating a large explosion of thunder. He falls to the ground as Aqua re-calls her keyblade and flips onto her feet, Gladiolus shaking his head from the assault with a grunt before laying his sword on his shoulders, reading for the next attempt.

In the air, while above the three adults, Ventus dashes around Vanitas' dark thunder and fire spells while firing his magical attacks at the boy. A dual of flight and magic between the two, something Ventus had luckily adapted to with his training, using his magical gifts to keep him in the air and using mana sparingly to keep up with his nemesis.

Vanitas lets his keyblade levitate around him before a triangle of darkness appears around him, rotating quickly together in front of him and then firing a dark grey beam of darkness at Ventus. The boy dashes around it as Vanitas uses it to chase the boy like a laser, destroying the walls and even some of the ground when Ventus runs along with it. Smirking cruelly and cockily behind his mask, Vanitas believed the boy had overestimated his chances of winning this fight, but it was the other way around.

Ventus stops running by quickly turning around and then propelled himself across the battlegrounds, moving so fast Vanitas' attack could not even close in on him. He stops his attack and looks below him to see Ventus charging upward towards him like a rocket. Vanitas aims his hand and fires a large ball of dark firaga at Ventus, but even though the attack touches him, it just went through him as if he were an ethereal being.

Suddenly Ventus disappears before his eyes and he feels his back had been struck by that pesky keyblade of his "brother". Vanitas is then beaten with several hits from his counterpart, taking what he thought should have been puny lightweight attacks but now could be compared to a beating from Saix. By the sixth hit, he snarls and spins around to meet the keyblade that had caused him harm. Their keys clashed once more, both striking at each other feverishly and fast.

Vanitas then vanishes before the younger boy's eyes and reappears behind him, hand aimed at his back. Ventus quickly turned to identify the threat and raises his keyblade to protect himself, being blasted by a dark firaga. The close-range explosion sent them in opposite directions of each other, Vanitas taking to the skies while the boy named after his favored element returns to the ground with a thud.

The armored keyblade user spins around as dark energy surges around him, and after grabbing his keyblade in a reverse grip, he performs a Shotlock attack, Chaos Snake. Silvery white forms of energy zig-zagged around him before all of them flew towards Ventus, chasing him as he starts to run from them. The boy flips and leaps over these beams, spinning his keyblade to deflect or strike back at them while his foe summons more and more to hinder him.

Ventus turns his eyes onto Vanitas, locking on to him and performs his Shotlock, one he learned from Aqua, the Photon Charge. His body bathing in light, he suddenly charges through the zig-zagging energies and straight towards Vanitas. His key strikes the boy as he goes through him, then he repeats this attack repeatedly until the end of his tirade of attacks. Appearing above him, keyblade held in both hands and aimed down, Ventus drops from the air and onto Vanitas.

He brings them both down to the ground, slamming Vanitas on his back and fires an explosion of light that encases the boy. Ventus jumps backward as Vanitas swipes his keyblade at him, but even as Ventus gets away from the angry reaction of Xehanort's first apprentice, Vanitas dashes at him and slammed his keyblade into the younger boy's stomach and sends him skidding on the ground by his back.

Vanitas swings his keyblade at him, shooting arcs of darkness at the fallen child of light. They cut into the earth as they raced towards the boy, but they were intercepted by Gladiolus. He jumps in the way and with a single swing from his giant sword, the force from his mighty blade demolishes the attacks into nothing but air. He glares at the masked boy as he holds his blade up while Ventus gets to his feet, uttering a quick "thanks" to the shield.

Gladiolus in confirmation and runs towards Vanitas, Ventus closely behind him.

With Terra and Aqua, the two former students danced around each other's swings, loud clangs of steel on steel ringing out through the maze. Terra's brute strength that once trounced Aqua is now met with resolve and will power greater than ever, her strikes are precise and timed to match his strength. Until her keyblade falls for a feint from the man and when her swing was done, he slammed his keyblade onto hers and knocks it flat on the ground and out of her hands.

Aqua had no time to counter him as he grabbed her neck and throws her over his shoulder and slams her into the ground. She gasps in pain as Terra applies more pressure onto her neck, slowly closing his hand around her neck as she struggles to breathe. Desperate gulps and gasps for air as the master grabbed his armored hand, struggling to break free. Terra's smirk goes colder and crueler as he tightens his grip, wanting to see the light snuffed from her eyes.

She shuts her eyes in desperation, before opening them again to show they were glowing blue with magic. Before he can stop her, Aqua releases her grip on his arm and placed them both on his chest, both glowing. With a strained utter of a spell, Terra's temperature takes a nosedive into nearly frozen levels as his body shivers with unholy cold. The shock of the ice-cold temperature catches him off his guard and for a moment makes him lessen his grip.

Aqua then took a page out of her brother's book and gave him a sock to the jawline with enough force to force him to take a step back. He clutched his jaw in pain as Aqua jumps up to her feet, keyblade recalled in her hands, and strikes him in his armored shoulder. The attack staggers him before she strikes him three more times and placed a hand on his chest, fires a force spell to push him away. She jumps on to her feet and fires more magic at Terra as he lands on his back, crystalized spikes flew towards the warrior.

In response, Terra lifted his armored arm and with darkness manifesting around the hand, it turns into a large dark reddish claw. He aimed the hand and unleashes a ray of darkness at the master, destroying her flying spikes.

Aqua cartwheels away from the attack, letting it pass her harmlessly. Terra rushes towards her, nearly brings his keyblade down to her skull. His keyblade is struck out of his hands by a quick swipe of the master and with a twirl, Aqua kicks him in the stomach. Knocked back and at two meters a distance, Terra calls his keyblade again before Aqua takes his tactics of rushing in and starts to strike at him quickly.

The master entered a deadlock with the possessed man, keyblades locked as the steel groans and grinds against the other. Darkness and light cloaking the two, determination and strength within Aqua's eyes against the smugness and cruelness within Terra's.

"That all a master can do? I thought you wanted to "save" me, Aqua?", mocks Terra.

"I want to save Terra, not this sham!", rebukes the master.

He breaks their deadlock and strikes her keyblade with monstrous strength, nearly disarming Aqua had she not feint her attacks and riposte them. He then punches the ground between them, sending a light tremor into the ground but Aqua sensed that small fragment of his magical talent surge and instantly leaped into the air backward.

Five boulders burst from the ground, surrounding him, and would have likely crushed her bones if she remained within his circle of stone. But then with one upward swing of his keyblade, Terra demolishes the rocks and sends the shards and spikes of the boulders at Aqua like firing a barrage of bullets.

Aqua aims her keyblade at the hail of stones and casts a lower-tier aero spell. Green winds swirled and sucked up the stones, she then swipes her keyblade to the left and throws the whirlwind aside. She performs a graceful backflip and lands back on the ground as Vanitas returns to Terra's side. Gladiolus and Ventus joining Aqua's side, neither worse for wear.

The flow of the battle is running smoothly for them she believed, with Gladiolus backing them up when needed and their training had greatly increased their chances of winning this fight. She could have the confidence that this fight might turn out to be a one-sided bout with the way things are going for them, but the master holds onto that precaution that runs within her. None of them were convinced this is the extent of their enemies' strengths, and the fact Terra's smug face was constantly on she feared her attacks were catching him off guard for certain but were they harming him?

How much more was it going to take for them to get serious?

Her answers come quickly when Terra suddenly vanishes after he takes on that disgusting smirk that replicates Xehanort's. The next thing she saw is him appearing before Gladiolus and strikes him with his clawed arm. A solid punch to his gut knocks the air out of the shield and Terra propels them both away from the two wielders of the keyblade. Ventus calls for his friend's name but any attempts of them running to his aid are cut short.

Aqua returns her eyes to Vanitas, and to her dismay, grey portals appeared around him, and emerging from them are his minions from their past adventures. The unversed.

Much like their conflict with the heartless before facing the thirteen, they appeared in a horde like an army, everyone they had fought and slain together in their past. Surrounding the two, the horde of unversed traps them and cuts them off from Gladiolus and Terra. Back to back as the creatures surround them twitch and fake attack them, the two wielders of the keyblade gauged their enemies while Vanitas laughs.

"Aww, did you guys miss them? They sure missed you!", mocks Vanitas as a dark corridor opens behind him. "Don't worry Aqua, I'll keep Gladio company, try not to die too quickly!".

Aqua shoots magic at the boy as he walks back into the corridor, her spell striking an unversed scrapper instead. Aqua and Ventus stood in place as the monsters skitter around them, the larger ones readying to commence the attack and the more unique ones lazing about. One bruiser rushes to them, trailed by several floods while an archravens swoops onto Ventus with shoegazers stomping towards him.

The boy leaps into the air and brings down the archraven with one strike of his keyblade, flips in the air while locking onto the shoegazers. He uses his Shotlock, Meteor Shower to rain down meteors upon them, flaming rocks crushing the steel monsters and destroying some other variations in the process of his strikes. Another flying unversed swoops in but he flips and slammed his metal shoes on its back, launching himself higher into the air where more airborne unversed chase him.

Aqua dances around the floods that swarmed her, her feet kicking them aside while her keyblade, blessed by magic is swinging. She cleaves and cuts them down to size as the bruiser angrily launches a runaway flurry of clumsy punches. The master of the keyblade raises her barrier mid-swing to repel its anger-driven attack, quickly repelling it and forced it to stagger backward. Without hesitation Aqua plunges her keyblade into its large body and destroys it, then she fires a spread-shot burst of fire towards the others that foolishly stood behind their leader.

With Ventus using several unversed as platforms to keep himself in the air, he swaps out his main key for one given to him by Rikku. The Gull Wing. The Gull Wing's appearance takes after Rikku's gang, the same name. The keychain is the symbol of some sports team Yuna follows, a blitzball team that he swore one of Sora's island friends played, the symbol itself is attached to the weapon by the wrapping of Yuna's long ponytail. It is attached by a chain to the keyblade's hilt, this resembling that of Paine's sword, particularly the spade design where the handle meets the blade.

The guard is made from two feathers that were once a part of Rikku's old outfit (tied to the end of the two braids protruding from the base of her hair), while the blade is made from the bows seen on the arms of her clothes today.

The teeth of the Keyblade is quite literally the wing of a gull, making this possibly the strangest looking keyblade any world had ever bare witness to. Within his hands, Ventus spins around with the blade held upwards, acting like a propeller cutting through the horde of heartless trapping him in the air. He flips and dodges their attacks, seemingly untouchable as he splits one unversed in half and then tosses his keyblade to circle him, cutting down the others.

When his keyblade returns to his hand, he yells out and is bathed in light, six swords of crystal light surrounding him. The Wingblade command.

Ventus starts using the blades by grabbing each of them and slicing up the unversed in the skies, swapping them out with each swing as the blades begin to follow his actions by striking the beasts in the skies.

Meanwhile down below Aqua brings down another bruiser, spins, and lops the head off a flowersnake. The horde feels endless with the numbers that were slowly dwindling by their joint union, with Ventus using more of his powers to deal with them in the air and her holding back more of hers. Aqua knew if she donned her armor these creatures would be nothing to them if anything she could strike them all down with one spell for form change.

But in turn, she would be forced to take on Terra and Vanitas while using it, exposing her new power to Xehanort, likely overseeing the battles take place. The less the old master knew about the team's newfound powers the better their chances were to catch him off guard and turn the tide.

The master is then attacked by an iron prisoner, this one without the goblet hiding its legs. It tries to crush the master with its gigantic mace, she aims her keyblade and fires a single beam of light that pierces its skull and destroys it. She then spins her keyblade in her hand as magic runs wildly around her, activating her command style, Spellweaver. As her body glows bright blue, Aqua begins to spin around on one foot on its toes, creating a whirlwind of magic that sucked up the grounded unversed.

Together they took control over the air and ground, Aqua eradicating the ground unversed and Ventus slicing the ones in the air, and with their combined might they will be able to free themselves from this temporary isolation.

Outside of the trap, Gladiolus repels Terra's attack and just barely throws Vanitas off his massive sword. The shield grunts out when he blocked Terra's blade, flat side of the blade pressed into his chest as he holds back the dark weapon. He managed to push Terra off himself and swings his blade into Vanitas' keyblade, knocking it out of his hands. The warrior then punches the boy in his helmet-wearing face into the wall, turns, and calls his shield in time to block another attack from Terra.

"Can't believe it's taking BOTH of these asshats to take me on…don't know if I should feel honored and worried", thinks Gladiolus.

Terra's keyblade clashes with the giant blade of the shield, while Vanitas strikes from behind. Instead of meeting the boy with a quick spin, Gladiolus concentrates on Terra and pushes him back just as Vanitas raises his keyblade to plunge it into his back.

His key's tip was halted by another shield appearing out of nowhere, a loud clang rumbled throughout the battlegrounds and his momentum cut. Vanitas grunts but has no time to react when the shield disappears, revealing none other than Noctis behind his loyal guardian. The king calls his keyblade and whips it towards Vanitas, striking his chest and sent him airborne while Gladiolus strikes Terra with enough force to push him further back from the two.

"Took your sweet time", Gladiolus remarks as he and Noctis stand together against the two vessels. "I was busy with fighting that wannabe Riku and Xigbar, what's your excuse?", Noctis says, "Figured you'd be done by now". He frowns in concern at the horde of grey and dark behind the two vessels, sensing Aqua and Ventus were trapped within. "The hell is that? Heartless?", he asks. "No idea but would be nice if you got them outta there", Gladiolus says, "Hard enough fighting Terra without that masked asshat in the way".

Noctis nods but before he could do what he needed to do, several rays of light shine through the horde of darkness, and then a powerful burst of magic explodes forth, destroying the horde. Dust and sand flutters into clouds, nearly blinding the two and force them to raise their arms. When the dust settles, they glanced to see Aqua and Ventus free of their isolation and eyes back to Terra and Vanitas, neither harmed nor even panting from the masked boy's attempt.

"You'll have to do better than that", Ventus taunts, back in his stance with Aqua. They both nodded to Noctis, grateful for the backup at long last. Vanitas scoffs at the boy's taunts, slowly his anger grows and overshadows his arrogance. He suddenly teleports towards Ventus, hovering above him and tried to bring down his key on his head, but is stopped by a warped Noctis, appearing before him with his keyblade holding back.

"Nice try, but there's only one king of warping here!", Noctis bragged. He throws off the keyblade and strikes Vanitas, hitting him to the side and allowing Ventus to glide toward him, still in his command style. Ventus aims his keyblade hand at Vanitas, the crystal blades all rushing and swinging at him wildly, covering all spaces and giving Vanitas little legroom to work with. His speed may be comparable to Ventus, but neither would have been able to block all these blades to the point of never receiving a hit.

As they cut his armor and flesh, Vanitas lets out a roar of anger, blanketing his keyblade in the dark negative emotion fuelled darkness. He swings his keyblade ferociously around him, invisible to the naked eye, and destroys Ventus' crystalized swords.

He pants and growls as Noctis and Ventus joined forces and stood against him, the king brandishing his keyblade and ultima sword. A sudden flash of light appeared on Vanitas' helmet in a straight line, and then the black visor splits apart and falls to the ground. Noctis gasped in horror and shock when the boy's face is revealed, nearly doing a double-take when he confirmed he had not lost his mind.

His face is a near clone of Sora.

The only differences were his hair is black as a raven while possessing the yellow eyes of Xehanort. Not only that but the sheer malice, evil, and darkness within those orbs were as massive contrast to Sora's blue, gentle and kind eyes. Vanitas scoffs when he sees the broken visor of his helmet on the ground, then smirked at Noctis' stunning look.

"Surprised? Never thought you would see "Sora" in this light?", he mockingly asks. The king's eyes glowered and darkened. "The hell is going on? Are you a replica too? Or a nobody?", interrogates the king of Lucis. Vanitas laughed cruelly and says: "Neither, I'm the piece of Ventus that was taken away". "Sora was the piece he needed to be whole again", and then with a mockery of Sora's grin, he continues: "So why wouldn't Sora and I look the same?".

Noctis shares a confused glance at Ventus, seeing nothing but contempt and anger in the boy's eyes. Not to say the king himself was more angry than curious knowing what lied behind that mask, and those grins, a sick parody of what Sora represented. Vanitas looked at his hand, then cruelly summons his keyblade again and glared at the king. "But rest assured, our faces are all we shared, I'm nothing like that boy", he bragged.

"On that, we can agree", concurs Noctis, aiming his keyblade at him, "You are nothing like him…because if you were, I'd be worried about fighting you".

Vanitas laughs before he teleports to them and strikes Noctis. The king meets his keyblade with the ultima sword, parried his attack, and allowing Ventus to rush in and strike. On the ground altogether, the three young men trade blows and magic, keyblades and swords clanging loudly as magic either miss them or simply grazes them. Vanitas' strikes were aggressive and felt like his keyblade was a hammer while Noctis carried most of the weight of the attacks and let Ventus go in for the quick hits.

Noctis phases through one attack and managed to slash his shoulder with his re-made blade, catching Vanitas off guard and allowing Ventus to slam his keyblade into his stomach, followed by several strikes until the sixth was blocked. Vanitas grabbed Ventus' and blasts him with a dark fire spell, burning the boy and blasting into Noctis.

Noctis stands on his feet, holding the younger boy and then pushes him back to his feet as Vanitas uses an attack Riku used before, teleporting and reappearing around the two boys, striking at them with incredible speed and continuously repeats this attack. His dark keyblade lands several hits on the two, even with Ventus' speed he couldn't be touched. Not until Noctis grunts and calls for his Armiger, unleashing it and surrounding himself and Ventus in his royal arms. Guarding them against Vanitas' attacks forced the boy to backflip away from them.

Ventus spins Gull Wing in front of him, before exclaiming: "Let's go!".

The weapons shine brightly in his hands before it splits apart in two and into the air, turning into light green balls of light. They danced around each other before they in perfect sync dive into Ventus' hands, coating from hands to elbows in the same green light as his armored mixed clothing takes on more green with gales of wind around his boots and hands. His arms now covered in reddish leather armor with blades colored crimson, in his hands were single-edged curved daggers with a circle ring guard.

Spinning them in his hands before crossing them over his chest, Ventus, and Noctis both speed after Vanitas. The dark boy smirks as he raises his hand and then from over one of the tall walls enclosed around them, a twister of keyblades appears. He jumps and rides the twister, soaring into the air and away from the idiots of light. Noctis remains unfazed by this, cockily smirking at the keyblade surfer and then uses his Armiger to propel himself into the skies after him, Ventus not far behind him.

Vanitas sees the king, raises his arm, and fires some of the keyblades within the twister at his majesty. Noctis meets these rusty weapons from the bygone age by shooting his arsenal at his, his divine and far more cared for weapons easily destroyed Vanitas' weapons. Ventus then dashes and lands on the key twister, skating on them towards Vanitas at the head of the twister, focusing on bringing down the king of light. He spins around in time to dual with Ventus again, the boy's speedy attacks against his brute strength made the fight very one-sided.

Maintaining such power over the broken and rusted weapons is no short of strenuous, that much is certain, but with Ventus striking him and having Noctis break down his twister piece by piece, even Vanitas was starting to feel the sweat run down his forehead. Ventus deflects one stroke of his foe's keyblade and slashes the emblem planted on Vanitas' chest, cutting it and skates backward to avoid being cleaved in two.

Noctis warps in front of the twister and using the Blade of the Mystic, he aims the sword at the twister having all his royal arms circle around him. He fires them at the twister, turning them all into rays of Lucis light and combined them all into one massive beam that equals the twister in size. Vanitas turns and grabbed his keyblade with both hands, bathing it in the darkness that roared wildly like flames and fires the same sized beam of darkness as Noctis' attack. The two opposing forces crashed into each other with a loud sonic boom that cracked some of the walls surrounding them. The twister halts in place.

Noctis and Vanitas struggled to top the other with their allied force of nature, Vanitas grinning madly and even laughing as the darkness starts to cloak his entire body. Noctis had yet to bow down from this struggle, his grip tightening on his sword while feeling his light is being worked overtime for this. The dark lookalike uses his dark power to levitate in the air, like Noctis using his light and leaves the twister of keyblades to deal with Ventus. The rusty keys chase after the boy, skating on the ground and use his wind to quicken his pace.

Ventus then starts to skate on the walls, hunted by the keyblades that ripped and cut apart the walls, the boy skirting around them whenever they came too close. He watches Noctis hold his ground against the poser, gritting his teeth before an idea came to him. Skating on the walls still, Ventus circles around the struggle between the two warriors, and once he gets to Vanitas' side, he jumps off the way and darts straight towards his "brother" with a yell.

The warrior of darkness quickly lifts his left hand at Ventus and fires a single beam of darkness at him, striking the boy in his chest. Ventus yells out in pain as his momentum becomes undone as well as his direction being thrown off, making him soar over Vanitas. However, as he flew over the dark boy, they shared an exchange of expressions, Ventus smirking victoriously and Vanitas glares back at him until it turns to realization.

As Ventus flies over and falls to the ground, Vanitas turned to see the twister of keyblades coming after him, chasing Ventus still. He snarls and fires another beam of darkness, consuming the ruined weapons of light. Seeing from, Noctis calls his keyblade and aimed it with Blade of the Mystic, yelling as his body bathes in the Lucis light. Together with both divine weapons, the large ray of Lucis light soars through Vanitas' dark beam, evaporating it.

Vanitas could not stop this after using his dark powers on Ventus and preserving himself in such a short period, leaving only to be blasted by the light. The ray encases him entirely in light, his scream of pain as the light purges his body rings out through the battleground, the beam striking the wall behind him and nearly breaks through it. When the beam dissipates finally, he falls from the skies and onto the ground with a thud, Noctis following in-suite, though he lands on his feet and then falls to his knee.

The attack had taken more out of him than he would like to admit, using both keyblade and the Armiger in such a way probably could have killed him in the past before his training. Gods above he hated when Aqua was right about his stamina mismanagement.

"N-No…I'm not done here…", Vanitas growled, getting to his feet shakily, "Not…until I wipe those two from the face of all worlds…". Noctis grunts in exertion, why couldn't it just take one super attack to put down his enemies?

Vanitas, even with his gear burnt and even having some of his darkness leak from his body, got to his feet and hold his keyblade with both hands. But instead of going for Noctis, he turns his eyes on Ventus, on one knee. The golden-haired boy raises his eyes to meet Vanitas, a green light shines around his body as he stands up and takes on a pouncing like a stance, probably thanks to his weapons preferred style.

They both glided/skated towards before vanishing into thin air. Above the battleground, light and darkness clashes in the air at such speeds, not even Noctis could keep track on who is hitting who, the invisible sounds of steels ringing loudly above him as small explosions of light and darkness danced in the air. He could feel Ventus' heart shining brightly with determination to win, to protect those he holds dear, and for Vanitas, all the king senses were animosity, arrogance, and even pain.

They reappeared in the air, light and darkness blessing the opposing sides before like arrows they charged forth. Their weapons locked for a brief second before they both zoomed past each other, leaving a burst of light and darkness in the middle where their blades clashed. Both landed on their feet on opposite sides, standing up before Ventus falls on his knees, weapons returning to the keyblade.

Noctis sees the boy is in utter agony with multiple cuts on his body, blood seeping out of him but he knows the boy had won. Vanitas' keyblade falls from his hand as, much like Dark Riku and Xigbar, a pillar of darkness rises from his body and into the skies. The boy of the dark lets out a cackle, likely accepting his demise at long last.

The boy turns to Noctis and Ventus, now standing before him, weakened and in pain but standing tall. "Tell me…why would you side with the darkness?", Noctis asks, "If Sora did define you, then why didn't you stand by him?". Vanitas laughs and shakes his head as his body slowly fades away like all the others. "Because I *am* darkness", states Vanitas, "And oh I do stand by Sora. I am the shadow he casts".

"How much closer can I be? How else can you be so close to someone other than being their shadow?", he says, mocking. "But I never asked for this", Ventus interrupts, "To be sifted apart, nice and neat. That should have been our choice to make". Placing a hand on his heart, the boy who had grown stares down his opponent. "Not just the light, or just the dark. We decide who we want to be". Vanitas looks at the boy, and for the first time since he could see his eyes, Ventus does not see any sign of disdain, smugness, or even loathing.

He looked to be regarding him respectfully like he is pleased he dared to say such a profound statement. "But Ventus…I *did* choose who I am, you see?". "And what is that? Darkness?", challenges Ventus.

Both were silent, daring the other to challenge their views. Except for Ventus relents and huffs. "If that's what you want, then fine", submits Ventus. Noctis looks at the boy but holds his tongue. This is between them, and evidently, this was their way of settling it. With one final smug smile, Vanitas looks up to the skies before fading away, only this time for good.

His body gone, Ventus looks at his feet in wonder. Had both he and Vanitas been taking to Eraqus, grow up with Terra and Aqua, would he still think he is darkness? Or would, somehow, in another life, could he look at Vanitas and refer to him as a brother. What if they swapped places, would he still be himself or would he accept he is darkness incarnate? Even after all he had done to himself and all he held dear to him; a part of his heartfelt sympathy for Vanitas.

If he only had people as Ventus did, maybe things would have worked out far better for everyone. His thoughts were broken by a pat on his shoulder, prompting him to look at Noctis. His eyes show the boy sympathy and understanding, but there is also a look of wisdom. "He made his choice a long time ago, and so have you", he speaks, "His road ends, but yours still goes on". Calling his keyblade, Noctis gestures to the others, "And there's another obstacle in your way".

Steeling himself and his resolve, Ventus nods and races to lend his aid to his sister.

Gladiolus roars while swinging his giant sword, smashing it into Terra's keyblade while Aqua fires balls of light at him. The warrior of darkness pushes Gladiolus off him and fires a web of darkness to consume the light, firing one spike at the master. Aqua flips over it, aiming her keyblade and shoots spheres of light at him instead.

He raises his demon looking hand to guard against the holy attack, grunting and gritting his teeth with effort. His claw was struck by Gladiolus' blade, almost cutting it in half had Terra not empowered it with darkness to withstand even his attacks. Terra grabbed the blade by enlarging his hand and yanked it out of Gladiolus' hands, throwing it aside and into a wall. Disarming the shield, he plunged his keyblade into him, but the shield of the king uses his armored hand to grab the keyblade. Just beneath the teeth of the weapon.

Gladiolus then punches Terra in the stomach first, knocking the wind out of him followed by a sock to the jaw to disorient him, and finally a solid headbutt into his nose. That one just for payback. Terra staggered back in pain, unconsciously relinquishing his grip on his keyblade. Aqua quickly steps in and strikes Terra to give herself and Gladiolus some breathing space, knocking him on his back. She turned to the shield, recalling his sword.

"How much more do we gotta beat him to help Terra?", he asks, shaking his fist. Aqua frowns with thoughts running through her mind, wondering the question herself. Unless they knew exactly where his heart was, for all she knows Xehanort could be holding on to it for situations like this. However, she believes his heart would have to be somewhere nearby Terra's body, otherwise, chances of it being lost for all eternity could happen. Even Xehanort would not be able to keep his body like this if he lost his heart.

"First things first, I need to get through to him", she replied, "If we weaken him enough it'll be a start". Gladiolus nods and takes point, but she places a hand on his shoulder. "Gladio?". He looks to see her expression is deadpanned. "…could you please stop punching his face? I want him back without a broken nose".

"…I only promise to try", he grunts out.

With a weary groan, Aqua and he raises their weapons when Terra gets to his feet, darkness manifesting around him as growls. "Dark times…ahead…", he seethes as he stands in the center. Darkness rose around him; he fires grey tendrils that dances around him and flutter into the air. A wave of darkness seeping into the ground begins to cover the entire field, all the way to the walls entrapping the gang.

Attached to Terra as his body is coated in a grey aura, is the Dark Figure. A strange heartless Aqua had fought years ago, basically, on the day it was created and since then had passed on to Ansem. The Dark Figure has an ink-black, muscular, humanoid form with a partially bandaged head that hosts relatively human features, bearing some resemblance to Master Xehanort (Another reminder of who started all this). The bandages around its mouth, almost representing shackles. It has yellow eyes gleaming above a mouth filled with sharp teeth, as well as two long antennae sprouting from the top of its head.

A hole appears in between more bandages on the torso in the shape of a heart, much like the heart-shaped hole that appears in many of the pureblood heartless. Finally, it has exceptionally large hands, its torso coming to a tail-like point that fades away into its host's body.

Pillars of grey energy arose around him, circling and appearing like bolts from above, striking those near. Noctis is one of those unfortunate victims, shocked and blasted back while Ventus dashes around it. Terra's attack however was sucking everyone into the pillars, forcing the less agile Gladiolus to stab his sword into the ground to keep him in place, taking him out of the fight. Aqua and Ventus bypassed the pillars of energy, but the guardian of the host launched itself to them. It pummels Ventus and backhands Aqua for every time they got closer.

With the suction of Terra's power drawing them in while still airborne, the guardian could pummel and beat the keyblade wielders to its delight. All the while Terra would hover around on the single spot watching the two guardians suffer under the unrelenting brutality of the guardian. The guardian slams Ventus onto the ground and punches Aqua through a pillar, shocking and burning her at once.

"Join the shadows!", Terra commands.

With Ventus still on the ground, the guardian raises with its hands over its head, glowing with purple darkness. Aqua cries Ventus' name as the guardian dives down to deliver the final blow to the boy. When its two fists landed, a burst of violet energy rises like a pillar, blowing away the darkness that entrapped them all. However, Terra looks to see Ventus was further away from him, unharmed by the attack of his guardian.

Instead below the dark pure blood's large hands, is Noctis. The king must have warped and pushed Ventus out of the way, taking the hit himself to save him. Terra glowered at the king's interruption and raises his hand to command the guardian to finish off this meddler. The guardian charges a punch towards the king, only to be stopped by Gladiolus' shield. Standing above his king with his shield held high, eyes practically on fire with inhuman rage glued to Terra's eyes. Not even the guardian's attack could stagger Gladiolus, nor even sway his fury.

Gladiolus reels his fist back and with all fiber of might and rage rolled into his fist, he delivers a devastating blow to Terra's face once again. The attack throws Terra back, giving the shield and king space to work. The guardian levitates and charges towards Gladiolus, only to be stopped by Ventus jumping and slashing at it. One slash knocks it back and it is struck again by Aqua's flying keyblade. The two wielders of the keyblade stood in front of Gladiolus, handing the king a hi-potion.

Terra staggers and stumbles as darkness leaves his body, likely expending all his power in that attack to try and do away all four of them. This is an opportune moment neither Aqua nor Ventus could afford to miss. She shares a glance with the boy, they nodded at once. Aqua spins on one foot, trailing her keyblade in air tracing icy rails while Ventus leaps into the air, hopping onto his keyblade like a snowboard.

The master among them creates a web of rails made from ice, allowing Ventus to skate and grind on them, using his keyblade to suck up magic and power from them as he rides towards Terra's weakening form. Above him, Ventus spins his board as he charged towards his best friend, striking him and causing a large explosion of ice. The web of frozen rails bursts around Terra, freezing the air around him and striking him with enough force to wear him out at last.

Terra stumbles in place as darkness leaves his body like his comrades before, erupting into the skies and re-joining the others to form the final key. But still, his body shows he is far from free from Xehanort's grasp.

He falls forward, defeated and exhausted. Gladiolus helps Noctis to his feet and slings an arm over his shoulder while Aqua and Ventus run towards their fallen friend. They knelt on each side of him, helping him onto his knees as he gasps their names, weakly and sounding like himself again. "Terra…please…", begs Aqua, so close to having her family back again. "Terra…come back to us", pleads Ventus, desperate to hear him again.

"Come on, wake your ass up and come back!", yells Gladiolus, "You owe me a new shield!". Noctis chuckles to the man's attempt to awakening the warrior, sensing the light within Terra was slowly shining again, maybe even outshining the darkness within.

Terra grabbed his head with both hands, grunting, and gasping with pain. It seemed he too is trying to return to his friends, so close yet so far. But with a roar from him, suddenly violet chains appeared from nowhere and grabbed Aqua and Ventus. They both screamed in shock as they were yanked away from Terra, taken away once again as darkness erupts from beneath the warrior while he stands, still clutching his head.

"Aqua!", Gladiolus roars before he and Noctis are chained and yanked into the air. The violet chains appeared from beneath the pool of darkness below Terra, binding the four guardians as each struggle to break free from this bondage. Noctis grunts and thrashes around, turning to Terra and yells: "Fight back against the dark! Your friends are here, damn it!".

Standing tall again, with his bare hand against his head, a dark chuckle could be heard from Terra. "You will never be able to break these chains", stated Terra as he carried a dark and merciless smile on his face. "They're *our* bonds". With laughter, he swings his hands all around, controlling the chains binding Aqua and Ventus. They were yanked, tossed, and flailed about around the field, both yelling over his laughter.

Gladiolus struggled in his chains, roaring at Terra to stop while Noctis thrashes around. Fury bubbled within the shield, seeing Xehanort using Terra's body to torment and harm the two people so dear to his heart when he was so close to being returned to them. He tries to break open these "bonds", this mockery of the connection the trio shared enraged Gladiolus to no end.

"You have no power over me!", Terra gloats as Aqua and Ventus criss-cross over each other. He laughs at them, mocking their foolish hopes that their bond would bring back their friend.

Only when their yells lessened and strengths waned did he finally cease the horrible torment, letting them hang in the air like rag dolls. Aqua and Ventus stared at him, hope still alit in their eyes despite what had unfolded. This further angered the vessel, his smirk turning into a scowl. "Fools! You STILL believe you can free me?", he growled, "That bond of yours is meaningless! A simple rope that has been burned to nothing!".

"You're…wrong…", Aqua spits, "That bond is what ties our hearts together…it's how we preserved through the worst you threw at us…".

"No matter what you do…even if you destroy our bodies, our hearts will be connected to Terra's…", Ventus adds, "We won't give up on him…no matter what!".

Terra grits his teeth before he grinned. "Is that so…? Well then, lets put those beliefs to the test!", he declares. Raising his armored hand, encased in a dark fire, he clenches it. The chains holding Aqua and Ventus burst with black lightning, encasing them both. They both screamed in agony, while their friends watched in horror. "Terra stop!", Noctis shouts, "You'll kill them!".

"They claim even if their bodies perished, their bond would never break", reminds Terra, "Or are their words as fragile as is their bond?".

Gladiolus bellows in rage as he thrashes even more viciously, throwing his head as he swore and cursed Terra's cruelty, struggling to break open the chains that bind him while Noctis yells at him to stop. The torture would cease for seconds before resuming, giving the two keyblade wielders false hope that Terra is breaking through and smash their hopes into pieces, Ventus' cries ringing out as Aqua's wail of agony ripped into Gladiolus' heart.

With eyes alight with fury, Gladiolus stares at the vessel and guardian, seeing the latter watching Aqua and Ventus with a blank look. Noctis gritted his teeth as the chains held him tight, even warping is an impossibility for him. He didn't have enough mana to go all out either, having used it already and the beaten he took from the guardian, but he did have enough for one trick up his sleeves. And it only takes one look at Gladiolus to confirm his choice. The shield shares a glance with his king in time to see his keyblade materializing before him.

Noctis yells as he telepathically tosses the keyblade at the chains binding Gladiolus, cutting him free and allowing him to fall.

Once Gladiolus touched the ground, he broke into a full sprint towards Terra, sword, and shield in hand as he let out a war cry. Terra throws a chain at him, Gladiolus demolishes it with a single sweep of his sword and when Terra tries firing a blast of darkness at him, he would bash it aside with his shield. He nearly closes the gap between them, but Terra erects a wall of dark lightning in front of him, cutting him off but in turn, sparing Aqua and Ventus the torture.

Behind the see-through lightning wall, Terra smirked. "It is time to end this", he declares. "Gladio!", Noctis yells. The shield looks up to see both Aqua and Ventus being raised to the sky, slumped in agony and defeat. "Ven, AQUA!", Gladiolus roars. He turns on Terra's wall and swung his sword at it, breaking nothing but air while his two friends hanged uselessly in the air.

Only Ventus had enough strength to gently whimper: "Terra…I kept my promise…". A lone tear falls from his eyes just as Terra loosens the chains, allowing them to fall. With the state of their bodies, not even Aqua will survive a fall like that. Noctis cries for their names while Gladiolus tries to rush to their air.

Soaring past the shield, however, the Dark Figure breezes past him and quickly snatches up Aqua and Ventus, cradling them in its strong arm. Hovering in the air with one hand grabbing the chains that held them, it clenched its fist and snapped the chains.

All the chains broke apart, allowing Noctis to warp back to the ground just as the guardian lowers Aqua and Ventus onto the ground. Gladiolus only stares at the guardian in shock and gratitude, but when it turned its gaze onto him, the shield sensed something about this heartless. Its eyes were fixed on his armor, and one glance between the two is all the shield needed to put the pieces together, confirming his beliefs.

Terra's heart was right in front of them.

"HOW!? You fell to the darkness!", Terra bellowed, furious. He launches another chain, this time to the guardian. Except Gladiolus catches the chain with his sword hand before it could even get past him. The enraged shield stares down at the vessel before he crushes the chain in his hand, sword laying against his shoulder. He glanced back to the guardian and Noctis, before saying: "Give me a minute, I'll take care of him…look after the others for me".

The guardian says nothing but hovers closer to Aqua and Ventus, confirming Gladiolus' wishes. He nods to Noctis, the king holding his keyblade out for whatever may come.

With his charges secured, Gladiolus approaches the vessel as his calls for his keyblade. "You're going to give his body back, or I'm gonna break every single bone in your body", growled Gladiolus. Terra snarls and rushes into him.

Keyblade and buster sword clashing for the final time, loud ringing steel booms across the field as the earth shakes in fear of their might. Their speeds matching as well as their strengths, Terra's corrupted keyblade against the light blessed buster sword, Gladiolus matching every blow giving to him with equal measures of fury induced strikes and well-timed parries. Terra manages to slash Gladiolus' chest, ripping the jacket and cutting Gladiolus' chest, but the shield retaliates by using his armored hand to backhand Terra's face.

He then cuts Terra's right shoulder, blood spurting out from the cut. In response, Terra thrusts his keyblade to Gladiolus' face, cutting his right cheek and giving him a new scar in the future. Gladiolus swung his blade upwards, the shockwave from his swing may have missed Terra thanks to him side-stepping the attack, but this attack sends a large crack along the ground from the direction of Gladiolus' attacks. When Terra thrusts his keyblade into him, the shield rolls around the attack, the shockwave from Terra's attack reaches the wall behind the shield and leaves a giant hole in it.

Terra then lands his keyblade on Gladiolus' shoulders, but instead of cutting him, he feels as if he had struck a steel girder. With a roar, Gladiolus shoulder tackles Terra and uses his shield to bash into him, charging forth into a wall. Pinning Terra to the wall, Gladiolus punches his stomach, head butts him, and plants his elbow against his neck. Even bloodied and bruised, Terra snarls and uses a force of darkness to blow Gladiolus off him and demolish the wall behind him.

His feet digging into the earth as he grabbed his sword with both hands, Gladiolus meets the keyblade again in time to prevent his head from being lopped off. They swung and strike at each other, neither backing away nor surrendering ground to the other, Terra's attacks landing hits on his enemy's body but thanks to steel skin, even his attacks barely phased Gladiolus. They slammed their weapons into each other as more and more fury and determination pour into their arms.

Terra eventually strikes Gladiolus while leaping backward from him, his keyblade glowing violet while he is in the air. He swings it, firing a volley of darkness at Gladiolus. This forced Gladiolus to raise his shield high to block the attacks, scattering wildly on the battlefield as many hit the shield. He grunts as the impact does push him back despite how deep he dug himself into the ground, hoping to survive this onslaught of an attack to counter him.

When the barrage ended, he stands up to see Terra's keyblade performing a form change, becoming extremely huge and morphs into a cannon. It laid on his shoulder and aims, the barrel spins with energy gathered up in the barrel. Gladiolus cursed loudly as the giant beam in launched towards him, not even his shield could halt this attack and there is no chance of him being able to run to evade it. The ground shakes from the awesome power of this attack, breaking the earth as the light from this weapon bathes Gladiolus.

Dismissing his shield, he grabbed the handle of Blade of the King with both hands, gathering up all his strength within his body. Steeling his mind and body, exhaling after taking a deep breath, he raises his sword over his head. As the beam closes in on him, he lets out a bellowing roar as he brings down the gigantic sword upon the beam. Whether by some divine luck or because of his raw power, Gladiolus manages to split the beam in two, splitting them into two paths while he remains in the middle, unharmed.

Even as this monstrous amount of power pressed him, Gladiolus runs onwards, the sword cleaving through the beam even as the sides burned his shoulders and tore his clothes apart. His sword glowed in the Armiger light, like a beacon within the false light as he finally lifts his sword to cut upwards, breaking through the beam entirely. His force is so great the blast was eradicated into nothing but air, revealing a shocked and more importantly, horrified Terra.

Gladiolus raises his sword high and as Terra raises his keyblade to defend himself, Gladiolus slammed his sword down with enough force it splits the earth beneath their feet and even splits the wall behind Terra without harming him, through sheer force of a shockwave. A quick flash of light appears on Terra's keyblade, and then it is split in half, leaving Terra disarmed and without any other means of protecting himself.

So shocked and put into a state of disbelief he could not even muster up a way to stop Gladiolus. The chosen king's shield pants, feeling his body screaming in agony from the force he used to pull off this feat, even if his body was close to catching fire thanks to the attack he defied. His sword is dismissed, freeing his hands from the agony of carrying the heated steel, but also to conclude his fight with Terra was over.

"W-what are you doing…?", Terra demanded, watching Gladiolus stepping back from him. Even bloodied and beaten as he looked, Gladiolus stands tall against the man who pushed him to transcend the limits of a human body. "I beat you…never said I was gonna kill you", grunts Gladiolus, "Still need you to give that body back…". Terra growls and raises his hand to strike at the shield, but he is not even able to utter another word before the large blue hand closed around his head and held him there.

The Dark Figure appearing behind him, holding Terra in place before more vile words could be spewed from his mouth. The figure grabs for the cloth around its mouth is large hands barely able to tug on it for a moment before it grabbed the shackles and ripped them off its mouth. It gagged, coughs, and then breathes finally, exhaling as if it had not tasted the air for years.

"One…day", it gasps, voice low and deep, "I…will…set…this…right". It holds up Terra's body high in front of its, and repeats: "One day…I will…set this right!". Even as Terra struggled against the heartless, it proclaimed: "I will return to this land and protect my friends!".

The Dark Figure's heart-shaped hole shines brightly, and it is all it took for Noctis to break out the keyblade and take aim. He fires one beam of light straight towards them and struck Terra's back. Bathed in light, Terra gasps as the Dark Figure leaned backward as a heart escapes its hole, vanishing into the darkness as the heart shoots straight for Terra's chest. The moment they connected, a burst of beautiful light shines in the battleground, Gladiolus raising an arm to cover his eyes as Noctis watches with bated breath.

When Terra falls to his feet, to Gladiolus' joy, no more is his hair bleached silver but instead soft brown with deep blue eyes. The man before Gladiolus looked at his opening and closing hands, likely because he probably forgot what it is liked to have his body back. He glanced at the beaten Gladiolus, opening and closing his mouth in a vain attempt to speak, but the shield gestured the two fellow students.

"Save it for later…think it's time for a long-overdue reunion", he says. Terra follows his gaze and immediately runs to the other two, Noctis already using his magic to heal them from their torture. The former vessel calls their names, kneeling and lifting Ventus into his arms, checking him. Aqua sits herself up by supporting herself with her hands, taking in Terra. "Terra…i-is that you?", she asks, a small flashback to the last time she saw this version of him echoed in her mind.

When he faces her, a warm smile she had not seen in years adorned his face with eyes so pure and strong glimmered. "You never stopped lighting my way", he says. Aqua laughs softly as tears run down her eyes, overjoyed to hear his voice again, to have him back home. They hear Ventus stir and groan beneath them, one glance down to him they saw he opened his eyes to face his brother again. "You're here…", he gasped.

"I heard you too, Ven", Terra affirms, tears shimmering and running down his eyes, "You found me, just like you promised". Ventus whimpers in joy before he and Aqua tackled him into a hug, the boy crying while Aqua gently sobs into him, Terra eventually breaking down and holding close as he thanked them repeatedly. Onlooking the trio, the two inhabitants of Eos smile at them, before Noctis turned to Gladiolus.

They shared a warrior's handshake, the king smirking. "Looks like you got even", he says. "Yeah…", Gladiolus groans, rubbing his neck, "Bastard got a good few hits in". Noctis rolls his eyes before turning down to the pathway before him. Gladiolus nods and turns to the trio. "We're gonna go on ahead", he states, "Gotta catch up to the others".

As the trio stands up, Ventus attempts to follow but immediately stumbles and had Terra not caught him, probably would have collapsed. "Stay here and rest up", Noctis commands, "No sense in going into the big fight when you can barely stand". Ventus opens his mouth to argue, but Aqua shakes her head. "No more recklessness, we heal first then we go for Xehanort", she lectured, "I am not going to have a repeat of last time we did this".

"Agreed…", Terra hums.

Noctis and Gladiolus nod to them and both sprint of and into the canyon. However, neither got far before Aqua calls them. They see her jogging to them and then stand before them. Her eyes were shining and there is gratitude in them, her mouth opening and closing it unable to convey the words. "I…I can't thank you two enough-

"We're even", Noctis says simply.

She looks at him, surprised before the king shrugs. "Niflhiem…Altissia…even in during our search for the Royal Arms…we owe you a lot for pulling our butts out of the fire. Consider this payback for all you have done for us", he elaborates casually. Aqua's surprised looks changes into a warm smile and a giggle escapes her, nodding to Noctis. Then her eyes fall to Gladiolus, and it is here Noctis takes this as his cue to skedaddle and head off alone for a while.

Alone in the passageway, the two stared at each other before Aqua fumbles and shakes her head. "I…thank you…thank you so much…", she whispers. Gladiolus approaches her and gently wrapped her into a hug, holding her close. "Its ok…you've got your family back", he reminds, "Time to put all that pain to rest, at last, right?". Aqua hummed and whimpers in agreement, trying to hold back the tears that threatened to spill. The pain of being separated from those two is finally at an end, no more would she have to carry that pain.

Just having Terra back with them, seeing his eyes again made all those moments of isolation and despair worth it in the end. And soon they will put an end to this horrible chapter in their lives, burying the past once and for all.

She raises her head to face Gladiolus, gently placing her hand on his cheek as he brushed a stray hair from her face. The man who had claimed her heart, taking on so much pain for her and her family, now reunited with them again. The same person who helped pull her out of her despair gave her the strength to walk her path as a master, and now soon they will face their greatest enemy yet. And anything could happen…

She pulls him closer and places her lips against her, wrapping her arms around his neck as he held her closer to him. For now, there are no heartless, darkness, war, or enemies to fight. It is just her and her lover, embracing him and feeling that safety in his arms one more time before they plunge themselves into danger.

Their kiss ends slowly but before she lets go of him, she stands on her tippy toes and whispers the words Sora spoke to Kairi before.

"I love you".

Gladiolus freezes on the spot, mouth agape as she pecks his cheek and takes a few steps back, smiling innocently at him. "Better hurry, your king is waiting for you", she teases before she jogs back to her brothers. Gladiolus places a hand on his cheek, now taking a hue of red on them before he breaks out the largest grin on his face.

As Aqua leaves the canyon, she hears him yell: "LOVE YA TOO BLUE!". She turns back to see him running after Noctis, a spring in his steps. She blushes but smiles warmly and turns to see a rather astounded Terra and an equally cheekily grinning Ventus.

"…you two are dating?", Terra asks.

Aqua beams and says: "There's a lot to tell you".

As they rest and regained their strengths, they retold their stories to Terra…and made a promise to create more with him in the future.

As the guardian's numbers grow while the darkness dwindles, friends reunited, of another trio 's fate will be shown. Destiny is never left to chance…

A/N:

…I'm so tired…

Glad I managed to get this one done without having to much of a headache. These fights are really getting to me, but hey only…more to go. …oi.

So I've already decided which fights are coming next, so I won't be saying who, it'll be suspenseful! As suspense as I am…which is none.

QUESTIONS!:

Q1: Thoughts on this chapter?

Q2: Gladiolus and Terra rematch?

Q3: How do you like Ventus' new weapon?

Q4: Wanna see more of Aqua being awesome?

Q5: Aqua and Gladiolus?

Q6: Happy to have Terra back?

Q7: Wanna see the Wayfinder Trio bond in future chapters?

Q8: Can anyone guess whose fighting who next?

Q9: Anyone curious about the RC?

As always everyone, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but more importantly, stay safe!


	75. Chapter 75

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 75

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

"So, wait a second, there's a THIRD Riku running around?", Gladiolus asks, incredulously.

"Kinda sort've? I dunno, he just popped out of nowhere like a ghost and then weird stuff happened, and bam, replica for Naminé", explains Noctis.

"How many clones are there…?", asks the shield quietly as he and Noctis race down the canyon leading into the deepest parts of the labyrinth. After regaling Gladiolus, the tale of his previous fight, Noctis pondered how far along Sora had or the others had gotten since his separation and his concerns for his company grew as time passes them. While he was sure Riku had to be somewhere closer to Xehanort by now, he had no idea where Ignis could be.

Along with his chamberlain's whereabouts being unknown to himself, he feared for Prompto's well-being more so. If he ran into someone from the organization on his own, even with all his training and new weapons he would at best hold off long enough to wear them down. He prayed someone is with him during this clash, all the while pondering just how many had fallen so far on either side of this war, and hoping to Kingdom Hearts itself his friends were okay.

"Noct, Gladio!".

They both stopped in their tracks and turn their eyes down another canyon to see Ignis running towards them, looking relieved. "It is about time I found *someone*, I've been running around this maze for what feels like hours", he sighed as he joined his brothers. Noctis sighs in relief at the sight of his brother while Gladiolus smirked at him, and says: "Didn't look too hard, we've just got done with Terra and that Sora lookalike".

Ignis furrowed his brow in confusion, turning to Noctis. "We got Terra back, freed his heart from Xehanort's control, and that Vanitas guy? Yeah, turns out he looked like Sora if he went evil sith lord on us", surmises the king. Ignis pushes up his glasses with a quiet hum, likely taking in the fact there happened to be a "fourth" Sora lookalike running around the place. "Right…at any rate, Demyx had arrived earlier and has procured Naminé's replica", he explains, "It is safely in the hands of Ienzo and Ansem the Wise".

"Great, so once we finish off Xehanort, we'll get put Naminé's heart into the replica and boom, we got her back", Gladiolus says, "And Noct says you took out Xigbar and that evil Riku, right?".

"Correct", Ignis affirms, "The loathsome man is finally out of our hairs for good". He then turns to Noctis and says: "And you say Terra has returned to us?". Noctis nods: "Yeah, he's just resting up with Aqua and Ven before they help us with Xehanort".

"GUYS!".

The trio of men turned around to see a speeding Prompto practically flying down the corridor in a sprint they had never seen him perform. Even kicking up clouds of dust from behind in his race. Only when he brakes himself and just barely managed to stop from crashing into the trio did he take a breath. Hands-on his knees while bending slightly, panting exhaustedly, and taking in large gulps of air, he raises his sweaty face to the others with panic.

"X-Xemnas…h-he's…", he pants but he is so out-breath the others feared he is close to collapsing. Ignis pats his back as Gladiolus hands him a stamina potion Aqua had made before they came. "Slow down Prompto, take a breath and start again", encourages Ignis. The gunner tore off the cap of the potion and scarfed it down in a single gulp, tossing the bottle aside as his body glowed green for a moment and then his breathing calms down to a more slow and natural pace.

"Now then, what happened?", Ignis asks.

"KAIRI! That lightsaber using nobody Xemnas kidnapped her!", Prompto shouts. Now all eyes widened in fear as Noctis grabbed his shoulder and asks: "And Sora? Is he ok?". "He ran off after her, me and Axel stayed behind to deal with Saix…Isa…GAH that one with the blue hair, a-a-and then Roxas just shows up, and we rescued Xion!", he rambled but then Gladiolus shakes his shoulder and stops him.

"Whose Xion?", he asked.

"That girl Axel and Roxas knew!", he reveals, "B-B-But she looks like Kairi! They're healing up and I just ran after Sora, got lost, and was wandering around this place like a lost tourist until I saw you guys!".

"ANOTHER lookalike? How many of them are there!?", Gladiolus groaned as he rubbed his head. "Forget about that!", Noctis ordered, "If Xemnas brought Kairi to Xehanort, then he's going to use her against Sora!". Noctis points down the pathway he and Gladiolus were running down before the reunion of the group and proclaims: "Let's get going!". The three nodded and all four started to run down the empty pathway to the meeting place.

Then as Noctis goes on ahead, three tendrils of darkness shot out from nowhere and bypass the king. He gasped and reels his head back to see the tendrils striking all three of his brother's in their chests, halting their run, and then each of them collapsed on the ground like they were worn out from a long drawn out fight. Noctis calls their name as the darkness evaporates from their bodies, they appearing unharmed.

"Now then…without further interruptions".

Noctis clenches his fists as he turns around to stare down the man who had brought ruin to his homeland, all thoughts of other matters forgotten. Strutting down to the king of kings, alone without any traces of a hidden ally or even the stench of a heartless, Ardyn waltz down the empty pathway towards Noctis. On his face is the famous smug look he always carried, the air of arrogance dancing in his yellow eyes.

"I heard you and Sora have been quite busy since we've last spoke", he says, "I would have loved to join the fun, but alas the Master requested I wait for you to make it this". Noctis takes a step closer to him, eyes fixed on him. "Since when did you take orders from someone else? Or has lost your immortality made you meek? Submissive? Scared?", taunts the king of light. "Or were you worried about fighting me alongside someone else?".

Ardyn chuckled darkly at the king's words, his smug smiles shifting into a dark and cruel smirk. "In some aspects, you're right. I didn't want to waste time with your subjects and just wanted to fight you alone", he confesses, then callously adds: "After all, can you stand on your own two feet without someone holding your hand?". Glowering at the man with such gall, Noctis clenched his fist as his Lucis light cloaks his body, eyes even having a certain glow to them.

This was pre-ordained, even out of their world. The chosen king will clash with the usurper, but instead of bringing backlight to his world, they would fight for the fate of all worlds. Bahamut must be rolling in his grave at the sight of the destined battle.

"If you wanna settle this, then draw your weapon, and let's get started", challenges Noctis. Ardyn, however, wags his fingers in a chastising and patronizing manner. "Ahh, ahh, this isn't the best place to settle things, now is it?", he asks, opening a corridor of darkness, "Perhaps we should resolve things without prying eyes?". Without waiting for Noctis' wishes, the man who was once in line for the throne disappears through the corridor, waiting for his chosen king to follow.

Noctis glances at his knocked-out brothers with a concerned frown before realizing this would be the only way to prevent Ardyn from harming them or using them as leverage. Clenching his teeth as a hiss escaped, realizing while he must deal with this constant nuisance of a nemesis Sora and the others would have to deal with Xehanort's heartless, nobody and even his youth without him while rescuing Kairi. But if he goes on ahead to help, for all he knows Ardyn would interfere and make the whole battle more of a trial than anything else.

Looking at his hand while swallowing the bitter pill of the severity of his situation, he turned to the dark corridor and strides into it.

*Elsewhere*

Jumping out of the corridor and finding himself at a large distance than where he previously was, the king of light looked around to see there is nothing but a clearing of the wasteland. A desolate and empty place devoid of life, with the only thing noteworthy, was the giant mountain of stone towering over a platform of what could have been a building from the bygone ages.

Likely where Xehanort and his replicas stayed, having the best seats in the house to watch the war commence for them.

Noctis sees Ardyn standing before him, looking to the darkening skies as the day slowly draws close to the end. He turned back to the king, callously smirking. "And here we are, no one to interfere without conflict", he says with flamboyance and with an overdramatic bow, "No keyblade masters, no heartless, vessels, just you and me". Noctis huffs at the last part as Ardyn's dark shadow loomed over him, the nobody of the brother of his fiancé. "Well…I never said anything about nobodies", cheekily remarks Ardyn.

"And there you were, going on about if I could stand on my own two feet…", calls out the king, gesturing the hypocrisy of the usurper. "Oh, don't mind it, they'll only intervene if say, things go south". Noctis huffs bitterly, readying himself for the final clash with his ancestor, calling his keyblade as Ardyn does. However, the fiery-haired man smirked as he raises his keyblade, thoughtfully staring at it.

"Oh, how could I forget? Should these keys clash, Xehanort will have enough to forge the final key for the X-Blade", casually reminds Ardyn. Noctis grunts as the keyblade suddenly got heavy in his hands, remembering the whole reason the keyblade wielders were an absolute necessity to this war. If he is right, then likely Sora must have fought and defeated the other vessels alongside the king and the others, and with him likely clashing with Xemnas and the other three…

That would mean the very moment Noctis and Ardyn's keyblades clash, the final key will be made, and the X-Blade born anew.

"Quite the predicament you're in, trained to be a wielder of the keyblade and yet it will be your undoing once we clash", comments the man of no consequences. Noctis looks at Night's Sky, a slow realization dawns on him as he stands there in the battleground, and then one look to Ardyn confirmed his choice. "Tell me something…do you care what happens?", Noctis questions. Ardyn raises a brow at him, prompting the king to continue.

"Light and darkness, Kingdom Hearts…does it any of it matter to you?", he says, "Or…is the reason you became a vessel for Xehanort, willing to stoop so low as to be a heart tank for him…is that so you could fight me?".

Ardyn huffs with a smirk. "I suppose that was transparent of me, wasn't it?", he says, "But I commend your observations". Ardyn grips his keyblade tightly as it becomes solid in his hand, disinterested in the divine weapon of light. "I care not what happens to the worlds, the realm of light or darkness…I don't even care if the old coot's head if loped from his shoulders…what I desire, what I want…", he lists.

"Is to put an end to the Lucis line…".

"Then…lets put that aside…", Noctis says. Ardyn raises his brow, both for the first time in shock when Noctis throws his keyblade far to left. It spins before stabbing into the ground like it marked a grave. Calling his Ultima Blade and holding it in his usual stance, the king stares down Ardyn. "I will fight and win as the king of Insomnia, and if you've got any semblance of pride within you, then toss your false keyblade aside and face me as the true founding king!", challenges Noctis.

For once, for the first time, Ardyn looks at Noctis with pride, as if he finally acknowledges the man before him as the true chosen king of light. In a bizarre twist, he almost saw his brother in his place, like a true and noble king. But this only fuelled the hate for the royal bloodline even further, and the rage, that desire to stomp out the hope of the light he brought back to his world roared within his blackened heart.

"For once…your majesty…I accept your challenge", Ardyn commends, tossing his keyblade aside.

Calling his Raksha blade as their Armigers came to life, surrounding the two in their respective colors, the king of light against the true founding king. There is no battle for the realm of light, no hearts to be rescued, nor would keyblades clash on this battlefield, the final resting place for either the line of Lucis or the Usurper. This is a battle of destiny, a clash of fate.

A true battle for the throne of Insomnia.

Both members of Lucis bloodline propelled themselves toward the other, their respective weapons forged for them slammed into each other. When the steel clashes, pillars of their Armiger shot up to the skies as a powerful gale of wind blows the earth and dust aside, the earth splitting beneath them as the king of light's Armiger clashes against the founding king's. Glaring daggers into each other as Noctis pushes him off and swings his blade at him.

The founding king jumps back, firing two royal arms at him in the process. His ghostly arms were struck down by Noctis' sword, the king warp struck towards him. Ardyn teleports away from the spot, appearing above Noctis in the skies and rains down a hail of darkness upon the king in the form of balls of a raging fire.

Noctis warps at them, calling the Axe of the Conqueror, and with one swing of his ancestor's weapon, he sends a force so great upon hitting one ball of darkness, it demolishes it. The force of the impact eradicated the others like a chain-detonation, sparing Noctis the armada of fireballs. The king warps again towards Ardyn, calling for Katana of the Warrior and brings it down to Ardyn. Instead of being split open, Ardyn retaliates by striking the legendary katana with his Blade of the Mystic, blocking the attack.

Both started to strikes at each other in the skies, their Armiger's keeping them flying in the air as the two kings unleashed their aggression upon the other. Every pain the man before them had inflicted on them, all the grievances and misery they had brought to each other. Ardyn's desire to finally claim the vengeance he had sought for so long, to rid the worlds of the line of Lucis for what the crystal had wrought onto him, taking his divine light and turning him into an abomination of the light.

Yet his vengeance paled in comparison to the fury that swirls within Noctis' heart. Every blow from Ardyn's sword against his steel, ringing out memories of the pain and atrocities he dared to put his friends, family, through. Memories of him tricking the king to doubt and attack Prompto, forcing Ignis to lose his eyesight, bringing Terra to torment Aqua and Gladiolus, making Riku and Ravus fight, stabbing Kairi, and then torturing Sora.

It isn't enough that he took Noctis' home, but to inflict so much more pain on his family just boiled his blood. Ardyn then repels one of the chosen king's strikes and stabbed at the king, but he hits only a ghostly blue replica of the king harmlessly. Noctis appears behind him and slammed Mace of the Tall right into Ardyn's back and knocked him further across the skies.

He chases after him, firing his Armiger at him, Ardyn in turn sends Ravus at the king, his deformed body taking the brunt of the attacks without harm. Ravus cups both hands and raises them above his head and then slammed them both down on the king of light's sword, sending Noctis careening downward back to the earth. Noctis flips and rolls in the air to correct himself in time to warp back to the earth safely.

Not a second had his feet touched the ground, his trained reflexes deduced Ravus had chased him as well. He raises the Shield of the Tall to guard against the nobody's giant fist, bouncing off his shield with ease, but undeterred the nobody then starts to pummel the shield with fury induced strikes. A flurry of punches is unleashed onto the shield, slowly pushing Noctis backward. The king pulls a feint on the nobody by dismissing his shield just before Ravus' fist landed on it.

The nobody stumbled forward and is then struck in the chest by Noctis' Ultima Blade, slashing it across the chest. It reeled back but Noctis warp-struck it, plunging his sword into its chest and then calls for his Sword of the Wise to use its divine power to strike at Ravus three times before flipping backward in the air while slashing it. The nobody clutches its chest in pain as Ardyn warps back down in front of it and stares down Noctis, dismissing his royal arm and calling back his sword.

Ardyn's royal arms appeared around him, twisting and spinning before with a gesture of his hand, he fires them all at Noctis like missiles. The chosen king in response uses his Armiger to go back to the skies and soars into the air while being chased. He looks back to them and then dives down into the chasm of the labyrinth, being chased still. The chosen king zips and flies over, under and around the many bridges, pillars, and walls that impede his path.

Luckily the royal arms would strike something that was in the king's way and each one met a crushing defeat, the king repeating this tactic until only one royal arm remained to chase him, ironically the Sword of the Father. With a smirk, Noctis shoots upward to the skies and out of the chasm, quickly using one of the many tricks he had been taught by Aqua. He locks onto Ardyn and then teleports in blue light, reappearing behind him and Ravus.

Slower to catch on, Ardyn is then kicked in the back into the air by Noctis, calling for his Ultima Sword and with one wave of his hand, calls for his royal arms. Flipping the sword in a reverse grip, he teleports in a whitish light this time just as Ardyn is about to fall.

The king of light strikes him from the front with two royal arms, Sword of the Wise and Mystic, then followed it up by an upward slash from Sword of the Wanderer and Star of the Rogue. He repeats this attack by constantly attacking the would-be king with every royal arm within his arsenal, up to a single thrust of his sword that blasted Ardyn further up into the skies. Lifting his right hand to aim at his ancestor, all of the arms gathered and spun around his aiming limb. Faster and faster they spun until they were bathed in Lucis light and becoming near invisible with the speed.

Form Noctis' hand, a large ball of light forms and with a roar from the chosen king, he fires a large beam of light at Ardyn. The white and blue light that burned brighter and hotter than the sun, rocketing towards the man who would have stolen the throne for himself. Ardyn manages to however stay off the attack, using the Shield of the Just to guard against it. With all his darkness empowering him, he not only holds back the attack but now he remains stationary in the air as if nothing were pushing against him.

Noctis grunts but before he can counter this defense, his shoulders were grabbed by Ravus, yanking his right hand back. This causes the king to stop his attack and relives Ardyn the burden of fighting against it. The usurper then took the chance to strike back at Noctis, firing four royal arms at the king and striking him head-on. Hit by four of the corrupted arms, Noctis was then slammed back down to the earth by Ravus.

He raises his fist to deliver the final blow to Noctis, only for the king to cry out: "Reflect!". Right in time to raise a barrier just before Ravus' fist touched the king; both were hit by the attack. Noctis being pushed further into the earth while Ravus is struck by light and thrown into the air. Growling and prying himself from the earth, Noctis sits up and looks to see Ardyn warped right before him, Axe of the Conqueror above his head.

The king quickly retaliates this copycat attack by aiming left hand at him and fires a bolt of white lightning at him. The bolt struck Ardyn's chest and threw him back from the king of light. Noctis quickly scrambles to his feet as Ravus charges towards him, narrowly phasing through his attacks and sidestepping them until he managed to duck under a fist and slash at his side. Noctis runs past the nobody as it snarled in pain, running towards Ardyn and calling out his gun.

Firing several shots at the man whilst running only to have the bullets be deflected by the wall of crystal around Ardyn, Noctis warp-struck to him with Ultima Blade and with one strike smashes the wall of crystals protecting the usurper. Ardyn dodges the king's attacks and even got behind him to deliver a roundhouse kick to the back of Noctis' head. The king stumbled forward while clutching the back of his hand with a single hand, spun around, and throws his blade at the man.

Ardyn quickly leans backward to evade having the sword plunge in between his eyes, almost surprised Noctis had such a quick reaction. But his quick reflexes weren't enough to counter Noctis' fist to his cheek. He staggered back but Noctis' surprise display of martial arts wasn't done. The king leaped into the air with a spin, his left knee connecting to Ardyn followed by his right leg kicking him into the air.

He warps upward to Ardyn and then strikes him three times with Ultima Blade, drawing blood from him at last. When Ardyn falls to the ground, his descended warps down with him and with his giant sword, spins around twice, hitting him each spin with the last one knocking back into his nobody. Ardyn is caught by his servant, placed back on his feet and then Ravus proceeds to fly towards Noctis. Noctis raises his sword for the confrontation, only to be blasted by violet lightning that flew from Ardyn's hand.

Noctis yells out in pain, caught off guard, and is easily snatched up by Ravus' giant hand. The nobody grabbed the king by his shoulders and squeezes them within his giant hand, Noctis struggles and growls in pain, forced to drop his weapon as the pain became too much for his hand to maintain its grip. The king glares into Ravus' mismatched eyes, staring down at him defiantly while trying to break free, wondering if a dark part of the former human was enjoying his handling of the king he once despised.

Ardyn stands behind his servant, smugly staring at Noctis as the king grits out a yell of pain. He did promise himself he would make the king's passing as slow and painful as he could before he would finally end his legacy after all.

The chosen king struggled to break free from this grip from the brother of his fiancé, trying to focus on warping or phasing out of the nobody's clutches. "R-Ravus…! Come on…let go!", pleaded the king, glaring at him, "You're not his slave, fight back!". The nobody didn't even register his words, instead, it only tightened its grip on Noctis's nearly crushed shoulders with a snarl, baring its teeth before the chosen king.

His mismatched eyes suddenly fell to the breast pocket of Noctis' jacket as a gentle golden light shines within it. The king then feels the grip lessen, prompting him to look and see the light within his jacket too, a warmth washing over his heart. The light shines through and slowly phasing through the clothes, the very same necklace the older Fleuret had given to his sister for her sixteenth birthday.

The necklace floats between the two people who cared for the owner of this necklace, the nobody sub-consciously dropping Noctis to his feet and clasped his large hands beneath the necklace as it gentle laid within them. The king stares up at the nobody and sees recognition within those eyes, almost shifting into a human's as Ravus likely started to remember more of his human life. He then turns to Noctis, a question spoke from his eyes and with a nod, Noctis answers the question with the answer he had longed for.

"She's safe…and not alone", assured the future husband of her grace. Slowly the metal around his mouth begins to disintegrate with the light, and when his lips were freed, he uttered his sister's name. The necklace shines brightly as warmth cloaks his body, slowly the darkness within him begins to be purified, freeing him from Ardyn's control. Ravus turned to Noctis with one final request.

"Free….me…", he begged.

With a heavy heart but stern nod, Noctis calls his keyblade and gripped it with both hands. With a single stroke downward, Noctis brings his keyblade upon Ravus, the necklace returning to the king's chest pocket as the keyblade brings Ravus' existence as a nobody to an end at long last. Ardyn yelled out for his slave as Ravus' begins to fade away into the darkness, wherever he will end up Noctis did not know.

The nobody breathes out one final "thank you" to the king before he vanishes from the battleground, free of his new hell. Watching the body turn golden with light before vanishing, the king of light looked at his hand as the keyblade disappeared into his arsenal. Another heart harmed and twisted by Ardyn, another good man who above all else wanted nothing more than to ensure his sister would have a happy life.

A man who had served the very people who brought ruin to his home, who used any means to grow strong to protect the sister who was supposed to be denied a wonderful life. A man who Noctis believed could have been a great guardian of light. And another victim of Ardyn's schemes…

"Well, …that was short-lived…", Ardyn huffs, disappointed, "A failure in life as a human, a heartless and a nobody…".

"But twice the man, you will ever be", Noctis counters.

Ardyn looks to the king, the anger in his blue eyes only rivaling the glowing embers of the Lucis light cloaking his body, his Ultima Blade covered in the white crystal light. "How many people have you ruined…how many souls and hearts has your quest for vengeance warped and twisted until they were beyond recognition?", he interrogates, his anger reaching to a new point of contempt for his ancestor.

Ardyn scoffs dismissively, calling his sword. "He did his part, his naïve hopes of being the "hero" served me well…were it not for the boy of the islands coming to rescue you all", dismisses Ardyn. Noctis' grip on his sword tightens with rage, ghostly imitations of his royal arms begin to appear around him as the light burning within him slowly reaches its critical point. "Have you no heart of your own? How many will you sacrifice for your vengeance!?".

"Until I have it!", snaps Ardyn, at long last his anger had finally reared its head. "If I have to let all of Eos burn to see you and your disgusting linage! The crystal, the gods, all of you deserved whatever fate I brought to you!".

"You had your vengeance when you killed Bahamut, brought Eos to the brink of its destruction, and that STILL wasn't enough!?", Noctis challenged. "Of course not, you still lived on! You still carried the crystal's will, and that blasted Oracle still had the gall to still draw breath when she deserved the same fate as you!", Ardyn bellows. Then, he chuckled darkly as his eyes darken with darkness, dark blue veins started to appear on his face.

"But rest assured, once I plunge your heart into the abyss, I will finish what I had started", he warns, "One by one I will send all you hold dear into the depths of hell…until only the Oracle remains to witness the deaths of all she loves!". With heartless laughter, his Armiger comes out full force as the weapons parodying the light go from dark crystal red to violet and black crystal while his body is cloaked in pure violet darkness, almost like the blight.

"I'll start with Sora of course, and watch his lover break down into despair…and only when she and the Oracle have lost all they love…then I will plunge them into eternal hell!".

Ardyn fires all his royal arms at Noctis, laughing maniacally. With a roar that resonated with his heart, Noctis stabs his sword into the ground, his body sparking wildly with a fiery aura that burned so hotly it destroyed the ghostly missiles. His royal arms appeared all around, bathed in the white crystal light, alit in flames. Even his eyes turned into dark blue lights, outshining even in the darkest depths of Ardyn's evil. Not even the usurper could keep his composure at such display of power, no member of the Lucis line had come close to this power.

"All this time, you're nothing but a parasite whose only survived this long thanks to the daemons and your blind hatred for the Lucis", Noctis chastises, "A slave to darkness…even after all this time you would forever be a pawn of it, whether it is from the blight's hand…or Xehanort's will".

King Noctis steps forward as the light brushes the darkness away from him, his sword cloaked in blue and white flames. "And you would be content with that so long as you cause me or those I cherish as much harm as you can…but that ends here and now…", he says, "I've lost too many people in the past, those I would have called subjects, the men and women who gave their all for me to fulfill my destiny, to my father who sacrificed everything to help me on the path I walked".

"And to those who stayed by my side…the ones I cherish with all my heart, I will not fall here!", proclaims the king of light. He raises his sword at this monster of an ancestor, eyes alit with hope and determination. "Here and now, I'll end your plans for vengeance and give you the end you so desperately want!".

Like an arrow piercing the darkness, Noctis charged forth with the light following closely behind him. His royal blade struck Ardyn in the chest, propelling him into the skies as his darkness grows more tense and wild. The members of the royal blood called all their arms together, dashing towards each other with their weapons clashing in the skies.

The ringing sound of crystals clashing boomed across the battlefield, light and darkness dualling in the skies with the two striking at every space in between them, not a single safe spot is to be found nor could either escape the dark or light. The booming sound of their steel is so loud it could have been heard from a thousand miles, perhaps even in the realm of darkness. Wildly thrashing weapons yet no crystal broke or cracked under the weight of the aggressive attacks.

Both royalties were using every fiber of their royal blood to bring out their full potential, Noctis blessed by his royal light and the training he gained from Aqua while Ardyn's darkness gifted by Xehanort put him at even odds against the king. Blades, maces, and all kinds of weapons had landed upon the two, clothes were torn and ripped while coated with blood and scars, darkness seeping out of Ardyn's body while Noctis' light dimmers.

Breaking apart from their hurricane of crystal weapons, they stared down at each other but when Noctis readies himself to continue, he is suddenly bound by darkness. Rings of shadows wrapped around his wrists, ankles, and neck, binding him as Ardyn raises his royal arms along with several portals of darkness appearing behind him. "You think you know me? You know nothing of what I have endured", glowers Ardyn as he raises his hand.

"Helpless…you were galivanting with your friends while your father died, you would've have been destroyed had the Oracle not intervene…without your friends, you are nothing!". Noctis struggled in his bounds as Ardyn readies himself to finally put an end to this long line of fools. "And then you have the gall to talk down to me… *ME*…The one who was denied what is rightfully mine!?".

"If the darkness has to die, then you will go before it!".

With a hateful cry, Ardyn fires all his Armiger and a barrage of dark firagas at the defenseless king. Noctis uses his own Armiger to create a wall to at least shield himself even slightly from this attack. The wall of arms managed to stay off much of the attacks before they were overpowered by the darkness and were repelled, leaving Noctis at the mercy of Ardyn's hatred. The explosions surrounded Noctis as the royal arms struck him, his body thrown into a world of new pains he never experienced before.

It is as if he was being stabbed a thousand times per second as the fire burns his body and pummels his form. He clenches his teeth and eyes as he bore through this agony, using his mana to at least absorb some of the beatings. The Armiger that struck him thankfully didn't pierce his body all the way and even the blunt ones only cracked a bone at the very least, not to say he wasn't in agony. Only when the barrage of fire finally stopped did Ardyn decide now would be the final blow that would do in the king of light.

With his Raksha blade, Ardyn speeds forward and plunges the blade into Noctis' stomach, piercing the king. Noctis gasped out, blood spurting out of his mouth as he feels the cold steel within him. Ardyn's wounded face glowed with victory, the vengeance he had so desperately wanted has finally come to his hands at long last.

"Have you made your peace yet, your majesty?", mockingly says Ardyn as he drinks in the bleeding king, "Is this how you would end it all?".

Ardyn's eyes widened when Noctis grabbed the sword, facing Ardyn with a light burning within his crystal blue glow. "This…ends here".

With a burst of light, Noctis shouts and expels of a blast of light that shoots Ardyn away from him, forcing him to lose his grip on the sword. Noctis then grabbed the blade and pulls it out of him with a yell of pain as his black clothes take on the color of his blood, but the king uses a small portion of his magic to heal himself enough to stop the bleeding. With his Ultimate Blade and Ardyn's Raksha in hand, the king of light bathes the latter in the Lucis light as Ardyn floats there.

"I'll show you…the true power of kings!", proclaims Noctis.

He calls his royal arms to appear one more time, then fires them all at Ardyn like blue arrows of light. The divine weapons struck Ardyn and with each hit he gets closer to the ground. Noctis then warps towards him, closing the distance instantly and uses every single royal arm he had carried since the day he started on the path to his destiny. Every arm that had helped him in his quest to fight against the empire, to reclaim his throne, to protect those he held dear to him.

The usurper was cut and sliced by each of these divine arms, cutting away the darkness within him and bringing him closer to the end he had long been denied by the gods. One swipe from the trident of the one who guided the chosen king, the blade of the father who loved his son above all else, to finally the sword that would pass on to the future generation of kings and queens of Lucis and the blade of the man who is the true founder of the bloodline, Noctis grabbed the two blades and while he cried: "ITS OVER!", he brings them both down onto Ardyn for the final time.

Slashing downwards onto the man who had taken so much from him, a pillar of blue light erecting high into the skies like a beacon from the king's devastating attack.

The battle for the throne…had ended…

On his two feet, drained and weak from the pain and mana depletion, Noctis drops both blades before staggering backward, only catching himself from falling by placing both hands on his knees. Panting and grunting with pain through clenched teeth, Noctis stares down his slowly dying ancestor as Ardyn lies there, looking at the darkening clouds above just as the rain began to fall upon the world. The dark chapter of the Lucis' history can finally come to an end.

"So…this is how you would end it", Ardyn comments with effort on his end, coughing blood as the life begins to fade from his eyes. The chosen king stares at him as the rain washes down upon them, blood trailing down their bodies while Ardyn merely chuckled at the turn of events. So close was he to his revenge, only for it to be snatched away by destiny's cruel plans. The founding king had once more been played by the hands of fate, and mercifully it would be for the very last time.

Noctis clutched his arm as he stood over Ardyn, looking at the man of his lineage with neither hatred nor even contempt, but with mercy and sympathy. After all, he had done to him and those closest to his heart, behind the man who spread the scourge that would have destroyed their world, is a man who was unfairly denounced and left forgotten in the darkness of history. Maybe Sora was rubbing off on him, or maybe it was from his journey to the throne but Noctis truly wondered had things gone a different route, had Ardyn been reached out by his father, would he truly be here now?

He must have shown something akin to those thoughts because Ardyn scoffs. "Save your tears, boy", he lectured, "What is done…is done…".

"…it didn't have to end like this…", Noctis sighed.

"…possibly…humph…do believe in another life, we may have been friends? Even family?", Ardyn muses. "Part of me wants to say yeah…but then again, we'd still end up fighting to death somehow". Ardyn chuckles in response to that conflicted yet honest answer, somehow agreeing with him. The man who founded the Lucis line sighs as his body slowly fades away into oblivion, where his heart will go neither knew. Purgatory? Oblivion? Or perhaps even back to her side?

"Haven't you dawdled long enough…?", Ardyn asks, "Shouldn't you go and rescue your friends?". Noctis huffs before using more mana, what little remained, to heal himself and stand tall. "Go forth then…better hurry too", he teases with a malicious smirk. "Xehanort will forge the X-Blade…and luckily for him, he has two means of doing it".

Noctis glowered at him, the man fading away looks to the skies as the rain pelts him. "How? What are you talking about?", demands Noctis. "Oh…I heard Xemnas had invited a certain princess to meet with the master…something about…the motivation for Sora?". The chosen king's eyes shoot open with realization, a horrible gut-wrenching feeling settled within his stomach. Looking at the discarded but slowly fading keyblade, he realizes there was more to justify their pride as the Lucis line.

"We were supposed to clash with keyblades, forging the next key for the master…but well…neither of us were good at following orders", Ardyn muses as Noctis snaps his head to him. "What is he planning!? Tell me, Ardyn!", growls Noctis. The man of no consequences smirks as his body fades, parting his legacy with one final sentence.

"Destiny, Noct…their destinies cannot be altered…", he forewarns before, at long last, the founding king fades away from the realm of light.

Watching his ancestor's darkness fade away into nothing, the king stares up at the hailing rain, clenching his fist. "One final screw you, huh?", Noctis growled. All that remains of the man who had brought so much misery is his royal arm, the Raksha blade. Without another word, Noctis raises his hand to the blade, blue light surging around the old weapon. It spins in the air before turning into a crystal and then like all others before it, it plunged within Noctis.

Joining his arsenal like all the others, purified of the blight and darkness. The king turns down the distance leading back to Xehanort and the others.

The fated dual was about to take place.

*Destined Battleground*

With a loud hum within his throat, Xehanort opened his eyes with a disappointed gaze. "So…you would delay destiny for the sake of your vengeance…", he mused quietly. From his tall mountain, the man of the darkness had seen all that had transpired between the two kings. "I suppose it is in your nature to attempt to defy what destiny had planned for you, Ardyn", he comments, "But meaningless effort on your part…it was your fate…".

He turned back to the platform below him, standing against his three versions were the two masters who at some point had become possibly the true masters. King Mickey and Riku stand before Xemnas, Ansem, and Young Xehanort, but as he would expect very soon, Sora would be joining them.

And speaking of the boy.

Running to join his best friend and king, Ultima resting on his shoulder calling his friends, Sora joins their side and immediately readied himself. With a playful smirk, Riku says: "What took you so long?". Sora quickly apologizes but his eyes were fixed on Xemnas, in his stance while clutching the keyblade as tightly as he could. "Xemnas, where's Kairi!?", demands the boy who slain half of their numbers.

"Wait, is she…", Riku starts before all his playfulness died out and now in its place was anger. Both boys steeled their gaze onto Xemnas as Mickey calls his keyblade. "Settle down, boy", lectures Xehanort from the top, smirking. "Its Sora!", snaps back Sora, aiming his keyblade at him, "WHERE IS SHE!?".

With a dry chuckle, Xehanort lifts his hand and on his left, appearing from a dark corridor, Kairi is levitated from it. Her eyes closed and her body left defenseless, but she appeared unharmed. Sora gasps her name as Riku grunts with worry, both islanders nearly running to her and would have were Xehanort's final line of defense barred their path. "The thirteen darkness and nine lights have clashed a total of ten times…but only yielded these nine keys", explains Xehanort. With a single swipe of his hand, he reveals the said keys, surrounding himself and Kairi.

"Keys?", Mickey questions.

"Ahh…but we are four short. Luckily for us, those keys will be forged for us right here, and now", forewarns Xehanort, confident. Sora shouts: "Yeah right! And makes you think we'll help!?". Xehanort smirked, calls his keyblade and without a moment's hesitance, lifts it to Kairi's neck, immediately making Sora yell her name and Riku roaring Xehanort's. "Have you forgotten boy? I plan for every eventuality", warns Xehanort.

Sora's fears confirmed, and all it takes to remind him of how he had been played to do his part in summoning Kingdom Hearts is to look at the girl he had once again failed to protect. He clenched his fist but Riku steps forward. "Even if you do summon Kingdom Hearts, we will defeat you, and will close it once again!", promises the master. With a smug smirk and closing his eyes to "mull" over the confidence in Riku's words, Xehanort says: "Possibly…that is of course…if you survive that long".

The three versions of the seeker of darkness call forth their darkness and weapons as the three masters and guardians ran to them.

Destiny is at hand…

A/N:

Short one but I'm not complaining. After three of them so far, I needed the break from it. Ardyn is finally done and free, leaving only three more to go!

QUESTIONS!

Q1: Thoughts on this chapter?

Q2: How was Ardyn and Noctis?

Q3: Ravus? Ever wanna see him as a human again?

Q4: Which of the 13 darkness was your favourite in the game?

Q5: Noctis taking Ardyn's royal arm?

Q6: Ready for the worst to come?

Q7: Wanna see Terra, Roxas and Xion interact with the chocobros?

So writers who read this, how do you plan out your stories? Do you ever think of making them short but then turn them into a long one or can you make a short and move on?

Also anyone else excited for Kairi in Memory Melody!?

Thanks for reading everyone, massive thanks to all the followers in the past few weeks, really makes the work worth it in the end! As always stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	76. Chapter 76

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 76

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

Many would say Sora has his fair share of enemies, but few he could call a sworn nemesis. Many foes he had defeated in the past were just adversaries who tried to harm his close and new friends whenever he visits new worlds, but the three before him he would completely agree are some of his greatest and worst enemies he ever had the displeasure of fighting.

Words could not even convey the feelings of disdain he had for the three that had so much of an impact on his life, and not just his but so many of his friends. Ansem needed no explanation, just remembering hearing his voice coming from Riku's mouth before fuelled the fire that is his anger, and of course, him being the one who brought the heartless to Radiant Garden and destroying so many worlds for his somebody.

Xemnas is already a monster of a man for what he had put Roxas and his friends through, using all his members as sacrifices for his grand plan. But now putting Kairi's life in the hands of Xehanort, smugly taunting the boy that he once again stole his precious light, it was just as well Aqua taught him to reel in his anger enough to concentrate on the battle. But he was going to rip into Xemnas, not even their first fight could compare to it.

Then came Young Xehanort, nearly identical to his older self just more smug and arrogant. The young boy wanted to see the outside world but is willing to do whatever it took for his goals. It still leaves Sora perplexed as to how this young man was perfectly okay with how he would turn out in the future, seeing the levels of evil and cruelty his older self would stoop to for his goal. Remembering his time back in the sleeping worlds, how he tricked and beguiled Sora into falling for his false memories, and only thanks to Riku and Axel he was spared a horrible fate.

All three of these men were here in between himself and Kairi, and no sooner had he entered the fight Sora was already pulling out all the stops.

Already in his Ultimate Form and making a beeline for Young Xehanort by tackling him past Xemnas and Ansem, leaving those two to deal with Riku and Mickey. The young man tried to break out of Sora's attack but the boy who he had greatly underestimated so much in the past strikes him with his keyblade and hits him up to the air. Sora flies up after him, engaging him in a clash of keyblades, each of Sora's strikes forcing him to go higher and higher.

The young master teleports away from the boy and returns to the battleground, jerking his head to see Sora is already right in front of him. He could not even teleport in time to avoid getting Sora's boot to his face. Sora leaps off him as if he were nothing more than a platform and spins in the air to aim his keyblade at him. Young Xehanort reels on him and changes his keyblade into a whip and then attacked Sora with it.

His whip wraps around Ultima and stopped Sora's attack, only for Sora to dismiss his keyblade and dive back down to the man who started it all. The young seeker of darkness swung his keyblade at the boy, Sora gliding to the side of it while spinning around and recalling his keyblade. Sora misses the young master when he tried to go for the head, forcing Young Xehanort to teleport again from him, further burning the levels of patience Sora had.

Reappearing on his left, Young Xehanort is already aiming his keyblade at the boy and fires a barrage of dark projectiles at him that flew several levels of height at him. Sora in response dashes forward recklessly, his Ultimate Form calling for the many colorful swords from his form to act like projectiles to pierce the darkness. Sora grabbed for one and swung them both at Young Xehanort. The older boy just barely manages to block the attack with one keyblade. When Sora slammed the two blades on him, the force of his attack almost split the earth in two from where Young Xehanort stood.

Confronting his "master" with all the anger in his heart, Riku manages to slide underneath the flying disks of darkness hurtled toward him. No sooner did he evade having his body sawed into pieces, he dashes towards the man who had put him onto the dark path in his past, keyblade shining brilliantly as he managed to land a blow onto the man who stole the identity of Radiant Garden's ruler. Though nothing that would do him in.

The false Ansem floats into the air, firing a barrage of dark fire at Riku. Riku in turn leaps at the hurtling flames, using his darkness to coat his blade and slice and dice his way through the barrage. He front flips over the final ball and aimed his free hand at the seeker of darkness. With a yell he shoots a ray of his darkness at him, Ansem flies away from the attack and then, as he is cloaked in darkness, rushes towards Riku like a rocket.

The master slammed his keyblade right onto the attack, but his efforts were for naught as Riku was thrown into the air. Ansem reappears behind him and opens his arms up to engulf himself in a barrier. The moment Riku contacted him, he is cloaked in darkness and electricity before being repelled by the barrier and falls to the ground with a thud. Ansem smirks victoriously at the boy, lifting his hand to channel his darkness into the final attack.

Instead of Riku laying there in defeat though, he shocks the seeker of darkness by jumping back to his feet with ease. The boy holds his keyblade with both hands and lowers it to his side as darkness cloaks his form, even his eyes going purple for a moment before with a yell, he swings his keyblade at the master. The attack creates a large arc of darkness and even light that launches towards Ansem, so fast even he could not react in time to dodge or stop it.

The attack hits the man with full force, cutting and burning him with the divine darkness. He is thrown off the platform and onto another battlefield where Riku immediately gives chase, it was time to put an end to this man once and for all.

With the two youngsters fighting their greatest adversaries, Mickey takes up the duty to settle the score with the man he once thought was Xehanort's original form. It still made the mouse king ponder how he had been so blind in the past, never putting together how everything could have played out in Xehanort's favor up until now. He never told anyone this and a selfish part of his heart knew he'd take it with him until the end of his days, but he felt great remorse and shame for his lack of action in the past

If he had been wiser, if he had been stronger, then perhaps so many of these tragedies could have been prevented. Had he the strength to dive into the dark realm and rescue Aqua, had he the foresight to see through Xehanort's guise of using Terra's body as a puppet and heavens forbid had he been there for Riku and Sora at the beginning, then perhaps their falling out before would never have come to pass. Seeing Xemnas bearing so many similarities to Terra's young form, the way he smirked smugly at the king just mocked Terra's kindness.

It had been a very, VERY, long time since Mickey got serious with an enemy. And evidently, Xemnas himself is going all out for this bout as well. His once all-black cloak is now a white one covered in black designs, many of which resemble the nobody logo. Sora and Riku had warned the team about this form when they last fought him together, and his power is an all-time high now compared to earlier.

Mickey's smaller size and skilled acrobatic prowess held the advantage of mobility against Xemnas, his lasers were hitting everything but the king. This does not mean however Mickey held the fight in his hands entirely. Even someone as powerful as himself, Mickey's might is matched by Xemnas' tenacity and versatility. Every swing from his laser sabers was followed by more lasers fired from nowhere so that even if his blade missed a laser could catch Mickey.

Mickey's parries and deflecting skills had been put to the test, even while facing arguably the third/fourth-strongest member of Xehanort's vessels. Xemnas levitates away from the king, firing a series of dark thorns at him. Mickey jumps and leaps over these attacks, even using his keyblade to rip them to shreds with a few swings. He then fires a pearl of light magic at him, running along with it before he fires two more.

Using his laser sabers, Xemnas splits the pearls with ease and manages to lock weapons with Mickey. While still in the air, Mickey strikes at the former leader of the organization as he levitates backward from the mouse king. Mickey's attacks forced him back to the ledge of the platform, but when he tried to go for another flurry of keyblade strikes, Xemnas teleports behind him and grabbed the collar of his clothes.

Before Mickey could do anything, Xemnas throws the king into the air and off the platform, teleporting to the king. Whilst in the air, Mickey is then attacked by thorns appearing from portals around him, making the king leap and flip around them as Xemnas dives in with his sabers. Mickey is struck several times by either the thorns or the laser sabers, yelping with each hit before Xemnas performed a roundhouse kick that throws Mickey onto another platform.

He chases the mouse king, leaving only Sora and Young Xehanort on the platform.

Facing on against Ansem, Riku charges at him with his Guardian Form. With his gigantic ax in hand, he brings down the mighty weapon upon Ansem's barrier. The force breaks apart the platform they were on and both fall through the collapsing stones while Riku keeps striking the dark barrier. Ansem dispels it just as Riku swings it and misses thanks to there being no barrier. Ansem teleports above him and stomps on his back with both feet.

Riku smashes through a fallen boulder and slammed into another, but he quickly tosses his ax at Ansem. As it spun towards the heartless, Riku jumps from platform to platform to reach the older man. Ansem uses his darkness to catch the ax by the pole, completely unaware of Riku's quick climb up towards him. Only when he senses the boy does he turn in time to see Riku deliver a solid punch to his jaw, his fist coated in darkness. The attack blasts Ansem through more falling boulders until he smashes through another pillar of stone.

He stops his momentum with a grunt, bruised, and bloody. He raises his head to see Riku running at him through the tunnel his back created and leaps towards Ansem. Ansem curses him and with a single swipe of his arm, Riku is caught in the air by darkness, held in place. Ansem then swipes his hand several times, telepathically slamming Riku into the wall, then to the ground from ten feet and then upheave him and repeat this torture for a good five minutes.

With a casual flick of his wrist, Ansem throws Riku through three pillars and onto a short platform of stone. Riku bounces off the ground with several thuds before lands on his feet and slammed his ax to stop him from being thrown off the platform. Panting and gritting his teeth in pain, Riku gets to his feet as Ansem levitates before him, darkness gathering in his hands. He starts to throw several disks at Riku, forcing the master to stand and swing his ax with enough force to destroy the disks.

Riku runs at the seeker and slammed his bladed ax into the ground, vaulting himself into the air and with a single front flip, Riku aims both hands and fires a charged hurricane of flames with violet lightning dancing around it. Ansem calls his barrier in time to hold the beam from swallowing him in flames but it only protected him for five seconds before breaking through it and sending himself through the platform and further to the labyrinth.

Ansem is smashed into the ground by the blast as the flames roasted his body and lightning shocking his nerves. With a bellow of power, Ansem blasts the attack into nothingness as darkness erupts around him, reaching as high as one of the towering platforms.

Riku jumps down to confront this man for the final time, seeing the darkness slowly fade away and Ansem steps out of it. Without his jacket and gloves with his pants and boots are replaced by a pair of black skin-tight leggings with yellow lining. He also grows to a tremendous size and his eyes become completely orange and pupil-less in this form. In his hand is Soul Eater a dual-bladed halberd, the very same weapon he used against Sora in the past.

Riku takes his ax and reverts it into Braveheart, takes up his stance as darkness cloaks his body while drawing up all his power. Ansem spins his halberd and readies himself to put an end to the vessel that housed his will and heart, only one shall walk away to continue their journey.

They both raced towards each other, the titan swinging his dual blades at the boy with just one hand. Riku flips and jumps over the blades while using his dark enhanced strength to strike back at him. Ansem grunts with each hit but that is all Riku achieved with these attacks, the dark power coursing through this man who once possessed the boy is at a new level of power no heartless had ever attained in the past. Even without his guardian, he still manages to put Riku's best upfront.

Ansem slashes Riku's body from hip to left shoulder, earning a yell from the boy as he is flying and into the wall. Ansem lifts his hand and summons several glyphs surrounding him and with a single gesture of his hand, they glyphs fire straight lasers at Riku. The boy quickly kicks off the wall to avoid being burnt, only managing to dodge nearly all of them with one burning his right shoulder. Riku lands on his feet and stabbed his keyblade into the ground, firing a wave of darkness at Ansem.

The seeker spins and swipes his blade across the wave, splitting it in half. Doing so gave Riku a chance to fly and kick Ansem in his heartless emblem chest, then he slammed the palm of his free hand on his face and fires a condensed burst of darkness at point-blank. This attack fires Ansem further from Riku just when he bathes his keyblade in violet lightning and allows his body to be cloaked in darkness. He takes a deep and steady breath, lifting his keyblade so he can press his forehead against the flat surface against it.

Slowly Riku's eyes shifts into a dark violet color while darkness paints his skin into ink, his greaves turning violet and red with the dream eater emblem stamped onto them, his jacket turning into a black and red cloak. Even his hair goes ashen white as he calls out his darkness to its fullest power. Ansem raised his head to bear witness to Riku's full potential being brought out before the seeker raised his hand to the air and cried out:

"Welcome Oblivion!".

A large ball of darkness that is comparably the same size of a house with several glyphs flashing as it starts to turn into a black hole. The ground trembles at its power while sucking in everything around, broken and fallen stone, dust, and rubble, even the air. Riku feels it pull before he lets out a roar, darkness erupting from his heart and tendrils of darkness shoot out and stab into the ground, holding him safely in place.

Riku grabs his keyblade, lifting it above his head as the dark light within him bathes it in what could be the perfect harmony between light and darkness. Slowly the aura surrounding the blade raises and extends to replicate an oversized buster blade that reached above the walls of their arena. Grabbing the key with both hands as the weight of its power it enough to sink Riku's feet into the earth, and with a roar that could shake even the darkest hearts, Riku brings down the massive blade.

The twilight blade cleaves through the black hole, splitting it in two. The ball doesn't even explode as the giant sword falls onto Ansem. Ansem snarls and calls for every drop of the darkness within his heart, bathing himself in the blackest of darkness. His halberd roars with darkness as he swings with every fiber of darkness within his body. Their weapons collide for no more than a single second, for the collision sent a horrible blast the consumed both warriors in a bright flash.

The battleground is destroyed as the blast consumes the walls and ground…

Just narrowly escaping from the pit of death, Ansem teleports to one of the final platforms that watched over the arena, bloodied, bruised, scarred and ultimately, beaten. His weapon breaks apart into fragments of darkness before he almost falls to his knee, gritting his teeth. But this temporary respite came to an end when he turns to see on the other side of the platform, is Riku.

Reverted into his human appearance with his jacket gone, shirt barely holding together exposing his stomach and right shoulder, his right arm bare. Several tears in his pants, a single cut above his left eye leaking and even has some blood in his silvery hair. The master's keyblade looked significantly heavier in his hand but his eyes showed he was far from done with this bout, even if he did look like he is ready to keel over and welcome sleep.

Ansem turns to face him, his pride is still on the line after all, but whatever fight he carried within him had evaporated. The boy approached him, his walk showed he was tired and weakened but none the less he still approaches the man he, in a sense, went on a long journey with. The young master could never forgive the seeker, nor even himself, for the chaos they had wrought together, even if he could justify Ansem had put him on the dark path.

Oddly enough, meeting this man had strangely benefitted Riku in the long run. His desire to atone stemmed from this man trying to goad him into becoming a heartless again, to use the darkness to get what he desired and his acceptance of the darkness in his heart is what made him strong enough to take the Mark of Mastery Exam and more importantly safe his best friend from a fate worse than becoming heartless.

Ansem chuckled ruefully, sensing his body had finally submitted to the fate that lied in store for him. Slowly his darkness propels into the skies, like so many before him as his body slowly fades away. "What…a journey you and I had…", he reflects fondly, looking at his hand slowly fading away. Riku stops before him, even his eyes showed a semblance of remorse for the man. "It's weird…strange even to feel…but I think I'm gonna miss you", he says.

"…your strength is vaster and greater than the darkness", Ansem concedes respectfully, "I knew the moment we crossed our darkness…I never stood a chance". He then scoffs in a very indifferent manner, saying: "Part of me wanted to defy the fate that lied in store for me…but when the others betrayed us, I simply did not care". He stands up tall as he closed his eyes for a moment to reflect, before facing Riku again. "And then…nothing else had mattered to me anymore".

Riku looked down, prompting Ansem to chuckle. "The time has come…to move on boy…", he lectures with a smile, "Go…there is so much more to seek, so go forth and seek it out". His final parting words to probably his greatest adversary, whose heart and strength had long since surpassed the seeker. And thus, the heartless of Xehanort pass onwards to the next world, wherever he may fall to.

Looking up to the traces of Ansem, Riku nods and accepts this road. He clenched his teeth before he runs to re-join the others.

If he was going to seek out more from the worlds, he wanted to do it with those two by his side.

On the other side of the labyrinth, jumping from one pillar to the other, Mickey strikes back against Xemnas' lasers and slices through his endless thorns. The nobody was flying in the air shooting the mouse king relentlessly and tirelessly, keeping at a distance from Mickey and planning to finish him off without crossing blades with one of the most powerful masters of the keyblade.

Mickey remains determined, however, even if he is at a disadvantage. The king's eyes were alit with the motivation to win. He jumps off another pillar and runs along a wall as they both navigate through a narrow canyon, Xemnas still keeping to his strategy, firing more lasers at the king. Along the wall, Mickey jumps from wall to wall to evade the lasers and at the same time slashes at the thorns, trying to keep Xemnas on guard but at the same time show him this attempt to do away the master would not work.

Xemnas then teleports just as Mickey swaps walls to run along and appears in front of him just as he lands on the wall. With his right hand aimed, he fires a barrage of lasers at Mickey and uses his left hand to implant thorns into the wall. Seeing the thorns nearly shoot out of the wall, Mickey jumps off it and avoids the lasers. In the air in between the walls, Mickey is caught by Xemnas via the neck and tossed down to the ground, with the nobody chasing after him.

Flipping in the air, Mickey fires two pearls at Xemnas as he falls to the ground. These attacks were quickly done away by Xemnas slashing them in half, but Mickey's feet find a home on a small broken pillar of stone, and quickly he uses it to leap back up to Xemnas. His speed catches the nobody off guard and closing the distance so quickly allowed Mickey to land several strikes on him before Xemnas could react in time.

His keyblade cuts and pummels Xemnas, light striking at his dark tainted body. The king strikes Xemnas with enough force to smash him into one of the walls with a thud, and once he was planted within the wall, Mickey aims his keyblade and fires a single beam of light at his heart. Xemnas, however, smirked and uses the corridor of darkness to disappear before the beam touched him. He reappears below Mickey and then performs a back-flip kick that kicked Mickey to the air, and gives chase.

Mickey is kicked up to the top of the canyon and is then roundhouse kicked again by Xemnas. He is kicked onto the top of the wall with two bounces before he rolled to his feet, watching Xemnas as the former leader levitates before him. Mickey huffs and readies for the fight, even with his attacks harming the nobody they were nothing more than minor brushes. His respect for Sora and Riku had grown when he remembered Xemnas met his end by two weaker keyblade users.

Xemnas flies to the king with his sabers but performs a low sweep kick instead of attacking with his laser sabers. Mickey leaps over this attack while swiping at the nobody, his keyblade deflected by Xemnas' right-hand blade. Mickey jumps around his sweeping and roundhouse kicks while at the same time tries to land a blow only to have each attack miraculously be deflected back from the sabers. Xemnas' skill is a cut above the others, his reaction is almost worthy of a keyblade master.

Xemnas' saber lands on Mickey's chest thanks to a quick turn around and swing, striking Mickey. The mouse king is thrown onto his back for no less than five seconds as he rolls to his side and fires off a slew of elemental magic at Xemnas. But even some of the more powerful spells were nothing for Xemnas, his sabers cutting them down as he practically dances while swinging his weapons and even his kicks were powerful enough to break them. Once he got close to Mickey in the middle of casting another spell, he kicks the mouse in the side of his head.

Mickey grunts out in pain and staggered to his feet as Xemnas raises his hand at him, firing more lasers at him. Unfortunately, Mickey is hit twice by the barrage, his shoulder, and right knee which forced him to a knee. Mickey hisses out with pain, looking at Xemnas at the man aimed his hand at him, his face showing amusement.

"Humph…I had expected the keyblade master who came before Sora would have been more…", he mocks, "My fight with the boy should have been a prelude to what a true master is capable of…yet I'm more than disappointed".

Mickey slowly gets to his feet as Xemnas floats to the air, the mouse's body carrying too much pain to stop him as Xemnas' hands shine with darkness and emptiness of a nobody. "But I am no fool…leaving you will only be a detriment to our goals", he states, "I will allow you to perish, so you may be spared of the fates of your companions". Slowly enshrouding the two, Xemnas lights up the dome of darkness with lasers that far exceeded his previous attack.

Mickey looks around to see he is trapped within as Xemnas smirked ruefully. "Embrace…oblivion!".

Xemnas unleashes what could only be compared to a thousand lasers fired per second, completely covering spaces and obscuring everything in Mickey's eyes. Mickey presses onward, using even his weakened knee to carrying him while he jumps, dodges, and deflects the lasers with every fiber of speed and strength his small body could grant him. He takes hits and grazes here and there, but his small stature granted him better chances of avoiding.

Even if it meant he would only be delaying his end…

As he jumps and dodges these attacks, watched by Xemnas as the nobody enjoys the guardian's struggle to fight back against his destiny. His words, the promises of harming his companions, they rang out deep within the king's mind and heart, images of the past fighting had popped in his mind. Donald and Goofy, weaker than the others and even with all the beatings they endured for their companions boiled the mouse's blood.

Thinking back to how much the worlds had asked from Sora, Riku, and the others, his shortcomings burning his heart. The pain the lasers paled in comparison to how much he had asked from those people, young folk who did not deserve the anguishes Xehanort and his vessels had put them through. Sora nearly becoming one of the dark, Riku put on the dark path, Kairi being forced to stay behind and wait while her friends suffer, Aqua trapped in the darkness, Ventus losing his heart and Terra becoming a slave to Xehanort.

All this, all this pain and misery he had not been able to prevent…

It ends today.

Mickey raises his keyblade and yells out: "STOPZA!".

The next thing Xemnas knew, all his lasers were sliced into nothingness, not a trace of them could be found as a blur of light flashes all around the darkness and the red of his lasers slowly disappearing like the air. His yellow eyes were not able to even see what the king had done to stay off his end yet again, moving so quickly it is as though there were hundreds of the king all in one spot. He grunted in fury calls his sabers and prepares himself for the moment needed to do away with this meddlesome past.

Mickey suddenly appears right before him, in the air with his body glowing in light. Xemnas' eyes lose the anger within them as a sudden sense of nothingness washes over him, the king's hand tightly gripping the keyblade as the blade shined with the most brilliant light. In his eyes Xemnas sees the pain his body had adopted and yet even with all his wounds, he sees the will to persevere and walk down his road despite the pain.

For the first time in what feels like a lifetime, Xemnas felt something other than emptiness…admiration.

Mickey brings down his keyblade down onto Xemnas at last, concluding their battle. He slashes past the former leader and lands behind him, on one knee while his keyblade touches the ground, the king panting with exertion and pain coursing through his small form. Xemnas could feel his life fade from his body, the darkness that will create the final key seeping into the skies as he slowly floats back down to the ground, clutching his chest. Staggering the moment his feet touched the ground, Xemnas looks at his hands as he starts to fade away.

"Bested…yet again…", he sighed.

The king slowly stands and turns to him as Xemnas looks at his hands as darkness seeped from them, the king looking at his keyblade and then back to the nobody. "…Sora believes you have a heart", Mickey informs, respectful and even sympathetic, "Tell me…what do you feel? Was any of this worth it?". Xemnas placed a hand on his chest, whether in pain or even to feel his supposed heart, Mickey couldn't say for certain.

"I feel…nothing but the emptiness of where my companions once stood…I had taken them for granted", confesses Xemnas, "And now I have nothing. The first surge of emotion I have had in years for as long as I can remember…and it is loneliness". Xemnas shakes his head and looks at Mickey, and speaks: "Do you see? A heart is just pain".

"That's…part of having one", Mickey says, shaking his head. "Pain…anger, sadness, they are all part of having one. But there are also other parts to make one, joy, bravery and kindness", Mickey says, placing a hand on his heart, "Yours is filled with pain because those you called companions are either gone or have left your side…". Mickey frowns in silence, remembering all those times he had to be alone for their goals to protect the realm of light.

In a lot of ways, he and Xemnas had both endured that same loneliness on their journeys through the worlds. The only difference is Mickey's companions would have always been there for him when he would come home to them, Xemnas had none.

"Is that so? Hmm…it must take…incredible strength", he sighs as his body fades away. Admiration is shinning in his eyes as he addresses the king, and if Mickey were a betting mouse, likely he is thinking of Sora too. Once the nobody fades away into the darkness, Mickey finally falls to his knees in pain, exhausted and weary.

The spell he cast took far more out of him than he dared to think, and he could feel his arms waver in exhaustion and his eyes felt heavy. But he cannot stop here, not yet. Using a piece of his low mana pool, Mickey gets to his feet as his wounds patched up and turn his head to where Xehanort waited for the battles to conclude. His hand tightening around his keyblade at the thought of that man using Kairi to hurt Sora and Riku awoken a fire within his heart.

This time he will not leave anyone behind, no one else would be alone after a great battle. As king, as a master, he will make it his mission to make sure everyone can go home together.

Atop of the battleground overseen by Xehanort, his younger self still clashes with the chosen wielder of the keyblade. The younger version had set mine glyphs all over the battleground while using his whip-keyblade to strike at the boy from a distance and cut off any other direction he could have taken, either forcing him to make hasty decisions that could have set off a mine or be struck by the whip. The young master had regained control over the battle within minutes after his nobody and heartless scurried away with their prey.

Sora jumped on one empty bit of ground and stayed on it for less than a second before the whip almost slashed his face again. He keeps jumping from one fragment of free earth and keeps getting attacked by the whip and would often receive a hit. Young Xehanort had effectively turned the battle into a game of the floor is lava with the added layer of the unfairness of getting slashed by a whip, forcing him to constantly be on the run.

One step on free earth before the whip could touch him, Sora rockets himself into the air above the battleground. Young Xehanort watches him fly to the sky while Sora is bathed in light. He grabs his sword and with a yell, teleports just above the ground, and light bursts from him. Two large glyphs of light appear from below and above the boy, and then a hurricane of slashes from his sword, slashing the entire battleground and with each slash hitting the glyphs, exploding them.

Young Xehanort grunts before leaping into the air to evade Sora's desperate attack with explosions covering the entire field. The young master searches for him in the smoke as the glyphs disappear and he senses the light from Sora had reverted to his original form until another burst of light makes itself known to his senses. Sora suddenly launches from the smoke, his clothes now red with urban camouflage patterns and carries a gigantic hammer.

The master strikes Sora with his whip with a yell but the boy dashes towards him quickly enough for him to miss. He appears above Young Xehanort and slammed his hammer right onto his back with all the force of a runaway truck. Young Xehanort slammed into the ground so quickly he could not even comprehend the attack nor form a proper counterattack or even use his powers to make a softer landing form himself.

The younger seeker of darkness got to his knees with a growl and turns around in time to fire a ring of nine icicles at the boy. Sora smashes them to pieces with his hammer as he dives to the ground. The second his feet touch the ground, he immediately dashes to Young Xehanort while dragging the hammer down on his right, breaking the earth beneath him. He swings the hammer upward to Young Xehanort with a roar as the hammer uses its rocket booster to increase the speed.

Young Xehanort foolishly tries to block the attack and slammed his keyblade upon the hammer. His keyblade is struck out of his hands, flying into the air, and with a spin, Sora slammed his hammer into the master's body, throwing him into the huge pillar of stone Xehanort stood upon. His body is buried within the stone, but Sora was not finished with him yet. He quickly swaps out his hammer for the halberd.

Young Xehanort propels him out of his stone prison and strikes Sora as he raised his halberd against his reclaimed keyblade. Sora throws him off himself and starts to dance with his halberd, striking at Xehanort's youthful form, his halberd plunging forth repeatedly and with several skilled swings Sora counters all Young Xehanort's attacks. The older master just narrowly managed to block the halberd from cutting off his head, parrying it, and then uses force magic to blast Sora away from him.

Sora's feet dug into the ground; his eyes bore deep into Young Xehanort's while the boy of the darkness summons clones of himself to harass the younger master. The two clones jump into the air and begin to wildly swing their key-whips at Sora, lashing out at him and the ground around him. Sora spins his halberd and uses his magic to shift it into the Storm Flag, and with amazing demonstrations of his skill, he quickly deflects the whips back at the clones.

Young Xehanort teleports in front of the boy and strikes at his flag, Sora meeting his swordplay with polearm prowess, the flag itself striking back at the one keyblade wielder of the darkness. Young Xehanort's keyblade is then held in the air during a swing by the flag, the red cloth wrapped around beneath the teeth of his dark and time themed keyblade, allowing Sora to use the staff to pummel and give Xehanort's youthful form a taste of payback for his meddling back in his exam.

The flag can extend as much as it wanted and thanks to some quick movements from Sora's pole, he eventually yanked the keyblade out of Xehanort's hand and beat him several times with the pole before one stabbing thrust from the butt of his pole and one wallop to his jaw with the end of his weapon. Young Xehanort is sent staggering to the left, bruises starting to form on his handsome face, and having no time to stop Sora from spins the staff over his head and creates a small hurricane that slashes Young Xehanort's body and sent him flying across the battlefield.

The master flipped backward in the air and lands on his feet, grunting in pain while Sora reverts to his normal form, Kingdom Key back in his hand. Young Xehanort chuckled smugly, smirking cruelly at Sora. "Where was all this during your exam, Sora? You might have passed if you weren't so worthless!", he mocks.

"Shut up!", Sora snaps, "Get out of my way!". Young Xehanort stands up properly as the boy's eyes glowed with anger towards him, his grip on the keyblade tightening. "What? You still think you're gonna save her?", asks the young master with a cruel laugh. "Foolish boy…". Sora growled and dashes at him, swinging his keyblade at the silver-haired youth. Young Xehanort blocks his attack and pushes his keyblade aside and takes a swing at him, only to be blocked himself.

Their keyblades locked, eyes dead focused on each. "You think because Aqua deemed *you* worthy, you have the right to be called a master?", he mocks, "Never chosen, never even given a chance to be worth consideration by the keyblade! An accident, a mistake, a chance of fate! That is why you wield the keyblade!". Sora grunts at the cutting words, yet his heart steeled itself, his will power not even chipped slightly at the words this arrogant brat of a man spewed.

"And you think you're worthy of it? Especially knowing what you're going to do in the future?", Sora challenged, "Killing your best friend? Tormenting his kids? Hurting so many hearts!? Trying to destroy the realm of light!?". Sora's eyes burned with fury while Young Xehanort arrogantly smiles, indifferent to his future self's terrible actions. It enraged Sora, how could someone be so callous when they slew someone so close to them as if they were nothing more than a heartless?

"You wouldn't understand…you still understand so little", he parrots his heartless' words. Sora breaks the deadlock and before the older master could do anything, Sora slammed his keyblade into his stomach and knocks him back. Even though it was a minor scratch, Young Xehanort rubbed his wound while Sora stares him down, his body glowing with light. "You're right, I don't understand that much…but I'd rather be an idiot than understand THAT line of understanding!".

Young Xehanort laughs cruelly at the audacity from the boy, glowing with the sinister dark light. "Then perish as a fool, as you are in life!", he orders. Sora is then trapped within a small dome of a clock where the hands spin until they slowed down till they stopped altogether. Young Xehanort places several icicles around the boy, a mine glyph beneath his feet before he rushes past Sora, slashing at him several times and then appears behind him.

With a single snap of his fingers, time resumed.

Sora immediately yelps in pain when his body houses new slashes, the icicles struck him, and one stuck itself in his side. The glyph beneath him explodes and bathes him in smoke and pain, likely putting down the warrior who could have been the catalyst to foiling Xehanort's plans. Young Xehanort turns to the smoke with a smug smirk, not sensing Sora's light any longer and as the smoke cleared, he sees the boy shaking with pain and almost collapses.

Finally, Sora falls to his knees in defeat, head downcast while Young Xehanort walks around him and stands before him. He uses his keyblade to lift Sora's chin to face the very person who would take his head. The young seeker of darkness rises his keyblade up, smiling wickedly as Sora grits his teeth in pain, and just as the keyblade falls to him…

"SORA!".

Sora lifts his keyblade and blocks Young Xehanort's final strike, startling the master. The smug look is gone, and rage coats his face, grabbing the keyblade with both hands and tries to press down on Sora. Yet the boy, for all his wounds and spent mana, pushes back and stands on his two feet, his body cloaked with both light and darkness as the keyblade shines. "Impossible…this is impossible!", barks Young Xehanort, desperately trying to hold down the boy, "You are a mistake! You aren't worthy of the keyblade, how can you still stand after all that!?".

"I told you before…I don't care if I was never chosen, I don't care if I don't meet *your* standards as a master", Sora reminds as he starts to overpower Young Xehanort, "I promised, I swore I will keep her safe, I'll save my friends, and we WILL all go home together!". Sora throws off the seeker of darkness, then placing a hand on his heart, he proudly proclaims: "My friends are my power…and I'm not gonna lose one more!".

His clothes shine so brightly yet there is great darkness surging within his heart, but unlike the thirteenth darkness, this darkness is strong and fierce, and protective. Pulling all his strength from the light and darkness within his heart, Sora enters his Dual Form. His clothes take on the perfect balance of white and black, except now there is an aura of light and darkness cloaking his body, light shining brilliantly on Oathkeeper while Oblivion is cloaked in black flames that held no evil within it.

There is a heart symbol is visible on Sora's sleeves and hood except on the hood the heart is half in black on Sora's left side, and half outlined in silver on his right side. His coat shares a resemblance to his Light Form, the left sleeve is black. The pants are black on the left and grey on the right, with grey back pockets; white kanji are imprinted on the front of each pant leg, with the kanji for "darkness" on the left side and the kanji for "light" on the right side. The shoes are a fusion of Light Form and Dark Form's, with white collars, black toe boxes, and heels outlined in white, and grey vamps and quarters.

Young Xehanort can only stare in bafflement, never seeing anyone from the realm of light nor darkness show a perfect balance of utilizing the full power of both sides of nature. Sora crosses his arms with keyblades over his torso, staring down the man who once shared the same desire Riku once did, that same hunger for the outside worlds. Back in his exam, he could not protect himself, but nowhere he stood, a master and a guardian of light.

And the seeker's worst nightmare.

Sora vanishes before his eyes, and only because of the darkness given to him by his older future self is Young Xehanort able to turn in time to see Sora. But that was all he could do in such a short frame of time. Sora Oblivion keyblade slashes his right shoulder with burning speed, even the coat designed to face the dark corridor burns from the keyblade's power. Young Xehanort feels the flames burning into his body, the very force of nature he commands hurt him of all people.

He tries to strike Sora, but the boy seemingly defied the speed limits of the human body, because only a brief flash of light and a sharp slashing pain raced through Young Xehanort's body, his darkness being purged away. Oathkeeper's divine light cutting his darkness in half, so swift and clean it is like a surgical knife.

Sora disappears again, strikes him at the side, then vanishes and strikes his back. Young Xehanort's body coated with wounds as he could feel his strength deplete rapidly, yet his eyes were wide with disbelief and even fear. He can't track Sora, even with his ability to stop time the boy moves too fast for him to conjure a plan and his strength outclasses him, even if he did strike his keyblades Sora could break through his keyblade for all he knew with ease.

Sora stands in the center of the ruined battleground, keyblades swirling around him as he slowly spins in the air. Gold and purple light glow in his hands as he wraps his arms overlap each other, gold and purple light lap around each other before converging into Sora's hands. The two keyblades stand at his side facing downwards, plunging downwards into the ground and turning the ground into a galaxy. Light flurries up from the galaxy ground and dances around the boy before all the light flies towards Young Xehanort is blasted with the perfect balance of the two opposing forces, his body unable to bear it.

The final vessel of Xehanort has fallen.

A pillar of darkness erupts from the young master as his keyblade fades away, the twelfth key has been forged as his life force slowly fades away, like all the others. Overwhelmed by the pain inflicted by Sora, Young Xehanort collapses to his knees with his hands supporting him, grunting and gritting his teeth. Raising his wounded face to stare at Sora, still blessed by the great power before him. "It's over…Xehanort", Sora proclaimed, "Go back to your time".

Laughing cruelly, the master gets to his feet. "You…you think you've won…? You think it will end here with my demise?", he mocks, staring at the boy with smug confidence. "I will return to my time, and live out my life…but you Sora? You are done". Sora blinks with confusion, stepping forward, and demanding answers. "Oh…your journey will end here…and when you allow your despair to drive you to lengths you will go for your precious friends…your time in this world…will end!", swears Young Xehanort, vanishing like all his companions before.

Sora hisses before his great power finally comes to an end, and he falls to a knee. He hisses in agony, his power may have won the fight and stay off his wounds, but he is a far cry from the mighty master he became. Not to mention the exhaustion he felt, all the battles from the start had finally caught up to him, tiredness he had never felt before. Between helping the others in their battles, fighting the armies of Xehanort to this point, his body begs him for rest.

But no, he cannot. Not until she is safe in his arms.

"Sora!", calls a voice.

Sora raises his head and glances back to see Riku running towards him with Mickey coming in behind, neither in any better conditions than he. Riku however remained uncaring to his state as he quickly helps Sora to his feet, helping him stand as they both looked up to Xehanort, now surrounded by twelve keyblades, smirking. The two boys grit their teeth at this man, wondering if he felt ANY remorse for the deaths of his vessels. Doubtful, they feared.

"Twelve keys we have now", he states, his voice trembled with excitement within his old body. So close is he to the goal he had been planning for, the day where his greatest curiosity would be satisfied. The day where he would be the one to wield the legendary blade and create the worlds in his vision. But first, he just needed the right motivation for the two islanders to fulfill his desire. He aims his keyblade to the sky. "Leaving us with just one more!".

With one beam of darkness fired from his keyblade, the clouds of darkness and grey that had gathered are pierced by light. The golden light shines down on Xehanort, Kairi, and his keyblades as the world grows darker, Sora and Riku staring in disbelief at the sight. How could such a powerful light shine down on such a dark creature?

"Now, Sora", Xehanort states, "Darkness and light's final clash". Sora's eyes widened as his skin turns ashen with fear, the words foretelling what was about to unfold. Slowly and helplessly, Kairi is levitated in front of Xehanort, blissfully unaware of her fate.

"KAIRI!", Sora screams.

"XEHANORT, STOP!", Riku roars.

Both islanders rush to scale the pillar, running despite their devasted bodies. Fuelled by adrenaline, fear, and determination to save her, both masters run up the pillar just as Xehanort raises his keyblade.

"You both require motivation", he warns cruelly, "And that is why this is her fate".

A/N:

Cliff hanger…ish?

Next time we're going back to Lunafreya and see how she's doing, while Gladiolus and company face their own trials.

So now we're down to just one Xehanort (THANK GOD!), and soon he's going to obtain the X-Blade by any means, even if our lovely red head must die (Or kinda die? I swear nearly NO one stays dead in this series!). But that's for next time!

Big thanks to the new followers and favourites, really helps motivate me to keep this story going and I'm happy its worth your time!

QUESTIONS!:

Q1: Thoughts on this chapter?

Q2: Favourite fight?

Q3: How was the guardians in this one? Like their performance?

Q4: What are you eager to see next?

Q5: Wanna guess how much longer this is gonna be?

Q6: Anything you're not enjoying so far?

Q7: Annoyed the lengths of the recent chapters or happy with them?

Q8: Did anyone like Mickey's portrayal here or was it too out there?

To any writers out there, what's your personal rule as a writer that you try not to break?

Anyone tried Road to Dark yet? I have and its pretty "eh" to be honest.

Thanks for reading everyone! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


	77. Chapter 77

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 77

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

*Station of Awakening*

Floating in the silence of Kairi's heart, Naminé clutched her hands in fear of what had transpired since they set foot upon this world of darkness.

Having a front-row seat of everything that's occurred, from the armies of darkness to the clash against Saix and Xion. It shook her heart to see the pain in the girl's eyes, the anguished screams, and having been put through so much just to regain her memories and senses. And to think she had it worse, at least being so docile and ignorant she couldn't comprehend right and wrong, Xion probably didn't even have a say in her fate.

Regardless, the girl had been reunited with those within her heart, Roxas, and Axel at long last. The moment she remembered the girl, Naminé felt a horrible pang in her heart, recalling that conversation she had with the poor girl about how she is the last piece needed to help restore Sora. Back then it was just something she needed to do to get Sora back to normal like she had promised to, now looking back at how she revealed the reason behind Xion's creation, she never considered how horrible it had to have been told.

That your entire existence is to drain the life force from your best friend and halt the restoration of someone who means so much to dozens of people, and the only way to make things right is to be destroyed. Another crime Naminé had to add to her list of sins, and another thing she needed to make right when the time comes. And maybe face the music again, the old song of who that special person is, and yet again it will not be her again.

She pushes all that aside when she felt a horrible change within Kairi's heart, already sensing the princess' strength had deterred thanks to being drained by the nothingness. Within the station, she could feel her light waver and lessen, weakly shining thanks to that spell Lunafreya had warned them about. It was like her candle is flickering so weakly one slow wave of a hand could blow it out for all eternity, and now in the hands of Xemnas there is little Kairi can do to save herself.

Naminé had desperately tried to awaken the girl within her heart, calling her name several times, searching for any paths that could help her lead back to her light and kick start it again. When no path revealed itself for her and given she is trapped on an island of sorts within Kairi's heart, the girl had no choice but to wait until either Kairi's light restored itself or Sora's heart reaches her. She is still able to leave the station and at least walk around for a moment, and if possible she could have used her connection to Lunafreya to send help.

Yet so far the moment Xemnas handed the girl over to Xehanort, all he did was keep her on standby until the other wielders of the keyblade eventually arrive. He had been completely patient during the whole ordeal, merely waiting for the right moment for the final phase of his grand plan to come together. She desperately tried harder to awaken Kairi, even flailing her hands through her in the vain hopes that somehow this would spur her to awaken and who knows, even potentially get a sneak attack on Xehanort.

But all her efforts were for naught, the girl remained in a state of slumber that Naminé feared she might not awaken from without additional help. Desperation almost forced Naminé to leave her side and try and find someone, anyone among the guardians to come to her rescue but was it any other villain or someone else she could have. With Xehanort, and without any indication as to what cruel plan he had in store for the princess, Naminé feared if left to chance Kairi may not return home with everyone else.

Trapped by her limitations and fear of whatever schemes Xehanort conjured in that cue ball head of his, Naminé reluctantly stayed within the Station of Awakening, waiting for Sora to arrive in time.

She witnessed the battle between him and the final vessels of Xehanort, seeing the two other masters dealing with his former adversaries while he took on the potentially strongest one amongst them. She bit her lip in fear as she spectated the fight, seeing it was an even bout between them despite how much stronger Sora's training made him, and it only gnawed on her fears of what the older version of Xehanort was truly capable of.

"Kairi, please! Now is the time to wake up and re-join Sora!", she yells, hands placed on each side of her mouth to increase her cries, "He needs your help!". As her words fell on nothing but the silence of the station, she started yelling different methods of awakening the girl. From screaming, whistling, gibberish, stomping on her station, clapping her hands, and even tantalizing her with Sora. She even tried her greatest weakness and loudly proclaimed: "SORA'S NOT WEARING ANY UPPER CLOTHING!".

Not even that worked.

Pacing around in the station with hands folded, she frantically tried to figure out why now of all times is her light taking so much time to come back to her. Back in Radiant Garden at worst it took only a few hours for her to re-awaken, then again she worried Aqua might have had a hand in restoring her at a faster rate. But with so much time has passed since then, and with Lunafreya showing her the powers that came with being a princess of light, this would pass much faster, surely.

Then as her mind runs wild with endless questions and no answers, she senses Sora was in danger. Leaving the station to witness, she spots Sora looking much worse for wear with Xehanort's youth readying to finally remove him from the realm of light. Naminé called his name, using her connection to his heart, guising herself as Kairi to incentivize him to spur back up to fighting. It worked as she expected, and the boy is suddenly turning the tables against the seeker.

As Sora fought on, Naminé retreats into the station and resumes her musings.

Except once her sandals touched the ground, she shivered and felt a cold touch race down her spine. Something within the station had changed, and all it took for her to see what occurred was looking back down to the murals of Kairi's heart. There is nothing there, none of those close to her heart, none of the beautiful colors that many would associate with Kairi's personality, not even herself nor Sora were to be seen.

It was blank as a clean slate, not shattered nor even damaged. Just empty as if Kairi's heart had lost all that made her the girl they all know and love. "W-What's going on?" she whispers as the chill grows colder and colder. Frantically observing her surroundings, the chill of emptiness and void spikes fear into her. Placing a hand on her forehead she wracked her mind for answers, how is this happening to Kairi, she hadn't lost her heart nor did Xehanort even try to corrupt her. Not that he could, even someone as powerful as he couldn't corrupt her like he did so many others.

"I-I…I need to contact Luna! She's the only one who could answer this!", she says to herself. She turns to raise her hand to access the links that connected Kairi to Lunafreya, the same method she once used to get into contact with her in the past.

"LU-

Naminé's waist was suddenly clutched by something, stopping her from speaking her by startling her. She looks down to see a dark tendril had wrapped itself around her, and slowly as she looked around more tendrils started to slither up from the grey blank station. They latched onto her like leather ropes, starting her arms, legs, and her shoulders. Her right arm managed to evade the grabby tendrils as she tried to call out the name of the other princess while struggling against these unknown sources of evil. She thrashes and tugged on her binds, even going so far as to bite one when it tries to wrap around her mouth.

Slowly she is being dragged into the grey, taking a violet color as she feels her feet sink into it. The shadow of Kairi thrashes desperately as she feels the corruption reaches her stomach as only her hand and head were able to move. Panicking as she feels herself losing consciousness, Naminé thrashes her hand around like the back of her head slowly sinks. The tendrils wrapping around her head with only one eye exposed to the slowly moving away from light in the sky. With one final breath, she cries:

"LUNAFREYA!".

Her last breath before she sinks…into darkness…

*Entrance to the Battlefield*

With a single sidestep, Lunafreya plunges her trident into the stomach of a power wild, destroying the creature of the darkness. Her three prongs from her divine weapon glowed with lightning, sending three chains of golden sparks through a horde of neo-shadows.

Spinning the weapon over her shoulder and with one turn, she slashes the majestic weapon upward to cleave a shadow in half, freeing the heart within. The Oracle takes a breath and looks around to see the great battle that had gone on for far too long come to a close, as the remaining minions of the darkness began to dwindle in numbers and will to fight, many of them being destroyed by the RC. Panting softly from the exertions, the divine woman turned to Yen Sid with his light slowly growing dimmer with his mana depleting steadily.

She had no words that we sufficient to display her amazement to the old man's magical prowess, for as old as he is and with how long he had used his light to safeguard the others. Then again this was a former keyblade master, his power should have been expected even with his older body. Fortunately, she did not have to rely on him for dealing with damage to the heartless hordes, for the RC community had dealt with them all swiftly and efficiently.

Even one like the dark inferno stood almost no chance against the mercenary, the man wielding more than one giant sword regained control over the battlefield the moment he deemed the heartless a threat. The others had shown themselves to be such vital allies that she partially wondered why they hadn't considered sending them from the start, but then again she feared Xehanort might have had a plan for such a thing. At least he would be too content with the guardians to worry about those without the keyblade.

Throughout the battle she could sense what may have transpired within the battlefield, sensing great darkness appear for a moment before fading away to create the keys that would grant Xehanort the final key to open the door. Two lights had finally found their ways home too, she felt two moments were three separated lights re-joined and it warmed her heart, strongly believing Terra had finally been brought home and likely Axel must have found the person he lost.

Those moments of peace and victory did soothe her worries for a short time, but slowly as the day grows dark and the clash reaches a conclusion she still senses Xehanort and his trio remain on the field. It made sense he'd keep likely his strongest vessels away from getting too involved in the, even Ardyn couldn't be sensed on the field. Undoubtingly he was waiting for the opportune moment for Noctis.

No sooner had she sensed the two kings finally dual it out for the final time, she felt his darkness evaporate into nothing. The Usurper had finally been put to the rest he had been denied for far too long, but whatever sadness she had for his passing died when she thought back to how they nearly lost Kairi and potentially Naminé. She just hoped her beloved had hurt him equally for all the pains he had inflicted upon her cherished friends.

"I think they're giving up!", cried out Yuffie, flipping in the air and throwing her oversized shuriken at the hordes. The Oracle looks and sees a plentiful of heartless started to fade away back into the ground or enter the portals to fall back from this suicidal battle. She watches as the RC members slowly recede their fighting and hold their grounds, watching the heartless leave the world. Shortly the heartless all had returned to the realm of darkness at last.

"WA-HOO! WE WON!", the ninja cheers, "Suck it heartless!".

Cheers and celebrations were made and shared, some even doing what the Oracle could only deduce were "victory poses". Something Prompto had explained to her during their time in the forest. Why they did she couldn't fathom but who was she to deny them a little treat for their hard work. Watching them all, she rests on her trident to take a breath at last, weary and sore from this excessive battle, wondering how the other women do this so easily. Perhaps she could take up Tifa's offer in the future.

She looks to Yen Sid who carried a frown on his face as he lowered his hands to dispel the golden barrier. He must have sensed Xehanort is getting closer to his goal as well as she did, concern coating his face while starting at the battleground.

"Xehanort is close to his goal…and the guardian's lights are weakened", he sighed.

"They have been fighting his vessels, as well as his heartless the moment they had arrived", Lunafreya reminds stubbornly, "Please remember, master Yen Sid, that they have extinguished his forces. And soon there will be none left to protect master Xehanort".

"Pfft yeah!", Yuffie states, "I mean Sora beat Ansem and that nobody jerk face WAY back when! Now he's got a gang, it'll be a cakewalk!". There is a collection of agreements, many adding more to Sora's accomplishments and nearly dousing the fires that are Yen Sid's worries. Rikku spins her twin daggers before sheathing them, turning to Lunafreya. "Shouldn't we go help them? I mean if it's only a few baddies…".

"LUNAFREYA!".

Lunafreya's eyes widened as her heart feels a horrible cry of pain echoing from within. She staggered and almost fell to her knees were she not holding her trident. Clasping her heart and letting a gasp escape from her, she shakes from the pain-filled cry. Aerith and Zack were immediately at her side, helping her stand properly while the woman in pink starts to heal her minor wounds while checking for anything grievous.

"Luna? You ok?", the SOLDIER asks. She shook her head, calming her breath and standing upright, facing to the darkened skies looming over the battleground. "Something is wrong…the guardians are in danger", she states firmly. "Well, what are we waiting for?", Zack asks, "Let's go give them a hand". But Lunafreya shakes her head and steps forward. "Your part in this battle is done, you need to return to the Radiant Garden and stay away from this world", she commands.

"What? Why!?", complains Yuffie.

Lunafreya turns to her with a severe look in her eyes. This kills the fire in the ninja girl's eyes as Cloud and Leon looked to the Oracle for answers. The woman shakes her head and turns back to the battleground, her silence answering the two. With a rueful nod, Leon turns to Yen Sid. "We'll head back then…", he says, "Everyone, gather up and get ready". Some complained and tried to argue but Leon silences their voices and strictly ordered everyone to ready themselves, as Yen Sid prepares to take the RC back home.

Cloud folds his arms and looks to Lunafreya while Leon gathers everyone up. "…this world is doomed, isn't it?", he asked. "…the heartless were merely replenishing their numbers…and likely Xehanort's vessels have done more than just throw their lives away for his gain", Lunafreya says wisely, closing her eyes. "I fear Xehanort was not expecting the battle to go as well for the guardians of light as he predicted".

The woman of light had considered all the possibilities that this battle could go, from it being one-sided to the light being crushed by the darkness, and even believed that perhaps they could win this war with ease. But with each possible outcome, she always feared that however, the battle goes Xehanort will have a plan for it, better or for worse for any side. Try as she might however she could not fathom just what back up plan he could have possibly conjured up to counter the light should the forces of light overwhelm his vessels of darkness.

But for now, that mattered not. Naminé's cries for her had planted the seed of fear within her, and if Namine was in danger, then Kairi is most definitely in some great peril.

"You're saying he may have something up his sleeve? Like destroy the entire world to stop Sora?", Cloud theorizes. "He has gone to great lengths to ensure this fated battle would come…why would he stop at destroying a world just eradicate Sora and the other guardians", Lunafreya speaks. She turns to Cloud. "…should such a thing occur, should Sora and the other guardians perish, all worlds will be at his mercy".

"So, you're sending us back, as a backup plan?", Cloud sighed. "There will be no one left to guard the worlds should we all perish here…", Lunafreya confesses. Cloud unfolds his arms and scoffs, waving his hand. "Whatever…", he says as Yen Sid prepares to transport the RC back to their world. As much beneficial was having them by her side would be and certainly, with their aid, Xehanort would have a far more, maybe even impossible, odds against him.

But if what the Oracle feared was his true plan is true, then should this world be swallowed by the darkness with all the defenders of the light here, then none would be able to stand against the darkness. Ruefully as it is to deny more aid to their already hellish battle, she had no choice but to venture forth alone.

"My lady are you sure?", Yen Sid questions, "There is no turning back".

"…I will not abandon them…I will ensure they will survive", swears Lunafreya, marching alone towards the battleground. As Yen Sid teleports himself and the others off the world, Lunafreya breaks out into a sprint, racing towards the battleground with courage clashing the fear within her heart. Already her mind ran wild with possibilities of what could have happened to Naminé and Kairi, all those links leading back to what she feared.

"Be safe, my friends…I shall not abandon you to the darkness", she solemnly swore. Even as her path is littered by the shadow heartless, proving her concern, after all, she raises her trident and plunges forth into the danger, her weapon shining like a beacon of light. Long had she been forced to stand by and wait, knowing those she held dear had to have been hurt by these vicious monsters. She isn't the same Oracle who was forced to be locked away and live like a prisoner.

She is a guardian and princess of light, and her divine light will be the last thing the dark creatures will bear witness to. With light shining so bright upon the creatures, trident held up high as the heartless were scorched by the holy shine. Thoughts of those who had become friends, family even powered her, she felt their hearts link to hers. Ravus flashes in her mind, her mother and father, people she had lost when she could do nothing.

She will not lose her family again…

Neo-shadows leap from the walls and spun towards the woman of light. Lunafreya raises her trident, a blazing trail of flames roared from the three prongs of her divine weapon. The flames danced in the air around her, consuming the shadows of the darkness, like the Astral of fire's wrath bent to her will power. She spins the trident, controlling the flames and incarnating the dark beings as she races through the narrow canyon.

Even large bodies sliding towards her fell to the nurtured determination of the princess of light, she condenses the airy flames into a whip of flames. With several swings of her new weapon, the flaming rope lashes wildly and burns/slashes through the large bodies as though they were made of paper. Turning down on the corner, she sees a small group of dusks slithering in the air towards her, likely trying to ambush her.

Lunafreya halts her run and raises the trident, bathing it in the beautiful light that came from her heart. With a gentle utter from her lips, she aims her trident and fires a web of lighting that completely trapped the dusks in the canyon. Golden lightning attached to the walls and racing down the canyon, almost akin to the empire's trap back in the capital, the dusks were destroyed by this attack, removing the obstacle that once halted her path.

Running further along the canyon, Lunafreya faced many more heartless and nobodies in her journey to reunite with her family, all had fallen to her like moths toward was a roaring hurricane of fire. With one swipe of her holy weapon, she brings down an invisible with ease, her free hand blasting a horde of shadows with a swirling aero that ripped them to nothingness. Any wound, fewer than she thought, she had sustained was immediately taken care of thanks her magic, a constant aura of healing surrounding her and even her barriers took all the brunt of the more lethal attacks.

She throws her trident through five armored knights with ease and erects a pillar of the reflect spell to shield herself and attack her foes with ease. In her pillar of safety, she tries to sense the other guardians of light, hoping to gather them all up for a final assault upon Xehanort. As her light traces them, she senses Aqua and Ventus with Terra, they were combating with the darkness too. Axel with two more lights was in the same boat as them, but his majesty's two allies were safe from the darkness, much to her relief.

She could sense three of the keyblade masters facing three terrible forces of darkness, but Kairi's light was faint, if not almost invisible to her senses. The woman feared her student might have to go back on her promise and used the lethal spell as she expected, and no doubt Xehanort must have swooped in for the advantage. Whatever he is plotting the Oracle dreadfully feared for her friends' safety, and more than ever believed a united front against him might be their best bet to put an end to this battle at long last.

Her concerns grew when she sensed Noctis' light had dimmed, weak but she knew he still drew breath. His guardians were in the same condition she felt, sensing their lights were still strong yet they were not moving. Fearing they were wounded at best, at worst ambushed by an army of the forces of Xehanort, Lunafreya recalls her trident and stomped the bottom of the weapon into the ground, the barrier firing a barrage of light around her foes. Having absorbed their attacks and only retaliating with minimal bursts of magic, a full-powered one obliterated the horde attacking her.

If Aqua and Axel were reunited with their lost lights, then their safety is guaranteed. The others however were a priority for her now, especially if Gladiolus and his group were outnumbered or Donald and Goofy were caught up against a much more dangerous minion of the darkness. Grabbing her trident, she spins it around her, creating a trail of stone carried by air following the prongs of her weapon. Two ropes of stone and air surrounded her torso and aiming her left hand, they swirled around her limb and then fly off towards the heartless.

The stones grow into large beachball sized boulders and smashes the heartless while the wind carries the rock and monsters, clearing her path. With several waves of her hand, the air tunnel carrying the rocks fly in several formations, smashing and cutting the heartless while lifting some into the air to smash them into the walls or drag them on the ground until they were taken back into nothing. She uses her magic to rip out large chunks off the walls and drop them onto the hordes, like a small avalanche.

Lunafreya grabbed her trident with both hands just as armored knights rush her, brandishing their arm blade. She quickly counters one swing of their sharp limb with the bottom of her trident, knocking one aside and then plunges the prongs into the other, freeing its heart. Spinning the weapon over her shoulder with a spin, she smashed the butt of the trident into the jaw of another and then slashes it across the chest.

She lifts her left arm over her other arm and forms a barrier to deflect the attack of another with ease. Their weapons bounced off harmlessly and with a touch of magic, Lunafreya turns her barrier into a blasting wall, firing several bullets of light that tears through the minions of darkness. Then she stabbed her trident into another armored knight, killing it and clearing the path before her. Lunafreya pants and sighs in satisfaction of her progress, but her senses picked up another essence behind her.

Turning on her heels quickly, she had only a few seconds to react when two invisibles hovered above her, swords reeled back, and ready to decapitate the Oracle.

Before the Oracle could face her end, a large shield flies from behind her and smacks one in the head before ricocheting and smashing into the other, disorientating them. She then takes this chance to plunge her trident into the heartless' chest, destroying it just as a blast of magic struck down the other one with one blow, eradicating the two purebloods. Lunafreya spins around to see as she expected, Donald and Goofy putting down the last of the heartless horde.

Once the area is cleared, she approaches the two with a nod and a relieved smile. "Thank you once more for your timely arrive", she speaks graciously. "We heard fighting, and thought one of us must've gotten lost", Goofy explains, "But gawrsh, I wasn't expecting you to be out here, Luna". She nodded as her smile fades away into concern. "Were things going smoother, I would not be", she sighed, "However, Naminé has reached out to me…I fear she and Kairi are in peril".

"WAK!? How!?", Donald yelled, hopping up and down, "Did somebody kidnap her!?". "I fear that may be the case…however, I have not been able to reach Naminé's heart either, I fear something terrible has happened". She walks ahead with the two watching her, letting her continue: "Whatever Xehanort is planning, Kairi's safety is our priority. I wish we could reunite with the others and launch a full assault upon the seeker of darkness".

"But the others are still fighting heartless!", Donald says, "At least we think so…they're all over the place". Lunafreya nodded to the duck as he and Goofy chases after her, "True enough, and as beneficial as it'd be to join them and finish their skirmishes as quickly as possible, we do not have time to spare", she sighed, "For now, we are on our own". Goofy then pips up. "Well, what about Gladio and the others? Maybe they caught up to Noct?".

"I fear they have but only for a moment. Noctis had left earlier to clash with Ardyn, Gladiolus and the others have remained stationary since his departure", Lunafreya reveals, "But we should be able to meet up with them should we continue down this road". "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!", Donald says. Together the trio runs down the canyon to Gladiolus and the other two. Even if they aren't wielders of the keyblades, they aid could greatly benefit them, even be enough to rescue the two girls.

They ran around the final corner to the last corridor leading out of the maze and see the royal guards on the ground. Instantly they ran and checked them, the Oracle and mage fearing they were severely wounded or worse. There was darkness around their chests, grey and dull but ultimately harmless save for a temporary sleep. She senses the darkness came from Ardyn, and she believed the reason Noctis had to fight alone was thanks to the man of the dark. Whether it was out of pride or because he saw these three men beneath him she didn't say for certain, but it seemed Ardyn had no intentions of anything but keeping them out of his revenge.

Plus awakening them wasn't difficult for her, one simple touch of her light awakens the three guardians. Once they woke up, they immediately looked around for whatever did this to them but more importantly searched for Noctis. She calms their worries and reveals what had likely transpired since their unwanted slumber and reassures them their king as triumphed in his clash with the man who brought ruin upon their home.

"Least that bastard of a Lucis is dead for good this time…", grunted Gladiolus. "But what about Leon and the others?". "We managed to drive the heartless back; master Yen Sid has taken them back to their world while I proceeded", explains Lunafreya. "By yourself?", Prompto asks shocked, "Couldn't have asked Cloud or Tifa or ANYONE else to go with you?". The Oracle turned to the blond with a look of insult, raising a brow at him. He must have understood what he implied before he sheepishly scratched his neck and looked away.

"…regardless, we should hurry", Ignis says cutting into the conversation, "Kairi is still likely in Xehanort's hand, the sooner we re-join Sora the sooner we save her".

The party nods in agreement and turns to the pathway leading to Xehanort. But before anyone could so much as raise their feet, Lunafreya stops. A horrible heat suddenly coats the air, she feels her body sweat and it became harder to breathe. Looking around the group, she spots flickering flames suddenly sprouting around them, dancing on the walls and even in the air she sees dense flames. Darkness, a corruption even, entraps them in the canyon as the flames went from golden red to violet.

The walls slowly burning with black flames as an impenetrable wall of fire cuts off their exit. Even the flames darkened their visions, everyone taking their weapons out and readying for whatever Xehanort had left in his never-ending schemes. A rush of hot wind passes the six, forcing them to raise their weapons to shield their eyes and hold their grounds against this force, a roaring tower of violet and red flames bursts before them.

The gale dies, allowing them to witness what monstrosity could have such control and heat over the flames. Sitting on a throne made of bones, likely in mockery of the Kings of Yore, a demonic humanoid creature with long brown hair, dark violet eyes with no eyebrows and grey skin. Wearing a golden wrist and ankle bracers with a golden crown that's adorned with red jewels. Long twisted horns with nails that more so resembled claws than actual nails.

Topless with heat radiating around it, the air aflame as if it were the embodiment of fire itself. Its hand was grasping a giant blade, the hilt encrusted with red and white jewels, gold, and a purple scarf wrapped around it that's being held in place by a single gemstone bracelet and a metal chain. The blade must be of some value to the creature, given how worn it looks. Likely it has been its companion for many centuries, maybe even longer.

On its chest is the heartless emblem, but the mark is alit with black flames on the outlines while the heart shines in the darkness.

Lunafreya's eyes were wide with recognition and even horror at the sight of this monster. "What the heck is THAT supposed to be!?", Donald bellows. Lunafreya steps forward, in front of the party as the large humanoid monster glared at her. "The Infernian and god of fire…Ifrit", she revealed.

"Wait, as in the Astral!? B-But shouldn't he…?", Prompto gulps, aiming his gun at the monster. "Dead? Yes, but the darkness within him…it must have kept him from the same fate that has befallen his brethren", Lunafreya deduces with a scowl, her trident held high as the others joined her side. Ifrit slowly raises from his throne, a sword hanging low as flames dances around the worn steel. With a disgusted sneer at the sight of those lesser beings that dare to stand before him, he marches towards them.

With each step his flames grew larger, denser and hotter, turning the entire canyon into a volcano. Lunafreya hisses as the heat licks her form, sweat running down her brow as even her divine weapon felt as if it were melting from this beast. Heartless or no, the Astral still retained its great power, possibly even greater now than it had been. She senses small traces of the blight within its blackened heart, likely it is how Ardyn turned this once lethal force of nature into his thrall. It sickens the woman to her core that Ardyn's corruption is so lethal and poisonous that even a god could be warped into an abomination.

Ifrit raises his giant sword over his shoulder as his blazing feet burns the earth beneath him, yet before Lunafreya could warn her companions, they all stood forward and raised their arms against this fallen Astral.

"This being is the only thing standing between us and the others", Gladiolus states, "So let's hurry up and get rid of it!". No sooner had the left his mouth, Prompto immediately takes a shot to Ifrit while Donald and Ignis blast the beast with icicles from their hands.

Unamused, Ifrit's fiery aura instantly melts the icicles and bullets that dared attempt to do him harm. He swings his gigantic sword in a sweep motion, splitting the walls in turn as his withered blade closes on the group. Goofy steps in to stop the blade, but even the captain couldn't hold back the blade entirely without practically burrowing his feet into the ground. He just barely managed to hold the steel back from cleaving the others in half, halting the steel and allowing Gladiolus to go in.

With both hands on his greatsword, Gladiolus jumps and brings down the sword onto the monster's head with a bellowing roar. Ifrit just grabbed the man with his free hand and holds him in the air, examining him while his flames burn him. Gladiolus struggles in the grasp of the beast, cursing it as Ignis runs in with his daggers coated in a frosty mist, frost coating his steel. The advisor of the king goes for the giant's legs with several whirlwinds of frost, but because of Ifrit's heat, his attempts to use his natural opposing element fail, and only does his steel taste the beast's flesh.

His blades sliced into the legs of the fallen Astral, yet for all his quick but heavy strikes Ifrit does not even acknowledge he is being attacked by this lesser being and tosses Gladiolus aside like he was nothing before turning to Ignis. He lifts his fist and only misses the man of the chosen king's inner circle because he purposefully allowed him to flee from him. Gladiolus slammed into the wall of flames before he lands on the ground, his Kingsglaive uniform being licked by the embers.

He ripped off his burning jacket, now only having the vest with the glaive motif on his back and showing his tattooed arm with Terra's armor protecting his left arm. He growls as the Infernian casually swings his sword at the party, easily defeating Goofy and Prompto while toying with Ignis, while Donald helplessly tries to blast him with magic. Ifrit turned to the Oracle and raises his hand to her, firing a torrent of roaring hot flames at her.

She counters this with a barrier to shield herself, bathed in flames. Even within her divine sanctuary, Lunafreya could feel the monstrous heat burn her, her skin turning red as if she were laying down on the sun itself. Gladiolus runs in and goes for the daemon's legs with a beastly roar, using every fiber of his strength to either cut off his legs or at least hit him hard enough for him to take the shield seriously and leave the Oracle be.

His great blade slammed into Ifrit's legs, a powerful tremor runs wild in his leg and down to the ground. Ifrit turns to Gladiolus, his face contorting into an animalistic snarl, his flames evaporating from his hand. Distracted by the shield's audacity, Ifrit took no notice of Prompto using his grapple wire to ascend higher up the walls and swing towards the beast. Prompto pulls the wire from the wall and soars through the air whilst swapping his robotic limb for his gatling gun.

"Iggy!", Prompto calls out as his weapon takes a solid form.

Quick as ever, Ignis throws a wisp of ice towards the gunner, and with perfect aim, the wisp lands on his gun. The gunner feels the cold seeping into his metallic limb and as the barrel rotates with a frosty mist surrounding it, and once he got close to Ifrit, he takes aim. A barrage of ice infused bullets rains down from the gunner and upon the fallen Astral. Ifrit only raised his head in time to be pelted by a barrage of frozen bullets.

Thanks to him being in a closer range than his first barrage, Prompto's bullets find themselves burrowing into the god of fire while he flies over the beast. Ifrit hisses in pain as the ice melts into him, his opposing element had finally struck him and even reminded him of his fellow Astral. While Prompto lands on the ground with a roll, Goofy runs past him and with a quick spin, tosses his shield right for the god's back.

The mighty shield lands a direct hit on his spine even if it was nothing more than a bug bite. Ifrit turns on the captain and sees Ignis rocket to the air with his spear in his hand. The giant lifts his sword and with a swing, throws an arc of flames at the advisor. Donald saw this and changes his aim to the roaring flames and fires a ray of ice at the fire. His ray hits the flames and immediately turns them into a giant arc shape block of ice between Ifrit and Ignis.

Ignis dives down and smashes through the ice block and charges down to Ifrit. The god of fire snarls at him and aimed his hand at the diving warrior, but he is stopped by Prompto firing a Starshell directly into his eyes, blinding him and because of his blight tainted blood, the light harmed him. Ignis plunged his spear right into the heartless emblem, stabbing the blade from the tip to the hilt. Quickly he imbues it with ice and the frost coats Ifrit's chest.

"Donald, Luna!", Ignis yells as he uses the darkness to teleport from the giant. Together the two magic users aimed their weapon and fired two rays of ice at Ifrit. Both beams struck the back of the monster, earning a yell from him as the frost slowly covers his body. The rest of the party gathered up behind the two, Ignis and Goofy pulling out ethers for them for a quick dose should the need arise while Prompto and Gladiolus kept the steel checked.

But as the frost almost covers the god of fire entirely, Ifrit turns around to face them and then lets out a bellowing roar that shakes the walls entrapping them. The fires roared to life and flickers wildly like they being blown by the winds. The ice that nearly consumed the god of the fire melts away and evaporated as Ifrit's body is surrounded by black flames, the darkness that stemmed from the blight manifesting to its fullest potential. With one more roar, Ifrit's power skyrockets and sends a shockwave that throws all the guardians off their feet.

Interrupting the two magic users' attacks to dose his might flames, Ifrit's shoulders now donned a cloak of red and black fire, his horns glowing in darkness as all his wounds healed, wiping out the progress his foes had achieved in doing him harm from existence.

Lunafreya rises on her elbows as her friends rolled on the ground in pain, Ifrit slowly marching towards them with his giant sword now dripping with liquified fire, melting even stone. He raises his sword to crush them, but when the blade falls, Gladiolus and Goofy are immediately standing between the god of flames and the downed party. Goofy's shield and Gladiolus' blade held back the weapon, both buckled slightly from the strength of the attack but neither backed up.

Gladiolus, his body shining with the crystal light of the Armiger, roars and throws the steel off himself. Ifrit and Gladiolus exchange strikes from their steel, molten fire dripping from the blade and scattering around while Gladiolus' Armiger infused blade slices the air as they attack with inhuman speed.

Lunafreya managed to get on her feet as Prompto and Ignis re-joined the battle with Donald covering them with healing and defensive spells. Clasping her trident with both hands, Lunafreya has concluded that for all their efforts against the god of fire, they will not last against his furious might. Even all together with having his weakness, the beast exceeds the mortals with little difficulty thanks to his flames. Between the darkness, his Astral power, and the heat that surrounds them all, it is easily a one-sided battle that will eventually wear the group down before they could truly harm the beast.

Without any other allies to call upon, not that she believed their magic could douse the flames that cut them off from the party, they wouldn't last much longer against the Astral. Her grip tightens as she reached this sad revelation, she raises her head as her eyes steeled themselves. Thoughts of her king races through her mind and their friends, the promise to bring them all home echoes through her mind. Watching the five guardians fight on without fear and unwilling to accept defeat spurred her heart.

If they would fight for their friends with this vigor despite none possessing divine light or keyblades, why should she an Oracle and princess of light do any lesser?

Grasping her trident with both hands, planting the bottom into the ground with a thud, she chants her spell. Slowly blue light dances around her form, the flames that surrounded her begin to emit steam and turns the canyon of flames into a sauna. Ifrit slammed his sword against Gladiolus, halting the warrior but leaving his blade still in the air. Ignis runs up the blade while being covered by Prompto's firing, shooting Ifrit long enough to allow Ignis to jump and plunge both daggers into his right shoulder.

Ifrit roars as the cold turned the skin of his right shoulder from blazing orange to frosty blue while Ignis jumps off him. He tries to grab the slippery man but is interrupted by Donald firing fireworks at his face. The rockets explode and temporarily blind the giant, and when he clutched his eyes, Goofy tackles the god of fire with a shoulder and shield tackle. The strike forces the giant back and lifts his blade of Gladiolus, letting the shield to at long last make an attack.

With a leap and bringing the sword down onto the beast's chest, Gladiolus' powerful strike blows Ifrit backward. When he lands on his feet, he and Goofy stay on the sidelines as Ignis, Prompto, and Donald stepped in front of them. "Attack with all you got, we need to put out those flames if we wish to truly harm him!", commands Ignis. With black ice coated daggers, Ignis throws several of them at the god of fire while Donald sprays him with a mist of chilling air and Prompto using his ice infused gatling gun.

With three barrages of ice striking the fallen Astral accompanied by the blow dealt by the two shield users, even Ifrit couldn't shake off this assault with ease as the ice begins to coat and cool his flames. Only when his darkness begins to take over the flames is he resisting the chill, the frigid movements going loose and free but the enrage fire within his eyes glowed heatedly at the group. Goofy and Gladiolus readied to take on the god of fire while Ignis yells for his two companions to keep up their attack.

But Ifrit marches towards them even with all their attacks beating him like all that was hitting him was just the air. "Iggy, it's not working!", Prompto exclaims while continuously firing away. Ignis hissed, trying to conjure up another idea that could stop this monster. Even with three assaults from the cold couldn't douse the flames of the god of fire, and so long as he carried the darkening fires, all their attacks wouldn't last or even hinder him.

That is when he looks down and sees running water brush past his feet, slowly rising over his feet entirely as steam hisses and rises. They all looked back to see Lunafreya standing on a pedestal of water five feet in the air, her eyes shining with the divine light of the princess of light, her trident bathed in a soft blue glow. Water surges and pools around her, from the ground and air dousing the flames around the group, turning the entire canyon into a sauna.

Ifrit himself stops his march when he sees the water appear, the Oracle standing tall like the goddess of the sea had reincarnated before him. Twirling her trident with one hand as several bubbles shroud the guardians of light, the Oracle raises her free hand and coats it with frost. With a cry, she yells:

"TSUNAMI!".

The ground shakes as the current grows fierce and faster in the canyon, slowly rising until it covered the guardians who were stationary thanks to the bubbles. The wall that entrapped them with black flames cracks with several spouts of water breaking through it until it all crumbles into nothing but rubble and water. A tidal wave rushes through the canyon passing Lunafreya harmlessly, putting out the black flames that tainted the walls and ground as the pure waters crashed into Ifrit. The god of fire roars as the purity of the waters soak into his flesh, dousing his flames and killing the heat within his blackened heart.

The tide pushes him even as he stood his ground, using his sword to fight against the current. Fruitless as the waters carried the wrath of his fellow Astral and the willpower of the speaker of the gods, not even his fury could halt this combined assault. Relentlessly the god of fire pushes onward towards the Oracle even as the waters covered them all, the woman of light staring him down. Slowly the pedestal of water shortens, and she waltzes up to the god of fire, slowly the waters around her freezing and even solidifying despite the rapid currents.

Ifrit raises his sword above his head, roaring like a wild animal as the woman who defied her fate stands before him like a blasphemer, insulting him just by her presence. He brings down the blade onto her, even against the rushing tides fighting back his momentum it comes down so quick none of her guardians could even yell for her name in time. The blade is repelled by a white shell that surrounds her, crystal ice fluttering.

Ifrit's eyes widened when the Oracle, for the briefest moment, carried the same eyes that reminded him of the one whose heart he had melted. One who once held the same disdain for humans as he does today, but now roles reversed he sees the compassion within those eyes. The ghost of the one who he taught compassion to stands before the messenger, gently touching his sword and immediately freezes the steel.

The ice races along the withered blade as the water slowly diminishes and recedes into a trickle, the god of fire's body slowly encased in ice while the flame in his eyes dies out. The Oracle calling her guardians to allow this Astral to re-join his brethren in the next world. Altogether the five guardians struck the god of fire's frozen body, their weapons smashing him into pieces of frozen chunks. But his remains quickly melt into nothing as his essence flutters into the skies, his destination unknown to the mortals but all believed he had finally returned to where his brethren awaited his return.

The walls freed from the flames as the chaos marked this canyon, the five panting as Lunafreya slouches, her trident holding her up as she grunts and huffs tiredly. She raised her head when she heard a familiar voice whisper to her, a voice she had longed to hear again but when she looks around there is nobody but the guardians. A small sad but gentle smile forms on her lips, a silent prayer is given as thanks for the one who held her up when the trials became too much for her.

"P-Please tell me…that's the LAST mini-boss we've gotta fight before Xeha-jerk", groans Prompto. "Here's hoping…", Gladiolus grunts out.

"Guys!".

All six turned to see joyously the remaining guardians racing towards them, looking less weary but a far cry from fully restored. None the less they were glad they had all caught up to them before the big fight with Xehanort. Gladiolus smirked at her but then glances at Xion who was helping Roxas check on Prompto, patting his shoulder kindly with a shy but friendly smile.

"Son of a bitch, she DOES look like Kairi and Naminé", he thinks to himself with a sigh. Aqua helps him stand up properly whilst checking him for severe wounds, asking him where his jacket went. When he replied with: "Probably smoldering ashes by now, courtesy of the god of fire", she playfully thanked Ifrit. He gave her a look before, with darkened cheeks, she confesses she liked seeing his tattoos in battle.

"You guys alright?", Axel asks as he hands Ignis a potion.

"Weary, aching and likely some of us are going to be dealing with burns and sunburns, but far better off than the organization", Ignis assures after downing the potion, "But our concerns remain with Sora and the others".

Lunafreya nodded and after downing a potion giving to her by Terra, she says: "We've little time to waste, we must reach them before Xehanort can create the final key". The party runs down the corridor while the Oracle ponders their situation, realizing that this reckless rushing was their only best course of action to prevent Xehanort's goals. Even as battered, wounded, and weary as they all were and as much as she wished they could have some time to recover, time is not on their side anymore.

Thanks to Ifrit's interference, whatever leisure of time they have snatched away thanks to the god of fire and even if some were far from ready to plunge into battle again, she prayed Aqua or at least another wielder of the keyblade could have the strength to turn the odds against Xehanort. Or most importantly, they reach the battleground in time to save Kairi, which was far more important currently.

They finally came to the last wall that leads upward to the battleground with Xehanort's tower of stone oversees the entire maze, dark clouds gathered up as the darkness grows more tensely. She tries to sense what foes could be lying in wait or see if she could sense how Sora and the other masters fared but were stopped by Xion calling out: "Noctis!".

All of them looked to where she pointed and sees embedded in the wall was indeed Noctis. Unconscious and severely wounded with blood trickling down his head, clothes ripped and damaged and the Oracle could sense his light was dwindling to nothingness. "Somebody get him down here!", Ignis orders while ripping a potion out of his pocket. Quickly Terra leaps to the king, using his armored hand to grab the rock to hold himself.

He practically ripped Noctis out of the bed of stone and leaped back down to his friends, laying the king down and letting Lunafreya assess his state. But before the woman of light could even touch him, she froze on the spot as a horrible stab struck her heart. A chill so cold not even the darkest of the heart could compare, a newfound pain rocketing through her. She slowly stared at the pillar Xehanort stood on as darkness gathers up in the sky.

She sensed it; the key had been forged at last.

"Luna? What is it?", Aqua asks as Ignis and Donald tended to Noctis.

"…a light…has perished…", she whispers…

*Battleground: Earlier*

"You both require motivation", Xehanort warns cruelly, "And that is why this is her fate".

Quickly scaling the mountain to Xehanort, both islanders run as if their lives depend on their success, Sora's eyes dead focused on Kairi's sleeping form while Riku snarls at Xehanort. The seeker of darkness raises his keyblade as Kairi helplessly floats there, the old man smirking evilly.

"KAIRI!", cries Sora, realizing he wasn't going to make it in time. Xehanort brings down his keyblade.

Sora and Riku cry for their friend's name…

"XEHANORT!".

A loud booming clang rings out from above, startling both boys but spurring them into running even faster up the mountain. Above them, staring up against the old man with the Raksha blade in hand, Noctis grits his teeth as he stood between the old man and Kairi. Not even Xehanort could keep the surprise from appearing in his eyes, but Noctis breaks their deadlock and strikes at him with a cry, his blade blocked by Xehanort's keyblade. It did however push him back from Kairi and the king, allowing Noctis to spin, grab Kairi's collar, and roar Sora's name before he unceremoniously shoves Kairi off the cliff.

Sora jumps off the mountain and catches Kairi, together with Riku, both fall to the ground.

On the ground holding Kairi close to him in bridal style, Sora shakes her and cried her name, begging her to wake up. "Kairi! Kairi, please wake up!", begged the chosen one just as Riku landed near him. He checks on his friends, placing a hand on Kairi's shoulder while Sora shook her. Stirring in his arms, a weak groan escapes her, signaling she still lives. "Sora…?", she croaks, head down as if she were trying to avoid looking at him.

Chucking it up to the light beaming down her, Sora whispers her name softly as Riku exhales in relief. "Its ok…you're safe now…", Sora promises, a grateful smile appearing on his lips.

Back on the mountain, Noctis watches the interaction with a tired but victorious smile, before grunting in anger and turning back to the old man now standing over by the cliff. "Well now…destiny has been defied, yet again", he muses with interest. Raising the usurper's blade against the old man, Noctis snarls: "It's over old man, your vessels are dead, and you won't be clashing with ANY keyblade here!".

Xehanort glances at the king with a cocked brow, looking amused. "Oh? Is that so? Aren't you a chosen keyblade wielder, your majesty?", asks Xehanort. "Damn right, but like Ardyn said: The moment our keyblades clash, the final key will be forged", says Noctis. "And chances were, you were counting on clashing with Sora, Riku, Aqua, or any one of the masters to get that key…". With a cocky smirk, Noctis shows his crystal weapons surrounding him, showcasing every weapon he could use against the seeker.

"But the problem is with me, I don't need the keyblade to kick your ass…when I've got another fourteen arms to pick from!", proclaimed Noctis.

Xehanort…laughed.

He laughed hard and confidently, even looking away from the king as if he were the funniest man alive. This quickly kills the confidence within Noctis, a horrible dread rose within his chest. "W-What are you laughing at!?", demands the king, "I may not be a master but-

"You assume that because I lost nearly all my vessels and with you as my opponent that victory has been claimed by the light?", Xehanort asks. "My boy… has no one among your companions told you I plan for every eventuality?".

"The hell are you talking about!?", roars Noctis, "All your vessels are gone! Who could you possibly have left!?". With a cruel and evil grin, Xehanort merely gestures below them to the islanders.

Letting Kairi stand on her two feet, Sora hovers around her as she rubbed her forehead and shakes her head. "Take it easy, ok?", Sora pleads, "Just wait here and we'll take down Xehanort, and then…we can all go home".

"…I knew…you would come for me", Kairi says lowly and softly. Sora leans to get a better look at her face, not noticing Riku's eyes narrowed with suspicion. "But…Sora…", Kairi spoke. Then, with a cruel and dark smile, she faces him while opening her eyes.

"You're too late".

With a horrified gasp, Sora staggers backward, eyes widened in utter despair. Staring back him were no longer those beautiful blue eyes that had long captured his heart, but were golden eyes devoid of kindness, warmth, and love for him. Her cranberry tresses turning into bleached white as her hands a painted in darkness, blood-red nails as a dark aura cloaks her body. Kairi wickedly smirks, calling Chaos Ripper, one of the darker keyblades wielded once by Terra.

It is a long keyblade that appears chipped and very asymmetrical in its design. The handle is smooth and red-orange and is surrounded by a roughly rectangular guard. The guard is predominantly black, though it fades into dark red toward the base of the blade, and has uneven, chipped spikes on each of its corners. The shaft of the blade is black with a faded bronze border along its edges, which are lined with prominent chips.

The head of the blade is decorated by several chipped and oddly shaped red-orange spikes with black tips, which also form the teeth. The Gazing Eye is also set in the head of the blade. The chain token contains a second Gazing Eye.

A dark and ugly weapon of the dark, the exact opposite of Kairi. Sora couldn't even utter the strength to gasp in terror, only simper in despair at the girl who couldn't be any purer than the strongest light be reduced to such a nightmarish mockery of herself.

Above Noctis stares in dismay at the sight, stammering. "B-But…that…that's impossible!", he shouts, "She's one the purest maidens, there shouldn't be even a hint of darkness within her! How did you-

"Ardyn".

Noctis reels onto the old man, who continues: "I sensed the girl had used the old spell from the ages past, Holy. And know of the price every princess who uses it must pay. All the light within their hearts is used to create a devastating pillar that not even *I* could survive from. But at the cost of emptying their hearts of light", he explains. With a smirk, he says: "But at such a vulnerable state, all it takes is a simple planting of darkness, allowing it to nurture within until the moment they foolishly use it again".

He turns to Noctis and finally says: "Ardyn's gift to plant darkness within people's hearts was the key to planting my darkness within her heart. You should have listened to the boy when Ardyn warned him".

Shoulders shaking as the answers piled up in the king's mind, the year within the forest had given the darkness enough time to fester and adapt to Kairi's heart, effectively hiding away from even Lunafreya. And Xehanort knew, he knew Kairi would use Holy again to save the others regardless of the cost. With mad laughter escaping Xehanort, he gestures Kairi and proudly proclaims:

"Witness the XV vessel, Kairi!".

"Now, clash with the boy! Create the final key and forge the key to end all keys!", commands Xehanort.

With an enraged roar, Noctis runs and brings down the Raksha blade upon Xehanort with every raging strength within his body. But Xehanort casually repelled his attack with one arm and his keyblade catching the sword. Noctis tries to overpower the man but with one swift parry that knocks the sword aside, Xehanort struck Noctis and knocks him back. Pushed to the edge of the cliff, fallen to one knee, Noctis glared at Xehanort standing over him.

"Unfortunate for you, your majesty. Your wounds have finally caught up with you, and your power is no more a threat to me than a shadow against a master", Xehanort mocks. Noctis grunts and quickly warped away from the master to the sky, his Ultima Blade in hand, and thrown to the battleground. But before he could warp himself, Xehanort fires a large ball of dark energy that strikes the king head-on. A massive explosion bursts in the sky and the chosen king of light is thrown off the battleground and into the maze.

Without the king to interfere, Xehanort watches the fighting below about to take place. Kairi-Nort smirking wickedly at Sora as the boy couldn't even call his keyblade, his eyes showcasing despair and even defeat. His hands shook as his legs wobbled in terror, unable to convey the horror that gripped his heart.

"Call your keyblade, Sora", commands Kairi-Nort with a nasty smile, "Otherwise this will be a more painful experience for you".

"No! I won't let you fight each other!", Riku challenges, summoning his keyblade. But Kairi-Nort teleports in front of him before he could even raise his leg and placed a hand on his chest. She fires a blast of darkness that expels him from her, knocking him into Mickey in the process and sending them both off the battleground and onto another platform. Smirking at her handiwork and now without another meddlesome slave of light to interfere, Kairi-Nort turns back to Sora.

"Riku won't save you this time, nor Aqua, Donald, Goofy and especially Noctis", Kairi-Nort states firmly. She lifts her keyblade to point at him. "You're on your own now, Sora".

"And now for the final clash of light and darkness…" Xehanort proclaims, "Sora! You must choose! Let your light be snuffed out by Kairi and spare her life but lose everyone else to her keyblade! Or slay her and create the final key!".

Without waiting for the boy to respond, Kairi rushes to him laughing evilly and madly.

For the first time since he picked up the keyblade, Sora felt completely and utterly hopeless…either die to Kairi but let her kill everyone else they held dear to them…or fight back, slay her, and craft the final key to bringing the end to the realm of light.

A choice…had to be made…

A/N: WHOO! So, we're getting into the tragic stuff now.

I do wanna apologize for the no posts for the past three weeks, but I promise you they were done and as you saw are posted throughout this week with chapter 78 being worked on! The reason for this is I was starting to burn out with all these fights and started to worry if the quality of the writing was starting to go sloppy, so I had a friend read them.

Work obligations will delay chapter 79, sorry but you all know how it is.

Now Kairi has become a Nort, and now Sora is gonna must make a choice, can he bring down Kairi and save her from the darkness, or will he perish and someone else will have to perform the horrible task? But I can say the next chapter will be the end of the keyblade graveyard, and we'll be heading into…familiar waters.

QUESTIONS!

Q1: Thoughts on this chapter?

Q2: How was Lunafreya and Naminé in this one?

Q3: The fight with Ifrit?

Q4: What do you think of Kairi-Nort?

Q5: How do you think Sora is gonna get through this one?

Q6: Can you guess what is coming next?

Q7: What do you wanna see next?

As always, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but more importantly, stay safe!


	78. Chapter 78

Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 78

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

It couldn't be real…This had to be a nightmare…

Xehanort must have cast a spell to try and trick him, or maybe he had taken too many hits to the head and couldn't tell if he was dreaming or this was a trick of his mind from the fights.

Try as a desperately might, even pleading to some deity to show him some mercy or grant him peace of mind, this was the reality in which he was in. Staring down this nightmarish looking being, to see his sweet and innocent but strong heart Kairi be turned into this horrible imitation ripped his heart into pieces. The darkness that once couldn't even touch her now cloaks her form as if she were a master of the darkness, her hands that once comforted him in his weakest moments now looked stained with blood.

Her smiles that once made him feel so loved and warm were gone, replaced but cruel and evil ones that were a straight-up mockery of Kairi's, her eyes were relishing his crushed looks, those horrible golden eyes that had haunted so many in their nightmares didn't deserve to be worn by her. The keyblade in her hand a far cry to her smaller and elegant made blades, a crude and monstrous key unfit for someone as angelic as her.

And likely the weapon that will snuff his light out…

He couldn't move, paralyzed with fear and despair, his hands unclenched as his shoulder shake. She hadn't even attempted to attack him yet, rather she stood there with a smirk on her lips, drinking his misery. Not even taunting him, ridiculing him for his cowardice or hesitation to combat her. How could he even think of raising his keyblade at her, he couldn't even imagine performing the act regardless of preserving himself.

This was nothing like sparring with her, even if she wasn't the same novice when she first reunited with him. He had long accepted her as an equal and in the sparring matches, he treated her as such to a degree, however small that was. He would still, out of an old habit, restrain his full strength and let her get a few advantages over him now and then just so she would learn from those short mistakes on her end. But here there is no sparring, no holding nor would there be anyone to supervise should one take a more grievous hit.

This is a battle to the death, where only one of them would walk away. The last clash between light and darkness, where the final key will be forged.

His hands shake, his sweat runs down his forehead and his heart is being ripped asunder in pain, unable to speak. Kairi-Nort on the other hand was idly swinging her keyblade with amusement, patiently waiting for the boy who once owned her heart to make the first move. But he couldn't even think of it, just the mere thought of harming Kairi made him feel sick to his core. Yet it was how he managed to save Aqua in the past, by expelling the darkness from her heart.

The only difference here now is the very moment his keyblade clashes with hers the last key will be forged and Xehanort will get what he needs to fulfill his goal. And for all Sora knew, that would delay his chance, even permanently, of saving Kairi from the darkness. What if Xehanort uses her to delay the guardians from stopping him, how many could Kairi take out of the battle before tragedy struck and she would join the fallen?

For the first time, Sora needed to decide who he could save…the love of his heart, or the worlds?

"Are you done stammering like a wuss?", Kairi-Nort mocks, "I'm getting antsy over here".

"K-Kairi…please…", begged Sora, "This isn't you! You're stronger than Xehanort! Fight back against the darkness!". Kairi-Nort mockingly smiles at him, then shakes her head with a scoff. "Sorry, but your words aren't going to cut it this time, Sora", she lectures. Even hearing his name from her in this state felt so wrong and mocking to him, all the love and affection from it is gone and in their place sarcasm and disdain.

She lifts her keyblade to aim it at his heart, and then says: "You're gonna have to call your key, otherwise you'll be seeing the other vessels much sooner than you think".

Sub-consciously Sora took a step back from her, unable to do anything else as she walked towards him, the darkness slowly growing around her as even the earth takes a blackened stain beneath her feet. Her grin so cruel and wicked he could feel his will sap away like it was bleeding from an open wound on his heart, his strength leaving his body. Kairi-Nort then rushes toward him like a bullet and closes the distance between them in a matter of seconds, both hands gripping her keyblade as she reeled it for a swing.

Only by instinct, Sora dashes away from her attack by side-stepping, her keyblade swung upward dragging through the ground and breaking the earth he stood on with a loud "boom". Sora lands a few steps on her side, and no sooner did his feet touch the ground Kairi-Nort is already right before him with another swing from her keyblade. Again only because of his natural response to danger, Sora leaps back from her as the keyblade comes crashing down on the spot he stood on.

Sora repeats this running away tactic, Kairi-Nort closes the gaps and strikes him, he would flee. Not once does he even think of calling his keyblade to his hands, nor does he even consider using magic to counterattack her and he certainly doesn't even try to harm her in any shape or form. He couldn't muster the will to do it, at all. This cowardly tactic is all he was willing to do to delay her, maybe even hold her attention until the other arrived.

But even his plan would only play out in Xehanort's favor, he is essentially bringing MORE keyblades into this fight. If Kairi-Nort couldn't forge the final key with him, then what's to stop her from going after someone weaker like Xion or Ventus?

He ducks under her swing and rolls around to her side, then jumps away from her. Kairi-Nort spins on her heels and aims her hand at him, covered in darkness. She fires a barrage of dark fire at the boy like Prompto's gatling gun, shooting at him without relent or mercy as he flips and dashes away from her attack. Keeping his eyes focused on the horde of black fireballs, Sora jumps into the air where he would have more space to evade her attacks.

But when he reached ten feet into the air, the barrage stops and Kairi-Nort was nowhere to be seen. He lets out a gasp and spins around to see her right behind him in the air, keyblade in both hands above her head with that same wicked grin. Sora almost summoned his keyblade to defend himself and just narrowly manages to use a barrier of magic to repel her attack. The dark key was repelled but its strength was enough to hurtle Sora back down to the ground at such a speed that was too quick for him properly react in time.

His back slammed into the earth and makes a large dent in the ground, making him grunt in pain whilst rolling onto his side. Sora then scrambled to his feet and managed to skitter away when Kairi-Nort dived down with her keyblade, stabbing into the earth he once laid upon. She yanks it out and runs at him, swinging her keyblade at him while he backs up from her, laughing at the desperation in his eyes and footwork.

"Come on Sora!", she mocks, "I know you can better than this!".

One thrust of the keyblade forces Sora to front flip over her, again evading another opportunity to harm her. Once his feet touch the ground, he is quickly struck by her keyblade again. Only this time it was the blunt side of the keyblade that managed to strike him as he raised both arms to guard against the attack, but with the power of darkness, even Kairi-Nort's petite form is powerful enough to throw him off his feet.

He flies into the air while Kairi-Nort chases him, swinging her dark keyblade at him. Sora flips and dashes over her, making the distance between them. Or at least that was his plan, but when he turned his head to see her, she was already facing him before she vanished before his eyes. She reappears before him from above, face to face with those twisted yellow eyes staring into his soul. Sora is then kicked in the stomach and is sent plummeting into the ground.

Luckily for the boy, he quickly uses aero to create a dense but small whirlwind to stop him from slamming back into the ground. He lands back on his feet and rears his head to Kairi-Nort, now tracing darkness with the tip of her keyblade in a single line. One swipe of the keyblade opens the line into a portal of sorts, and a hail of shards of dark disks race towards sword like a storm.

Sora sprints away from the barrage of slicing disks, narrowly dancing around them while leaping from the attacks as they ripped and tore through the ground like paper. All the while listening to the horrible sound of Kairi-Nort's malicious laughter, savoring his struggles and pain as she watches with glee. He gritted his teeth when one disk slashes his right shoulder and only manages to evade losing his head by sliding below it.

He runs up the mountain Xehanort claimed and then after reach halfway, jumps off it and aims his hand at the portal Kairi-Nort conjured up. With a yell, Sora fires a beam of light from his palm and struck the portal, coloring the violet with light and soon enough evaporating into the light. He front flips back to the ground, but clutches his shoulder in pain with a hiss, feeling the hot sticky liquid of his blood seep through his clothes and hand.

"Aww, did you get a paper cut, Sora?", mocks Kairi-Nort, landing a few feet before him, "Would you like me to kiss it? Kiss the pain away?".

Sora turns on the corrupted guardian of light while she laughs merrily, spinning her keyblade in one hand. Everything this darkness was doing to Kairi, tainting her character slowly licked the flames that were his anger. How could Xehanort stoop so low to do this to someone like her? The levels of cruelty sickened the boy to his core. And it only made the hurting within his heart grow more lethal and despair seeping deeper into his hope.

The slash on his shoulder was a minor bug bite compared to the pain that burrowed into his heart.

Kairi-Nort makes that disgusting smug look Xehanort often dons for a second before she vanishes before his eyes. Sora gasped when she showed up right in front of him, keyblade raised high, and quickly brought down on him. Sora raises his hand and erects a barrier of light around him, repelling her attack. But her keyblade was only repelled slightly behind her head as if she had only tried to tap on the barrier and got a bigger response than she thought.

It doesn't stop her, however. With a maddening grin, Kairi-Nort starts to wail on the barrier with precise and powerful strikes. "You think this will keep you safe? That a flimsy shield like this is gonna stop me?", she mocks as her keyblade darkens with power, "Play the mouse trapped in the corner all you want, Sora! I'll get you sooner than you think!". Sora grunts and hisses with each strike from Kairi-Nort's attacks, her promise will be kept in the end.

The barrier is already cracking from her ferocious attacks despite only using the darkness Xehanort used, and she knows she could just use more of it to shatter this. But that would be too easy, it'd be too quick and merciful for Sora. He knows this, he knows she's only delaying the destruction of his small sanctuary just further mock him, further torment him. Every strike from her keyblade just broke more and more of his will and shield, slowly he could feel the will to fight slowly diminish and his strength fade away.

That twisted grin on her face as she likely senses his will to go on withers away only solidified his fear. He couldn't find it within himself to muster up the strength to combat her, even if it means saving her. Not her, he couldn't do it. He may have fought his best friend in the past, he may have fought his master and even his nobody, but even if they tore his hart apart he still managed to do it because he had to. Because he knew he could save them…

Kairi-Nort breaks his barrier with a loud breaking sound running throughout the maze, and as Sora is pushed back from the force of her attack, the vessel thrusts her keyblade towards Sora's chest. The tip of the key pierced his chest, almost hitting his heart while the boy gasps in shock and pain as a spray of red blocks his view of the smirking hostess of darkness. A moment of shock passes as the pain runs wild throughout his body, the boy thrown across the field and over the edge.

Sora manages to grab onto the earth before his body fully slides off the platform, hands desperately grabbing the stones as his body cries in pain. He didn't know how bad it was, but he can't manage to pull himself back up to the platform, added that with his shoulder still agonizing him and he feared he was going to be out of this mockery called a fight. Too much pain has taken home within him, his body, and heart both in bits.

He raises his eyes to see Kairi-Nort standing before him, her eyes glowing with the darkness. "Aww, need a hand? Want me to call Riku? Noctis? ANYONE?", she taunts, "Or…do you want my help?". She claps her hands together as she laughs hurtfully, spinning once as if she were having the time of her life in a game. The more she laughed and treated this horrible situation like it was just an amusing afternoon activity only hurt the boy more.

Is Kairi truly gone? If even her heart could be swallowed by the darkness, something that should have been impossible from the beginning of everything, then could Sora even save her? Or…was there truly nothing left in this vessel that spoke of the Kairi he knew and loved? Had Xehanort's darkness crushed her light to the point where she could never come back from? All these questions scream in his mind, his hands no longer trying to desperately cling on the earth but slowly loosen their grip.

He almost slips entirely off the platform, but Kairi-Nort stomps on one hand to keep him in place. He yelps in pain and looks at her, seeing that crooked grin that Xehanort perfected. "That's it? You're not gonna stop me? Not gonna convince me the darkness is evil?", she taunts, mocks even. She kneels before him so that their faces were closer, the girl's eyes darken with amusement and her twisted smile becomes colder.

"Not even going to try to keep your promise to me?", she questions.

Tears leaked from the boy's eyes, his mouth agape in despair as all the fight within him fades into nothingness. He had failed her again…even after everything they had done together, the bond they helped create, the fruit they shared. All of it to come to nothing because of him. Once more he fails to keep her safe, and this time was his final failure. Kairi-Nort rolled her eyes with a groan before rising back to stand, disgust in her eyes.

"Pathetic…but then again, what was I expecting from you?", she chastises dismissively. "Ah well…I'll go visit the others…I wonder how many it'll take before we all reunite in the darkness?".

"Kairi…don't do this…", begged the boy.

"…you said your friends are your power…but where has that gone, I wonder?", she speaks in such a disdainful tone it sounded as if she nearly got sick just asking such a question. "Your power can be taken away the moment you lose someone, and lo and behold, for all your accomplishments in this war…you are reduced to nothing but a mistake"

"Goodbye…Sora", she bids.

Lifting her foot off from his hand, Kairi-Nort allows Sora to fall off the platform and descend into the shadows of the labyrinth, his final view would be watching her witness his fall. Defeated and broken in heart and body, Sora doesn't even register that his final hour has come. All he could do is watch as she grows smaller and smaller while he goes closer and closer to his demise. Even he won't survive a fall in this state, and strangely enough, he didn't care.

If death means he'll be with her again soon…then maybe…it is for the best.

Yet her words haunt his thoughts, the others would probably be no better than him. How could Axel even consider laying a hand on her after all they've been through, Prompto would sooner turn the gun on himself than even think of hurting her, and Aqua would surrender her heart than harm her beloved student. Maybe that's why Kairi-Nort was so confident, maybe that's what Xehanort chose her of all people to become his final vessel. No one could have the will to harm her, not even someone as strong as Riku.

Sora had failed them all, and now all worlds will pay for it, while Kairi bears that sin alone.

"Guys…I'm…I'm so sorry", he thinks to himself as he falls.

"You're not giving up already, are you?".

Sora looks and finds himself standing before Noctis, bathed in blue light with a hand on his hips and irritated look on his face. With a scoff, Noctis folds his arms and says: "Sheesh, this is the thanks I get for saving her? You chickening out?", he asks with annoyance. Sora looked away in shame but then faces the king. "I…I can't…-

"You can, and you know you can!", Noctis argued back, "You know what will happen if you don't stop them!". Sora shakes his head and swipes his hand, anger, and desperation his body language and eyes as unshed tears burn within his blue eyes. "I know that! Xehanort will use her to go after the others and get the final key! But even if I could fight her, all I'll do is give him what he wants!", Sora argued. He grabs both sides of his head and lets out a wail of despair, falling to his knees as tears fall unashamedly down his eyes.

Two roads lie before the boy, but each end will only bring tragedy to him. Kill Kairi by using his other talents…or clash with her, save her life but doom all worlds. Xehanort had him by ropes, every possibility will play out in his favor no matter what method Sora uses. There was no other option to save the worlds without sacrificing Kairi, but he couldn't do that. There would be nothing worse than living in worlds without her.

But thinking of the others, finally getting their friends back and reuniting everyone again, their happiness was just ahead of them. Roadblocked by Sora's struggles, and one choice could potentially destroy their hopes or worse. He can't be selfish, he can't deny Axel the future he wanted to share with Roxas and Xion, he can't take away the promises Noctis made to Lunafreya, even if it means Kairi would fall…

He feels a hand planted on his shoulder as he allows his tears of frustration and agony run down his cheeks, unable to face his friend because of his cowardice. He couldn't even muster the image of disappointment dawning on Noctis' face, a man who had the world on his shoulders and even the terrible fate of dying to save his word. And yet he bore it all with the kingly strength and courage Sora had lost, never straying from his path.

"…what is it?".

Sora raised his head, with great hesitation, and sees the king before him looking at him gently and in his friendly manner. "What is that power that helped you? That strongest weapon within you? What was it that gave the determination to walk the road you choose without faltering?", he asks. Sora looked down and placed a hand over his wounded chest, his heart gently beating as warmth seemingly covers his pain. Slowly memories of Eos, the secret forest, all his other world adventures race throughout his mind.

Thinking of the other guardians who were fighting their own battles here, their wants and goals, to find their lost friends while protecting those so dear to them. Even when things had turned so terrible for them when the odds stacked up against them in such overwhelming stakes, yet nobody surrenders to the despair. The people who had picked him up when he was down, the very same who motivated him to give it everything had within his heart.

"My…friends…", he whispers.

"Yeah…that power that could surmount anything that old man can and will through at you…the the same one that saved so many hearts", encourages Noctis, patting the boy's shoulder, making Sora face him. "Don't ever forget this…you aren't alone".

"But…I can't fight…", Sora sighed downcast eyes.

"Not with the keyblade…but don't forget…you have another power to call for help…two in fact", Noctis assured. Sora looked at the king and sees a knowing look in his eyes, ones that told him a secret that not even Xehanort was counting on and better, not foreseeing. With an offered hand to the chosen wielder of the keyblade, Noctis gives the boy the needed smile and confidence. "Your friends are your power…and now, its time you showed that man how powerful those bonds are".

Sora takes Noctis' hand, slowly the strength of their bond seeps into his body and his hopes reconstruct within his heart. Towering over his despairs and fears, seeing Kairi in his heart and the others who were waiting for them to bring everybody home for the final time. It is only when Sora saw Kairi's smile, a hidden smile within hers did he see where that second power would stem from, and his will sparking with power.

Opening his eyes as he nears the end of his fall, Sora flips in the air and stomps his feet into the wall before his body is practically sparking with Flowmotion. Like a jet he skyrockets upward to the top of the pillar and reaches the battleground in a matter of seconds, his wounds healing thanks to the motion and his magic coursing through him.

His boot slammed on the ledge of the cliff and he leaps into the air, front flipping before landing before a turning Kairi-Nort, staring her down once more. He stands tall before her while she faces him properly with a rather amused look in her eyes, no longer sensing the despair that plagued the boy's heart and that same determination that gave him the power to stand before her master. Laughing callously, she laid the keyblade on her shoulder and sneers: "Aww, did you finally grow a pair and decide that your "precious" light isn't worth the lives of everyone else?".

"No", Sora answers firmly.

She raised a bleached brow at that statement, somewhat impressed by the strength behind his voice, his conviction. "I love her, more than anything else in the world. I died for her, I gave up my light for her, and I'd do it all over again if it means she'll get to live to see the future without Xehanort", Sora says, placing a hand on his heart and black crown. "But I know she would never forgive herself if everyone she loved had to die…nor would I".

He glares daggers at the vessel, no more is there fear and despair within his eyes that held one of the strongest lights in the worlds. "I promised her, I will do what I can to save her, and we'll go on our journey together", firmly states the chosen one, "And I *will* save her! I'll bring her back from the darkness, and not you, the heartless, nobodies, the darkness, and even Xehanort won't stop me!". Kairi-Nort scoffs dismissively, though she lowered her keyblade to her side and takes her stance up, all the mockery and playfulness gone.

"Aww, and just how are you going to do that? You bring out that keyblade and you'll doom the worlds", she reminds coldly. "You're wrong…I'm not fighting you as a keyblade wielder, or even a master", Sora retorts, "You may be using Kairi's body, but you're NOTHING compared to her!". Sora raised his right hand as a familiar blue light shines around his hand. "My friends are my power, they're the reason I can't fall here, and with our bonds, they'll help me save Kairi and stop Xehanort", he promises.

"And now, you'll see what that bond can do!", proclaims Sora.

Kairi-Nort's eyes shot open when the familiar blue light surges around Sora, tiny flickers of white crystals forming around him. Akin to a certain King of Light. She snaps her head to look behind and sees the very weapon made for the king lies planted into the mountain Xehanort rests, glowing in a beautiful blue light before it is yanked out from the mountain, spinning around in the air and then plunges towards Sora.

Sora catches the weapon with his right hand, the light shining so brightly it blinded the vessel, forcing her to raise her dark keyblade up. She snarls in fury and bathed in darkness and rage, she jumps to the boy, grabbing the key with both hands and bringing it down from over her head. Her darkened keyblade clashes with steel that wasn't the keyblade, a forceful gale rips the earth apart as the light disappears in a bright flash, Sora standing before the vessel with both hands gripping the Ultima Blade.

Kairi-Nort could only gawk in disbelief at the sight of Sora, no longer wearing his adventure clothes but instead the near same outfit as the Chosen King's fools. A black frock coat with crimson chest plate in the form of a heart, embroidered on his back is his silver crown, black pants with two braces made from silver, Kairi's Oathkeeper embroidered on both sleeves with metal pauldrons. Black boots with red laces and metal tips, the collar reached Sora's back jaw with red within the jacket, and a short cape with dark red interiors and his crown shining in silver.

With Ultima Blade in hand, Sora easily repels Kairi-Nort off him and smacks her keyblade out of the way to prevent her from retaliating against him. And to prove his conviction to the promise he made to the one who shined his way through his darkest moments, Sora slashes Kairi-Nort's chest and forces her back from him. She hisses in pain and lands on her feet, burying her heels into the earth to stop the growing distance between them.

Kairi-Nort looked at her chest but to her confusion, she sees no wound had made its home. Shaking her head in frustration, she knew he hit her and even felt the pain yet when she looks, not only is there no evidence that he did strike her, but the pain is gone. No matter how powerful she is, even that attack should have a lasting pain even if for a short while. Kairi-Nort turns her furious gaze back to the boy, his eyes glowing with the light within him as a white light mixes with the Armiger light, several ghostly swords from his Ultimate Form hovering around him.

Sora takes up his stance, a combination of his self-taught with Noctis' training, readying himself. "I will save her…and you're done using my friends against me", Sora swore.

He vanishes from her sight and reappears behind her, striking her in the back and knocking her into the air. He warps in front of her flight and strikes her again with a swift slash, making her ascend in the skies above and with a single flick of his wrist, his ghostly swords fly up and embrace her in the form of a hurricane of swords that slashes her form. Kairi-Nort snarls in fury and brief pain before she uses Kairi's warping technique to escape this tornado of blades, aiming straight for Sora.

Their weapons meet on with furious strikes, the enraged and darkness infused strikes of Kairi-Nort's keyblade against the power that dwelled deep within Sora, light and misplaced darkness dualling for supremacy. Kairi-Nort's style took from Xehanort's (from what Sora remembered Aqua telling him) and a mix of her one-handed strikes. Except where her keyblades were debatably the shortest lengths next to Ventus, the Chaos Ripper was as long and large as the sword, a complete opposite to hers.

Sora remembers the times they fought, how she could gracefully spin her keyblade, and swing at him at once, catching him off and forcing him on the defense dozens of times with her unique style. This style is a far cry from her graceful attacks and was closer to Riku's one-handed strikes. Strong as they were he was able to counter them whether it was pulling feints or be able to parry them. Plus with his ghostly swords surrounding him, even if she managed to trick him those swords would counter her.

He leans backward to evade a sweep from her, then shoots back up straight and struck her again, the sword-slashing her and forced her to retreat. Performing several jumps to gain distance, Kairi-Nort swung her keyblade and fires disks of darkness at Sora, the master before her aiming his hand and sending his disks at them. The ghostly disks slice through hers with ease and chase her while Sora flies above the ground and sends his swords at her.

Kairi-Nort easily cuts down the futile disks and with one finger raised, the swords are halted in the air, and then with a snap of her fingers, they snap into shards. She smirked coldly at Sora's determined form but gasps when he dashed towards her in a second. His sword brought down on her once more and then he grabbed her armed hand and elbow and heaves her over his shoulder. In the air, she spun upside down and fires a blast of darkness at him.

Sora reflects the attack with a swipe of the sword, returning it to Kairi-Nort. In response Kairi-Nort splits it in half, letting it bypass her. She opens a corridor of darkness behind and flies into it, then another corridor opens above Sora with her diving down with the keyblade held above her head. She brings down the keyblade upon the sword wielded by Sora, forcing his feet to dig into the ground from the impact of her attack.

Her feet touch the ground and she starts to strike at him with maddening glee while Sora matches the ferocity with perfect measures of speed and strength. Sparks of darkness and light flying from their steel, the crystal light that bathed Sora fights against the cloaks of darkness that defiled Kairi's body. Sora takes a hit on his shoulder after Kairi-Nort managed to catch him off guard with a delayed swipe, slashing his left shoulder.

Sora hisses in pain while Kairi-Nort smugly enjoys his suffering, but her smug looks shift into shock when Sora just shoulder tackled her with his good one. He swiftly places a foot behind her leg, causing her to stumble and lose her footing, allowing Sora to grab her leg while she was suspended in the air. Sora flings her into the air, at least ten feet above the ground before with new ghost swords, he launches himself after her.

Kairi-Nort uses a burst of power to stop herself in the air and bathes her left hand in dark lightning, aims it, and fires a large spread of lightning that completely trapped Sora. Sora's ghostly arms launched themselves towards the fallen princess while others spun around Sora to shield him from the electricity that threatened to roast him alive. The dark lighting couldn't pierce through and harm Sora like he expected while the blades charging towards Kairi-Nort almost impaled her had she not used Chaos Ripper to shield herself.

The four tips of the blades plunged into her keyblade, she quickly bathes her dark weapon with more darkness, and with just a single sweep of her keyblade, she demolishes them into shards once again. Sora meets her darkened weapon with the Ultima Blade, both interlocking steel in the skies, tangling in a battle of steel on steel again. All the while the master of the dark watches on with amusement, sensing the powers of light and darkness coursing through the two.

A true battle between light and dark indeed…

Sora takes another hit from the monstrous keyblade, feeling the teeth slash his right cheek past his ear while he managed to slash Kairi-Nort's right arm. Kairi-Nort slashes his left side, but he slashes her leg, and this cycle of landing blows and cuts continues between them for some time, except the difference is as clear as day. Sora guards an attack that forced him to fall back to the battleground, but not before he blasted Kairi-Nort with a heatwave of fire that forced her to stay back from chasing him.

Sora lands on his feet and quickly chants a small but beneficial healing spell that would prevent him from bowing out so soon. As the green tendrils glow around his body and patches him up, he spins around fires ghostly blue swords at Kairi-Nort, only to keep her off him for a little longer. The vessel of Xehanort imbues her left hand with dark power, turning it into a large reddish-purple claw that mimics pure blood heartless.

She opens her claw and unleashes a ray of pure darkness that shared the same power as a Darkside's world buster. The swords were consumed by the ray as it charges towards Sora, the chosen wielder of the keyblade grips his sword with both hands with the light surging around him, a circle of wind surrounding him as the earth trembles. With a cry from his heart, Sora's blade bathes in the light shared between him and Noctis, he propels himself towards the ray with the blade pointed before him.

Sora's blade penetrates the ray as he flies through it, the darkness not even touching him as he flies towards Kairi-Nort. Not even she could have reacted in time to stop the boy when he is suddenly facing to face with her, glowing in the light. He plunges the sword into her claw, purging the darkness from her limb as she bellowed in pain. Quickly it reverts into her normal-sized but still corrupted hand, yet there is no wound on it.

She snarls at Sora, but the boy immediately warped behind her and kicks her in the lower back, propelling her back to the battleground. Kairi-Nort slammed onto the earth with a bounce, but instantly got to her feet just as the Ultima Blade is planted five feet before her, and soon enough Sora reappears in front of her, yanking the sword out.

Kairi-Nort grits her teeth, before she callously smirks. "What's going on here? Are you aware your attacks aren't doing anything but ticking me off?", she sneered accusingly, "Every hit is a fly bite for no less than a second!". Sora huffs and lifts the sword into his stance again, furthering Kairi-Nort's confusion. He wasn't stupid, he knew the moment he landed the first blow he wasn't hurting her, not even that stab would do anything.

Her attacks were hurting him, that's true and likely he wasn't going to last much longer with how this fight is looking. But he isn't going to change tactics, nor would he even think of a new way to combat her. He knows deep in his heart, that Kairi is still in there, waiting for someone to help her walk back into the light, to come home. Except, this time, it wasn't going to be Sora who would help bring her home.

All he needed to do…was called out to her heart…

*Station of Awakening*

Sinking further and further into the darkness…further into oblivion, where all things will go in time. The cold sunk into her flesh and bones, her body useless and strength non-existent, whispers of shadows licked her ears and violated her senses.

Her lips sealed, her eyes closed, and her body bound in darkness, even her consciousness begins to fade into nothingness as if she were a flower slowly withering away in the dead earth. Her heart's light is no more than a tiny ember flickering against the harsh winds of the call. She feels as if she were sinking into cold waters, nary a strength to take to resist in a futile attempt to stay off her too soon demise, hurting her heart and yearning for what could have been a brand new start, her first chapter in her life.

But she was to fade away into the darkness, like all shadows.

"Na…ié...min…Naminé".

There she feels a warmth spreading from the voice, her light stabilizing and holding firm against the winds of oblivion. For the first time since she was plunged into shadow, she twitched and tugged on her restraints, raising her covered face to feel the warmth of the light the voice carried to her. Even with the darkness wrapped around her face, she felt the light piercing through the veils and warm her up, like a lover caressing her face and assuaging her fears.

"So…ra?", she whispered muffled, feeling more of his light seep into her body. A sound of a sword echoed in her ear, and she unintentionally jerked her right hand to herself, like she was trying to shield herself from whatever was trying to attack. She flexes her hand, feeling the fingers and joints bend to her command and moves her arm, suddenly feeling that sinking feeling. His voice reaches her blocked ears again, the same pleading, that need for her warmth.

The same need Kairi carried when they were separated, that warmth to be shared between them once again. Slowly she feels the fear from another, a sense of feeling lost and fear of the unknown, separated from those closest to their hearts. In her heart, she feels the pain, the fear, and sadness, not her own. Sora's voice rumbles softly in her ear while a whimpering plea sung in tune with his, the same voice that helped mend the pain within her heart.

"Kai…ri…", she whispered.

Her right-hand shoots up to the bondage around her face, nails sinking into the wraps as her fingers tugged on them. Pulling as hard as she could, Naminé ripped the blindfold from her eyes, freeing her beautiful blue eyes from their dark prison. Strength seeps into her body, her legs thrashed against her dark bindings, her left arm tugging and straining them as the music of the flying sword echoes above her. The bindings were loosening and even stretching to the point of snapping, the girl thrashing feverishly.

She grabbed the wraps around her mouth and tore it off her, allowing her to take in silent air despite feeling as if she were underwater. The binding tried to contain her, yet the silvery blue lights that flash around her and her bindings were cutting them. She could feel Sora's heart connecting to hers, he was filling her with strength from the outside and when her legs were freed, she swam back up to the surface, seeing the blue above her.

Stretching her hand towards it, she sees a ghostly blue hand reaching out for her…

*…*

Her hand shoots out from the black inky floor, and soon enough she pulls herself out of the abyss while greedily inhaling the air that she had desperately needed. Her head above the darkness, she grabbed for the solid surface and dragged herself to escape the pool, crawling onto the surface.

Panting and coughing from that horrible experience, Naminé shudders as she rests on her hands and knees, shaking. With a watery laugh, she silently thanks Sora and Kairi for saving her, giving her another chance to live and join their friends. She shakes her head and rubbed her eyes, no time for tears. It is time for her to do her part in this horrible war.

Getting to her feet while using every fiber of light within her developed heart, glowing in the same golden glow as her friends, Naminé floats over the dark floor to avoid being swallowed again. Looking around for traces of Kairi's light, she feels a connection to her heart. Placing her hand it, she senses a dark evil had taken root within Kairi's heart, attaching on to her like a parasite. "Ardyn…you monster", she seethes.

Chastising herself for her negligence, Naminé searched within Kairi's heart for the source, a location within to try and trap it. Since there is no darkness within a pure maiden like Kairi, it needed to find a place to burrow and hide itself to remain unknown to the watchful eyes of herself and Lunafreya. Had they not spent a whole year training in the forest then it would have been most likely they would have sensed this the moment Kairi had completely recovered.

It would have been easier to spot since as small as it is, someone like Lunafreya could have found it them moment she analyzed Kairi's heart, and it would have been just as easy for her to remove like pulling off an old bandage. But that's what Xehanort feared she knew and knowing Aqua would have prioritized everyone's safety above all else the master must have figured she'd delay their clash for the sake of making everyone stronger.

And with everyone so focused on training and mastering themselves, not even the Oracle would have paid much attention to the heart.

Now that it was exposed and taken over Kairi's heart, finding it wasn't so hard for the shadow. When she opens her eyes, she sees a lone figure rising from the ocean of darkness. Its shape took Kairi's form, but much like Sora's Anti-Form, it was a pure black creature with piercing yellow eyes, two dark tendrils floating from each shoulder like smoke rising above, her keyblade pure ebony-colored replica of Oathkeeper.

Naminé stares down this threat without fear, flexing her fingers as the Anti being's lips form a twisted grin, baring sharp beast-like teeth. The source of Ardyn's implanted darkness, likely it sensed Naminé's presence and now acts as a guard dog to prevent her from doing her duty to protect her somebody.

"Naminé? Can you hear me?", Sora's voice echoed within her mind.

"I'm here…thanks for the rescue. Hee, that's twice I owe you now", she says with a small smile. She then frowns in concerns as Anti-Kairi hisses at her, likely sensing Sora's connection to her heart. "I found the source of darkness within Kairi's heart…and it doesn't look too happy to see me", she informs.

"Wait, are you gonna fight it?", Sora asked in shock. Naminé nervously hummed to confirm his question, not insulted the slightest when Sora asked in such a baffled tone. "I have no other choice", she replied, "So long as this shadow remains, Kairi's heart will be lost to the darkness". "B-But, what about out here?", Sora asked. "You knew your attacks weren't harming her, you were freeing me", Naminé says with a knowing tone, "That's how you were able to triumph against your fears". Sora makes an annoyed grunt, called out.

"She isn't like Aqua, Sora. Ardyn's darkness is different from Xehanort's, its planted deep within her heart. Just attacking her with light isn't going to free her, we need to destroy the darkness inside first, then bring out Kairi's light", explains Naminé. "Okay…so what do I do now?", he asks. "Keep her focused on you on the outside, if she figures out I'm awake and moving, she may try and bind me again".

"Got it…just be careful, ok?", pleads Sora.

"I will…", Naminé says.

When she could no longer hear his voice, Naminé takes a deep breath as Anti-Kairi takes that same animalistic stance Sora's Anti-Form does, ready to pounce on the girl. Naminé bites her inner cheek, hands lowered to her side as she outstretches her right hand, flexing her fingers. Anti-Kairi pounces her, keyblade raised and ready for the kill, making Naminé yelp in surprise and fly away from the attack.

Like a beast, Anti-Kairi chases after the blonde, hissing and snarling at her while swinging her keyblade at her with the wild fury of a predator denied its food. Forced to sway and float around the blackened keyblade, Naminé dodges and weaves around the attack, fearing her body was not a durable as her companions. Possibly even a single hit from the keyblade could decimate her entirely, and that is the last thing she needed.

Anti-Kairi pounces again, but this time Naminé tackles her during her pounce. Catching her off guard, Naminé throws her back down to the ground and aims both hands touched together and yells out: "Firaga!".

A burst of roaring flames rockets from her joint hands and flies towards the heartless, striking her head on and detonating a large blazing explosion. Quickly grabbing onto this opportunity, Naminé flies towards the heartless as it runs out of the explosion, she flies low until she nearly touches the ground. Anti-Kairi swings her keyblade at the blonde, missing thanks to Naminé quickly swerving around the heartless and getting behind her.

Anti-Kairi turns too late to stop Naminé with her keyblade raised, the blonde girl quickly grasping the weapon and clasping her hand around the hand of the girl and the weapon. Anti-Kairi hisses at her but undaunted, Naminé stares her down with the steely determination that has grown and strengthened throughout this journey. She may not be able to join the others in their training, she may not be able to fight alongside them for the future they had wished to see.

But here, she can save her friends. She can pull her somebody back from the darkness, she can help Sora be with the most important person to his heart.

"Get out of her heart!", Naminé commands, her grasped hand glowing with light as Anti-Kairi snarls. Slowly the light from Naminé's hand extends and cloaks the keyblade, burning the blackened hand of the heartless desperately grabbing the keyblade. Naminé tightened her grip on the weapon, even as the heartless grabbed her shoulder and dug her claws into it. She could feel the pricks pierce her skin and slowly blood leaks from her shoulder and tints her strap red.

But even as both the pain and darkness seep into her, she refuses to let go.

"Kairi! Come back to us! I know you're here!", cried out Naminé as the keyblade is fully cloaked in light. Anti-Kairi snarls in rage before she relents and relinquishes her grip on the keyblade, jumping back from Naminé. The blonde girl clutched her bleeding shoulder, hissing in pain when she accidentally touched one of the marks. But she turns her gaze to the heartless, hissing and snarling at her.

Naminé grips the keyblade while the light fades after a swift swipe from the girl. Oathkeeper restored to its pure state, the girl holds it before Anti-Kairi and says: "This keyblade is the symbol of the bond you and Sora share". She grabbed it with both hands and takes up a similar stance to Kairi and Sora, staring down the heartless. "We will save you Kairi!".

*Battlegrounds*

Deflecting another attack and striking the air to force her back, Sora stared down Kairi-Nort as she pants and glares at him, teeth bared and rage coating her eyes. "Why won't you just give up!? You can't save me! You failed me!", she lashes, enraged, and hatefully. Sora bites down the pain that came from her biting words, even if this wasn't his Kairi talking to him.

"Because I know you're still there! I won't give up on you, Kairi!", Sora argued, "Please! Come back to us! You're stronger than Ardyn's darkness!". Kairi-Nort snarls and fires a torrent of black flames at Sora, forcing the boy to raise a wall of stone to shield himself and take the brunt of the hot attack. He feels the heat seep through the stone despite how dense it was, wondering if Kairi-Nort was trying to melt the stone itself.

His answer came when the stone explodes from Kairi-Nort's keyblade demolishing it and herself flying towards him with a roar. Sora parried her attack by striking her keyblade upward, throwing her arms up. Sora then grabbed both wrists of Kairi-Nort's arms and spun her around twice before he tosses her away from him across the battleground. Kairi-Nort lands on the ground and rolled three times before she forced herself to stop and rolls onto her feet.

She plunges her keyblade into the ground, a small pool of darkness erupting around it. Sora was then caught in a bind, thin pillars of darkness shot up from the ground and wrapped around his neck, wrists, and ankles, tightly constricting him and bringing him to his knees. Sora struggled and tries to break free, but it is futile, his body is hurt too badly to use raw power to break free. He looks at Kairi-Nort, now walking up to him with some difficulty, likely weary and on the edge of exhaustion.

"You…you fool…did you think all this was enough to save me?", she mockingly questions, "All your efforts to wear me out, to prevent any harm coming to me, and for what? To perish like this?". Sora grunted as he struggles on, throwing his head around. He stops when he feels the tip of Chaos Ripper touch his neck below his chin, prompting him to look at Kairi-Nort's evil smile. "Pity, if you used the keyblade you could have won…but you wouldn't even dream of harming me, would you?".

"Kairi…fight back…I know you can do it!", Sora tries desperately. Kairi-Nort's eyes darken with anger, disgusted that the boy was still insisting on bringing her back. "I've had enough of you and your "power of friendship" garbage…if you won't help me create the final key, then you're worthless to me and Xehanort!", she proclaims, raising her keyblade over her shoulder. One swipe of the key would bring Sora to his end and turn the scales in favor of the darkness.

With a yell, Kairi-Nort swings the keyblade for Sora's neck as he stares at her with hope in his eyes, even as he faces his death.

Except…he feels nothing.

He looks to see the keyblade was just inches from his neck, halted. He looks at Kairi-Nort, her armed hand shook with resistance, the look of shock and horror on the Norted hero only told him something is changing. "W-Why…? How is this…", she stammers, trying to muster the strength to finish him off. She tries again but she couldn't even raise the keyblade up high enough, her other hand grabbing the handle and forcing it to stay low.

She struggled before ultimately dropping the keyblade with a loud clang, grabbing her head with a wail of agony. Kairi-Nort staggers and thrashes all over, screaming as she clutches her head like something was splitting it open, crying out in pain. The bindings around Sora break apart into nothing, freeing him and letting him fall to his hands, but keeps his head up to watch Kairi as she throws her head around, eyes shut as if trying to block out the pain.

"Kairi!", Sora yells, rushing to her as she falls to her knees.

"S-S-S-Sora…!", she gasps, shaking her head in pain. When she opens her eyes, he sees them constantly shifting from yellow to blue like flickering lights, her heart trying to break free from its cage. Sora stares at her, baffled but only one name escapes his mouth.

"Naminé".

*Station of Awakening*

Using the barest minimum of training she retained from watching Kairi, Naminé spun around while swinging her keyblade, slashing Anti-Kairi's chest. This makes the heartless spin from the attack and with a sweeping kick she learned from watching Ignis, Naminé tripped the heartless onto her back.

"Sora! Unlock her heart! Hurry!", orders Naminé, plunging Oathkeeper into Anti-Kairi's chest. The keyblade pierces her and touches the floor of the darkened station as her command rings out.

*Battlegrounds*

Kairi-Nort wails in agony, standing back up and stumbling backward.

Sora quickly, at long last, calls his keyblade to his hand and aims it straight for Kairi's heart. A blue beam of light forms a ring around the tip before it condenses into a small trickle of light. A lone beam of light flies from the tip of the keyblade and struck Kairi-Nort's chest, making her cease all movement as light shines around her chest.

*Station of Awakening*

Raising her head, Naminé looks to see the blue light from Sora's keyblade fly down to her keyblade, like a beacon. She jumps back just as the pillar struck the center of the station, the blue light washing down like a waterfall, spreading across the station and harmlessly bypassing Naminé's feet. Anti-Kairi didn't even hiss out in agony as the light bathed her entirely in blue, and when all the station was covered in the blue light, shining so bright it blinded Naminé shines.

When she no longer felt the stinging shine of the light through her arms, she lowered them to see the station had finally been restored. No more darkness, no more shadows, no traces of Ardyn's corruption nor Xehanort's grip on the girl's heart. In the center of the station, Kairi's purified body laid in slumber before the blonde, her light slowly refilling her heart without any trace of darkness.

The purest heart had been restored at last.

Naminé sighs in relief, placing her hands on her knees and pants to catch her breath. She exhales and approaches Kairi, kneeling to her somebody and placing a hand on her cheek, feeling her warmth. Kairi stirs from the touch yet doesn't open her eyes, low whimpers murmured from her closed lip. "Don't worry, Kairi. You're safe now…", promises Naminé.

She then closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and then exhales. "I promise…I won't let anything else happen to you or Sora…".

*Battlegrounds*

Darkness leaks from Kairi-Nort's body, she stumbles on the spot in a daze as her hair returns to its normal colors while her eyes revert to their beautiful blue eyes once more. Sora pants and grunts with pain and exhaustion in his form, his Kingsglaive form ending at long last while Ultima Blade disappears from his hand.

Sora watches Kairi placing a hand on her head, trying to stabilize herself while her legs wobbled and nearly falls on herself. She weakly raised her head to see Sora on a knee, keyblade in hand, and looking at her with pain decorating his eyes. "Sora…? What…where…what happened?", she mumbles still barely cohesive. Sora opens his mouth express the joy within him, sensing her light had finally returned to her.

But instead…he cried her name in terror.

Kairi is the levitated above the ground by a few inches, her body slumping as she had fallen asleep and cast her head down. Behind her with darkness coating his left hand and keyblade in the other, Xehanort stood there with what Sora believed is anger. For the first time since he met the old man, the first time he had ever seen rage within his eyes, frustration. He glared at the sleeping girl before returning his hate-filled eyes onto the boy.

"You…I have underestimated you, Sora", confesses the old man, "I thought this would be it. Whether you or the princess fall, one of you would craft the final key to open the door…but once more, you surprise me".

"Leave her alone, Xehanort!", demands Sora. He runs at him but Xehanort aimed his hand blasted Sora with a force push and tosses the boy further from them. Sora lands on his back with a thunderous crash, breaking the earth and even sending bits off the cliff down to the ground. Sora raises his head with the pain while the old man turns to Kairi with disappointment and disdain before he rears his head back to Sora.

"You have disrupted my plans for the final time boy…perhaps…it is time I taught you a lesson", Xehanort forewarned. The darkness in his hand turns into a dark light, slowly an aura of light shines around Kairi's chest where her headrests in peace. Sora's eyes open in horror when Xehanort extracts Kairi's heart from her body, trapping it in a cloud of darkness. Without so much as blinking, Xehanort chucks Kairi's lifeless body aside as if it were a puppet.

The hollow body falls to the ground, her heart levitating before the old man. "This is her fate boy…and you WILL accept it", he says.

"XEHANORT NO!", Sora cries out as tears run down his eyes.

Xehanort swings his keyblade and struck the heart before him, turning it into a crystallized ball before it shatters to pieces. Barely a sound made, no more than a wine glass breaking from being thrown against the wall.

"KAIRI!", screamed the boy.

Xehanort relaxes his stance with a sigh, smirking at the dismay on Sora's face, tears running down his cheeks. Sora whimpers, almost sobs as he looks down in complete misery. His shoulder shook as he grits his teeth, his grip on his keyblade tightening so much his knuckles go white, his free hand dragging the ruined stone ground from his fingers as he lets out an enraged, anguished roar.

Darkness and light cloaked Sora's body as he rockets himself towards Xehanort, both hands grabbing his key with every morsel of rage and strength his weakened body could bear. He slams his keyblade right onto Xehanort's, but the master was propelled by Sora's charge, so much so that Sora slammed him into the mountain that he once stood upon. The impact was so great it splits the mountain all the wall from the top to the very bottom of it, breaking it all into rubble.

As the stones fall around them, Xehanort's keyblade still holding back Sora's, still smirking the anguished adorning Sora's face.

"WHY HER!? WHY!?", demands Sora as he pressed the keyblade against the seeker of darkness. Xehanort doesn't answer, pushing the boy off him and striking his keyblade to throw Sora back. Sora falls on his back, but stands up almost immediately, grabbing his keyblade with both hands, but when he looked at his keyblade, the fires of his rage are blown and a horrible look of realization dawns on the boy's face, realizing what he had just done.

"I…have finally done it", proclaims the master.

The thirteenth keyblade appears in front of Sora's horrified look, before it slinks off to join the others as Xehanort, no longer interested in either the hollow princess or distraught boy, turns to the skies. "Now…the keyblade war has finally reached its conclusion", proclaims the master as he levitates up to the sky. The cloud part away, showing the heart-shaped moon of Kingdom Hearts itself as Xehanort and his horde of keys fly below it.

Aiming his keyblade towards the moon, blue light coats it for a moment before it converts into the legendary blade that will open the door. The X-Blade.

"The X-Blade… is complete", says Xehanort, "Kingdom Hearts! I call upon your true form!". The legendary blade fires a dark beam towards the moon, like how Sora used to seal the keyholes in his previous adventures. "Open now and show me the World to come!".

The dark beam struck the moon, and soon it went from the mysterious lunar yellow light into a dark purple hue, covering it and expanding it as if it were overshadowing the world. Meteors of darkness fall from the skies, destroying the battlegrounds, pillars, and everything within the world, but Xehanort turns to the distraught boy, and with a wicked gleam, he raised his hand. "Worry not, my boy. I will not leave you that despair for long", he promises.

Raising both hands as the X-Blade hovers before him, Xehanort calls for every bit of darkness from the corrupted Kingdom Hearts, bringing down a miasma of darkness from it. With the laughter of a mad man, Xehanort spreads his hands out and fires streams of darkness across the world, calling the shadows of the darkness from the door to the purest light. "This world will soon become one with the darkness, oblivion awaits you and your fellow guardians!", proclaims Xehanort.

Sora looks to the skies to see darkness all around him, the winds rushing so wildly it almost threw him off his feet even as he dug down. With a gasp, he turns to see Kairi's lifeless body slowly being sucked up by the dark winds, forcing Sora to leap and catch her while being swept away by the darkness as well. He holds onto her form as the darkness envelops them both, consuming them while his final view would be of Xehanort getting exactly what he had wanted.

Sora's final actions had doomed them all…

*Labyrinth*

"What's happening!?", Donald shouts as he holds onto Goofy from being swept up in the darkness. Many of the guardians struggled to hold their ground as the winds violently blow, some using their weapons to hold them in place while others held onto each other.

Only Lunafreya stood against the winds, facing Kingdom Hearts. "The X-Blade…has been forged…" she says with remorse, "Xehanort has obtained the final key to open the door". There are curses and questions spoken by the others, yet Lunafreya paid no attention to them, her heart suffering a horrible blow from sensing a light had perished. Holding her tears back, she sensed the world's light had been reduced to nothing more than a dying ember, and soon this world will be plunged into darkness.

With the key in hand, Xehanort has no need of this world nor the guardians, nor would he risk them stopping him from obtaining what he wanted. The final part of his plan, to eradicate a world and let it take the guardians with it. The great darkness here is more than enough to break the world's light, and in time the heartless will be the ones to cut down the realm of light's final hopes.

She looks to the others, everyone trying to comprehend the end is near while some tried to get some answers and others too busy focusing on another to register what is happening. For Lunafreya, her eyes laid on the sleeping king resting by Ignis, sensing his light is recovering. Looking back to the darkness that was coming for them, sensing Sora was in danger, and then with one final breath, the Oracle raised her head.

Grabbing her trident with both hands, bathing herself in all the light within her heart, she stabbed the trident's end into the ground. Golden light shines and encases the guardians in domes, shielding them from the darkness but startling a few of them when they suddenly were encased and isolated from some of the other guardians. Lunafreya aims her trident to the battleground where Sora and the others fought, firing off four rays of light toward them.

"Luna! What are you doing!?", Axel shouts, keeping Roxas and Xion close to him. "Xehanort is planning on using the darkness to bring the world to its end, and should he succeed, you will all either perish or be trapped in another world", warns the Oracle, "You are all our last hope against him!",

"What do you mean!?", Prompto begged.

She turns to her friends as the darkness rushes towards them, taking in their faces and memorizing them fondly thinking back to their time in the forest. Never would she forget them, the good times she shared with them, the bonds she made, and the dreams she wished to share with them. One glance to Noctis, her king, her heart and light, silently praying for him.

"May your hearts, be your guiding keys…my friends", says Lunafreya.

"LUNA!", many of them cried as the darkness washes over them. Lunafreya's body being swallowed by the darkness as her heart is ripped from her body.

So as it was foretold…the darkness has consumed the light…

A/N:

And here we come to the end…of the Keyblade War arc.

Sorry for delay, I was in hospital and things happened over weekend so that's why its here today.

With things taken a darker turn, its time we take a break from the fights and go back to a familiar style of adventures, next time we see our guardians, even more tragedy comes their way. Hope you don't murder my face for it.

QUESTIONS!

Q1: Thoughts on this chapter?

Q2: How was Anti and Kairi-Nort?

Q3: Was the fight long enough?

Q4: Hate me for what happened to the girls?

Q5: What did you think of Kingsglaive Sora?

Q6: Enjoyed Naminé's side? Originally she was supposed get her own fight but the excuse I had for her would have been a bit too BS.

Q7: Xehanort? Was he still punch worthy?

Q8: What do you think is gonna happen next?

Thanks for reading everyone, and thanks for sticking out long enough throughout this fighty arc! As always, stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!


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